Violinist Maxim Vengerov breaks his four year silence on BBC Radio 3

 music, recordings  3 Responses »
Apr 052012
 


Viol­in­ist Maxim Ven­gerov per­forms live on BBC Radio 3’s drive time pro­gramme In Tune, mark­ing his return to the con­cert plat­form as soloist after a four year sabbatical.

He will join presenter Sean Raf­ferty on Wed­nes­day April 4 for what will be his only UK inter­view and broad­cast per­form­ance in advance of his eagerly anti­cip­ated and sold-out recital at London’s .  Listen­ers through­out the UK can hear the pro­gramme on air, online or via the BBC iPlayer and the Radio 3 web­site will fea­ture exclus­ive filmed foot­age of Vengerov’s per­form­ance and interview.

Sean Raf­ferty says:

As an old friend of the pro­gramme, we are delighted Maxim Ven­gerov is mark­ing his return the con­cert plat­form with an exclus­ive inter­view and per­form­ance for Radio 3’s In Tune. Maxim is a dazzlingly cha­ris­matic vir­tu­oso who has blazed a trail for so many young and bril­liant play­ers. I am look­ing for­ward to talk­ing to him about his jour­ney back to his world­wide audi­ence and play­ing live in the In Tune studio.

BBC Radio 3 will also record Vengerov’s Wig­more Hall recital for broad­cast in Sunday Con­cert, 29 April at 2pm. This per­form­ance takes place almost two dec­ades since he last took to the stage at this most intim­ate of con­cert ven­ues and he is joined by pian­ist Itamar Golan to per­form works by Han­del, Bach and Beethoven.

Addi­tional live guests in the In Tune stu­dio on 4 April include and dis­cuss­ing their new col­lab­or­a­tion, the bal­let Car­bon Life which receives its première at the Royal Opera House on 5 April.

In Tune is broad­cast Monday – Fri­day on BBC Radio 3, 4.30–6.30pm

Photo: Maxim Vengerov, by Mark Allan/BBC

Barbra Streisand’s 50 years with Columbia Records continues with 12 DVD set

 music, recordings, video  2 Responses »
Feb 232012
 

and have announced that Streisand’s record­ing con­tract with the label has been extended.

Begin­ning with “The Bar­bra Streis­and Album” in 1963 through the most recent, her 2012 Grammy nom­in­ated “What Mat­ters Most”, Bar­bra Streis­and sings the lyr­ics of Alan and Mar­ilyn Berg­man.” Columbia and Streis­and have enjoyed argu­ably the most suc­cess­ful con­sec­ut­ive col­lab­or­a­tion in the his­tory of recor­ded music, which includes num­ber one albums in five con­sec­ut­ive dec­ades; a feat unequaled by any other record­ing artist.

From the day God­dard Lieber­son signed me almost 50 years ago, Columbia Records has been my record­ing home, and I am thrilled to con­tinue that part­ner­ship for many years to come,”

Streis­and said in a statement.

She has released 62 albums with the music label, includ­ing num­ber one albums: “People,” “The Way We Were,” “A Star Is Born,” “Bar­bra Streisand’s Greatest Hits, Volume 2,” “Guilty,” “The Broad­way Album,” “Back To Broad­way,” “Higher Ground,” and “Love Is The Answer.” Streisand’s music in film has also garnered mul­tiple Academy Awards and Golden Globes.… con­tinue reading

Original ‘Les Mis’ cast protest against the end of royalty payments

 musical theatre, recordings  1 Response »
Jan 152012
 

Act­ors from the first stage pro­duc­tion of Les Mis­ér­ables are gear­ing up for a revolt against the com­pany behind the ori­ginal cast record­ing, after dis­cov­er­ing they will no longer get roy­alty pay­ments, says The Inde­pend­ent.

Mem­bers of the ori­ginal cast, includ­ing , who played Marius in the 1985 pro­duc­tion, have just learnt that they will no longer receive roy­al­ties from the soundtrack record­ing, which has sold hun­dreds of thou­sands of cop­ies in the UK alone. Cast mem­bers say they were unaware a con­tract clause stip­u­lated roy­al­ties would only be paid for 25 years.

Equity says it will take up its mem­bers’ cause and is seek­ing legal advice. The con­tract was based on a tem­plate agree­ment reached between industry body the BPI on behalf of record com­pan­ies and Equity.

, which made the record­ing, insists that it has done noth­ing wrong and has simply abided by the terms of the record­ing con­tract agreed by Equity.… con­tinue reading

Unknown Brahms piano work to be unveiled by the BBC in a performance by András Schiff

 music, recordings  3 Responses »
Jan 142012
 

3 is to broad­cast the first per­form­ance of a recently dis­covered ‘unknown’ Brahms piano work on Sat­urday, Janu­ary 21 at 12:15 in Music Mat­ters presen­ted by Tom Service.

Albumblatt, the short piece which lasts two minutes was writ­ten in 1853 when Brahms was just 20. It was found by con­ductor and musi­co­lo­gist Chris­topher Hog­wood as he looked through a music col­lec­tion in the United States.

BBC Radio 3 recor­ded the work for the first time with the cel­eb­rated Hun­garian pian­ist András Schiff and, in what will be a global première, will broad­cast Albumblatt as part of an inter­view with Chris­topher Hog­wood about the dis­cov­ery. Andras Schiff who was asked by Radio 3 to be the first to per­form the piece will also be inter­viewed in the programme.

The work fea­tures the same theme as that in the Trio sec­tion of the 2nd move­ment of Brahms’ Horn Trio op.40. How­ever Hog­wood, who has edited a forth­com­ing new edi­tion of the Horn Trio op.40, says the piano piece pre­cedes the Horn Trio by 12 years.… con­tinue reading

“Anthony Hopkins — Composer” shows the actor flexing his musical muscles

 music, recordings  1 Response »
Jan 072012
 

A little over twenty years ago, I was talk­ing to Anthony Hop­kins’ then wife about her hopes for a new film which would show her actor hus­band in a very dif­fer­ent light. We’d seen him with in The Bounty and in the endear­ing 84 Char­ing Cross Road, but with his Oscar-winning per­form­ance as Han­ni­bal Lecter in  his career went into orbit.

Hop­kins is more than an actor, being also an accom­plished painter, and now he is flex­ing his muscles as a : his disc Anthony Hop­kins — Com­poser will be released mid-January.

The Times’ Emma Pom­fret talked to him; here is a selec­tion from their conversation:

Actor, dir­ector, painter … now musi­cian. How did you start composing?

I play the piano most days if I’m at home [in Los Angeles]. I’ve got a nice Bösen­dorfer. I play Chopin and some com­plic­ated Bach, not to impress any­one but to keep the co-ordination of my hands and my brain as I’m get­ting older.… con­tinue reading

Olesia Novikova and Friedemann Vogel in Raymonda from La Scala… Live (-ish)

 ballet, recordings  No Responses »
Oct 272011
 

The recon­struc­ted bal­let Ray­monda, that deb­uted earlier this month at ’s , will be broad­cast this even­ing at 21.30 on Rai5 in a delayed broad­cast. Whether the hour and a half dif­fer­ence is to allow a trip­ping baller­ina the chance to have another go has not been explained.

This is a mega-ballet with the full corps, 70 chil­dren from the school, spear-carriers, over five hun­dred cos­tumes, and an on-stage band. The Mariinsky’s and Stuttgart’s dance the roles of Ray­monda and Jean de Bri­enne.… con­tinue reading

Angela Gheorghiu risks the ire of Callas fans again with her new CD

 opera, recordings  No Responses »
Oct 242011
 

In two weeks’ time will launch a new CD by : “Homage To — Favour­ite Opera Arias”

In 2007 the sop­rano made her début at ’s La Scala. Her first steps onto the legendary stage was with a recital pro­gramme, sub­sequently released as a CD. In an inter­view with Il   before­hand she said of Cal­las “Io non ho mai sen­tito la sua ombra.” (lit­er­ally, “I’ve never felt her shadow”) which of course put La Scala’s fam­ous log­gion­isti  against her feel­ing that she was belittling the import­ance of La Divina. Indic­at­ing that maybe her fiery per­son­al­ity is a cover for a vul­ner­able core, her legs vis­ibly shook for the first twenty minutes or so of her recital, and her voice was timid, as though afraid to come out.

Now with this CD she risks the ire of Cal­las fans once again.

After the launch party at The Ivy, Michael White was not impressed.… con­tinue reading

Doris Day makes UK chart history

 recordings  No Responses »
Sep 122011
 

has become the old­est artist to score a UK Top 10 with an album fea­tur­ing new mater­ial, accord­ing to the .

Day’s My Heart has gone in at num­ber nine, 62 years after the 87-year-old’s debut album was released in the US. My Heart is a selec­tion of record­ings pro­duced by her son, Terry Melcher, before his death in 2004.

via BBC News… con­tinue reading

John Cranko’s The Lady and the Fool & Pineapple Poll out on DVD

 ballet, recordings  2 Responses »
Sep 062011
 

These two bal­lets by are early examples of the choreographer’s the­at­rical ingenu­ity. Cre­ated for the then Sadler’s Wells Theatre Bal­let, (later Royal Bal­let), Pine­apple Poll is a light hearted frolic.

Lady and the Fool is a bit­ter­sweet satire on the plight of society’s out­casts with La Capric­ciosa danced by in the year she became Prima Baller­ina at Sadler’s Wells.

Both bal­lets are rare stu­dio per­form­ances from the ’s earli­est tele­vi­sion archives and are released for the first time on DVD.

The ICA Clas­sics Leg­acy series presents a col­lec­tion of his­toric per­form­ances by some of the world’s greatest artists, incor­por­at­ing rare archive foot­age that has been expertly and lov­ingly restored.

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Svet­lana Beriosova, Ray Pow­ell, Ron­ald Hynde
Royal Opera House Orches­tra / Charles Mack­er­ras
STUDIO RECORDING, TRANSMITTED 3 MAY 1959
–
PINEAPPLE POLL
Merle Park, David Blair, Stan­ley Holden, Brenda
Taylor, Gerd Larsen
Lon­don Sym­phony Orches­tra / Charles Mack­er­ras
STUDIO RECORDING, TRANSMITTED 1 NOVEMBER 1959

via ICA… con­tinue reading

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