Looking up from the programme, a puzzled expression crossed the child’s face as he asked: ‘What’s a lieder recital?’ ‘A song recital’. ‘So what’s lieder?’ ‘German for songs’. ‘So why . . . .?’.
And well might the apparently naïve question be asked of a recital of chansons too.
Is it not yet another curiosity of...
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Aristotle, in praise of singing and quoting the bard Musaeus (whom Greek legend claimed to be the son of Orpheus) said: 'song is man's sweetest joy', and added his own warning against using musical instruments which would severely interfere with - an
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A notable characteristic of the composer David Bedford, who died on 1st October aged 74, was that he had a great sense of humour.
This was particularly irritating to the super-serious self-conscious arty masses, especially at the height of tha
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In a series of meetings with Goethe, the great poet and dramatist in the 1820s, the young Mendelssohn engaged the aging poet, then in his seventies, in discussions of great depth regarding the importance of hearing and creating music as the continuat
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Why I wonder do some musicians feel it is necessary to impose their own identity on the work of the great masters? Last week the Croatian born pianist and composer Dejan Lazić presented to the Proms audience the results of his six years of work tra
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Recordings by BBC Singers to be broadcast April 11-15th
Last year I was asked by the BBC to make a selection of pieces for a ‘retrospective’ of my choral music. The performers were to be the BBC Singers, perhaps the finest professional choir i
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