Hans Werner Henze News
German composer (1926–2012)
- piano
- opera, symphony, vocal music, classical music
- Germany
- composer, musicologist, jazz musician, university teacher, conductor, film score composer, music teacher
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2024-03-19
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2024-01-04 04:30:00
Igor Levit: Fantasia (CD Review)
by Karl NehringBach, J S: Orchestral Suite No. 3 in D major, BWV1068: Air ('Air on a G String') (arr. for piano by A. Siloti); Chromatic Fantasia & Fugue in D minor, BWV903; Liszt: Piano Sonata in B minor, S178; Der Doppelganger (No. 12 from Schwanengesang, S560, after Schubert); Berg: Klavierstück in B minor; Piano Sonata, Op. 1; Busoni: Fantasia Contrappuntistica; Nuit de Noël. Igor Levit, piano. Sony Classical 19658811642Russian-German pianist Igor Levit (b. 1987) seems never to do things in a small way. When the pandemic shut things down back in 2020, for example, he began posting a series of videos on Twitter that featured his playing of a variety of works for piano. His recordings have typically been multi-disc releases with some sort of unifying theme. We have reviewed several of those recordings in the past, starting with Encounter, a two-CD set that saw Levit playing music by Busoni (his arrangements of works by Bach and Brahms), Reger, […]
2023-12-31 16:56:00
Since I am busy at work on my new book project, a two-volume study of the complete operas of Mozart in their eighteenth-century political and intellectual context, it seems fitting to have heard more music by Mozart than by any other composer this year. (For 'rules' on counting, please see my previous post.) Beyond my top four, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven, and Strauss, I heard a good range of music from Alkan to Zimmermann and beyond.19 Mozart 12 Wagner 8 Beethoven, Strauss 7 Brahms, Schumann 6 Bach 5 Schubert, Byrd 4 Mahler, Prokofiev 3 Benjamin, Chopin, Ligeti, Liszt, Ravel 2 Berg, Bizet, Debussy, Dvořák, Handel, Haydn, Henze, Knussen, Puccini, Schoenberg 1 Alkan, Dieter Ammann, CPE Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, JCF Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Berberian, Berio, Boismortier, Boulez, Busoni, Cage, Chausson, Cherubini, Unsuk Chin, Coleridge-Taylor, Crumb, Duparc, Elgar, Fauré, Francesco Filidei, Grisey, Saed Haddad, Hartmann, Hindemith, Holliger, Humperdinck, Ibert, Janáček, […]
2023-12-31 11:29:00
A visit to Bayreuth coupled with a Ring in Berlin made this year's operatic victor well-nigh inevitable. Mozart, though, was not so far off, with a couple of live 'firsts': Il re pastore and Ascanio in Alba. A somewhat restricted chronological range too, with no Monteverdi, nor indeed anything before Purcell. As usual, I have included concert and staged performances, and anything treated as an opera (e.g. the Komische Oper's staging of Henze's oratorio, Das Floss der Medusa).11 Wagner 8 Mozart 4 Strauss 2 Bizet, Handel, Puccini 1 Berg, Cherubini, Dvořák, Bushra El-Turk, Henze, Humperdinck, Janáček, Korngold, Edward Lambert, Martinů, Mussorgsky, Purcell, Rossini, Saariaho, Schoenberg, Tchaikovsky
2023-12-30 09:32:00
2023 in concert reviews: Gavin Higgins x2, Allan Clayton's Samson, Reginald Mobley in Bayreuth, the Pink Singers & Brixton Chamber Orchestra both party and Bitches Brew is back
Gavin Higgins: Beano Concerto - George Jackson, Colin Currie, BBC Concert Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall (Photo: BBC / Mark Allan)Our list begins and ends with community events. The year began with a fragment of my own musical history, the Pink Singers, an ensemble I directed for five years in the 1980s, celebrated their 40th anniversary. Then in December, our local ensemble, the Brixton Chamber Orchestra certainly put us in party mood.Both Handel and Bach feature, of course. In April Peter Whelan and the Irish Baroque Orchestra explored the original Dublin version of Messiah, whilst in December, Wild Arts presented a more traditional edition in an imaginative, intimate semi-staging. Allan Clayton joined Lawrence Cummings and the Academy of Ancient Music for Handel's Samson at the Proms. We heard Bach's St Matthew Passion with the choir of Kings College, London and Bach's Easter Oratorio from Florilegium. Vox Luminis brought sheer musicality […]
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