Samuel Arnold News
English composer and organist (1740-1802)
- organ
- opera
- United Kingdom of Great Britain and Ireland
- composer, musicologist
Last update
2024-03-21
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2024-03-19 09:58:00
[…] left a small but important body of work for it, mostly written for father and son horn players, Aubrey and Dennis Brain. Dennis Brain would give the premiere of the Concerto for Horn, Strings and Timpani, Opus 150, but Aubrey Brain premiered the Sonata in E Flat for Horn and Piano, Op. 101. It is an unashamedly romantic piece, echoing late Rachmaninoff and Richard Strauss, not to mention seeming to inhabit a similar world to Arnold Bax.The opening movement plunged us straight in to this world of impulsive romanticism, and this was unashamedly modern in outlook in its highly chromatic horn writing. There were were darker moments, and some of the lush piano writing of John Ireland. The slow movement opened with dramatic piano gestures and horn calls, striking indeed and Bowen brings the material back to punctuate the movements highly developed romanticism and lush harmonies. It was here that […]
2024-03-12 12:40:00
Aimard/RSB/Popelka - Schoenberg and Mahler, 9 March 2024
PhilharmonieSchoenberg: Piano Concerto, op.42 Mahler: Symphony no.1 Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)Berlin Radio Symphony OrchestraPetr Popelka (conductor)Images: Peter MeiselThe world’s near-silence for Schoenberg’s anniversary year continues to deafen. Perhaps everywhere is waiting for September, when his birthday falls, and all will be revealed in a flurry of ‘new season’ announcements. And perhaps eternal Friede will descend upon the Erde this Christmas. In the meantime, Berlin, mostly at the Philharmonie, where there is an exhibition from the Arnold Schönberg Center in the foyer, continues to do better than most. Pierre-Laurent Aimard, who is certainly doing his bit, joined the Berlin Radio Symphony Orchestra (RSB) and Petr Popelka for an outstanding performance of the Piano Concerto, probably the best I have heard live—and a match for the best on record. The opening was unusual: difficult to put my finger (or ear) quite on how, but Aimard’s solo put me in mind a soliloquy, with a […]
2024-03-11 16:49:32
Martin Arnold Flax Kerry Yong, piano Another Timbre Martin Arnold’s solo piano work Flax has a sad backstory. It was originally commissioned by the abundantly talented new music pianist Philip Thomas, who shortly afterward became seriously ill and was unable to premiere the work. Kerry Yong performs the piece in his honor on an […]
2024-02-18 12:27:00
Wake up and listen to the music
[…] with André Jolivet and followed his teacher's dictum that music should be “a means to express ideas and not an aim in itself”. Despite being an agnostic the Mahayana Buddhism of his native Vietnam is, along with Hinduism, one of the influences on Thất Tiết's music. Edmund Rubbra had a life-long interest in comparative religion and metaphysics, and following a flirtation with Theosophy briefly practiced Buddhism before returning to Catholicism. In 1947 Arnold Bax's brother Clifford wrote the BBC radio play The Buddha; Rubbra provided the incidental music which became his Suite, The Buddha op.64 for chamber ensemble. Although this is the most overtly Buddhist of Rubbra's compositions, his whole opus is imbued with Buddha nature - the unceasing search for enlightenment. In his invaluable biography of Rubbra Leo Black opines that the composer's final symphony - the compact and enigmatic Eleventh - reflects this unceasing search […]
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