Category: Uncategorized
-
JASCHA HEIFETZ’S HISTORIC RECORDINGS
BACKGROUND The four historical recordings featured in the double CD release by Rhine Classics RH-025 JASCHA HEIFETZ THE LEGENDARY NEW YORK RECORDINGS have been restored and remastered for a better listening experience, while ambient noise and applause have been kept for the sake of maintaining the authenticity of the live concerts. Jascha Heifetz was born…
-
BIAMA
The Garinagu people have been resisting assimilation and colonization ever since their forefathers escaped slavery when the ship carrying them from West Africa shipwrecked off the coast of the isle of St. Vincent. They now live on the shores of Belize, Honduras, Nicaragua, and Guatemala, where four centuries later, their spirit, language, culture, and customs…
-
BAROQUE BOHEMIA
BACKGROUND Josef Barta, Jan Jiří Benda, Franz Benda, Christian Cannabich, Leopold Kozeluh, Josef Myslivecek, Antonin Rejcha, Frantisek Xavier Richter, Jan Vaclav Stamic, Karel Stamic, Jan Krtitel Vanhal, Antonín Vranický, Pavel Vranický… Those are the names of some of the Czech composers and instrumentalists whose careers and works are largely forgotten. Temporary stunted by the Hapsburgs’…
-
PORTRAIT OF A DOVE
The twenty members of the two-decades old, Brazilian string ensemble Orquestra Câmara do Amazonas, led by Bruno Nascimento, impressively take on four wonderful works by Latin American composers in a recent release now available on several platforms. The four works in the album are deeply contrasting compositions. Miudinho, by Francisco Paulo Mignone and Mourão by…
-
SONO LUMINUS’ MUSIC FROM ICELAND
SONO LUMINUS’ MUSIC FROM ICELAND BACKGROUND Anna Thorvaldsdóttir’s music is frequently performed in Europe and in the United States. Archora/Aion and Atmospheriques are two recordings being released by Sono Luminus. They are additions to several previously released Sono Luminus remastered recordings of Icelandic orchestral works. Archora was jointly commissioned by the BBC Proms, the Los…
-
EMPTY SEATS
Live performances picked up some last year after the doldrums brought about by the pandemic. But across the country, attendance of arts events remains well below the levels attained before Covid arrived with a deadly vengeance, creating persistent headaches among arts leaders. Fewer than half as many people as before the pandemic saw a Broadway…
-
FOLK SONGS OF THE BRITISH ISLES
THE BACKGROUND The selection of folksongs featured on the SOMM release Folk Songs of the British Isles has been conceived as a tour of Ireland, Scotland, North Umbria, East Anglia, and Wales. Royalties will be donated to the Gwyn Williams Bursary Fund which supports young violists at the Royal Birmingham Conservatoire and endows three viola…
-
ENNANGA
THE BACKGROUND Un·pre·dict·a·bil·i·ty –Incapable of being predicted. While several of the larger record labels continue to revisit the same repertory of musical works with which all of us are numbingly familiar, the wonderfully unpredictable record label Bright Shiny Things once more surprises us, this time with Ennanga. [BSTC-0188], a recording of classical music with deep…
-
MAHLER’S SONG OF THE EARTH (MINUS ORCHESTRA)
“Won’t people go home and shoot themselves?” said Gustav Mahler, concerned about how the audience of his day would respond to the prevailing darkness looming over the lyrics of Das Lied von der Erde, a collection of translations of classical Chinese poetry culled from Hans Bethge’s The Chinese Flute (Die chinesische Flöte) set to music.…
-
THE FUTURE IS FEMALE – VOLUME 2
BACKGROUND Before I sat down to listen to and review Sarah Cahill’s The Future is Female Vol. 2 The Dance, I decided to have a look at the 2023-2024 season of the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra and the Cincinnati Pops. In a lineup of three-dozen programs, each usually featured in a pair of concerts, I spotted…
ALL ABOUT THE ARTS 