Augustin Hadelich dazzles in an album of odd bedfellows, which pairs Johannes Brahms' romantic war horse with György Ligeti's modernist stunner.
New York City Opera has commissioned Stonewall, a new opera premiering one week before the 50th anniversary of the riots that sparked the modern gay-rights movement.
Need a deep discovery experience? Try 1000 years of music. Our mantra: Bach, Beethoven, before and beyond.
Contract and salary negotiations between musicians and management have stalled, leaving BSO players picketing outside their concert hall.
Ron Howard's new Pavarotti film fails to make us feel much for its subject, and does little to bolster the magical, complicated art called opera.
The composer's musical evocation of the desert is an expansive journey in symphonic stillness, and a sequel to his Pulitzer-winning Become Ocean .
The financially embattled organization surprised its musicians, and its audience, by shortening its season and cutting the players pay and vacation, it announced Thursday.
In her U.S. debut as Don Giovanni, Lucia Lucas became the first known trans woman to sing a principal role on an American opera stage.
Raphaël Feuillâtre, winner of the prestigious Guitar Foundation of America’s 2018 International Concert Artist Competition, shares his success with the public through this attractively varied programme; a recording contract with Naxos forms part of the winner’s bundle of opportunities each year. Raymond Bisha presents his selection of intimate compositions. View album details of Guitar Recital: Read More ...
There are scintillating sounds aplenty in our new release of orchestral works by Dmitry Kabalevsky (1904-1987). Raymond Bisha introduces a programme of two overtures and a pair of symphonies by the Russian composer who endeavoured to position himself as both a progressive and a conservative during his country’s difficult Soviet era. The performances are by Read More ...
This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series presents a selection of soporific representations by composers down the centuries, from John Dowland to Benjamin Britten. The presenter is Richard Kennedy.
Complementing the artist line-up of Giancarlo Guerrero and the Nashville Symphony on this recording are the Violins of Hope, a poignant collection of restored instruments that survived the Holocaust. Jonathan Leshnoff wrote his Symphony No. 4 with this unique set of orchestral voices in mind; Raymond Bisha introduces the performance and the background to its Read More ...
Manuel de Falla is renowned as the greatest Spanish composer of the early 20th century, whose genius rested in part on his ability to meld diverse stylistic, folk or literary influences into distinctive new musical languages, forging masterworks that would ultimately become cultural emblems of his homeland. Raymond Bisha presents a new release of a Read More ...
The Icelandic singer/composer Björk released her concept album Vespertine in 2001. Raymond Bisha introduces a new audio recording of an opera that was born of that release. The inherent theatricality of Björk’s original was the inspiration for an expert creative team to effect the transition from studio to stage, from sound tracks to symphonic support. Read More ...
Yvar-Emilian Mikhashoff (1941–1993) was an American pianist who collaborated with the publishing house Quadrivium Press to commission composers from all over the world to write piano pieces based on the tango dance form. An intriguing selection of those 100-plus commissions are performed on this Grand Piano release by Hanna Shybayeva, the works’ eclecticism reflected in Read More ...
Berlioz left us a number of Shakespeare-inspired works, chief among them his masterpiece Roméo et Juliette. The work took a decade to complete and is cast in an innovative form, a kind of ‘super-symphony’ that incorporates elements of symphony, opera and oratorio. Raymond Bisha introduces this new recording by Leonard Slatkin and the Orchestre National Read More ...
Raymond Bisha presents a pair of vividly contrasting ballet scores by Aaron Copland, superbly performed by Leonard Slatkin and the Detroit Symphony Orchestra. Grohg immediately suggested itself as the basis for a ballet after Copland attended a screening of Nosferatu, the popular German silent horror film, in 1922; the story-line of a vampire magician able Read More ...
This podcast from the Naxos Sounds Interesting series documents the musical settings of works by Rudyard Kipling, the English journalist, poet and novelist. The presenter is Richard Kennedy.
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley Sveinbjornsson Two Piano Pieces Idylle Vikivaki Isolfsson Festival Overture Althing Cantata Parts 1 and 2 Parts 3 and 4 Leifs Icelandic Overture Icelandic Folk Songs Largo Maestoso Allegretto Allegro Presto Andante Allegretto Allegro Molto Maestoso Ed Energico Allegro E Molto Ritmico Tempo Di Marcia E Grandioso Allegro Allegro Giocoso Galdra […]
With Lew Smoley
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley Part 1 Part 2 Finzi Before and After Summer Channel Firing Epeisodia I Said To Love Two Lips I Said To Love In Years Defaced To A Poet A Thousand Years Hence When I Set Out For Lyonnesse In Years Defaced Proud Songsters Let Us Bring Garlands Come Away In, […]
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley John Ireland Sea Fever Songs of the Wayfarer When Daffodils Begin To Peer I Will Walk On The Earth When Lights Go Rolling ‘Round The Sky Hope The Hornblower Marigold Dear, Think Not That They Will Forget You Individual Songs If There Were Dreams To Sell When I Am Dead, […]
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley Charles Villiers Stanford Songs Of The Sea, Drake’s Drum, Outward Bound, and O Devon Songs of the Fleet: The Song of the Sou’wester Songs of the Fleet: The Little Admiral Maude Valerie White So We’ll Go No More A-Roving My Soul Is An Enchanted Boat Elgar Queen Mary’s Song Ethyl […]
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley The Works Symphony No. 18 in A Allegro Andante Mesto Presto Andante Sostenuto Symphony No. 19 B.A.C.H Allegro Allegretto Grazioso Allegro Agitato Fuge Symphony No. 21 in a
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley The Works Symphony No. 8 in c sharp minor Allegro Molto E Passianato Symphony No. 9 – Bitonal Symphony No. 10 in D – Walzersymphonie For Orchestra Allegro Con Spirito Symphony No. 15 in f sharp minor Poco Allegro Sostenuto Poco Allegretto Piacevole Lento Andante, Animato, Allegro Vivace
Listening Guide With Lew Smoley The Works Symphony No. 3 in c Allegro Molto E Passianato Andante Un Poco Sostenuto Presto Feroce Largamente, Allegro, Largamente Symphony No. 4: Symphonietta Humoristica Vivace Giocoso Con Molto E Con Delicatezza Allegro Non Troppo E Marcato Allegro, Un Poco Sostenuto, Più Vivace E Scherzando, Tempo I, Più Vivace Symphony […]
Classical MPR host John Birge caught up with the Arianna Quartet after its 17th summer at Madeline Island.
This week on New Classical Tracks, trumpeter Mary Bowden shares insights into the special personal meaning of each track on her latest album, 'Reverie.' Enter the giveaway for a chance to win a copy of her new CD!
This week on the Daily Download, we're featuring works that showcase the trumpet. Get a free MP3 of Johann Sebastian Bach - Brandenburg Concerto No. 2: III. Allegro assai. And don't forget to sign up for the new Daily Download newsletter so you never miss a free MP3!
On this episode of YourClassical Story, Laura O'Gara from Henderson, Nev., shares the amazing experience of dancing to an adaptation of 'Appalachian Spring' and having Aaron Copland attend the performance.
On this episode of YourClassical Story, Larry Galler from Valparaiso, Ind., shares how Beethoven's Symphony No. 6 echoed an approaching storm.
This week on the Daily Download, we're featuring works that showcase the trumpet. Get a free MP3 of Johann Nepomuk Hummel - Trumpet Concerto: Allegro con spirito. And don't forget to sign up for the new Daily Download newsletter so you never miss a free MP3!
On this episode of YourClassical Story, Kris Borowske from Maplewood, Minn., realized that classical music aided in her karate practice.
Why do we call it a 'French horn' when it isn't French at all? Emily Green, a recent college music graduate and a horn player, dives into why so many U.S. classical fans have been calling the popular brass instrument by the wrong name for so long.
"Hot Stuff" by Donna Summer reached No. 1 on the Billboard pop chart 40 years ago today. The disco classic features a solo by former Doobie Brothers guitarist Jeff "Skunk" Baxter.
Researchers say teaching seals to copy melodies might help inform speech therapy for humans.
In the 1980s, Prince wrote one of the Bangles' biggest hits, 'Manic Monday.' Now, The Prince Estate has released the demo version of the track as part of the artist's posthumous album, Originals.