Category: Blog
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Perfection
I’ve been a little restless today. I haven’t been able to put my finger on why exactly. Not until now. I’ve wanted to write (since watching last nights Proms gig with the LSO) but couldn’t. So I read instead (about Vaughan Williams and the British perception of music and landscapes). Then I read Gretchen Ruben…
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There is no problem with anyone clapping at a classical music concert
What actually is this? How can anyone publish something about whether or not to clap at a classical music concert when there aren’t any going on that anyone can attend? Also, do your research. Please. This kind of stuff isn’t helping the cause.
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Grass pushing through concrete
A fitting evening with poignant music choices and a satisfyingly pared-back presentation style too.
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Should Rule Britannia be ditched from the Last Night of the Proms? Yes. Here’s why.
The Last Night of the Proms (without an audience) is on Saturday 12 September.
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Benedetti’s chart-topping Elgar, socially-distanced concerts back on, the Southbank, and a tweak to the career?
This week’s update from (near) the English Riviera – Falmouth Without live events there seems to be little impetus to write. Since the £1.57 billion pledge to the UK arts scene, it feels a little as though the fire has gone from the fight. Nicola Benedetti stoked the grate a considerable amount a week last…
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PRS for Music and Riot Ensemble in partnership with Zeitgeist commission six new works for solo instrument during lockdown
The commissions will be broadcast as part of BBC Radio 3’s New Music Show in August 2020 It’s been a pleasure to work on the PRS for Music / Riot Ensemble project this year which saw six composers commissioned to write new works for solo instrumentalists who form part of the Riot Ensemble. My involvement…
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Amid confusion and misinformation: Dvorak from Mariss Jansons and the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra
They are broadcast moments – so far – that remind me of the only thing which appears to make sense to me right now: someone’s musical intent articulated by a team of musicians who themselves create a spectacle that moves not only me but a whole crowd of other people I don’t know.
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First Night of the BBC Proms 2020
Finally. Amid a global pandemic, the audience gets the credit it deserves.
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LPO Brass at Henry Wood Hall
I was at Henry Wood Hall this afternoon to interview brass players and percussionists at the LPO rehearsing and recording for the band’s Summer Sessions available on YouTube next week, many of whom hadn’t seen each other in real life for four months. Also weird to see actual people in real life doing ‘work things’.…