Feuertrunken – A weekend of Beethoven
Five orchestras, five concerts, one hall and nine symphonies as I spend a heroic weekend having my soul reforged in Beethoven’s life-giving fires.
Category: Blog
What I’m doing and what I’m thinking.
Why we need our National Music Service
How do we justify the existence of a radio station that just 3% of us listen to, but everyone pays for? A few musings on classical music and the BBC.
Good albums from 2018
My thoughts on some of the new recordings that I’ve really enjoyed in 2018. (Clickbait: some of my choices may surprise you).
Medieval music on Mount Etna
Whilst on holiday in Sicily, I visited the wonderful Casa della Musica in Randazzo, museum and workshop of early music specialist Giuseppe Serverini.
Celebrating Durham Music Service
The Durham Music Service Showcase event at Sage Gateshead was a wonderful opportunity for young musicians to perform, and showed just how lucky we are here in County Durham when it comes to music education.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 4: finishing the jigsaw
It’s been a couple of weeks now since I sang Monteverdi Vespers, and the concert of a lifetime was followed by a rather spectacular holiday too, so this final blog post in my Vespers diary comes after a bit of time to reflect. Thank you everyone who has put up with this year’s Monteverdi obsession: here are the final words on the subject.
Monteverdi Vespers diary 3: Listening
When I’m learning big pieces of music, I like to submerge myself in recordings so that I have a deep sense of how my part fits in with everything else that’s going on. Normally, picking a recording is quite a straightforward process, but choosing which version of Monteverdi’s Vespers to listen to has been a bit more of an adventure.
Hunting for the next Sibelius
A blog post with some musings on making choices about what to listen to, as I confront the awful fear of becoming too set in my ways.