Hi,
I’m Colin Anderson, a writer on music and the editor of Classical Source.
Welcome to my Column, a bit of a blog: news, reviews, things to watch, and other posts to read; a mix of things. I hope you like the contents.
Cheers, Col
Hallelujah! Handel’s chorus from Messiah.
Having been incapacitated for a few weeks, unable to get to my computer, it has been returned to me by a kind techie friend who moved the whole thing (plus CD player) from the room it was in to the one I am occupying, restricted. I remain limited in what I can do but...
July 7: Eloquence releases Antal Dorati conducting the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra – The Mercury Masters – The Stereo Recordings.
Pinned post, review in progress: please keep checking in for updates A companion to this, https://www.colinscolumn.com/eloquence-releases-antal-dorati-the-mercury-masters-the-mono-recordings/, and constituted thus,...
Eloquence releases Antal Dorati – The Mercury Masters – The Mono Recordings.
Pinned post, review in progress: please keep checking in for updates… So, the sound is mono. It matters not, for, as Ein Heldenleben demonstrates (recorded December 1952), the reproduction is full and vivid, tangible and dynamic – typically so – and Antal Dorati...
RELEASED TODAY, June 2: Otto Klemperer – The Warner Classics Remastered Edition, Volume One: Symphonic Works & Concertos.
Pinned post since May 16 (please keep checking in for additions) It's arrived......
Decca releases Ernest Ansermet: The Stereo Years.
Pinned post* (please keep checking-in for additions, which you'll find in the first Comments box) May 19, update for procuring replacement CDs: For UK residents ONLY with faulty Ansermet CDs, numbers 20 & 37, please email mk.customerservices@umusic.com for...
BBC Statement: Alternative funding solution for the BBC Singers.
Pinned post The BBC has received approaches from a number of organisations offering alternative funding models for the BBC Singers. We have agreed with the Musicians’ Union that we will suspend the proposal to close the BBC Singers, while we actively explore these...
New Strategy for Classical Music Prioritises Quality, Agility and Impact. From which the following: “… therefore the BBC has made the difficult decision to close the BBC Singers (20 posts) and invest resources in a wider pool of choral groups from across the UK.”
Pinned post Following last year’s classical review looking at the sector and the BBC’s role within it, the BBC today sets out a new strategy to strengthen its public purpose for classical music, delivering the best music to a wider audience, with a significant new...
Zubin Mehta returns to conducting – LA Phil, December 7-17. Schumann, Mahler, Beethoven.
Admirers of Zubin Mehta will I imagine be delighted, following his recent withdrawals from concerts (at La Scala, with Berlin Philharmonic,...
Sir Adrian Boult’s Ninetieth-Birthday concert – BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by “my friends” James Loughran, Vernon Handley and Norman Del Mar. April 8, 1979; Royal Albert Hall, London.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DPU8I3bqq_U "0:00:00 Pre-concert announcement and message from Sir Adrian 0:03:09 Brahms Symphony No. 4 (conducted by James Loughran) 0:45:21 Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis (conducted by Vernon Handley) 1:00:32...
Maria Callas’s Centenary. December 2, 1923 (Manhattan)-September 16, 1977 (Paris). Casta Diva (Norma). Vissi d’arte (Tosca). Habanera (Carmen).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s-TwMfgaDC8 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lxNThjjuqBk https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EseMHr6VEM0
BBC Symphony Orchestra @ Barbican Centre – Sakari Oramo conducts Beethoven’s ‘Eroica’ Symphony and Alice Mary Smith’s Jason Overture, with Jennifer Johnston singing Ravel’s Shéhérazade. Live on BBC Radio 3.
Alice Mary Smith (1839-1884) Friday, December 1, 2023 Barbican Hall, London Sakari Oramo has conducted the 'Eroica' twice before In London with the BBC Symphony Orchestra: in January 2014 alongside Robert Schumann and a Colin Matthews premiere, and during the short...
Decca releases “Overture!” – The Philharmonic Brass conducted by Tugan Sokhiev.
Brass-playing members of the Berlin and Vienna Philharmonics, plus others, come together for excellent arrangements of six popular Overtures – all good, Beethoven’s Egmont especially so – played brilliantly by stellar musicians at the top of their embouchures, valves,...
December the First – Debussy’s Children’s Corner – IV: ‘The Snow is Dancing’ played by Simon Trpčeski.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Mndn7ogRP6o
New CBSO Leadership announce bold plan to diversify programme and rethink the rules of presentation for orchestral music.
In a vision statement published today, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s (CBSO) new leadership – Chief Executive, Emma Stenning, Chief Conductor, Kazuki Yamada and Chair of the Board, Lord Tony Hall – announced plans for an...
Lawo Classics releases Delius’s Eine Messe des Lebens (A Mass of Life) with Sir Mark Elder conducting Bergen Philharmonic forces.
The German title reflects Delius's use of philosophical words from Nietzsche's Also sprach Zarathustra, the inspiration for A Mass of Life, this and the Norwegian mountains, to create an ambitious work that here finds its spiritual home in Bergen and an admiring...
March 8: Sony Classical to release Lucas Debargue’s next album – Fauré’s Complete Music for Solo Piano.
A key release for the anniversary of French composer Gabriel Fauré, as 2024 marks the 100th anniversary of the composer’s death (1845 - 1924) This 4-album set with 68 tracks is a remarkable new release as it covers the complete piano oeuvre of Gabriel Fauré...