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...
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...
Sad news: Benjamin-Gunnar Cohrs – conductor, musicologist and Bruckner Symphony editor – has died aged 58.
Some years ago Ben contacted me, far from happy about something I had written in The Bruckner Journal, enough for him to want to meet me next time he visited London. With some trepidation I agreed. When we met it was far more amicable than I had anticipated and we...
Leonard Slatkin’s St Louis/Vox recording of Rachmaninov’s First Symphony.
I'm not sure if I have heard Prince Rostislav before. If I have it failed to make an impression. From Leonard Slatkin and the St Louis Symphony the music's brooding and atmospheric plotting presents a tangibly dramatic course of action. The ill-fated (when premiered)...
Signum Classics releases “A Most Marvellous Party with Noël Coward and Friends” – Mary Bevan, Nicky Spence & Joseph Middleton.
In a word, Spiffing. Two more words, Enjoyable and Enlightening. Stylish on Signum Classics SIGCD737. https://signumrecords.com/product/a-most-marvellous-party/SIGCD737/
Sad news – David Del Tredici has died aged 86. Leonard Bernstein conducts Tattoo with the New York Philharmonic/DG recording made 11/1988.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PerhPGn_w2Q https://www.discogs.com/release/8735829-Leonard-Bernstein-Ned-Rorem-David-Del-Tredici-The-New-York-Philharmonic-Orchestra-Israel-Philharmoni