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
![Beethoven 250 – Thomas Adès conducts Britten Sinfonia in Symphonies 1, 2 & 3 and music by Gerald Barry with Nicolas Hodges & Mark Stone [Signum Classics]](https://www.colinscolumn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ades-400x250.png)
Beethoven 250 – Thomas Adès conducts Britten Sinfonia in Symphonies 1, 2 & 3 and music by Gerald Barry with Nicolas Hodges & Mark Stone [Signum Classics]
I started with the Eroica, a fleet reading, all over in forty-five minutes (including first-movement repeat; without the latter, echoes of Scherchen’s 1958 account for Westminster) but, in the first movement anyway, the music-making is poised, dug into and propulsive...
![Kenneth Woods conducts Philip Sawyers’s Fourth Symphony & Hommage to Kandinsky [Nimbus Alliance]](https://www.colinscolumn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/ken-400x250.jpg)
Kenneth Woods conducts Philip Sawyers’s Fourth Symphony & Hommage to Kandinsky [Nimbus Alliance]
From the pen of Philip Sawyers (a Londoner born in 1951), these are quite the best two pieces this composer has yet given us, in my opinion, and of those I have heard. Symphony No.4 (2018) opens in arresting style, a bold summons that bids our involvement in some very...
Longborough Festival Opera audience raises over £300,000
Almost 1,000 audience members due to attend Longborough Festival Opera this season have chosen to donate the value of their tickets, generating a fund of over £300,000. Longborough would like to thank its audience and members for this...
The Academy of Ancient Music launches Musicians’ Support fund
The Academy of Ancient Music (AAM) has launched a Musicians’ Support fund for its musicians who have lost work due to the coronavirus pandemic. In four weeks, the fund has raised almost £30,000, all of which will be distributed to AAM musicians during May 2020. Liz...
![Viking pianist plays Debussy & Rameau (and J. S. Bach) [Deutsche Grammophon]](https://www.colinscolumn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/vik2-400x250.jpg)
Viking pianist plays Debussy & Rameau (and J. S. Bach) [Deutsche Grammophon]
I mean Víkingur Ólafsson (from Iceland, not really viking territory) who has put together a seventy-nine-minute recital of twenty-eight selections juxtaposing Debussy (1862-1918) & Rameau (1683-1764). It works very well as a seamless listen, the Rameau a...
Tony Pappano to the rescue … and stars in Dvořák’s Opus 72
It was on the evening of Monday April 20 that BBC Radio 3 broadcast a concert recorded last summer at a German music festival. This winning appearance by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe and Sir Antonio Pappano opened with a beautifully shaped, intimate and loving,...
Feeling musically adventurous? Here’s a Lucky Seven selection from Toccata Classics – Alexander Brincken, Fridrich Bruk, Steve Elcock, Vincent Persichetti, Vissarion Shebalin, Ronald Stevenson, Agnes Zimmermann
What a catalogue of discoveries Martin Anderson (no relation) has built up for his Toccata Classics label. The vast majority of what follows are first recordings, presented with generously informative booklets. Alexander Brincken Orchestral Music, Volume One. Brincken...
Andrew Nethsingha and the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge, announce eight-week series of daily virtual services, encouraging people to pause and reflect together during the global pandemic
The Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge today [21 April] launch eight weeks of daily virtual services, hosted on its Facebook page, seeking to continue Chapel worship whilst the Chapel is closed due to COVID-19. The services feature recordings from recent live...
![Mark my words, Sir – Elder conducts Sibelius & Debussy [Hallé]](https://www.colinscolumn.com/wp-content/uploads/2020/04/halle-3-400x250.jpg)
Mark my words, Sir – Elder conducts Sibelius & Debussy [Hallé]
Unless he has designs on Kullervo, with numbers 4 & 6 Sir Mark Elder completes his Sibelius Symphony Cycle for the Hallé’s own label; superb performances that make me regret I have not yet heard the previous issues in this series. The bleak and tragic Symphony 4,...