‘Finale with no ending’ Burstein celebrates the diversity of music

In May of this year I attended the premier of Keith Burstein’s new work, Finale With No Ending, a sextet, which offers tango, Jewish folk music with sumptuous classical orchestration. On stage at the Royal College of Music, Burstein gave the audience some insights into its creation. An early memory of his father playing accordion…

A Clarinet in America and the American sound

What is it that makes American classical music of the 1940s and 1950s so distinctive and so different from ours from that period? For one thing, it is so very upbeat. I asked myself this question this week, as I listened to Clarinet in America, which showcases music by Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland and Miklós Rózsa. I…