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…
Tag: Composer
Martha and Marios duo – a match made at the Barbican
To the Barbican Centre I went last week to see Martha Argerich perform Beethoven’s Concerto no. 2 in B flat major with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. On the program also, Samuel-Coleridge Taylor ‘s Ballade in A minor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 in F minor. Outside the Barbican auditorium a long queue snaked around the pillars of…
A new support system: Music Patron
Music Patron is an exciting, fascinating and even provocative new arts-funding initiative. It not only examines and challenges the ways we can, and do, support musicians, but offers a solution that aims to achieve practical, positive outcomes in the face of ongoing financial and ideological attacks on the industry. The name itself deliberately conjures up…
Interview with Composer Noah Max
Noah Max came to the notice of the wider public this year when his opera A Child in Striped Pyjamas, based on the book, The Boy in the Striped Pyjamas by John Boyne, premiered at the Cockpit theatre. He was interviewed on Radio 4 and his opera received glowing reviews. Max is now set to premier his String Quartet…
Blackford’s Love Song to Nature
In October 2019 I interviewed composer Richard Blackford in London. I was about to attend a performance of his rich and moving choral work Pièta which premiered at the Cadogan Hall in London to great acclaim. See my review here https://bit.ly/36E60s7 During our meeting I questioned Blackford on his optimum environment for composing. He…
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