Selected Articles
The birthdays of Harrison Birtwistle and Peter Maxwell Davies, both of whom turn 80 in 2014, is one of the major focuses of this year’s Proms. Each has a complete Proms Portrait matinee concerts in Cadogan Hall dedicated to their music on August 30 (Davies) and September 6 (Birtwistle), and Davies’s birthday, on September 8, is marked with a late night Prom in the Albert Hall. Unfortunately I will not be around for any of those concerts, but I have heard other concerts marking the birthdays.
On August 9, in Cadogan Hall on a Saturday matinee concert…
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For sixteen years now the BBC, as one of its many activities connected with the Proms, has run a program which it calls Inspire, comprising of a competition and several workshops for composers between the ages of 12 and 18. On this last Sunday, composer Fraser Trainer, who chaired the committee of judges for the competition, led a workshop for about two dozen young composers whose activities were related to the works on that night’s Prom, which was presented by the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain. Trainer was joined by six artist instrumentalists, violinist Anna…
more…Virgil Thomson's music is foolishness to some, a stumbling block to others, but those of us who love it love it with all our hearts, through thick and thin (which often as not means through bad and unknowing performances). Those who don't love it, don't see that there's anything there at all. They just don't get it. The music can also seem cryptic to players, since although it has few notes, it is nonetheless not at all easy to play. On any number of occasions I have had people tell me that the music seems to them to be just harmony exercises. I have never been…
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