Decca is marking the birth centenary of John Culshaw on May 28 with a box set of his early productions. Culshaw, fresh out of Navy service in 1946, reinvented the role of music producer as initiator and artist controller. He never followed his stars Walter Legge, but was led by two dreams – creating Wagner’s Ring on record and facilitating a lifetime monument to Benjamin Britten. You can read more in his own two books, and in my work, The Life and Death of Classical Music. The post The Ring man cometh appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The Last Night that was picketed because Sir Andrew programmed a new work by Harrison Birtwistle. It’s gorgeous.     The post The very best of Andrew Davis (5): Panic stations appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

We hear that Andrew recently recorded for Chandos some of his own orchestrations of organ works by Bach. Not enough to fill a record. Chandos are pondering how to release the set. Meanwhile… In 2001, to mark the 50th Anniversary of the opening of the hall, the BBC Symphony under its Conductor Laureate, Sir Andrew Davis, gave a ‘Tribute to Stokowski’ concert which included the Maestro’s own orchestration of Mussorgsky’s “Pictures at an Exhibition” and the Bach Toccata and Fugue in D minor heard here. Sir Andrew’s performances received high praise from the critics, with one remarking on “how wo ..read more

The high point of this choreographed political concert shows Leonard Bernstein paying homage to Dmitri Shostakovich. More interesting is his close greenroom engagement with the poet and Doctor Zhivago novelist Boris Pasternak. Watch to the end.   The post Bernstein meets Pasternak appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Explaining Elgar to Australia. The post The very best of Andrew Davis (3): On approaching death appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Don’t say you haven’t dreamed of this. The man who makes it come tru is called David Tebbe.     The post At last, Beethoven’s 5th played on viola solo appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

The post The very best of Andrew Davis (2): The marzipan concert down the lane appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Among Sir Andrew’s forgotten talents…. what a touch! The post The very best of Andrew Davis (1): Organ voluntary appeared first on Slippedisc ..read more

Statement by the Berlin Phil: It is with the greatest regret that for health reasons Daniel Barenboim has had to withdraw from the Berliner Philharmoniker’s Europakonzert in Tsinandali, Georgia. This cancellation also affects the concert at the Tbilisi Paliashvili Opera and Ballet State Theatre on 2 May, and the concerts on 26 and 27 April at the Philharmonie Berlin. Daniel Barenboim: “I deeply regret that for health reasons I have to withdraw from the Europakonzert in Tsinandali, the concert in Tbilisi and the concerts planned in Berlin with the Berliner Philharmoniker and Lisa Batiashvili. I ..read more

In her second edition as head of the Venice Music Biennale, composer Lucia Ronchetti is packing in premieres by the likes of Rebecca Saunders, Unsuk Chin and (surprise, surprise) the pianist Patricia Kopatchinskaya. There’s even some Vivaldi, packaged as a sound installation. Ronchetti says: ‘The Absolute Music festival will present some of the major protagonists of the current global electronic and digital scene, as well as performers and improvisers active in the field of experimental jazz.’ All will be made clear in a press rollout later today. The post Venice rolls out 25 world premieres i ..read more