This Week in Classical Music: April 15, 2024.  Prokofiev, Menuhin and Pamphili.  Classical Connect is still in turmoil, so we’ll be brief.  Sergey Prokofiev, one of the most important composers of the first half of the 20th century, was born this week.  The English-language wiki gives his birth date as April 27th of 1891, the Russian one – as April 23rd, and so does Grove Music.  It’s even more confusing because at the end of the 19th century, Russia was still using the “old style” Julian calendar, according to which Prokofiev was born on April 11th  (or April 15t ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: April 15, 2024.  Marriner, Maderna.  Sir Neville Marriner, a great English conductor, was born one hundred years ago today, on April 25th of 1924 in Lincoln, UK.  He started as a violinist, played in different orchestras and chamber ensembles, and in 1958 founded the Academy of St Martin in the Fields, the chamber orchestra that became world famous.  Among Marriner’s friends and founding members were Iona Brown, who led the orchestra for six years from 1974 to 1980, and Christopher Hogwood, who later founded the Academy of Ancient Music.  ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: April 8, 2024.  Sol Hurok, Impresario.  He was neither a musician nor a composer, but Sol Hurok did for classical music in America more than almost any other person we can think of.  Hurok was born Solomon Gurkov on April 9th of 1888 in Zarist Russia and moved to New York in 1906.  A natural organizer, he started with left-wing politics in Brooklyn; that didn’t last long as he switched to representing musicians: Efrem Zimbalist and Mischa Elman, the talented violinists who also emigrated from Russia, were among his first clients.  He repre ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: April 1, 2024.  Easter Sunday was yesterday.  Here is the first chorus of Bach’s St. Matthew Passion, "Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen" (Come ye daughters, join my lament).  Collegium Vocale Gent is conducted by Philippe Herreweghe. Two composers (great pianists both) were born on this day: Ferruccio Busoni in 1866 and Sergei Rachmaninov in 1873. read more ..read more

Johann Sebastian Bach - St. Matthew Passion: 1. Kommt, ihr Töchter, helft mir klagen Collegium Vocale Gent (Ensemble) Philippe Herreweghe (Conductor ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: March 25, 2024.  Maurizio Pollini, one of the greatest pianists of the last half century, died two days ago, on March 23rd in Milan at the age of 82.  His technique was phenomenal, even though he lost some of it in the last years of his life (he performed almost till the very end of his life and probably should’ve stopped earlier).  His Chopin was exquisite (no wonder that he won the eponymous competition in 1960), as was the rest of the standard 19th-century piano repertoire, but he also was incomparable as the interpreter of the music of the Secon ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: March 18, 2024.  Classical Connect is on a hiatus.  Johann Sebastian Bach was born this week, on March 21st of 1685 (old style), in Eisenach.  Here is the first part of Bach’s St. John Passion, one of his supreme masterpieces. read more ..read more

This Week in Classical Music: March 11, 2024.  Classical Connect is on a hiatus.  ..read more

Luigi Dallapiccola - Ulisse, Suite A Colette Herzog (Soprano) Claudio Desderi (Baritone) Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France (Orchestra) Ernest Bour (Conductor ..read more

Luigi Dallapiccola - Prologue and Intermezzo, from Il prigioniero Valentina Corradetti (Soprano) Orchestra del Teatro Comunale di Bologna (Orchestra) Michele Mariotti (Conductor ..read more