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IPM critical round-ups 40 and 41

Posted on March 20, 2017March 22, 2017 by Michael Church
IPM roundup 40 Wigmore Hall: Sunwook Kim Oct 25; Alexei Volodin Nov 2; Martha Argerich and Alberto Portugheis December 12; Beatrice Rana Jan 16; Luca Buratto 23 Jan; Barbican: Daniil Trifonov Jan 21; ... Read More

Timothy Hyman’s ‘The World New Made’ – an alternative history of twentieth-century painting

Posted on March 20, 2017May 27, 2017 by Michael Church
The World New Made: Figurative Painting in the Twentieth Century By Timothy Hyman Thames and Hudson 256 pp Ever since Tom Wolfe published his blistering polemic The Painted Word in 1975, it’s been a... Read More

Syria’s musical gifts

Posted on March 20, 2017March 21, 2017 by Michael Church
“WE LEFT our native land thinking we carried no baggage, completely unaware of the biggest gift our country had bestowed on us: the gift of music.” So said Basel Rajoub, a Syrian composer and saxo... Read More

Ancient music-theatres of Japan

Posted on March 20, 2017April 28, 2017 by Michael Church
Japan’s Westernisation is only skin-deep. For musical proof of this, consider the eagerness with which the Japanese periodically forsake their hi-tech existence, and immerse themselves in their anci... Read More

Is ‘late style’ a meaningful critical concept?

Posted on March 20, 2017January 12, 2018 by Michael Church
Out, brief candle! As life nears its end, thoughts can acquire urgent clarity. This truth may not be particularly perceptible in literature, because novelists find endless ways of disguising it. But i... Read More

Elbphilharmonie – Barbican – concert halls go political

Posted on January 17, 2017March 21, 2017 by Michael Church
ON OCTOBER 31st, the lights on Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie concert hall spelled out “fertig”—“finished”. That heralded a monumental wave of relief, for the history of this crazily ambitious ... Read More

Crowdfunding builds a concert hall in Bochum

Posted on November 2, 2016March 21, 2017 by Michael Church
We in Britain have only seen the beginning of our government’s scorched-earth policy towards culture outside London. Unavoidable local authority cuts – unavoidable because the only alternative wou... Read More

En passant: Phantasm…ROH Rosenkavalier…Trevor Pinnock…Cuarteto Casals…ROH Traviata…Miller’s Rigoletto…Ekaterina Semenchuk

Posted on October 25, 2016March 29, 2018 by Michael Church
  Why should the sound of a consort of four viols be more moving than that of a string quartet? It goes against all logic. With its flat back, and played like a Middle-Eastern spike-fiddle, the v... Read More

Steven Isserlis rampant

Posted on October 20, 2016March 21, 2017 by Michael Church
Should we know the story behind the creation of a piece of music, or should we let it speak for itself? The British cellist Steven Isserlis poses this question in the liner note to a CD he has just re... Read More

IPM recital round-up No 39: the poetry of Llyr Williams, the heroism of Nick van Bloss, plus Igor Levit, Angela Hewitt, Jeremy Denk, and Geoffrey Saba

Posted on October 18, 2016October 20, 2016 by Michael Church
The Wigmore Hall is running two Beethoven sonata cycles in tandem, at different speeds: while Igor Levit gets stuck into his cycle, Llyr Williams continues his in a more leisurely arc. And since in Oc... Read More
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