Blog Archives

Interview With Daniil Trifonov

2/21/2012

Pianist Daniil Trifonov.

Daniil Trifonov is making a big splash in the piano world these days. I spoke to him last week, and my interview with him appeared in today’s Houston Chronicle.

Although he’s only 20 years old, pianist Daniil Trifonov is in demand just about everywhere.

This season, the Russian musician who now lives in the U.S. has about 100 concerts on his schedule – including a recital for Society for the Performing Arts Houston on Wednesday. He’ll play a mixed program by Franz Schubert, Frederic Chopin and Claude Debussy.

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Classical Music Critics (Captioned Photos)

2/18/2012

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Here’s a “sequel” to my captioned photos about the life of a classical composer. This time, I’ve turned my steely, withering gaze on my own profession: music criticism.

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Multimedia at the Houston Symphony – the Final Frontier?

2/17/2012

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NASA takes good pictures.

Here’s something I wrote for the Houston Chronicle about a big new multimedia production by the Houston Symphony this weekend. These days, it seems that many orchestras are looking for ways to make their concerts into audio-visual experiences.

Hollywood producers think every popular movie deserves a sequel – and the Houston Symphony agrees.

Following the success of the orchestra’s multimedia performance of Gustav Holst’s The Planets in 2010, it has created another film with music. This time, the symphony will be visiting a planet not included in Holst’s suite – Earth.

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You Are a Classical Composer

2/15/2012

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Captioned photo-collages describing occupations are currently popular on the internet. So I couldn’t resist creating one of my own. Here it is – I think it sums up the situation pretty well.

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CBC Music: Classics on Autopilot

2/14/2012

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There's a new logo in town.

I went down to the Toronto headquarters of the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation yesterday for a press conference. The occasion was the launch of “CBC Music”: a new online service that provides access to a huge trove of recorded music, in a wide variety of genres.

Classical music is certainly represented – but before I have my say about this new service, I’ll digress and share two brief conversations I had with CBC staffers at the press conference.

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Tafelmusik’s House of Dreams

2/10/2012

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Tafelmusik's House of Dreams, on February 8, 2012..

Here’s a review I wrote for Toronto’s Globe and Mail newspaper.

There’s a new trend catching on and bringing change to the tradition-bound classical music world. Orchestras and other classical performers have started to realize that audiences are increasingly drawn to a mix of artistic experiences. While there may be nothing wrong with a standard-format concert, it’s a bonus if there’s something to look at as well.

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Toronto the Young

2/9/2012

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A full house at Toronto's Roy Thomson Hall.

The American music critic Greg Sandow has written some very nice things about Toronto in a recent blog posting. (You can read his post here.)

He notes that about a third of the Toronto Symphony’s audience is under the age of 35 – a remarkable statistic, by North American standards. And he also suggests that Toronto’s Tafelmusik Baroque Orchestra is enjoying popularity with young people, too.

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Soundstreams’ Sealed Angel

2/4/2012

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Composer Rodion Shchedrin.

Here is a review I wrote for the Globe and Mail, of a brilliant performance I attended on in Toronto on February 2.

Lawrence Cherney, artistic director of Soundstreams Canada, has a knack for finding ways to sell obscure contemporary music to Toronto audiences.

Sometimes he does it by conjoining different art forms. And that’s what he did on Thursday night at the Royal Conservatory’s Koerner Hall, when he brought to the stage the combined voices of the Elmer Iseler Singers and the Amadeus Choir plus five dancers from ProArteDanza.

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The TSO Flows On

2/1/2012

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Peter Oundjian knows how it's done.

Ah yes, the annual season announcement from the local symphony orchestra. Is there anything in this world that’s always so predictably the same, yet always different?

This morning, the Toronto Symphony Orchestra announced its concert lineup for 2012-13. Once again, the chairman of the TSO’s board of directors thanked the orchestra’s sponsors and TSO music director Peter Oundjian outlined the coming season. That’s how it’s done.

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Interview With Daniil Trifonov

Classical Music Critics (Captioned Photos)

Multimedia at the Houston Symphony – the Final Frontier?

You Are a Classical Composer

CBC Music: Classics on Autopilot

Tafelmusik’s House of Dreams

Toronto the Young

Soundstreams’ Sealed Angel

The TSO Flows On

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