Dave Smith at Cafe Oto in London
Dave Smith is an excellent composer and a formidable pianist. In his early days he played in the Scratch Orchestra, and over the course of his career he has worked…
BBC Proms BBC Singers Varese Koechlin Gubaidulina
Another theme of this year’s Proms is the 150th Anniversary of the birth of Henry Wood, the founder of the Proms. This celebration includes a survey of works which he…
Proms ENIGMA INSPIRE mixtape
The conductor Martyn Brabbins has been and continues to be a champion of new music and of British composers in particular. In celebration of his 60th birthday, the BBC commissioned…
BBC Proms Watkins, Takemitsu, Glanert, Weinberg
One of the themes of this year’s Proms season is the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the moon landing. As part of this celebration the BBC commissioned Huw Watkins…
The Proms–Coleman, Pärt, Holt, Farrin, Xenakis and INSPIRE
The Proms concert on August 14, which was presented by the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, conducted by Daniel Barenboim, for inexplicable reasons added at the beginning of the concert the Polonaise…
The Proms–Lili Boulanger et al
Lili Boulanger is a composer who is at the intersection of two of the focuses of this year’s Proms programs: women composers and the centennial of the end of the…
The Proms–Venables: Venables Plays Bartok
Rudolph Botta, as Philip Venables wrote in his program note for his concerto Venables Plays Bartok, had a remarkable life. Born in 1918, Botta pursued, as a teenager, two passions:…
The Proms–Musgrave, Copland, Barber, Britten–and Arcola Opera Turnage
This year’s Proms as well as commemorating the centennial of the end of the First World War is also marking the centennial of The Representation of the People Act, which…
The Proms–main attractions and bold tendencies–Tarrodi, Larcher, Barry, Whitley, Adams, Kendall, Walker
There are certain concerts where there is a new piece which is clearly not the main item on the program. Sometimes a visiting orchestra will include a work by a…
The Proms–Elgar/Payne, Glass/Shankar, Mingus/Metropole,Schoenberg
Three works on the Proms in August raised issues of authorship and authenticity, among other things. Sir Edward Elgar in the last two years of his life was engaged in…