Classical Music
Tigran Mansurian: Con anima (ECM New Series)
You may find that Con anima is one of the best ways of spending the next 15 minutes of your life
Dear Mademoiselle (Alpha)
Mademoiselle was not much of a composer, too set on correct form to allow the flight of inspiration
No direction from directors
Music directors who fail to provide any direction in times of crisis
Eighth Blackbird and Navarra String Quartet
I’m not giving up trying to persuade younger people to listen to new composers
Wagner, restless provocateur
Wagner’s sexual ambiguity spoke to Oscar Wilde, Aubrey Beardsley and Thomas Mann, says Norman Lebrecht
Franz Schmidt: 4th symphony (Berliner Philharmoniker recordings)
This is music that is going nowhere
Leo Weiner: Divertimentos (Naxos)
Music from the Hungarian educator who shaped the sound of the modern American orchestra
Valentin Silvestrov: 7th symphony (Naxos)
Silvestrov writes almost as if Mahler is speaking to us from beyond the grave
A worthy heiress to Princess Ida
Where has originality and character gone in the art of Violin playing?
Rachmaninov: Preludes, Etudes (DG)
Babayan’s Rachmninov is remarkable is its absence of obvious virtuosity