I am always on the look out for unusual Art Song repertoire, so was particularly excited to come across the CD ‘In Her Voice’ (Art Song Settings of Women Poets) by American soprano Emily Truckenbrod and her regular collaborative pianist Amy I-Lin Cheng. Of the seven composers represented here I had only heard of one, Muriel Herbert (1897-1984), who studied at the Royal College of Music with Stanford and left a large body of song compositions in a very attractive English pasto

I have spent a good deal of my life analysing great literature, and exhorting adolescent boys to analyse great literature, while, at the same time, trying to convince them and myself that such analysis will lead to greater knowledge (undeniable) and greater love (a trickier proposition). Robert Frost famously asserted ‘a poem should not mean, but be.’  On one level of course he is absolutely right, but exams are not passed through mere assertion, however inspired, and this is

Barry Kosky’s production of Wagner’s ‘Siegfried’ at the Royal Opera House has received such a long series of adulatory reviews that it has become the hottest opera ticket in Britain, if not in Europe. Sadly, our budget did not stretch to forking out £500 a ticket to experience this in the flesh so my wife and I braved the dubious pleasures of central Croydon on an early Tuesday evening and headed to Grants Vue Cinema for a live relay. These tickets (£22.99 a pop) proved less

Now, as promised for several months, some thoughts on the lieder of Max Reger, as presented by Michael Raucheisen and the singers of his ‘Lied der Welt’ project. The first thing to say, is that he seems to have been incredibly hard working; he was certainly very prolific, producing 147 opus numbered works in his relatively brief twenty five year composing career. He was 47 when he died. Johann Baptist Joseph Maximilian Reger (19 March 1873 – 11 May 1916) was a German composer

Our support for singer son Sam took us to the church of St Mary at Hill in Billingsgate London, for an enterprising and most moving concert given by ‘The Cantus Ensemble’. The first half was devoted to the Musikalische Exequien by Heinrich Schutz, which were written for the burial service of the splendidly named Prince Heinrich Posthumus von Reuss. There are three sections: Teil I: Concert in Form einer teutschen Begräbnis-Missa Part I: Concerto in the form of a German burial

After a brief hiatus, I had intended my next Blog to be a return to Michael Raucheisen’s ‘Lied der Welt’ project, and a consideration of the songs of Max Reger. Before I do that however, I must allow freedom to a few bees in my bonnet concerning Ralph Vaughan Williams ‘ opera ‘Hugh the Drover’. This seems to me to be an appallingly, and unfairly, neglected work. I hope my brief words below will encourage you to give it a hearing. As is so often the case, I am initially behold

Monteverdi 'Vespers' and Bach 'St John Passion'. The weekend of  7 th and 8 th of March was spent supporting our sons’ musical endeavours. First up on the Saturday was Sam singing the Monteverdi ‘Vespers’ with the Collegium Musicum of London in the suitably opulent surroundings of Holy Trinity Church Sloane Square. The ‘Vespers’ have occasioned a good deal of scholarly debate, mainly centering around how much of the work Monteverdi published he would have expected to hear i

A brief pause in my survey of Michael Raucheisen’s ‘Lied der Welt’ project to consider Elgar’s ‘The Dream of Gerontius’. This temporary change of direction has been prompted by the thought that my loyal readership might appreciate a change from German lieder but also by the release of two ‘Gerontius’ related items: a new recording of the work, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, and the film ‘The Choral’, written by Alan Bennett and directed by his long-time collaborator, Nicholas