2 h. ago Beethoven: Violin Sonatas Opp 12 no 2 & 96 album review – sheer joie de vivre

(Signum)Viktoria Mullova and Alasdair Beatson end their cycle of Beethoven violin sonatas with energised and immaculate performancesViktoria Mullova began her cycle of the Beethoven violin sonatas partnered by Kristian Bezuidenhout, but Alasdair Beatson has been the pianist for the last three instalments. They end the series with a pairing of the second of the Op 12 set in A major with the last of the sonatas, in G. All of the performances use historical instruments, with Mullova playing her gut-strung 1750 Guadagnini and using a classical bow, while here Beatson plays a different keyboard for each sonata. For the rather Mozartian Op 12 no 2 he uses a copy of a Walter fortepiano made in 1805, seven years after the sonata was composed; while for the much more ambitious keyboard writing of Op 96 it’s a copy of a Graf from 1819.What is common to the performances of both sonatas is the sheer joie de vivre of the playing. Everything seems energised, and if the precision and immaculate en...

Politics

7 d. ago ‘StradiVardy’ strikes right note as Cremonese embrace unlikely new soloist

An upbeat Jamie Vardy insists he is ‘never to old to learn’ on his unveiling at the newly promoted Serie A clubIn Cremona everything is about music: the city, located in the heart of the Po Valley, is where the greatest luthier of all time, Antonio Stradivari, was born. His violins – unique pieces, each identified by a name – are today in the hands of some of the greatest musicians in the world and can fetch a price of more than £10m.So it was no coincidence that the Violin Museum, in Piazza Guglielmo Marconi, was chosen to unveil who the city’s football team, Cremonese, hope will become their greatest soloist: Jamie Vardy. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago Fergus Neal: the 10 funniest things I have ever seen (on the internet)

The standup shares his list of classic Australian japers – including Judith Lucy, Norman Gunston, Paul Hogan and Black ComedyGet our weekend culture and lifestyle emailThe internet for me started off as forbidden fruit. Attending a Steiner school meant anything online or online-adjacent was banned. It was the type of education where you don’t learn how to read or write until year 5 but the school made it mandatory to learn the violin and Chinese in year 1.What ensued was my peers and I graduating as an illiterate, Mandarin-speaking orchestra – at one of the only government Steiner schools in Australia. I assume if you put those skills into seek.com, the computer explodes. I quite hope the government doesn’t find out – I can assure them I have contributed to the economy exponentially by selling mid-winter lanterns and beeswax at farmers markets in Nimbin and its surrounds to enlightened fluoride-free minds. Continue reading...

Politics

1 week ago Albert Einstein's first violin which the celebrated physicist was forced to hide from the Nazi's goes on sale for £300,000

The famed physicist acquired the stringed instrument shortly before leaving Munich to move to Switzerland for his studies in the mid-1890s.

Economics

2 w. ago London's Royal College of Music Welcomes Violinist Esther Yoo to Faculty

London's Royal College of Music Welcomes Violinist Esther Yoo to Faculty  The Violin Channel

Politics

3 w. ago Danish National Symphony Orchestra review – punchy Prom reaches a triumphant conclusion

Royal Albert Hall, LondonThere was plenty to admire as a fine lineup of soloists stirred the emotions on a night that paired Beethoven’s Ninth with Anna Clyne’s subtle meditation on timeWhat do you pair with Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony? You might do worse than Anna Clyne’s The Years, a subtle meditation on the mystery of time set to words by Stephanie Fleischmann. Composed during the pandemic, its approachable mood of calm isolation survives a series of angsty intrusions to convey a message of quiet hopefulness. Like the Beethoven, it reaches a triumphant conclusion, though in Clyne’s case the victory is an eminently peaceful one.The Danish National Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Fabio Luisi gave it a relaxed and sensitive reading, warm string tones cocooning vocal lines that rose and fell, rendered with impressive clarity by the Danish National Concert Choir. The musical language, faintly reminiscent of Tippett or Barber, was built on simple melodies that blossomed into ta...

Politics