Donghoon Shin: Nachtergebung – programme note and profile (LSO)
Live and Let Die — Paul McCartney’s song helped take Bond into a new era (Financial Times)
Abel Selaocoe: Four Spirits – Programme note and profile (LSO)
Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)
Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)
Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (LSO)
Concertos often owe their origins to the inspiration of a great performer. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart was so impressed with the pioneering clarinettist Anton Stadler that he wrote a concerto – along with several other works – especially for him. A close friendship with Mstislav Rostropovich spurred both of Dmitri Shostakovich’s Cello Concertos …
How Rachmaninov came to loathe his Prelude in C sharp minor (Financial Times)
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)
Teletubbies: The bizarre kids' TV show that swept the world (BBC Culture)
Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)
When You Wish Upon a Star — the Disney song taps into a need for escapism (Financial Times)
Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)
Barbie Girl — a novelty hit with a subversive twist (Financial Times)
Heaven on their Minds — how Tim Rice and Andrew Lloyd Webber sparked a storm (Financial Times)
Obsessed with the music of Line of Duty? Meet composer Carly Paradis (Radio Times)
The Social Diorama
House Music: What Our MPs Really Like Listening to (The i)
When Sir Keir Starmer sat down with Lauren Laverne to talk through his Desert Island Discs last month, the Labour Party held its breath. Would its leader flaunt phoney indie credentials, as David Cameron did in 2006? Surely it couldn’t be worse than Ed Miliband in 2013, his top choice of Robbie Williams’s Angels tickling the nation’s gag reflex.
Roberto González-Monjas: “Being a conductor is like being a psychologist” (Bachtrack)
Four Times You Should Have Been at the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival (BBC Radio 3)
‘For me, Huddersfield is about all sorts of music, but it’s not about the mainstream.’ Graham McKenzie, Artistic Director of the Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival, is scrupulous in his pursuit of the obscure. Since its conception in 1978, the festival has hosted the full spectrum of musical experimentation, from acoustic reinterpretations of Kraftwerk tracks to a concert given entirely on half-cooked vegetables (the instruments were later served to the audience as soup).