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Eric Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour – programme note (BBC Proms)

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Eric Whitacre: Eternity in an Hour – programme note (BBC Proms)

Artist, mystic and political radical William Blake is today considered one of the major cultural figures of the Romantic Age. And, although he was virtually unknown as a poet during his lifetime, Auguries of Innocence has become one of his best-loved works. Rich with symbolist imagery and social criticism, the poem meditates on the interconnectedness of all living things, the inherent goodness in nature and the fragility of human innocence …

Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet Concerto – programme note and profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis: Trumpet Concerto – programme note and profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis made his name as a classical trumpet virtuoso with a recording of the Joseph Haydn, Johann Hummel and Leopold Mozart trumpet concertos. That disc won a Grammy in 1984, along with another of Marsalis’ albums, the jazz smash Think of One …

Donghoon Shin: Nachtergebung – programme note and profile (LSO)

Donghoon Shin: Nachtergebung – programme note and profile (LSO)

The poems of Georg Trakl have proved rich source material for composers: Anton Webern, Paul Hindemith, Peter Maxwell Davies and Thea Musgrave have all been drawn to the Austrian expressionist’s rich, macabre imagery. Donghoon Shin, who often looks to literature for inspiration, is the latest …

Live and Let Die — Paul McCartney’s song helped take Bond into a new era (Financial Times)

Live and Let Die — Paul McCartney’s song helped take Bond into a new era (Financial Times)

What makes a classic James Bond song? A sense of the epic, surely. Flaring brass, rippling strings. A melody-driven framework, an irresistible hook. Paul McCartney and Wings’ “Live and Let Die”, written for the eighth instalment of the film franchise, certainly ticks the right boxes …

Abel Selaocoe: Four Spirits – Programme note and profile (LSO)

Abel Selaocoe: Four Spirits – Programme note and profile (LSO)

For Abel Selaocoe, tradition is something to be both revered and dismantled. His Four Spirits is, on the face of it, a concerto for cello, voice and percussion. There are soloists and an orchestra. There are four movements. But that is where any resemblance to the ‘Classical’ concerto ends …

Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazil Say: Violin Concerto – Programme Note and Profile (LSO)

Fazıl Say and Patricia Kopatchinskaja began performing together as an electrifying violinpiano duo in 2004. Four years later they released a CD of works by Béla Bartók, Ludwig van Beethoven, Maurice Ravel and Fazıl Say himself, exhibiting a kindred radicalism …

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

Betsy Jolas: Ces belles années... – programme note and profile (LSO)

In 2014 Betsy Jolas met Sir Simon Rattle at a dinner in London. The encounter was auspicious. It led to a commission for the Berlin Philharmonic, A Little Summer Suite, and marked the beginning of what has been dubbed Jolas’ ‘Indian Summer’, a period of striking productivity and overdue celebrity …

Magnus Lindberg: Piano Concerto No. 3 – programme note (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 …

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Oboe Concerto – Programme Note & Profile (LSO)

After a period of relative neglect, the oboe re-emerged in the 20th century as a fashionable solo instrument. The decade from 1945 to 1955 saw a glut of new oboe concertos from Richard Strauss, Jacques Ibert, Lukas Foss, Malcolm Arnold and Bohuslav Martinů – as well as Bernd Alois Zimmermann …

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

Wynton Marsalis: Tuba Concerto – programme note & profile (LSO)

The tuba’s origins can be traced back to the development of the brass band in the early-19th century. Since then, it has found a permanent home in orchestral brass sections, as well as in other musical cultures. But it wasn’t until 1954 that the first tuba concerto was written …

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

Dani Howard: Trombone Concerto – programme note & profile (London Symphony Orchestra)

When Dani Howard first mooted the idea of a concerto to Peter Moore, LSO Principal Trombone, Covid-19 was yet to strike. By the time she began writing the piece, in the summer of 2020, concert halls were silent and many of Howard’s musician colleagues had doggedly set up shop online …