Tag: Mozart
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PROGRAM NOTES: ANNA FEDOROVA
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Fantasia in D minor K. 397 Mozart’s D minor Fantasia is a bundle of mysteries; an intriguing sound-puzzle for the listener but a labyrinthine minefield of interpretive choices for the pianist. Mere slavish attention to the details of the printed score—the motto and creed of historically informed pianism—risks missing the point entirely in a…
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PROGRAM NOTES: KSENIJA SIDOROVA
The Concert Accordion Early Beginnings The accordion has for centuries been associated with music of a light or popular nature. Its portability, full harmonic texture and penetrating, reedy timbre have made it the ideal mini-orchestra for country dances and the perfect one-man house band for city cafés and music halls. The very sound of…
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PROGRAM NOTES: KIRILL GERSTEIN
Johann Sebastian Bach English Suite no. 6 in D minor, BWV 811 Bach’s Partitas, English Suites and French Suites – six of each – collectively rank among the glories of the keyboard literature. Each is a four-part sequence of dance movements, all in the same key but varied by rhythm, tempo and mood: Allemande, Courante,…
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PROGRAM NOTES: ELIAS STRING QUARTET
Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart: String Quartet no. 18 in A major, K. 464 This is the fifth of the six “Haydn” quartets – everyone a masterpiece – that Mozart wrote in the mid-1780s. The identification with Haydn derives from the older composer’s direct influence on his colleague in the matter of string quartet writing. Specific elements…
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AN INTERVIEW WITH RODION POGOSSOV
Thank you for taking time out of your busy schedule. Where are you today? I’m in Hamburg right now, singing my first Verdi role in the opera “Don Carlos” at the Hamburgische Staatsoper. When did you realize you wanted a career in music? I was inspired at the age of 17 by my teacher and…
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PROGRAM NOTES: RODION POGOSSOV
Alessandro Stradella: “Pietà, Signore” Orphaned at the age of eleven, Alessandro Stradella went on to lead one of the most colourful lives of any composer who ever lived. He was involved in Mafiaesque schemes, had a reputation for womanizing, got himself wounded by pursuing avengers, and was eventually murdered. In between all this he found…