September 26, 2016
Joshua Bell’s newest CD is about friendship. Friendship between Mr. Bell and his fellow musicians, who include British cellist Steven Isserlis, and American pianist Jeremy Denk, with whom Bell has performed and recorded many times; and friendship between the composers featured on the disc, Johannes Brahms and Joseph Joachim. Completing the circle of friends are …
September 12, 2016
Chiara in Italian means “clear”, “pure” or “light”. These are apt words to describe the group’s sound, as well as their approach to string quartet repertoire. The four have been together since their Juilliard days (more likely longer than that), and have several recordings under their belts already. By now, you’ve probably wondered what “by …
September 1, 2016
It’s a Friday night, and I’ve found myself in a dimly lit room packed wall-to-wall with people, some tapping away on their cell phones, others chatting, all eager for the set-up to complete so the featured musicians can come onstage and start the show. I notice that the man in front of me sips from …
August 31, 2016
Jennifer Koh is a name – and face, and sound – that should be familiar to many Oregon Symphony fans. One of her earliest appearances was in 2008, playing the Brahms concerto with the orchestra, and she’s since returned to perform the Dvorak and Bartok concertos. I had the pleasure of hearing her perform more …
August 23, 2016
The piano on the sidewalk doesn’t make any attempt to blend in with the bustling city surroundings. Its bright pink exterior bristles with wild fur that surpasses many of the hip and trending hairstyles in both eccentricity and brilliance of color. Above its dense mane bobbles a cluster of orbs resembling eyeballs and from underneath …
August 4, 2016
One of the greatest quartets in the world today, Emerson String Quartet has been making great music together for 40 years. They’ve been celebrating this year with concerts around Europe and the United States, and were here in Portland with the summertime Chamber Music Northwest Festival, and their old friend, artistic director and clarinetist, David …
August 1, 2016
Evolution. It’s not just about Darwin’s finches and paleontology. Music history can be considered an evolutionary study of sorts: a tracing of where, when, why, and how music was played, written, discussed, or heard, and who was involved in the process. We can study these changes of musical sound over time by examining one branch of …
July 21, 2016
Violinist, violist, and conductor Pinchas Zukerman is close to 70 years old, but shows no signs of slowing down. Or wanting to do so. When I chatted with him for this feature, he was set to perform with his longtime musical partner, Itzhak Perlman, and head to the Berkshire Hills and Tanglewood to speak to …
July 8, 2016
When I started interviewing musicians for my audio blog, violinist Tom Stone and cellist Jennifer Kloetzel were among my earliest guests, talking about their recording of Beethoven’s late quartets. Both are back to share their thoughts about their third and final installment: Beethoven’s Opus 18 quartets. Known as “early Beethoven”, the composer seems to be …
July 8, 2016
When we tune in to All Classical, we barely pause to consider that, with the exception of live-streaming concerts, most of the music we hear has been recorded. Thanks to the innovations of recording technology from the twentieth- and twenty-first century, we can hear musical moments captured and preserved in time. Performance before wax cylinders, …
