Classical music: from Bach to the present day. Great performances, recordings, and compositions. Share your favourites, write concert and recording reviews!
The latest BBM market ratings are out, and efforts by the CBC and Radio Canada to change programming haven’t resulted in a huge surge in listeners. You’ll remember that both networks have cut the classical music content of their offerings on Radio Two and Espace Musique over the last little while, and added more “diverse” music in an attempt to appeal to a younger demographic. In Montreal, the new statistics—measuring the period between April 14 and June 8, 2008—show the dedicated, non... Read Full Story
Olivier Messiaen's Turangalîla Symphony is well worth a listen. The work’s name is Sanskrit, made up of two words: "Turanga" denotes time, surging ever onward, held back by "Lîla", which signifies "play", articulating the flow of time with drama. Together they encompass the compound notions of oppostion, creation and destruction, and love. The work owes its existence to the conductor Sergei Koussevitsky, who commissioned Messiaen to write something for the Boston Symphony, with complete... Read Full Story
Which is better: a 'live' broadcast of a classical concert or being in the Royal Albert Hall for the performance itself? Last night's Prom included Beethoven's Fifth Symphony and centenarian Elliott Carter's Oboe Concerto. Using the BBC iPlayer I was able to compare the television broadcast, the radio version and the experience of actually being in the hall at the concert. The TV broadcast includes a revealing interview with soloist Nicholas Daniel. In it he talks about the rapt... Read Full Story
Classical Music - Like Going to the Gym for your Brain?
Some people are born without the corpus callosum, a structure residing between the two halves of the brain that facilitates communication between them. This is called "Agenesis of the corpus callosum" (AgCC) and is extremely rare but fairly well-studied. Older readers may remember that it used to be thought that an appropriate treatment for epilepsy was to cut the corpus callosum, effectively cutting off a large percentage of the... Read Full Story
Yesterday we delivered Elin to the CAMMAC (Canadian Amateur Musicians Musiciens Amateurs du Canada) summer music program where she’ll be teaching this next week. Part vacation colony, part summer school, CAMMAC is a unique place which welcomes families as well as adults who take their music enthusiastically but seriously. When we arrived people were pitching tents in the campground, a couple of 9 or 10 year old boys were practicing soccer moves on the lawn and a passel of younger kids were... Read Full Story
