• BBC Radio 3 to Premiere ‘Unknown’ Brahms

    In an age when one might think we have discovered most of the treasures of the musical world – that there is nothing new to find – it is exciting to learn that musicologists still come across hidden delights. Conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood made an exciting discovery while looking through a music collection in…

  • The Land with music – BBC Four & BBC Radio 3 celebrate British Music

    The Reader’s Digest revealed the results of a survey, in 2010, that “the British may be a nation of music lovers, but they are clueless when it comes to classical composers, a survey revealed today”  (Guardian article here). Over one thousand people responded; 27% of them did not know Elgar was a composer, 72% of the…

  • What was Innovative about Debussy’s Approach to Pianism?

    ~ I’m digging up previous things I’ve written: here is something from 2003 ~ ‘Debussy, like Chopin and Beethoven before him, created his own piano’[1], but before he could develop his own brand of pianism, however highly influenced, he was to master the styles of his predecessors. These predecessors were far reaching, ranging from Couperin…

  • Benoît Delbecq and F-IRE Collective members Jiri Slavik/Fred Thomas Duo @ Kings Place

    ~ to appear on I Care If You Listen(.com) shortly ~ I’m a regular visitor to Hall Two at Kings Place, London, and it was lovely to see how well lighting can transform the space into something rather apt for this concert as part of ‘The Base’ jazz programme at the venue. The musicians performing…

  • Can we speak of eroticism in purely musical terms?

    ~ Lawrence Dreyfus’ book ‘Wagner and the Erotic Impulse’ (Harvard University Press 2010) reminded me of attending the lecture series at the British Library given by Dreyfus upon which the book is based. Below is an essay I wrote after attending the series in 2004 ~ In this essay, ‘erotic’ will be understood as ‘pertaining…

  • Archive: Can art speak without technique?

    ~ Most read post on my blog in 2011. Originally posted 4 June 2011 ~ After spending an hour with Ruth walking around the Royal Academy’s 2011 Summer Exhibition we were left rather speechless. The most poignant work being the photography in the Wohl room. These works demonstrated such incredible technique which was used to…

  • Do I fear forgetting?

    I envisaged blogging to be a rather impersonal venture: I would not mention anything other than my creative pursuits and evade commentary on me and my personal experiences. Now my PhD is coming to a close and I complete the necessary amendments before the final submission I am struck by how important a concept of…

  • Thomas Adès: In Seven Days (London Sinfonietta/Signum Records)

    – for I Care if You Listen(.com), forthcoming – A fascinating new release from Signum Classics, and the second with the London Sinfonietta, is ‘In Seven Days’ by the British composer Thomas Adès (b. 1971), alongside arrangements by Adès of two Nancarrow studies for two pianos.  ‘In Seven Days’ is a work for piano and orchestra with…

  • Reviews for 2011 complete

    It has been an interesting few months of concerts, theatre, cinema and recordings. 2012 looks to have some some exciting performances ahead. All my reviews for I Care if You Listen are found here http://www.icareifyoulisten.com/author/Steven/ and there will be some items in print for Music Education UK in the new year.

  • Christmas with NSRO at St. Olave’s Church

    – review for I Care if You Listen(.com), forthcoming – It made a welcome change to a conventional Christmas concert to go and hear in the North Sea Radio Orchestra, supported by Wilderthorn, last Friday. The venue—St Olave’s—is a beautiful church right in the heart of the City. All the prerequisites for a festive event…