News & Reviews

From BBC News: "Ennio Morricone, the Italian composer whose credits include the "spaghetti" Westerns that made Clint Eastwood a star, has died in Rome aged 91."

From The Guardian: "Polish-born violinist renowned for an intense lyricism combined with classical rigour"

From The Violin Channel: "The Vienna Boys Choir has announced that the ensemble is likely to be insolvent by September, 2020 - due the devastating economic affects of the Coronavirus pandemic."

From Sheku Kanneh-Mason: "Alison Balsom OBE, Nicola Benedetti, Sir Simon Rattle and I were invited, at short notice, to join a virtual meeting yesterday about the future of the music industry by the Secretary of State for Digital, Culture, Media and Sport, Oliver Dowden."

David Weiniger writes in the New York Times: "Fifty years ago, the Alban Berg Quartet was founded. A huge box set, comforting yet daring, is an immersive celebration." Photo: Warner Classics

From the New York Times: "Many artists have not been paid since March at the company, which hopes to return on New Year’s Eve after its longest interruption in over a century.." Photo: Ken Howard/Metropolitan Opera

English professor Matthew Lau has written a book on the uses of classical music in modernist cinema. With Sounds Like Helicopters we have a fascinating academic treatise on how classical music adds layers of meaning upon many of the most important films of the twentieth century.

Special theme weekends are a regular feature of our programming. We look forward to Something New at Noon every day in June, WCPE’s 42nd anniversary on July 18, and Cinema Classics Weekend on August 1 and 2, among other events. (Photo of Charles Richard-Hamelin by Elizabeth Delage)

In The Washington Post, Michael Andor Brodeur writes: "The limbo of this extended quarantine has forced us all into a state of increased resourcefulness. This has been especially true for artists, curators and musicians, whose outlets for sharing their work have been swiftly limited to laptops and balconies."

From the Washington-Post: "On Facebook and YouTube, it’s bots vs. Bach, as the platforms are blocking or muting some performances." Photo: The Neave Trio/Arthur Moeller

Season Two of Cadenza! - a production of  The Classical Station - begins with four-part mini-series on Ludwig van Beethoven. 2020 marks the 250th anniversary of the great composer's birth. In this episode, reporter Nan Pincus is on the trail of a newly discovered manuscript by Beethoven. Found in a farm house in North Carolina, the timeworn pages are a movement from a previously unknown piano sonata.  Who was the old German man who panicked, ran, and left it there?

James Weaver, former director of the Musical Instruments collection at the Smithsonian Institution and founder of the Smithsonian Chamber Players, has died of the effects of Covid-19.

From the Washington Post: "The covid-19 crisis has forced a sacrifice of so much of what makes opera so powerful — the massive casts, booming orchestras, elaborate staging and singular thrill of being present to experience it all. But it also presents an unlikely opportunity for the form itself to get more intimate and accessible, reach new audiences and evolve in different directions. It’s an art form in survival mode, and it may well come back stronger."

From Gramophone: "Lynn Harrell, who successfully made the leap from orchestral musician to top-flight soloist, has died at the age of 76."

From iNews.co.uk: "Anna Lapwood hopes using social media will bring the organ and choral work to a wider audience but she has been met with some disapproval." Photo: Luke Perrot