Posted by Katherine Duncan on Friday January 27, 2012
A newly discovered piano solo by the 19th century master sheds light on his compositional process.
When composer Johannes Brahms was 20, he paid a visit to a music director friend. As he was leaving the house, Brahms signed the guest book. And then, as a kind of "Thank You card," he wrote down a page of music.
The years went by, and eventually that guest book wound up in the library at Princeton University. That's where conductor and musicologist Christopher Hogwood stumbled on it last fall. And just last week, at BBC Radio 3 studios in London, pianist Andras Schiff gave the premiere of the piece Johannes Brahms dashed off 159 years ago. This week on In Tune, we'll play you that historic performance. To hear more of the story behind the discovery, have a look at this BBC Radio 3 video.
Posted by Katherine Duncan on Friday January 20, 2012
What makes a Strad so special? That depends on who you ask.
Cellist Denise Djokic looks as though she might find the Strad pretty special - or at least expensive! That cello she's holding at the East Coast Music Awards some years ago is a Stradivarius cello valued at $4 million U.S. at the time.
Posted by Katherine Duncan on Saturday January 14, 2012
You've probably had the experience of being in a classroom and having your attention wander. And by the time you focus back on the teacher, you realize you've missed something crucial. After that, the rest of the class is kind of a blur.
Posted by Katherine Duncan on Saturday January 7, 2012
If you sing in any kind of choir -- or you know someone who does -- here's something you might want to consider. It's a "Virtual Choir" that lets people from all over the world sing together -- via the internet.
It's been going for a couple of years already. The first year, 185 singers took part. The next year -- more than 2,000. Now, they've put out a call for singers for Virtual Choir 3.
Posted by Katherine Duncan on Friday December 23, 2011
Here's an eerie thought: Singing music with a ghost accompanying you on the piano.
Eerie, yes, but it could also be an amazing experience. Especially if the "ghost" playing the piano also composed the music you're singing. You'd know just how fast to take it, where to speed up, or slow down. (Those are all the questions you agonize over when you're trying to figure out how best to interpret a piece of classical music.)
Isabel Bayrakdarian, the Canadian soprano, got to team up with Manuel de Falla, the Spanish composer -- even though he's been dead for more than 60 years.
That's thanks to a new innovation from Zenph Technologies, that takes an old wax cylinder of de Falla himself playing the piano, records it into a computer, and then programs that into a modern piano (kind of a computer-controlled player piano).
Posted by Mike Miner on Saturday December 17, 2011
Tune in to Radio 2 all day on Sunday, Dec. 18, for Joy to the World, the annual live broadcast of seasonal music from the European Broadcasting Union. We know this broadcast event has become tremendously popular with the Radio 2 audience over the years. (It first appeared on our airwaves back in 1996.) It's expected there will be over 3 million people tuning in around the world.
Joy to the World gets underway at 9 a.m. (9:30 NT) and runs through to 6 p.m. (6:30 NT). Peter Togni is your guide again this year to a musical journey through eight European countries (with a layover in Montreal!). To aid you on your travels, we have prepared an interactive map to enhance your listening experience. Each of our concerts is marked on the map, and if you click on the marker you'll get more information about the artists, cities, venues and more.
Posted by Robert Rowat on Saturday December 17, 2011
CBC Radio 2 is proud to present the return of Joy to the World, the day-long broadcast of Christmas concerts from the European Broadcasting Union (EBU.) It all starts tomorrow, Sunday December 18th, at 9 AM (9:30 NT) and continues through to 6 PM (6:30 NT.)
Peter Togni, host of Choral Concert on CBC Radio 2, will host this special broadcast that features concerts from Finland, the Netherlands, Latvia, Iceland, Estonia, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Ireland, and, yes... Canada!
Posted by Katherine Duncan on Friday December 16, 2011
Carnegie Hall is celebrating a big birthday: the legendary New York concert hall is now 120 years old. To celebrate, they're going back in time to the hall's early days. But they're doing it with brand new technology.
It takes you back to New York in 1891, so you can experience the city the way Tchaikovsky did when he arrived to conduct the opening night concert at Carnegie Hall.
Posted by Robert Rowat on Thursday December 15, 2011
That's Peter Togni, Choral Concert host and your guide to Joy To The World, a special day of music programming on Sunday. He's got the enviable (if nerve-racking) task of presenting each concert as it comes to us live over the EBU network.
What makes a Strad so special? That depends on who you ask.
You've probably had the experience of being in a classroom and having your attention wander. And by the time you focus back on the teacher, you realize you've missed something crucial. After that, the rest of the class is kind of a blur.
It's New Year's Eve, so today on In Tune we're looking back over the year that's coming to an end.
