Andrew Clements

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Andrew Clements

Béla Bartók: Complete Piano Concertos. Even though they are among the most challenging piano concertos in the repertory, there is no shortage of outstanding versions on disc of the three Bartók works, from Géza Anda in the 1950s to Pierre-Laurent Aimard two years ago. They are certainly ambitious works with which to launch a recording career on Supraphon, but Tomáš Vrána is undoubtedly dauntless; his performances are full of confidence, verve and faultless technical accomplishment.

1 week ago | theguardian.com | Andrew Clements

The 400th anniversary of the death of Orlando Gibbons has so far been one of the less prominently marked of this year’s significant musical dates. Gibbons, who was born in Oxford in 1583, was one of the last significant English madrigalists, and is often viewed as a transitional figure between Renaissance music and the baroque, though historically he has been overshadowed by the more prolific William Byrd, with whom he may have studied. My Days: Orlando Gibbons and Nico Muhly.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Andrew Clements

Almost all the major works from the second half of Pierre Boulez’s composing career developed in the same way: their starting point is a small-scale ensemble or solo piece that served as the kernel for the much expanded and elaborated later score. That was the process that led to the final versions of works such as Mémoriale, Anthèmes and …explosante-fixe…, and to the pair of substantial pieces that are played with fabulous precision and incisiveness on this disc. Boulez: Éclat/Multiples.

2 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Andrew Clements

As soon as the 2022 Van Cliburn piano competition in Fort Worth, Texas, was over, news travelled across the Atlantic that the latest winner was very special indeed.

3 weeks ago | theguardian.com | Andrew Clements

No lieder singer of the second half of the last century has cast a longer shadow on subsequent generations than Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau. Even singers who never studied with the great baritone acknowledge his influence, but for Benjamin Appl the link was much more direct: after attending a masterclass that Fischer-Dieskau gave in Austria in 2009, Appl became Fischer-Dieskau’s final pupil, working with him up to his death three years later.