Norman Lebrecht

London

Freelance Writer at Freelance

Editor at Slipped Disc

writer, also at https://t.co/qOFWXnePGa

Articles

Prodigiously original

1 week ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

★★★★★There are four world premiere recordings on this utterly original disc, so if you have even a smidgeon of curiosity about the legend known as Alkan you will probably be buying this album before reading the next sentence. I’ll pause for a second to allow you to complete the purchase. Ready? Charles-Valentin Morhange, called Alkan for short, was the most prodigious French pianist that ever lived.
Lebrecht Weekly | Alkan’s Early works: Mozartian with Added Chutzpah

2 weeks ago | myscena.org | Norman Lebrecht

Advertisement / Publicité 100% Piano Classics 5 User Ratings (0 Votes) 0 There are four world premiere recordings on this utterly original disc, so if you have even a smidgeon of curiosity about the legend known as Alkan you will probably be buying this album before reading the next sentence. I’ll pause for a second to allow you to complete the purchase. Ready? Charles-Valentin Morhange, called Alkan for short, was the most prodigious French pianist that ever lived. Liszt was in awe of his...
La vida de Brian

2 weeks ago | scherzo.es | Norman Lebrecht

Utilizamos tecnologías como las cookies para almacenar y/o acceder a la información del dispositivo. Lo hacemos para mejorar la experiencia de navegación y para mostrar anuncios personalizados. El consentimiento a estas tecnologías nos permitirá procesar datos como el comportamiento de navegación o las identificaciones únicas en este sitio. No consentir o retirar el consentimiento, puede afectar negativamente a ciertas características y funciones.
Debussy, Messiaen: Extase (Pentatone)

2 weeks ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

Kozena brings an unexpected touch of Janacek in the night ★★★★☆There is a line of beauty that runs through French vocal music, from Debussy to Messiaen to Boulez, which exists to the exclusion of all else. When you listen, it sounds as if no other French songs exist — no Ravel, no Poulenc, no Jacques Brel — nothing but this ethereal space in which each consonant is placed with aesthetic precision, like raspberries in a patisserie, or boules in a town square.
Lebrecht Weekly | Debussy, Messiaen: L’extase (Pentatone)

3 weeks ago | myscena.org | Norman Lebrecht

Advertisement / Publicité This page is also available in / Cette page est également disponible en: Francais (French) 80% User Ratings (4 Votes) 2.3 There is a line of beauty that runs through French vocal music, from Debussy to Messiaen to Boulez, which exists to the exclusion of all else. When you listen, it sounds as if no other French songs exist – no Ravel, no Poulenc, no Jacques Brel – nothing but this ethereal space in which each consonant is placed with aesthetic precision, like...
Unjustly overlooked but somewhat undercooked

3 weeks ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

Elsa Barraine: 2 symphonies &c.(CPO) ★★★☆☆The second symphony by this unsung French composer has been included in this summer’s BBC Proms and I wanted to get familiar with it before deciding whether to go. Barraine (1910-1999) had an eventful life. Daughter of the principal cello of the Paris Opéra, she attended the same Conservatoire class as Olivier Messiaen and won the prestigious Prix de Rome. Her first symphony is dated 1931, the second 1938.
Some composers are rightly obscure

4 weeks ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

This article is taken from the June 2025 issue of The Critic. To get the full magazine why not subscribe? Right now we’re offering five issues for just £25. A rustling in the record schedules warns me that 2026 will be the Year of Havergal Brian. Never heard of him? Don’t panic. He’s an English composer of 32 symphonies that, some proclaim, will bring audiences storming back into concert halls. These believers are not isolated.
Witnessing the birth of a star

1 month ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

Sergei Rachmaninoff: 3rd piano concerto (Decca) ★★★★☆Rachmaninoff had large hands and enormous fingers. He wrote concertos for himself to play. The third, in D minor, had its US premieres in Carnegie Hall with Walter Damrosch conducting the first run, Gustav Mahler the next. The concerto proved conspicuously more difficult than its predecessors to achieve with precision. A fear factor set in among lesser pianists.
Just Biber (Outhere Music)

1 month ago | thecritic.co.uk | Norman Lebrecht

A slinky, fun-loving playing style ★★★★☆If you had told me at the start of the week that I’d still be listening to Biber on Friday, my response would have been dusty and unprintable. Middle-European music before Johann Sebastian Bach has about as much interest for me as a squeezed-out tube of toothpaste. The world of Heinrich Biber, a Salzburg violin composer in the Italian style, was rendered obsolete by the birth in 1785 of Bach and Handel.
Gubaidulina - Scherzo

1 month ago | scherzo.es | Norman Lebrecht

Utilizamos tecnologías como las cookies para almacenar y/o acceder a la información del dispositivo. Lo hacemos para mejorar la experiencia de navegación y para mostrar anuncios personalizados. El consentimiento a estas tecnologías nos permitirá procesar datos como el comportamiento de navegación o las identificaciones únicas en este sitio. No consentir o retirar el consentimiento, puede afectar negativamente a ciertas características y funciones.