Classics Today

2 weeks ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz

Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. This is not a fancy, high-gloss “e-zine,” but rather a simple, straightforward newsletter-style section of our website designed for ease of reading and packing the maximum amount of useful information into each issue.

3 weeks ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz

So it begins. The reason most projected Haydn symphony cycles, whether complete or not, start with a bang and then end with a whimper is that the range of the music so vastly exceeds the imagination of its interpreters. This is particularly true of performances based on “historically informed” playing theories that impose the same basic approach on each work, no matter its content or character. Here is a case in point.

3 weeks ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz

Exclusive music reviews and news, created specifically for classical music listeners, from the serious collector to the inquisitive newcomer. This is not a fancy, high-gloss “e-zine,” but rather a simple, straightforward newsletter-style section of our website designed for ease of reading and packing the maximum amount of useful information into each issue.

3 weeks ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz

You have to wonder when Michael Daugherty is going to run out of iconic bits of Americana on which to base his ever-growing catalog of works. Well, it’s a big country, and he certainly hasn’t lost his touch here. Blue Electra is a four movement Violin Concerto designed as a tribute to legendary aviator Amelia Earhart.

1 month ago | classicstoday.com | Robert Levine |David Hurwitz

With the Ninth Symphony, the South African piano duo of Tessa Uys and Ben Schoeman conclude their world premier recorded survey of Beethoven’s symphonies arranged for one piano four hands by Xaver Scharwenka (1850-1924). On balance, Scharwenka’s textural decisions are more discreet and idiomatically savvy than those of such 19th-century “house arrangers” like Selmar Bagge and Hugo Ulrich, who tend to use thick doublings and tremolos to excess in loud passages.