The name Jacqueline du Pré (1945 – 1987) is still surrounded by esteem. Rarely has someone played the cello so accurately and with so much passion as Du Pré. As a thirteen-year-old performer she made her debut on British television. Seven years later, America lay at her feet thanks to her overwhelmingly beautiful performance of […]
Johann Sebastian Bach
The Stravinsky year 2021
The Beethoven year may have largely fallen through, the Stravinsky year will be spared that fate, but nobody will expect any live tributes to the composer who died 50 years ago. Lovers of Igor Stravinsky’s (1882 – 1971) work have to make do with online meetings, radio broadcasts and two compilation boxes that give an […]
“Bach can comfort and heal us”
Pianist Lang Lang really wanted to understand Bach and the Baroque period before he recorded the monumental Goldberg Variations. Alongside a studio recording is a contrasting performance, a single take from a recital in Leipzig’s iconic St Thomas Church, where Bach worked and is now buried. What was the biggest challenge in recording the Goldberg […]