Radio Show
edward.seckerson
The evolution of the solo percussionist has advanced dramatically over the last couple of decades and among the superstars of the hardware that can be struck and pounded or caressed and stroked is the flying Scotsman Colin Currie, whose profile has steadily grown since becoming the first percussionist ever to reach the finals of the BBC Young Musician of the Year in 1994.In 2005 he received a coveted Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award enabling him to both to extend his commissioning activities and to raise awareness of the percussive revolution in which he plays such a major role. Currie talks here Read more ...
edward.seckerson
In 2007 the English tenor, Ian Storey, made a dramatic and highly visible debut as Tristan in Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde at the season opening of La Scala, Milan, conducted by Daniel Barenboim and directed by Patrice Chereau. It was seen by millions on TV, in cinemas, and on DVD and marked a big development in this singer’s career. This year he will be singing Siegfried in Götterdämmerung, again under Barenboim, as part of a complete bicentennial Ring cycle at the BBC Proms.Storey eschews the heldentenor label preferring to call himself a “dramatic” tenor but whichever way you look at it his Read more ...
edward.seckerson
The 36th Dresden Music Festival has a big title and even bigger ambitions. Empire is a theme which Artistic Director Jan Vogler hopes will embrace not just the cultural achievements of the British Empire but the broader implications of the word. The Brits are coming for sure with a range of music stretching from the Renaissance via Purcell to Elgar and Britten. The Americans are coming, too, with the New York Philharmonic “in residence” under their Chief Conductor Alan Gilbert. And 2013’s big anniversaries - Wagner, Verdi, Lutosławski, Britten - will be celebrated in style.Vogler, who has Read more ...
theartsdesk
Another session of Peter, Joe, some amazing records and some musing on their whys and wherefores - originally broadcast live on NTS Radio out of London's fashionable Dalston.This time around we touch on how humans imitate technology and vice versa (with reference to autotune and Wilko Johnson), on the inspiration for Paul Simon lyrics, and on how retro-ism can be the freshest thing around. The music covers everything from prog-funk to raging Arabic dubstep, country balladry to Amazonian electro-pop. Tune in, turn on, you know the rest... Track list:Colleen – Push the Boat Onto the Sand ( Read more ...
theartsdesk
Quite possibly because the sun was shining, even if it wasn’t actually warm as such, this show presented by Joe Muggs and Peter Culshaw got its groove on. There was shuffling about the NTS studio, strangers started dancing. The featured albums, by which we mean more than one track were played were the new one from Bachar Mar Khalifé, who is clearly a major talent, the debut from Los Chinches, a Peruvian Amazon surf band, who started and closed the show and an irresistible new compilation of Latin Psychedelia.The sunny mood kept going through acid house and Forro, Kenyan 45s from the 1970s and Read more ...
fisun.guner
Matthew Collings was snowed in in Norfolk, so was sadly unable to join us, but the weather didn’t defeat The Arts Desk/London Art Fair debate. The Art Newspaper’s market expert Melanie Girles and TAD critic Mark Hudson rose to the challenge, while I did my best to steer the lively conversation. Under discussion was the question of whether art as commodity had finally taken over from art as art, as Robert Hughes had predicted over 30 years ago, and whether crazy prices at auction ultimately changes our viewing experience.Along the way we discussed art under totalitarian regimes, Carl Read more ...
theartsdesk
Welcome to the latest edition of The Arts Desk Radio Show, originally broadcast live from London's glamorous Dalston last Tuesday on NTS Live. Once again Joe found himself flying solo as Peter was off on his travels – although this time, rather than visiting his usual far-flung destinations he was on the road, driving Malcolm McLaren's Mercedes back from Paris. In his absence, Joe kept things international, causing himself severe pronunciation anxiety by including tracks from Japanese, Lebanese, Welsh, Emirati, Malian and Danish musicians, and welcoming a Zanzibari-Dutch guest for the second Read more ...
theartsdesk
The Arts Desk has quietly been testing the waters in the world of live radio, thanks to the kind people at NTS Live who invited Joe and Peter to do a fortnightly show for them. Having got into the swing of things, they're ready to open up the archives of the show starting with this week's episode. Here, Joe was flying solo, as Peter was - as is his wont - out on a research trip in more exotic climes. So there's less talk and more music, but what music it is!Playlist:Lloyd Cole & Hans Joachim Rodelius – 'Pastoral' (Bureau B)Fimber Bravo – 'The Way We Live Today' (Moshi Moshi)Da Lata – Read more ...
edward.seckerson
The Baltic Youth Philharmonic (founded in 2008) is part of a much larger and bolder enterprise embracing the 10 nation states bordering the Baltic Sea. At a time of financial duress when governments are downgrading culture as a low priority the BYP is forging ahead with privately funded and ever more ambitious schemes whose aim is to celebrate the national identity and cultural diversity of its members as surely as it seeks to develop unity between them.The BYP’s director, Krystjan Järvi, speaks of creating “new vibes” in order to instill an open and lively approach to music and music-making Read more ...
edward.seckerson
The vibrant Elias String Quartet are 14 years young, well established, and well respected on the international scene. Former BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists and recipients of a Borletti-Buitoni Trust Award in 2010, they are at that major crossroads in any quartet's life when they embark upon a complete cycle of the Beethoven Quartets. Unusually the quartet have decided to chronicle their preparation and progress through a revealing website.Further insights are offered with this audio podcast, in which Marie Bitlloch (cello) and Donald Grant (second violin) - one half of the quartet led by Read more ...
theartsdesk
By day, Friar Alessandro Brustenghi lives and works in the Basilica of Santa Maria degli Angeli in Assisi. In his spare time, he works as a carpenter. But he also has a new career as, in the words of his producer Mike Hedges, “the next Italian tenor”. The fruits of his entry into Abbey Road’s recording studio is Voice from Assisi. You can listen here on theartsdesk to the entire album, exclusively until midnight on Thursday.Voice from Assisi consists of traditional and modern sacred songs, from Schubert’s Ave Maria and “Sancta Maria” from Cavalleria Rusticana and a recently discovered Read more ...
edward.seckerson
Over the next four seasons the Norwegian pianist Leif Ove Andsnes will be embarking upon a “Beethoven Journey” that will clock up 150 performances in 55 cities all over the world. At the heart of this expedition will sit the five Beethoven Concertos and Choral Fantasia all of which will be committed to disc by Sony Classical in recordings made in Prague and featuring the Mahler Chamber Orchestra directed from the keyboard by Andsnes.Andsnes has, of course, cherry-picked his way through Beethoven piano literature in the past but this intensive exploration has come as something of a calling at Read more ...