The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

A Seasonal Selection

10th December 2024

Towards the end of every year the record companies add to the vast catalogue of Christmas- and winter-themed albums, tapping into the market for music to play during the season of long dark nights and festive lights. What continues to impress us every year is the sheer variety of music on offer, from seasoned choral favourites (carols and larger-scale works associated with Christmas) to a seemingly limitless supply of early music and new compositions. This year is no exception, and here we highlight a few of the releases... read more

read more

Celebrating MTT at 80

3rd December 2024

Perhaps it is a consequence of his trim, perpetual youthful demeanour, or his ever-questing, pliant artistry that Michael Tilson Thomas – who on 21 December will mark his 80th birthday – has never been regarded as the ‘grand old man’ of American music, despite a career that spans some six decades. Yet his recent battle with an aggressive form of brain cancer, which has done little to lessen his appetite for continued musical challenges, has prompted an outpouring of affection and admiration which illustrates the high regard... read more

read more

A Year of Anniversaries: The One That Almost Got Away

26th November 2024

In a year that’s had more than its fair share of musical anniversaries – Bruckner, Busoni, Faure, Holst, Schoenberg, Smetana – arguably one of the biggest is now upon us. Yet it’s a composer whose music has always eluded me. And, even though his output is admired by several friends whose opinions I otherwise respect, my musical synapses resolutely refuse to make a connection. This is a problem for a music critic, who is expected to maintain a certain degree of objectivity and even-handedness. Yet I’ve always thought of... read more

read more

Works in Focus: Smetana’s String Quartet no.1 ‘From My Life’

19th November 2024

This year’s Smetana bicentenary may have been overshadowed somewhat – at least outside the Czech Lands themselves – by that of Bruckner, but there have been several notable performances and recordings of the major orchestral works and operas, including a bumper Supraphon reissue of the complete operas. One curious omission by the major record companies has been the chamber music, not least the string quartets. If Má vlast and the epic operas project a very public face, focussed on the Czech nation’s history and aspirations... read more

read more

Shakespeare à la Mendelssohn

12th November 2024

Along with the Octet for strings which Mendelssohn composed at the astonishing age of 16, the Overture to Shakespeare’s comedy A Midsummer Night’s Dream the following year is the miracle of the composer’s early maturity. Mendelssohn had fallen under the Shakespearean spell when he read August Wilhelm Schlegel’s translation of the play (Ein Sommernachtstraum), which was the first fruit of an eventual project to Germanise Shakespeare. The ‘Dream’ was the young composer’s favourite reading material, and he even acted it out in... read more

read more