The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

Celebrating excellence and enterprise: Resonus Records

20th August 2024

Doom-mongers and naysayers have for many years – decades, even! – been predicting the imminent demise of the classical recording business. It’s almost 20 years since EMI’s Pappano recording of Tristan was supposed to bring the curtain down on the era of studio opera recordings, yet there’s no shortage of new opera on disc: the big labels may issue fewer large-scale productions, and more may be taken from live performances, but – from chamber works and music theatre to grand opera – there has never been so much choice for... read more

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Two British Anniversaries

13th August 2024

Bruckner, Smetana, Puccini, Fauré, Busoni, Suk… This year’s multiple musical anniversaries aren’t restricted to continental European composers alone. 2024 also brings significant milestones for two hugely significant figures in British music, one with Irish roots who made a lasting contribution to Anglican liturgical music, the other with continental ancestry who brought together such influences as English folksong and Hindu mysticism to create a uniquely fascinating body of work.

Born in Dublin into a family of... read more

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More Anniversaries: Busoni & Suk

7th August 2024

2024 is an unusually rich year for musical anniversaries. Most prominent in live performances and on disc have been the Bruckner and Smetana bicentenaries (both were born in 1824), as well as the 100th anniversary of the death of Gabriel Fauré. But we ought not to overlook several composers of second rank (though decidedly not second-rate!) for whom this year is also a significant one. Among them are two composer-performers whose lives centred on a slightly skewed vertical axis through the heart of central Europe, and whose... read more

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Bedřich Smetana: The Father of Czech Opera

30th July 2024

A small nation at the heart of Europe, the Czechs have a keen sense of history. Glorious origin myths and early history mingle with a recurring theme of being subjugated by greater powers: Habsburgs, Nazis and the Soviet Union. Even today’s young Czechs will be aware of the ‘fateful eights’ – years ending with the digit 8 which have proved significant in the Czechs’ national. In modern times alone, 1918 saw the foundation of Czechoslovakia, 1938 the Munich Agreement, 1948 the Communist putsch, and 1968 the brutal Warsaw Pact... read more

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The Little Things That Matter

23rd July 2024

There comes a time in most musicians’ training when the ‘little things’ are introduced: the ornaments that enliven the bare surface of the music and decorate the notes on the page. Like the ornaments on a mantelpiece, or the traceries, grotesques and gargoyles that bring exuberance to a Gothic cathedral, these are small details that are crucial to a sense of style. They include (in standard, modern-day terminology): appoggiaturas and acciaccaturas (‘grace notes’), trills, mordents (the upper or lower inflection of the main... read more

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