The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

A Prolific Recording Artist: Jenő Jandó (1952–2023)

12th July 2023

Over the past century, many musicians have made their reputations via the medium of recording, yet few have been known so exclusively from their discs – nor so extraordinarily prolific in the studio – as the Hungarian pianist Jenő Jandó, who died last week at the age of 71. Signed in 1988 to the Naxos label shortly after its establishment, Jandó went on to make hundreds of recordings for the company, his last (of late piano works by Liszt) being in 2020. As Naxos’s ‘house pianist’, he was a crucial part of its mission... read more

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Two Great 20th-century Maestri + A (Short) Report on the Party and Guests

5th July 2023

This week marks the 50th anniversary of the deaths of two of the greatest conductors of the 20th century. One of them was a giant of post-war music-making in Britain: Otto Klemperer. Born on 14 May 1885 in the Silesian city of Breslau (now Wrocław, Poland), he spent most of his childhood in Hamburg. His first music teacher was his mother Ida, herself an accomplished pianist. He studied at Hoch’s Conservatory in Frankfurt, and although he harboured early ambitions to become an actor, his career path was set on music by... read more

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Discs, Downloads and Streaming

28th June 2023

If you’re reading this, it’s safe to say that you will have some interaction with the internet, even if only as a means of accessing your emails. As a music lover, you may already have discovered the seemingly endless cornucopia of musical delights available via such resources as YouTube (very popular with many of our customers for its rich trove of archive and live performances), not to mention various streaming and download services (including podcasts). Or perhaps you use the internet merely to purchase more... read more

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A Question of Style

21st June 2023

In the arts in general, the notion of ‘style’ can be used in an approving or pejorative sense. We can like someone’s particular style (of dress, deportment, delivery), or we can lament an artist’s clumsy style (self-conscious, affected, poorly executed) in representing certain objects or scenes. In music, however, style is more central and substantive: music is not (in and of itself) representational or meaningful. While certain historians have set up oppositions between style and form, or between style and idea (the title... read more

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The bells, the bells…

14th June 2023

An email from one of our regular customers in response to last week’s column prompted us to give further thought to the subject of bells. The use and evocation of bells in classical music goes back a very long way. Indeed, with so many details unclear about exactly how medieval and renaissance music was performed (including whether and in what manner it was accompanied by instruments), modern performers have often given themselves a fair bit of leeway. David Munrow even memorably employed high-pitched bells/percussion to... read more

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