The Spin Doctor Europadisc's Weekly Column

The Marmite Instrument: In Praise of the Harpsichord

8th October 2025

More and more pianists are exploring the early keyboard repertoire beyond the usual fare of J.S. Bach and Domenico Scarlatti, to take in the French clavecinistes and the English virginalists. In a world where historically-informed practices are becoming more mainstream, this is a brave thing to do, even braver if those pianists attempt to transfer such stylistic lessons into their performances on a modern concert grand. I myself, however, have always preferred the beguiling sound of a well-built and imaginatively played... read more

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Verismo à la Saint-Saëns: L’Ancêtre

1st October 2025

Since 2014, the ever-enterprising team at the Palazzetto Bru Zane have steadily been exploring the largely neglected operatic output of Camille Saint-Saëns. Having already set down the composer’s last work in the genre (Déjanire, released in April 2024), their latest release serves up a real rarity in Saint-Saëns’s penultimate opera, L’Ancêtre (The Ancestor). A compact three-act work lasting just 90 minutes, this drame lyrique was commissioned by Prince Albert I of Monaco, and premiered at the Opéra de Monte-Carlo on 24... read more

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Čiurlionis: Founder of Lithuanian Art Music

23rd September 2025

In recent years, the classical music of the Baltic states has received wide attention thanks to the works of Estonians Arvo Pärt and Erkki-Sven Tüür (not to mention the conductors of the Järvi dynasty) and the Latvians Pēteris Vasks and Ēriks Ešenvalds. However, the music of the southernmost Baltic country, Lithuania, is far less well known. The undisputed founder of a distinct Lithuanian art music tradition is the short-lived Mikolajus Konstantinas Čiurlionis (1875–1911), whose sesquicentenary falls this... read more

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Unboxing Brendel

16th September 2025

The death just three months ago of the great Alfred Brendel brought about – as these moments tend to do – a renewed interest in the recorded legacy of a pianist who retired from the concert platform and recording studio back in 2008. At the time, relatively few his extensive recordings were current in the catalogue, although a generous selection of his earliest recordings has been available on reissue labels such as Alto. Now, however, Decca have reissued the mighty 114-CD box of ‘Complete Philips Recordings’, which first... read more

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Remembering Christoph von Dohnányi

10th September 2025

The death on Saturday 6 September of the distinguished German conductor Christoph von Dohnányi, just two days before his 96th birthday, has brought warm tributes from across the classical music world. He was born on 8 September 1929 into a family with notable Hungarian roots. His grandfather was the composer Ernst von Dohnányi, with whom he would study in Florida after World War II. His father, Hans (to whom he bore a striking resemblance), and maternal uncle, the great Lutheran pastor Dietrich Bonhoeffer, were both executed... read more

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