http://classicalwatch.com Watching Classical. Sun, 21 Feb 2010 20:54:01 +0000 http://backend.userland.com/rss092 en Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon Year: 2010 Artist: Alice Sara Ott There are probably several hundred recordings of Chopin's body of work, ranging from the truly atrocious to the sublime. Associated as he is with the Romantic era, many artists of the modern attempt to infuse their interpretations with pathos and melodrama by taking vast ... http://classicalwatch.com/2010/02/21/review-alice-sara-ott-chopin-complete-waltzes/ Publisher: Deutsche Grammophon Year: 2010 Artists: Hilary Hahn, Matthias Goerne, Christine Schäfer, Münchener Kammerorchester & Alexander Liebreich First, the good news: Hilary Hahn is featured in this collection of Bach cantatas and choral works. For the most part, her playing is as composed, clear and thoughtful as always; her violin sings, laughs and ... http://classicalwatch.com/2010/02/21/review-bach-violin-and-voice/ Why is it that a galloping horse (which has four legs), is suggested in music by triplets, and trains (which are double-piston stroke engines) by four sixteenth notes? http://classicalwatch.com/2009/10/11/horses-and-trains/ Well, it looks as though Yo Yo Ma is again forging new connections between two worlds -- this time between classical music and...Canadian politicians? http://classicalwatch.com/2009/10/07/yo-yo-ma-and-the-new-band/ Publisher: EMI Records (1999) Artists: Daniel Barenboim, Jacquelin du Pre and Pinchas Zukerman Even in the digital age, the classical audiophile has a hard life. The acknowledged, tried-and-true virtuosos have retired, or died, and their lasting legacy consists of intangible memories of concert-goers and a scratchy records which can never be perfectly ... http://classicalwatch.com/2009/09/13/review-beethoven-violin-sonatas-and-tchaikovsky-piano-trio/ Recently iTunes released a compilation of Mozart's piano concertos, as performed by Vladimir Ashkenazy and the Philharmonia Orchestra. It seemed like a good idea at the time -- a good pianist leading a good orchestra. And it was Mozart -- how bad could it be? For a start, it is not ... http://classicalwatch.com/2009/09/13/the-mozart-piano-concertos/ Well, the video for the YouTube Symphony Orchestra's performance at Carnegie Hall has finally been posted! On a Friday evening, in great need of entertainment (and perhaps enlightenment), there I went, with much anticipation of good music and good spirits. Let me preface my comments by saying that this is ... http://classicalwatch.com/2009/04/17/review-youtube-symphony-orchestra-at-carnegie-hall/ I stumbled across this link to the inaugural YouTube Symphony Orchestra, which will be playing at Carnegie Hall on April 15th. Young artists from around the world auditioned by submitting a video through YouTube. A committee selected the finalists, who were announced in March. Tomorrow they start rehearsals. In an ... http://classicalwatch.com/2009/04/12/youtube-symphony-orchestra-plays-carnegie-hall/ If you're reading this blog, you've heard of iTunes and its competitors in the legal digital music industry, such as Amazon, eMusic, Deutsche Grammophon, etc. iTunes has switched from DRM (digital rights management), 128 kilobits per second MP3s to DRM-free 256 kbps AACs. Unfortunately the bump in quality and freedom ... http://classicalwatch.com/2009/04/08/pricing-changes-leave-priceslargely-unchanged/ In case you didn't know, Hilary Hahn is actually on twitter. Well, her fine violin containment unit is there, and it seems to have the inside scoop. http://twitter.com/violincase http://classicalwatch.com/2009/04/07/anthropomorphic-violin-case/