Category Archive: Uncategorized

Out in October 2023, “The Music of Exile – the Untold Stories of the Composers who fled Hitler” (Yale University Press)

I hope this is book that takes the reader further down the road of understanding what it means to view music as a cultural good in need of restitution: a return to audiences of stolen composers and a return to composers of stolen audiences.

More Than a “two hit” Wonder: English National Opera’s “The Dead City” otherwise known as “Die tote Stadt”

The performance of The Dead City, better known as Die tote Stadt at London’s English National Opera was a revelation and frankly, a sensation for reasons few critics have mentioned. But then again,… Continue reading

“Don’t Forget About Me” – The Short Life of Gideon Klein, Composer and Pianist -a new biography by David Fligg

An exceptional biography about an exceptional young Czech composer. Gideon Klein was much more than the tragic young man murdered before his prime as David Fligg’s excellent biography explains.

Recording and the Rise of the Performer as “Curator”

the recording business has created a different type of performer: the curator – someone who looks at the composer before looking at the work. It’s not a bad thing, it’s a change in our habits and attitudes towards great music. Does the performer re-create a work in front of an audience, or does the performer “curate” a work?

Mahler’s Final Journey

There is a legitimate reason I have neglected regular submissions to this blog. I have just completed two books: one is for Yale University Press and can perhaps be seen as a follow-up… Continue reading

Eduard Hanslick on Puccini’s “La Bohème” at Vienna’s Court Opera, conducted by Gustav Mahler

Hanslick, by offering his negative points on La Bohème offers startling insight into early Modernism before departure from tonality began to define Austro-German Modernism from the century’s second decade.

John Mauceri’s book, “The War on Music”

A review of John Mauceri’s history of music post-war

Radu Lupu 30. November 1945 – 17. April 2022

In a previous life, somewhere around 1977, I was brought to Decca, where for the next two years or so, I was the assistant producer on a number of opera recordings. The first… Continue reading

Mark Ludwig’s book “Our Will to Live”

Mark Ludwigs astounding restitution of Terezín’s musical legacy

“The Fractured Self” – Selected German letters of the Australian-born Violinist Alma Moodie, 1918-1943

The correspondence of one of the most inspiring performers of her day – the muse of many composers and a talent most likely smashed on the rocks of history.