He was twenty-four. Twenty-four. That was all the Nazis allowed him. Whoknows what he would have been capable of? What operas could we have hadfrom him? Who knows, maybe he would have […]
I AM NINO MACHAIDZE!
We love to make comparisons. And not in an unpretentious way! Every aspiring football talent is called the next Johan Cruijff and a somewhat deserving soprano quickly becomes a future Maria Callas. […]
PIANO WORKS BY SERGEI BORTKIEWICZ: WHAT A DISCOVERY!
Dear people: this CD is simply magnificent! Secretly I find myself thinking that it might be one of the most beautiful piano recitals of recent times. Not that Sergei Bortkiewicz is an […]
THE SHORT LIFE OF JOSEPH SCHMIDT
On 16 November 1942, Joseph Schmidt died, only 38 years old. On his grave is written, “Ein Stern fällt”, a reference to one of his most successful films. The whole film: Schmidt […]
I PURITANI: MINI DISCOGRAPHY
It is said of I Puritani that it is a true soprano opera, but that is not really quite the case. Elvira may be the pivot around which everything revolves, she is […]
MUSINGS ON TOSCA
Przyslala Basia Jaworski I am a great Puccini admirer. His music goes straight to my heart to never leave it again. I love all his operas and all his heroines are equally […]
CHAMBER WORKS BY PAUL BEN-HAIM
Slowly, much too slowly and actually much too late, but the music world is waking up.One gap after another is finally being filled and the (consciously or unconsciously) ‘forgotten’ composers are at […]
ALBAN BERG’S WOZZECK
The true story of the young soldier Woyzeck, who was found guilty of murdering his girlfriend in 1824 and sentenced to death, inspired the young Austrian Georg Büchner to write his play. […]
JENUFA GLEICH IMPRESSES WITH WAGNER ARIAS
The American soprano Jenufa Gleich has recorded a CD with arias and songs by Richard Wagner. And they are the ones closest to the bel canto profession in which she was trained. […]
BRITTEN’S BILLY BUDD: BRILLIANT MUSIC TO A BRILLIANT LIBRETTO
Perfect goodness, does it have the right to exist? In his novel Billy Budd, Herman Melville set the absolute evil against the perfect goodness and made them perish both. The story about the […]
VALENTINA LEVKO: STAR OF THE BOLSHOI
How is it possible that I have never heard of Valentina Levko before? How could a singer of her calibre remain so unknown? Now that I have listened to the CD box […]
Karol Szymanowskis stabat mater: masterfully performed masterpiece
Good news: Karol Szymanowski is back. One after the other, his compositions are being dusted off, polished up, performed and recorded. His violin concertos are now among the most frequently played works […]
FRITZ WUNDERLICH AS WE DID NOT KNOW HIM YET
Basia Jaworski Fritz Wunderlich, tenor. Born September 1930. Died September 1966, thirty-six years old. What happened? We will never really find out. He was hunting with his best friend, the baritone […]
MACBETH BY ERNEST BLOCH. EVER HEARD OF?
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Ernest Bloch was born into an assimilated Jewish family in Geneva in 1880. Around the age of twenty-five he became interested in all things Jewish and he translated them […]
ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY. PART 1: THE MAN
The women On the 11th of February 1900, during the world premiere of the Frühlingsbegräbnis, a cantata in memory of Brahms, Alexander Zemlinsky and Alma Schindler met for the first time. She […]
HÉRODIADE OR SALOME BY MASSENET
Napisala i Przyslala Richard Strauss composed his world hit Salome to a play by Oscar Wilde; and the latter drew his inspiration from a short story by Flaubert, ‘Herodias’. Paul Milliet and Henri Grémont […]
MANFRED GURLITT AND THE FORGOTTEN WOZZECK
LIFE The arbitrariness that exists in music history can sometimes be quite confusing. Why did one composer become famous and another did not? We know all too well that it is not […]
ALPINE TALES AND METAL: KINDERTOTENLIEDER BY GISÈLE VIENNE AND KTL IN THE HOLLAND FESTIVAL.
Przyslala Basia Jaworski “Thank you for coming to this memorial concert for my friend, and I want to thank one of this favourite bands for agreeing to play here today. He was […]
KHATIA BUNIATISHVILI: THE WORLD’S MOST GLAMOROUS PIANIST?
Przyslala Basia Jaworski She has been called the world’s most glamorous pianist and that may well be true. In today’s music world, it is not only talent and ability that counts. Even […]
LOVE IS IN THE AIR – AN INTERVIEW WITH JOHN OSBORN
So you don’t believe in true love? Have you become a bit cynical because your heart has been broken too often, or have you seen too many marriages end in divorce? So […]
MYSTERY AND EROTICISM AFTER PARADISE: RUDI STEPHAN’S ‘DIE ERSTEN MENSCHEN’
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Rudi Stephan’s opera or ‘Erotic Mystery’ Die ersten Menschen was to be premiered early 1915, but WWI intervened. In September that same year the composer died at Germany’s Eastern front, by […]
ROSA RAISA: FROM THE BIALYSTOK GHETTO TO LA SCALA IN MILAN
It is now quite some time ago that I visited a very dear (and very sick) friend, who was once a celebrated opera singer. When she asked me what I was working […]
JOSEPH ACHRON, MUSIC TO FALL IN LOVE WITH
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Joseph Achron in Saint Petersburg © Courtesy of the Department of Music, Jewish National & University Library, Jerusalem, . Arnold Schoenberg firmly believed that Joseph Achron was the most […]
DMITRI HVOROSTOVSKY IN TWO LIVE RECITALS
Przyslala Basia Jaworski After Hvorostovsky won the Cardiff Competition in 1989, record companies were queuing up to sign a contract with him. Philips was chosen and promptly a small number of recitals […]
SCHÖNBERG’S ‘GURRE – LIEDER’
Basia Jaworski For me Gurre-Lieder is one of the most beautiful works ever composed. From the moment the music gently begins to swell, I am in heaven. The music, like a Dybbuk, takes hold […]
PLÁCIDO DOMINGO AND PUCCINI: A MATCH MADE IN HEAVEN
Basia Jaworski Sometimes I think that Placido Domingo must be the reincarnation of Puccini. Not because they look so similar (although they are very much alike in the photos), but because of […]
KAROL SZYMANOWSKI’S STABAT MATER: MASTERFULLY PERFORMED MASTERPIECE
Basia Jaworski Good news: Karol Szymanowski is back. One after the other, his compositions are being dusted off, polished up, performed and recorded. His violin concertos are now among the most frequently […]
BARBERS VANESSA FROM GLYNDEBOURNE: IT DOESN’T GET ANY BETTER THAN THIS
Basia Jaworski We, European snobs, turn up our noses at American music. We find it all kitsch without really understanding it at all. What do we know about Samuel Barber and his […]
BENJAMIN FRANKEL: FROM WATCHMAKER’S APPRENTICE TO THE SOUND WIZARD
Basia Jaworski In 1957 Benjamin Frankel moved to Switzerland. In England, his homeland, he was mainly known as a film composer. No wonder, because to his name is music for more than […]
SOME WORDS ABOUT DOMINGO AND OTELLO
Basia Jaworski There is no doubt in my mind that Plàcido Domingo is the greatest interpreter of Otello, especially in the last 30 years of the twentieth century. Not only as a […]
PIOTR BECZALA: I FEEL AT HOME
EVERYWHERE NOW Przyslala Basia Jaworski After a carefully built career of 25 years at smaller opera houses, Piotr Beczala has been at the absolute top for many years now. Here is a ten […]
NIKOLAI MEDTNER: A ‘SILLY SENTIMENTALIST’?
Basia Jaworski Nikolai Medtner. For many music lovers no more than a name in the music history books. Except for the pianists, perhaps, because they cannot ignore Medtner. If only because he […]
THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN
Basia Jaworski His looks were very important to him. He was always elegantly dressed and loved beautiful hats, a grand seigneur all the way. Thanks to Giuseppe Adami we know how he […]
Between gods and demons George London (born Burnstein )
Basia Jaworski And now I would like to tell you about George London. Born as George Burnstein into a family of Russian Jewish immigrants in Montreal, Canada in May 1920, he grew […]
THOMAS ADÈS BY THOMAS ADÈS: YOU CAN’T GET IT ANY BETTER
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Thomas Àdes (1971) is one of my beloved contemporary composers. In contrast to many of his (older, I admit) colleagues, he writes music that is not too […]
OPERA NOSTALGIA ON THE BLACK AND WHITE FILLM CANVAS
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski THE GLASS MOUNTAIN This beautiful English film from 1949 is truly irresistible, and not only for opera lovers. The melodrama, about an English composer who crashed in […]
DISCOVERING WALTER KAUFMANN: WHEN BOMBAY MEETS BERLIN
Przyslala Baia Jaworski Slow, way too slow and actually way too late, but the music world is waking up. One gap after another is finally being filled and the (consciously or unconsciously) […]
A FEW WORDS ABOUT ANDRZEJ DOBBER
Przyslala Basia Jaworski It’s not as if a big bag of Polish singers has been emptied above the world’s opera houses, but sometimes it seems like it. More and more Polish names […]
SCHUBERT’S ALFONSO UND ESTRELLA: WHAT A SURPRISE!
Basia Jaworski What a surprise! I have to admit: I love, love, love it! A romantic fairy tale about an old king, who is thrown off the throne by his rival, and […]
Virginia Zeani , one of the very few sopranos Maria Callas was frightened of
Basia Jaworski Have you noticed how many great singers come from Romania? Virginia Zeani is one of them. She was born Virginia Zehan, on the 21st October 1925, in Solovastru, a village […]
A FEW WORDS ABOUT LEYLA GENCER
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Born 10 October 1928 in Polonezköv, a small town close to Istanbul, Leyla Gencer had – just like Maria Callas – a cult status, even today, but […]
Help . help the globolinks are coming and only music can save us
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Especially for Hamburg, the Italian-American composer and director Gian Carlo Menotti composed Hilfe, Hilfe Die Globolinks!, an opera ‘for children and for those who love children’. The premiere took […]
FRITZ WUNDERLICH AS WE DID NOT KNOW HIM YET
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Fritz Wunderlich, tenor. Born September 1930. Died September 1966, thirty-six years old. What happened? We will never really find out. He was hunting with his best friend, […]
ARNOLD VAN MILL
IS THERE SOMEONE WHO STILL REMEMBERS HIM? Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The Dutch bass Arnold van Mill is almost completely forgotten nowadays. How unfair! His voice is a bit reminiscent of the […]
GERARD SOUZAY. SO WE DON’T FORGET HIM
Przyslala Basia Jaworski The in all respects beautiful baritone Gérard Souzay has made the big mistake to sing on for far too long. His last Philips recordings are unlistenable and with his […]
IS GIUSEPPE VALDENGO REALLY TOTALLY FORGOTTEN?
Przyslala Basia Jaworski In May 2014 Giuseppe Valdengo would have turned 100 years old. A fact that has escaped everyone, because the baritone born in Turin is now almost completely forgotten. How […]
THE ROMANTIC VOICE OF CESARE SIEPI
. Basia Jaworski It were not only Americans that considered Broadway as something to take seriously. The Don Giovanni and one of the biggest Verdi-basses of the second half of the last century, Cesare […]
PIOTR BECZALA AND HIS NEW HEROES
. Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Listening to this CD, I was reminded of La Fontaine’s fable about the ant and the cricket, the moral of which is, ‘whistling in the […]
Ever heard of Wilhelm Grosz
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski In the 1920s old values were shaken. The Great War had just ended. Countries had become independent, or had just lost their independency. Powerful new influences […]
ROLANDO VILLAZON: REMINDERS OF A GREAT PROMISE
. . Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski © dpa/DPA/Martin Schutt No one loved him as much as I did, when I heard him for the first time. His Don Carlo with Dutch […]
RUDOLF KAREL, A HARDLY KNOWN ‘THERESIENSTADT COMPOSER’
.Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski . If it is true that Gideon Klein composed the Divertimento as early as 1940, this is a very important musical discovery. Until now it was assumed that all […]
MARCEL WORMS TAKES CARE OF PIANO WORKS BY JEWISH COMPOSERS
Napisala i Przyslala Basia Jaworski We can safely call Marcel Worms the ambassador of persecuted and forgotten composers. For his latest CD, he has recorded piano works by composers from various […]
Michael Fabiano ;Interview (ENGLISH)
Wywiad przeprowadzila i przyslala Basia Jaworski Otoz piszac ” recenzje ” z opery La Boheme w METopera zachwalalem bardzo FABIANO i tu Basia sie wlaczyla przysylajac wywiad wlasnie z nim. Fabiano as […]
MUSIC AS ECSTASY
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski KATHRYN STOTT PLAYS ERWIN SCHULHOFF In 1919 Erwin Schulhoff wrote: “Music should bring primarily physical pleasure, even ecstasy, to the listener. It is not philosophy: its roots […]
JACQUELINE DU PRÉ. BECAUSE NO REASON IS NECESSARY.
Przyslala Basia Jaworski . Ever since the truly brilliant and now legendary movie Amadeus shattered Mozart’s reputation (or, on the contrary, boosted it), nobody is holy anymore. In Anand Tucker’s extremely bad […]
Zmarł wybitny kompozytor Krzysztof Penderecki
Die Teufel von Loudun, Przyslala Rimma Kaul W niedzielę po długiej i ciężkiej chorobie w wieku 86 lat zmarł Krzysztof Penderecki – wybitny twórca, jeden z najbardziej znanych […]
. KREMERATA BALTICA LEAVES THE LISTENER OPEN-MOUTHED AND GASPING FOR BREATH
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Gidon Kremer is one of the most ardent advocates of Weinberg’s music. This is also not the first time he has tackled his music. With his […]
MINNIE’S FROM GIGLIOLA FRAZZONI AND ELEANOR STEBER
. Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Emmy Destinn (Minnie) at the premiere of La Fanciulla del West Puccini’s women are never one-dimensional. That is expressed in his music, but who still understands […]
SILENCED VOICES
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Do you know the Black Oak Ensemble? There is a good chance you don’t, even though this American string trio, which barely anyone knows in the […]
About Victoria De Los Angeles,a Madonna among opera singers
.Przyslala Basia Jaworski . Victoria de los Angeles was without a doubt one of the most beautiful lyrical sopranos of her generation. She made her debut in 1945 at the Liceu […]
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