Przyslala Basia Jaworski Moritz von Schwind: Der Sängerkrieg As a young singer you could, so to speak, take part in a singing competition every week. Everywhere there are opportunities to […]
Singing competitions :pros and cons
IGOR LEVIT AND HIS BEETHOVEN-PROJECT: “I DO NOT FEEL LIKE A SERVANT, BUT I DO NOT FEEL LIKE ANYBODY’S MASTER EITHER.”
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski On 17 December 2019 Ludwig van Beethoven will celebrate his 250th birthday. An occasion this big calls for a big party, so that is what […]
THE SONGS OF REYNALDO HAHN ON PALAZZETTO BRU ZANE
Przyslala Basia Jaworski For many, he’s just another famous representative of the Belle Époque, but there are few people that really know much about him, let alone about his music. […]
Persianpoems about the pleasures of wine,set tomusic by a Czech Jew
Przyslala Basia Jaworski The Persian poet Hafiz has also influenced many westerners. His ghazels (short poems mainly about love and wine) were the inspiration for Goethe’s ‘West-Östlicher Divan’. But many composers […]
Hans Gal and Mario CASTELNUO -Tedesco: How could we forget them ?
Przyslala Basia Jaworski I regularly hear cellists complain that the repertoire for their instrument is not that large, which is why they (have to) play and/or record more or less the […]
THE MAN WHO LOVED WOMEN
Napisala i przyslala 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 […]
CHANNA MALKIN AND IZHAR ELIAS IN ‘SONGS OF LOVE AND EXILE, A SEPHARDIC JOURNEY’
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Mario Castelnuovo-Tedesco (Florence, 3 April 1895 – Beverly Hills, 16 March 1968) was born into a Jewish family of Sephardic origin (Jews who were expelled from Spain […]
The song of Terezin & requiem ebraico
Przyslala Basia Jaworski In the nineties of the last century the (once very renowned) classical music label Decca started an unsurpassed series ‘Entartete Musik’. Under the supervision of producer […]
ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY. PART 3: DREAMS AND THE HAPPINESS THAT NEEDS TO BE HIDDEN
Napisala i przyslala Bsia Jaworski DER ZWERG Like no other renowned conductor, James Conlon has been an ardent advocate of the ‘Entartet composers’ for years. In his Cologne years (between 1989 and […]
ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY. PART 2: ‘DU BIST MEIN EIGEN.’
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski It is very hard to believe, but the first post-war performance of the Lyrische Symphonie dates from the late 1970s. This absolute masterpiece was composed between 1922-23 […]
ALEXANDER ZEMLINSKY.
Przyslala Basia Jaworski PART 1: THE MAN Alexander Zemlinsky at his desk The women Alma Schindler in 1900 On the 11th of February 1900, during the world premiere of the Frühlingsbegräbnis, […]
“ICH MÖCHT SO GERN NACH HAUS!”: ANNE SOFIE VON OTTER SINGS SONGS BY ‘THERESIENSTADT COMPOSERS.’
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The songs Anne Sofie von Otter, assisted by baritone Christian Gerhaher, sings on the CD Terezín – Theresienstadt, released in 2008 on Deutsche Gramophon (DG 4776546), […]
A Frank conversation whith Pablo Heras -Casado
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski For some people different standards apply than for ordinary mortals and everything they touch turns into gold, and they don’t get caught up in it. Pablo […]
The yiddish cabaret: Jerusalem quatet’s tribute to their grandparents
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The Jerusalem String Quartet never disappoints. Never. Whatever they play. It’s not just about perfection, but also, or perhaps mainly, about their attention to the […]
Michael Tilson Thomas: in interpretation there is no absolute truth
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Michael Tilson Thomas © Kristen Loke The Amstel Hotel is totally unsuitable for a good conversation, especially with a musician. The ‘Muzak’ in the background is annoyingly […]
In conversation with Marlyn Horne
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski It’s so simple: you dial a phone number. A dark, warm, sweet voice answers the call with: “Hello, with Marilyn”. And gone are the nerves. We […]
BENJAMIN FRANKEL
FROM WATCHMAKER’S APPRENTICE TO THE SOUND WIZARD Napisala i Przyslala BasiaJaworski In 1957 Benjamin Frankel moved to Switzerland. In England, his homeland, he was mainly known as a film composer. No […]
Brittens Billy Budd: brilliant music to a brilliant libretto
Przyslala Basia Jaworski 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 […]
ROSA RAISA: FROM THE BIALYSTOK GHETTO TO LA SCALA IN MILAN
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Rosa Raisa as Francesca da Rimini It is now quite some time ago that I visited a very dear (and very sick) friend, who was once […]
PAUL BEN-HAIM’S EVOCATION: WHAT A DISCOVERY
Basia Jaworski Paul Ben -Haim, who was born in Munich in 1897 as Paul Frankenburger and died almost 90 years later in Tel Aviv, remains a great unknown to many […]
MICHAEL FABIANO TRIUMPHS WITH HIS FIRST CD RECITAL
Przyslala Basia Jaworski For me, the fact that Michael Fabiano was going to make it was indisputable. From the very first time I saw and heard him, in […]
AFTER THE DARKNESS: THE HAGUE STRING TRIO BRINGS SUPPRESSED COMPOSERS BACK TO LIFE
Przyslala Basia Jaworski The title of this CD is taken from the book with the same name by Auschwitz survivor Elie Wiesel, The title of this CD is taken from […]
DISCOVERING KAROL RATHAUS
Przyslala Basia Jaworski A forgotten composer, and not just because of the Nazis Karol Rathaus, circa 1952 (from Rathaus’ family archive A […]
Twenty years after his death: Rolf Liebermann in memoriam
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The Swiss composer Rolf Liebermann (14 September 1910 – 2 January 1999) is nowadays seen as the father of Regietheater, although he meant something different from the […]
WHY DON’T WE SEE MARTINŮ’S GREEK PASSION MORE OFTEN?
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski There are two reason’s to post my little article about Martinů’s 'Greek Passion’ just today. This weekend we celebrate Greek-Orthodox Easter. And yesterday it was 104 […]
Is versimo dead? Part 1: Cavalleria Rusticana
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Morte de Verismo: Verismo is dead. In recent years, this heartfelt cry has been the subject of intense discussion on opera mailing lists, in opera groups on […]
LA JUIVE AT THE ISRAELI OPERA IN TEL AVIV
Napisala i Przyslala Basia Jaworski Israeli Opera in Tel Aviv Didn’t have time to eat before the opera? Don’t worry, at least not if you visit a performance at the […]
LA JUIVE, DISCOGRAPHY
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Jacques Fromental Halévy (1799-1862) was a much loved and celebrated composer during his lifetime. He composed about forty operas, of which at least half were […]
The Arthur Rubinstein international piano master competition .
A competition whith a human face Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Which pianist does not dream of being the new Rubinstein? Or at least Emanuel Ax, winner of the […]
A bit about 'Jewish music’
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Gerrit van Honthorst (1590-1656), King David Playing the Harp (1611), Centraal Museum, Utrecht, Holland HIS SONG WILL NOT BE SILENCED * A question of conscience: is there such […]
Singing competitions: pros and cons
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Moritz von Schwind: Der Sängerkrieg As a young singer you could, so to speak, take part in a singing competition every week. Everywhere there are opportunities to sing […]
DECCA’S MOST WANTED RECITALS. PART 2
Przyslala Basia Jaworski GIUSEPPE VALDENGO In May 2014 Giuseppe Valdengo would have turned 100 years old. A fact that has escaped everyone, because the baritone born in Turin is […]
DECCA’S MOST WANTED. PART ONE
Przyslala Basia Jaworski In April 2014 the series ‘Decca’s Most Wanted Recitals’ was launched: fifty albums by legendary singers, often never released on CD before. It’s a true treasure chest […]
VOICE IN THE WILDERNESS: MUSIC AS SALVATION
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Cellist Raphael Wallfisch and his son Benjamin made a recording together, which they dedicated to their relatives who were killed in the camps. The CD was released […]
Entartete musik ,Teresienstadt and channel classics
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski This article is about 'Entartete Musik’, 'Teresienstadt-composers’ and the recordings by and at Channel Classics Records. At the end of the 1980s the music-loving world (and here […]
IT ALL STARTED WITH PAGANINI: DYNAMIC CELEBRATES ITS FORTIETH BIRTHDAY
Przyslala Basia Jaworski The genesis of Dynamic can be read as a real fairy tale. The label was founded forty years ago by Pietro Mosetti Casaretto (1925-2012), a violin-playing surgeon with […]
THE VOICE OF THE VIOLA IN TIMES OF OPRESSION
VIOLA AS A VOICE FOR THE PERSECUTED Przyslala Basia Jaworski ktora pisze : This cd is one of the best recordings of 2018. The viola sonata by Dick Kattenburg (1919-1944) consists […]
WORSHIPPED, IGNORED, FORGOTTEN:
ABOUT ERICH WOLFGANG KORNGOLD AND ‘DIE TOTE STADT’. Przyslala Basia Jaworski He was a child prodigy. At the age of twenty he was already world-famous and established as a composer. He wrote […]
DISCOVERING JERZY FIETELBERG
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Is the music world finally waking up? Not if it’s up to the big record companies. With them we are still condemned to Bachs, Beethovens and Wagners. […]
THE STEPSISTERS OF MARIA CALLAS
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Would we still love Callas so much if she had been an ‘ordinary’ happy person, like most of her colleagues? If she had been happily married and had […]
SIR THOMAS ALLEN
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski LET BEAUTY AWAKE In my opinion Thomas Allen is one of the greatest singers of the past half century. His balmy voice with its warmth, colours […]
BETWEEN TWO WORLDS
Przyslala Basia Jaworski WALTER BRAUNFELS In 1933 Walter Braunfels was dismissed from his post as director of the Hochschule für Musik in Cologne. Until then he had been, with Richard Strauss and […]
‘THEY COULD HAVE BEEN BIRDS’
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Burkhardt Söll: Kinderdinge. A requiem for an old doctor and his orphans Korczak with the children Korczak’s real name was Henryk Goldszmit. He first used his pen name […]
ASCINATED BY THE UNKNOWN: A VISIT TO OPERA RARA
Przyslala Basia Jaworski Times have changed. Not that long ago anything in the recording industry seemed possible. The major record companies released one opera after the next. Money was not an issue. […]
OSEPH ACHRON, MUSIC TO FALL IN LOVE WITH
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Joseph Achron in Saint Petersburg © Courtesy of the Department of Music, Jewish National & University Library, Jerusalem, Achron Collection. Arnold Schoenberg firmly believed that Joseph Achron […]
BARBARA HANNIGAN : “I SING EVERYTHING AS IF IT WERE MOZART”
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski © Marco Borggreve Barbara Hannigan is the undisputed prima donna of modern music. Her musicianship commands great respect, her technique is flawless, and her possibilities (think […]
PAUL HERMANN
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski https://basiaconfuoco.com/ The exact date and place of his death still remain unknown. The last that was heard of Paul (Pál) Hermann (1902-1944) was that he got […]
SZYMON LAKS. MUSIC OF ANOTHER WORLD
Przyslala Basia Jaworski How many music lovers, even seasoned ones, have heard of Szymon Laks? Let alone of his music? Fate has been unkind to the Polish-French composer. Laks survived the […]
SZYMON LAKS. MUSIC OF ANOTHER WORLD
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski How many music lovers, even seasoned ones, have heard of Szymon Laks? Let alone of his music? Fate has been unkind to the Polish-French composer. Laks survived […]
INTERVIEW WITH JOYCE EL-KHOURY
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The first time I met Joyce El-Khoury was by coincidence. We happened to sit next to each other during opening night of Gounod’s Faust at the […]
LE ROSSIGNOL ET LA ROSE INTERVIEW WITH CHEN REISS.
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski In march 2015 Chen Reiss appeared on the stage of the National Opera in Amsterdam. She kindly took some time off from her heavy rehearsal schedule to […]
Jonas Kaufmann & Eva-Maria Westebroek
HOLLAND FESTIVAL 2017 Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Why did Amsterdam have to wait for him so long? Too expensive, too busy, too ….? A lot of speculating went on before […]
LE PROPHÈTE FROM ESSEN:
Przyslala Basia Jaworski As Heinrich Heine supposedly once said: “When the end of the world comes make your way to the Netherlands. Everything happens fifty years later there.” Probably nothing more than […]
Interview with Jennifer Larmore
Napisala i przylala Basia Jaworski Dear friends, my interview with Jennifer Larmore is now available in English translation! I do hope you will enjoy it: there is a lot to […]
Israel Philharmonic Orchestra! 80th Birthday
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski The Israel Philharmonic Orchestra turned 75 years old on december 24, 2011. The anniversary was celebrated abundantly with a concert that was enough to make anyone’s […]
OFFENBACH’S BAVARIAN ROMP “FANTASIO”
Recenzje napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski FINALLY ON DISC AND COMPLETE Offenbach aficionados may rejoice. Here is the first complete recording of his opéra comique in 3 acts, 4 tableaux, […]
Joseph Beer’s “Polnische Hochzeit” (1937) On CPO
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Operamagazine.nl 25 November, 2016 Problem z angielskim ? Uzyj translater w lewej kolumnie “In der Heimat blüh’n die Rosen – nicht für mich den Heimatlosen”, sings Count […]
The Passenger – first opera by Mieczysław Weinberg
Napisala i przyslala Basia Jaworski Time: early sixties. The war not yet forgotten, perhaps, but definitely over. It is possible to be happy again, and enjoy life. Amongst the passengers on […]
Ogloszenia / zawiadomienia
“Nawet nie wiesz jak bardzo Cie kocham”. 23 wrzesnia wchodzi na ekrany polskich kin nowy film Pawla Lozinskiego. Wiecej TUTAJ Serdecznie pozdrawiam, Ala Goldblum Elczewska ********** Do przyjaciol – przyjecie Wiecej TUTAJ […]
Sharon
Leon Borensztain Rok temu na blogu wylozylem ogloszenie o zbiorce ( Kickstarter ) na ksiazke Leona Borenszteina o jego corce. KLIKNIJ TUTAJ Dzisiaj Basia Jaworski donosi o ksiazce Leona ktora zostala […]
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