It’s a dream combination. A composer in the mainstream of her creativity handpicks a string quartet to make the premiere recording of her music and then coaches them in the way she wants to the music to sound. Add to this, a recording producer who understands implicitly what the composer wants and who has the formidable reputation as…
Till now, it was the All Night Vigil by Rachmaninoff that held the dubious honour of asking for the lowest note to be sung in choral music – the third B flat below middle C. This 97 year long record has now been shattered with Paul Mealor’s setting of the De Profundis in which he…
Being a conductor has got to be one of the strangest of jobs! In the cascade of music that the audience comes to hear, the conductor makes not one sound; he touches no instrument. The audience doesn’t even witness the emotions of the maestro/maestra at work and indeed, some gestures may even be completely obscured. Tom Service…