Johann Sebastian Bach is NOT overrated. While it’s difficult to pick favourites among the greatest composers of classical music, when pressed, I just love Bach a little bit more than the other great musical geniuses and admitted as much in an earlier book review. In a slightly morbid thought-experiment, I sometimes find solace in the …
It took me much too long to write this post, but as they say ‘better late then never’. On December 10th, I was – like almost every week – at Lincoln Center. Beethoven’s 3rd piano concert, which is among my favourite 25 or so pieces in classical music, was to be played by Kun-Woo Paik in the …
A 1729 Stradivari known as the "Solomon, Ex-Lambert". (Photo credit should read DON EMMERT/AFP/Getty Images) Every now and then there are those memorable moments. In late March, I was invited to a such a very special musical evening in New York. The day after the Academy of St. Martin in the Fields performed Tchaikovsky’s Violin Concerto in D Major (Op.35) at David Geffen Hall, there was a small cocktail reception at the …
The Bach Collegium Japan was founded in 1990 by Masaaki Suzuki. Photo credit: http://www.creatio300.com. Originally, I had planned on publishing this post right after the actual concert on November 7th at Zankel Hall (part of Carnegie Hall, NYC). As it often happens I had to shelve it until now – when I am finally stuck on a plane for 12 hours and due to the simply unfathomable fact that …
