FROM ROME: From December 2009 until March 2023, the late Giuseppe Pennisi sent us regular reports from the Italian opera and classical music scene.
Born on 4 December 1879 at Hillsborough, County Down, Ireland was Hamilton Harty, who eventually raised the status of the Hallé Orchestra in the early thirties to the renown it has enjoyed ever since. Prior to that, Harty's growing reputation as a composer, pianist and conductor, especially when he came to live in London in 1900, provided the basis upon which his conductorship of the Hallé succeeded so triumphantly. He died at Hove in England on 19 February 1941.
CD Spotlight. What treasures! - British music for flute and piano, enjoyed by the late Howard Smith. 'Smith and Rhodes present definitive, warmly recorded performances of this gorgeous, all-UK repertory, some of it apparently on disc for the first time.'
CD Spotlight. Elegant Precision - A recital by Charlotte de Rothschild, heard by Howard Smith. '... consistently reliable ...'
CD Spotlight. Doubly Welcome - Chamber music by Hamilton Harty delights Bill Newman. '... an unforgettable wit and charm ...'
CD Spotlight. Across the Meadow - British light music, reviewed by George Balcombe. '... a wasteland of clone music.'