SPONSORED: CD Spotlight. On Buoyant Form - Orchestral music by Andrew Downes, heard by Roderic Dunnett.
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PODCAST: Join Jenna Orkin, Maria Nockin, John Daleiden, Gerald Fenech, Julian Jacobson, Patrick Maxwell, Giuseppe Pennisi and Mike Wheeler for a fascinating fifty-minute audio only programme.
Myra Hess was born in London on 25 February 1890, and she died there on 25 November 1965. Trained as a pianist, much of her career was spent in England. Her organisation of National Gallery Concerts in London during the last war was hailed as a vital boost to morale, and she was awarded the DBE in 1941.
Ensemble. Mercurial Switches of Mood - Mike Wheeler is impressed by Mendelssohn, Liszt, Beethoven and J S Bach/Myra Hess played by Japanese pianist Yu Kosuge
Ensemble. Bubbling Energy - Mike Wheeler listens to Sarah Beth Briggs
Book review. Hugely Atmospheric - Jessica Duchen's new novel 'Ghost Variations', highly recommended by Alice McVeigh
New Contexts - Malcolm Miller reports on a recent Symposium on Beethoven's Diabelli Variations
A Genuine Beethoven Pianist - Simon Watterton gives a lunchtime recital in London, heard by Julian Jacobson
CD Spotlight. A Spectral Atmosphere - Murray McLachlan plays music by Shostakovich and friends, recommended by Howard Smith. '... an outright triumph for the label and for McLachlan.'
Arts and the Colour of Politics - Béla Hartmann muses on growing social equality and democratization
Outstanding and unforgettable - Lilya Zilberstein's recital at London's Wigmore Hall impresses Bill Newman
A Name to Remember! - Mikhail Shilyaev at St Martin-in-the-Fields, reviewed by Malcolm Troup
CD Spotlight. Mephistopheles in attendence - The playing of Marina Milic-Apostolovic, enjoyed by Robert Anderson
A star is reborn - BBC Legends, passing its one hundredth release, is appreciated by John Bell Young