PROVOCATIVE THOUGHTS:
The late Patric Standford may have written these short pieces deliberately to provoke our feedback. If so, his success is reflected in the rich range of readers' comments appearing at the foot of most of the pages.
THREE CHOIRS FESTIVAL: Roderic Dunnett previews the 2024 edition of the UK's oldest music festival, 27 July until 4 August.
PODCAST: John Dante Prevedini leads a discussion about Classical Music and Visual Disability, including contributions from Charlotte Hardwick, Robert McCarney, Halida Dinova and Giuseppe Pennisi.
Award-winning Brazilian composer, conductor and pianist Marlos Nobre comes from Recife and was born on 18 February 1939. He studied at his local music conservatory (Pernambuco) and his composition teachers were Camargo Guarnieri and H J Koellreutter. A Rockefeller Foundation scholarship allowed him to study in Buenos Aires. Later he was able to work with Alexander Goehr ad Gunther Schuller in Tanglewood, meeting Leonard Bernstein, and to study electronic music in New York.
His compositions draw on the Brazilian 'desafio' tradition of musical duelling, and his many appointments, mostly in the Americas, also include a period as composer-in-residence at the Brahms-Haus in Baden-Baden, Germany and invitations to conduct orchestras in Europe.
Echoes of Oblivion by Robert McCarney - Turn that racket down!
Record Box. Innocent Mischief - Eduardo Monteiro plays piano music from Brazil, reviewed by Bill Newman