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Every December concert has the same shape. You need something to open with, something that lets your strongest players shine, a quiet moment before the end, and a finale that sends the audience home … read more

In the cemetery at Wilmersdorf in Berlin there is a gravestone carved with a few bars of music. They are the opening of Still wie die Nacht, a song John McCormack, Ernestine Schumann-Heink and Emma Ea … read more

Since leaving the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland I've spent most of my working life teaching, pupils of every age and standard, and a great many concertos and concert showpieces have crossed the musi … read more

Chicago, the summer of 1893. The World's Columbian Exposition, in a hall built to show what women had made. Amy Beach was at the piano and Maud Powell had the violin, playing a Romance Beach had writt … read more

A few bars of orchestra, and the soloist is already playing. There is no introduction to speak of, no cadenza anywhere in the movement, and when the first movement runs out of things to say it does no … read more