Engelbert Humperdinck News
German composer
Commemorations 2024 (Birth: Engelbert Humperdinck)
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2024-04-21
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2024-04-09 12:45:00
A lovely evocation of stillness and calm: Alastair Penman's Quietude on his Meadowbank Music label
Quietude: Penman, Satie, Debussy, Humperdinck, Bruckner; Alastair PenmanReviewed 9 April 2024A rather lovely disc that mixes Penman's own pieces with arrangements, all evoking stillness and calm allied to lovely tone and fine musicianshipSaxophonist Alastair Penman's latest release, Quietude is his second release on his Meadowbank Music label. The album features seven original compositions by Penman alongside eight new arrangements of well-known works ranging from Trois Gymnopédies by Erik Satie arranged for soprano saxophone and piano to Locus Iste by Anton Bruckner arranged for a choir of saxophones and clarinets, with Penman playing all the instruments, saxophones, clarinets, and keyboards.We open with Penman's 2021 piece Rialto, featuring six alto saxophones creating some ravishing close harmony. Lyrical and completely gorgeous, the piece was originally written as a tuning challenge for a saxophone workshop Penman was giving. Be Still for soprano saxophone and tape has hints of an electronic re-mix of Satie, and you […]
2024-03-26 08:10:00
A radical new look: full line-up for Nevill Holt's 2024 festival
[…] Pop Art, and Daniel Hermann on the work of Eduardo Paolozzi.On 14 and 15 June there is an extensive programme of conversations and talks, along with a free, hands-on archaeological exhibition for families based on objects found in the local area with University of Leicester Archaeological Services. For families there is also Madame Chandelier’s Opera Party for Kids which celebrates opera’s greatest hits in an interactive format. Over 1,500 primary schoolchildren will create 50-minute versions of Humperdinck’s Hansel and Gretel which will be performed across the region in partnership with the Royal Opera House. One of these productions will play during the festival, accompanied by sopranos Fiona Finsbury and Eleanor Sanderson-Nash, directed by Jonathan Ainscough and conducted by Simon Toyne.Full details from the festival website.
2023-12-31 16:56:00
Since I am busy at work on my new book project, a two-volume study of the complete operas of Mozart in their eighteenth-century political and intellectual context, it seems fitting to have heard more music by Mozart than by any other composer this year. (For 'rules' on counting, please see my previous post.) Beyond my top four, Mozart, Wagner, Beethoven, and Strauss, I heard a good range of music from Alkan to Zimmermann and beyond.19 Mozart 12 Wagner 8 Beethoven, Strauss 7 Brahms, Schumann 6 Bach 5 Schubert, Byrd 4 Mahler, Prokofiev 3 Benjamin, Chopin, Ligeti, Liszt, Ravel 2 Berg, Bizet, Debussy, Dvořák, Handel, Haydn, Henze, Knussen, Puccini, Schoenberg 1 Alkan, Dieter Ammann, CPE Bach, Johann Christoph Bach, JCF Bach, Bartók, Beethoven, Berberian, Berio, Boismortier, Boulez, Busoni, Cage, Chausson, Cherubini, Unsuk Chin, Coleridge-Taylor, Crumb, Duparc, Elgar, Fauré, Francesco Filidei, Grisey, Saed Haddad, Hartmann, Hindemith, Holliger, Humperdinck, Ibert, Janáček, Korngold, […]
2023-12-31 11:29:00
A visit to Bayreuth coupled with a Ring in Berlin made this year's operatic victor well-nigh inevitable. Mozart, though, was not so far off, with a couple of live 'firsts': Il re pastore and Ascanio in Alba. A somewhat restricted chronological range too, with no Monteverdi, nor indeed anything before Purcell. As usual, I have included concert and staged performances, and anything treated as an opera (e.g. the Komische Oper's staging of Henze's oratorio, Das Floss der Medusa).11 Wagner 8 Mozart 4 Strauss 2 Bizet, Handel, Puccini 1 Berg, Cherubini, Dvořák, Bushra El-Turk, Henze, Humperdinck, Janáček, Korngold, Edward Lambert, Martinů, Mussorgsky, Purcell, Rossini, Saariaho, Schoenberg, Tchaikovsky
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