William Hamper News
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2020-01-04 08:00:00
2019-12-17 13:33:00
Staatsoper Unter den Linden Schumann: Symphony no.3 in E-flat major, op.97, ‘Rhenish’ Elgar: Sea Pictures, op.37 Debussy: La Mer Elina Garanča (mezzo-soprano) Staatskapelle Berlin Daniel Barenboim (conductor) Three composers in whose music Daniel Barenboim has long excelled, with the Staatskapelle Berlin on outstanding form: what could go wrong? Nothing, I am delighted to report. This proved a wonderful concert, opening with the finest live performance I have been privileged to hear of a Schumann symphony, in this case the ‘Rhenish’. Eschewing fashionable notions of small orchestras—if you cannot achieve requisite balance with a symphony orchestra, you probably should not be conducting one at all—Barenboim offered a full-sized Staatskapelle, from eight double basses to sixteen first violins. It sounded magnificent: dark and golden, blazing and intimate as required. Attention to finest detail did not preclude voicing of longer line; nor did […]
2019-07-27 12:05:32
Have today’s conductors and orchestras forgotten how to play loudly? I sometimes wonder. Perhaps Manze’s baroque bona fides Hamper him in more opulently scored music; but then, in his original element as a period instrument violinist, he was as flashy and showy as they come. Why doesn’t that virtuoso impulse translate to a flat-out, technicolor […]
2019-05-27 00:21:00
Eric Conway: Day 6 in Shakespeare's Birthplace and Concert in Birmingham
Dr. Eric Conway writes: Day 6 included a visit to the birthplace of William Shakespeare and a concert at the The Bramall, the concert hall at the University of Birmingham. We left Chester for Stratford upon Avon, the birthplace of William Shakespeare, considered the greatest writer of the English language by many. His birthplace site is the main attraction for this medieval town. We learned that the English word “Avon” means river, therefore the town name is Stratford on the river. The group toured his home with staff dressed in period clothing answering any questions posed by tourists. In the courtyard outside of his home, was a small stage where local actors took requests from tourists to recite small scenes from Shakespearean plays or sonnets. Often tourists who may have learned Shakespearean soliloquies are encouraged to recite on this small stage. We had […]
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