Bringing classical music to the people

“Most performers pretty much ignore the audience – they play and go off … Don’t get me wrong. I worship these guys! But what will make someone who hardly knows about classical music listen to to Grigory Sokolov for two hours straight, and in total silence? you have to work your way up to that … It’s such rubbish that classical music is for the ‘intelligent’ upper classes. My mission is to bring it to as many people as possible.”

– James Rhodes, English pianist.

Cited in: Erica Worth, “Alternative Routes”, Piano. April/May 2011, Issue 59, Warners Group Publications, p.22.

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Rachmaninoff and colour
A student of Rachmaninoff, Ruth Slenczynska: was practising one of Rachmaninov’s preludes when he asked her to join him at the window. It was springtime in Paris, and the avenues were lined with mimosa trees laden with fluffy, golden blossoms. “He said: ‘You see that? That’s what you want to bring to your sound – […]
The demise of the music critic
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Music: the product of feeling and knowledge
Music is at once the product of feeling and knowledge, for it requires from its disciples, composers and performers alike, not only talent and enthusiasm, but also that knowledge and perception which are the result of protracted study and reflection. Hector Berlioz, A Travers Chants. Cited in I. Lipsius, Thoughts of Great Musicians, London, Augener, […]
Gymnopedies No. 1 (Satie)
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Satie on La Mer
At the 1905 premiere of La Mer, one of whose movements is called “From Dawn to Midday on the Sea”, Debussy received the usual post-performance congratulations. Satie’s deflating comment was, “Ah, my dear friend, there’s one particular moment between half past ten and a quarter to eleven that I found especially stunning.” Levison, B. (2015). […]
Stokowski and his audience
The conductor Leopold Stokowski had a love hate relationship with his audience: He wooed them and cajoled them, flattered them and then gently reproved them.  When they grew fidgety, he shamed them into attentiveness and concentration.  “Please don’t do that,” he once admonished an audience of program shufflers.  “We work hard all week to give […]
The Just Will Live in the Presence of the Lord (Setting II) – Psalm 14 (15)
Title: The just will live in the presence of the Lord (Setting II) Text: Psalm 14 (15):2-5 (setting ii) Composer: Greg Smith Instrumentation: SATB and piano Product medium: PDF score and part Sample:
Harbouring doves and crocodiles
Beethoven, who is often bizarre and baroque, takes at times the majestic flight of an eagle, and then creeps in rocky pathways. He first fills the soul with sweet melancholy, and then shatters it by a mass of shattered chords. He seems to harbor together doves and crocodiles. A review of Beethoven’s First Symphony, Tablettes […]
Imogen Cooper on a lesson with Alfred Brendel
He was a wonderful teacher. He is extremely articulate and very demanding. He made no concessions to my age. In my first lesson, I was playing a Schubert piano sonata, and the first chord took 20 minutes. I played it again and again, and Brendel wandered around the room saying: “No, balance of sound wrong […]
Start with one note
Ravel in conversation with Mme André Bloch: “I don’t have ideas.  To begin with, nothing forces itself on me.” “But if there’s no beginning, how do you follow it up? What do you write down first of all?” “A note at random, then a second one and, sometimes, a third.  I then see what results.  […]