Whilst munching through Wolfgang Fleischer’s monumental Heimito von Doderer biography “Das verleugnete Leben” I couldn’t help to observe the multitude of fascinating aspects of someone’s life and the all too human failures that come with it. Of course in today’s […]
Finally the new CD with Hummels chamber versions of Beethoven’s Symphonies 2 and 6 will be out in November. An interesting project, combining Hummel’s workmanlike craftmanship with the audacious concept of Beethoven’s groundbreaking composition style. The result is a faithful […]
A short and simplifying rant: if one reads Stifter ( I guess I am the only one in the Southern Hemisphere who does that…lol…) then Bruckner is never far away. His monumental symphonic galaxies, triumphant but at the same time […]
I always had a bit of an obsession with Austrian culture, its musical part being one being of the most importance to me (Haydn, Mozart, Schubert, Mahler, Schoenberg, Webern, Berg), but the literary achievements coming out of this small country […]
A dark British comedy from 2000 that slipped through my net, I just discovered it now!! Refreshingly sinister and of course non PC (in 2000 one could still make a joke without being vetted by the thought-police) it was written […]
My favorite French writer has been for many years Claude Simon, whose books I am just re-reading now. A second reading makes it much easier to enjoy this difficult author, who fascinated me from the first book I read of […]
A refreshing and illuminating version of Schumann’s piano concerto by the Freiburger Barockorchester and Pablo Heras Casado and Alexander Melnikov. The vibrant sound of the orchestra and the delicacy of the fortepiano are simply wonderful!
A forgotten writer: Tom Kromer. (1906-1969) Kromer was born and raised in Huntington, West Virginia. He wrote his novel after five years of living as a hobo, riding trains and traveling across the United States. He was mostly living as a […]
It is always a great pleasure to discover a forgotten voice of the past. I came across the British composer William Baines, whose life was tragically cut short at the age of 23. Yorkshire born he wrote around 150 works, […]
