Paganini – ‘Segreto (1823)
January 16, 2010
Paganini-Segreto 1823 (Bruck-Wurlitzer MS) FIRST RECORDING Peter Sheppard Skaerved-(Stradivari 1699) (Engineer Jonathan Haskell) In October 1823, Paganini sent Germi his ‘segreto A’. This was his ‘sketch’ documenting the execution of complex harmonics for a single violinist. (The Bruck Wurlitzer MS). He was famous for implying that there was a ‘magic’ formula for his playing, although [...]
Liburn Jupolli-Eta Carinae
January 16, 2010
In 2006 I met the strikingly gifted and alarmingly young composer and improviser, Liburn Jupolli, in Kosova. We worked together in considerable detail on his interest in sounds which were on the edge of appearing and disappearing. This led to his Eta Carinae, written the following year, and heard that winter in a concert in London. [...]
Antoine Reicha-Sappho
January 15, 2010
Antoine Reicha Overture ‘Sappho’ (arr. A. Reicha) Peter Sheppard Skaerved and Aaron Shorr-Piano 2004 Also: Reicha-Duos, Duo Concertant The most influential musician in post-Revolutionary Paris was the Bohemian-born Antoine Reicha (1770-1836), Beethoven’s exact contemporary and close friend. As teenagers, the two had been colleagues in the Bonn Electoral Orchestra, co-conspirators in the forging of [...]
Wilton’s -Spring Concerts
January 15, 2010
The next two Kreutzer concerts at Wilton’s Music Hall will take place on the 18th April and 23rd May. More details will be posted soon.
New Year 2004
January 14, 2010
Summer 2005
January 14, 2010
Thorvaldsen Study
January 14, 2010
Odessa
January 13, 2010
A blue tram, with a broken windscreen, rattles and sparks its way past my table. Finding a decent cup of coffee in this city of dust and dry bread seems to have acquired a disproportionate importance. I persuaded the café owner to turn off the soft porn he was watching in favour of some anonymous [...]
Golden Horn
January 13, 2010
January 16, 2010