Disqus - Latest Comments for raymond_bisha

Re: Podcast: Richard Strauss’s Alpine Symphony

raymond_bisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:10:57 -0000

Glad you enjoyed the music. Strauss really does an amazing job of creating a picture in the listener's mind. I hope you have a chance to listen to the whole piece, it is quite something. If you do, I suggest finding a quiet place so you can listen to the whole piece at least once without distraction or interruption. When you listen to it complete, you get a much stronger sense of the journey up and down the mountain.

Re: Podcast: KZ Musik – Encyclopedia of Music Composed in Concentration Camps

raymond_bisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:07:05 -0000

Hi Grace, Thanks so much for your wonderfully personal email. Your story about your son's high school band playing American Elegy is a perfect illustration of why music is so, so important. It allows us to express and share thoughts and emotions that most of us could not put into words.

Re: Podcast: Voice from Argentina: Alberto Ginastera and his String Quartets

raymond_bisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 10:03:32 -0000

Hi Andrew, Thanks for the the note, I didn't realize there was no mention of Ginastera in Alex Ross' book. Even without it, it's a terrific book. Still, classical music in latin america seems to get forgotten very often, and it's a lengthy and fascinating history. Sometime in early 2010 I am looking at doing a series of podcasts about exactly this topic, and the music of Ginastera will figure in those podcasts as well ... along with a number of other composers who all but unknown outside of South America.

Re: Podcast: Heartbeat of Brazil – The String Quartets of Villa Lobos

raymond_bisha — Tue, 18 Aug 2009 09:58:47 -0000

Hi Thomas, Thanks for this email. There seems to have been some "coding" problem with iTunes. Hopefully we now have things sorted out.

Re: Naxos Releases Chamber Masterworks of Ge Gan-Ru

raymond_bisha — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:41:40 -0000

Thanks for your comment. Ge Gan-ru was fascinating to talk to. He has an amazing life story, and it's wonderful to see that he has gotten through it all with both his determination and sense of humour in tact.

Re: Podcast: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Arranged for Solo Piano

raymond_bisha — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:40:00 -0000

Hi David, Thanks for the note. We have been having a few problems with uploading the regular podcasts. I hope to have that cleared up shortly.

Re: Podcast: Alan Hovhaness – Symphony No. 63 “Loon Lake”

raymond_bisha — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 10:39:05 -0000

Thanks for your comment, from your address it looks like you are at a marina somewhere. That may be the perfect place to listen to this symphony.

Raymond

Re: Podcast: Vivaldi’s Four Seasons Arranged for Solo Piano

raymond_bisha — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 09:07:02 -0000

Hi Gene, Thanks for the comment. You are right, these two gentlemen really are something special. Thanks for listening and taking the time to comment.

Re: Podcast: An Interview With Susie Napper

raymond_bisha — Tue, 24 Mar 2009 10:06:06 -0000

Hi Alec, I'm glad you liked the podcast. I find the sound of the gamba almost seductive, especially the way Susie Napper and Margaret Little play. The instrument has a kind of expressiveness most often associated with the human voice - for me it has that kind of quality.

Raymond

Re: Podcast: Rachmaninov Vespers, Academy of Choral Arts, Moscow

raymond_bisha — Wed, 11 Mar 2009 10:25:21 -0000

Friedrich, Thanks for your wonderful email, I'm honoured to have someone with such extensive classical music knowledge enjoying my podcasts. The Rachmaninov Vespers have been a favourite of mine for a long, long time. After a few seconds of the piece, I find myself transported to another place and time.

Thanks again for the note, I look forward to sharing my upcoming podcasts with you.

Raymond

Re: Podcast: An Interview With Jose Serebrier

raymond_bisha — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 11:20:03 -0000

Hi Darell, No idea at all. I just googled Rose Panieri and found nothing. I will keep looking and let you know if I find something.

Raymond

Re: Podcast: Music from the Republic of Georgia

raymond_bisha — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 12:01:50 -0000

Thanks for your email. The first string piece is by the Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze. Its one of his Minatures, # 1, called Lale. It comes from the CD Caucasian Impressions, Naxos catalogue number 8.570324.

Re: Podcast: Mozart’s Operas Arranged for Winds

raymond_bisha — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:31:48 -0000

Dear Minzhen, Thanks for the email, I'm glad you enjoyed the podcast. As far as arrangements for piano, I suggest you try the Freehand Music website. For a modest price, you can download all kinds of sheet music. IF you search under "opera", and then put in Mozart and the composer, and piano as the instrumentation, you will get a whole list. Some are arrangements with voice, but there are quite a few arrangements for either piano solo, or piano four-hands (which means you have to invite a friend over). Here is the site: http://www.freehandmusic.co...

Re: Podcast: An Interview With Susie Napper

raymond_bisha — Thu, 19 Feb 2009 11:19:27 -0000

Hi Martin, Thanks for your email. I will find out the exact movement from Susie Napper and get back with the information.

Raymond

Re: Podcast: Music from the Republic of Georgia

raymond_bisha — Mon, 05 Jan 2009 00:41:13 -0000

Hi Steve, Thanks for your comment, and for taking the time to listen to all the podcasts. I hope they made your flight more enjoyable.

Raymond

Re: Glass’ “Heroes” Symphony Now on Naxos

raymond_bisha — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:44:33 -0000

Philip Glass is a well-known American composer who recently turned 70. He writes in a style called minimalism, which means he takes small musical ideas and uses repetition and layering to build his music. The music has a kind of hypnotic quality that many people like. His music has been enormously influential on many other composers, including composers of non-classical music. Over the course of his life, he has composed music for concert, film, opera, plus many other kinds of settings. If you watch the 2006 movie Notes on a Scandal, with Judi Dench and Cate Blanchett, Philip Glass did the soundtrack for this movie too.

Re: Podcast: Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Music

raymond_bisha — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:38:16 -0000

Hi Kim, Thanks for your email. Have a great holiday, and try not to hum too much Leroy Anderson.

Re: Podcast: Leroy Anderson’s Christmas Music

raymond_bisha — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 12:36:47 -0000

Hi Mikael, Thanks for the email. If you are looking to download this CD, try our Naxos download site at www.classicsonline.com. I know it's there, I just checked.

Re: Podcast: An Interview with Dmitri Hvorostovsky

raymond_bisha — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 13:51:14 -0000

Hi Nik, Thanks for your email. The orchestras I played in were mostly in what was then West Germany (I moved back to Canada a year before the Berlin wall came down). I played for a short while in a small opera orchestra in Detmold, and spent a couple of years doing free-lance work in orchestras in the Cologne area. During that time, I also did some work with the Luxembourg Radio Television Orchestra, and the Belgian National Opera.

I like your suggestion of including a bio on the blog site. I will see if we can get something posted soon.

Thanks again for taking the time to listen, and to write.

Re: Podcast: An interview with Sir Charles Mackerras

raymond_bisha — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:33:55 -0000

Thanks Sean, Talking to Sir Charles was a real treat. There aren't that many people with his depth of knowledge and historical perspective. If you think about it, he has been at the centre of classical music for six decades. In those years, he has seen all kinds of changes. In some areas, like period instrument performance and the operas of Janacek, he has helped bring those changes about.

Re: Podcast: An Interview with Dmitri Hvorostovsky

raymond_bisha — Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:29:08 -0000

Hi Nik, Thanks for your comment, and for listening to the podcast. I am checking where you can download this album, and will post that info as soon as I have it. Thanks for your greetings from Germany. I lived there for a few years in the 1970's and 1980's in Detmold and Koln. At that point I was either studying music, or working in a couple of different orchestras.

Re: Podcast: Alan Hovhaness – Symphony No. 63 “Loon Lake”

raymond_bisha — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 10:05:05 -0000

Hi Ryan, Thanks for your comment. I am not sure about finding live performances of Hovhaness, but here is some information about where you can find some other Hovhaness recordings. There are a few other Hovhaness recordings in the Naxos catalogue including:

"Hovhaness Guitar Concerto No. 2 (Naxos 8.559336)
"Khrimian Hairig and Guitar Concerto (Naxos 8.559294).
"Symphonies 4, 20 and 53 (Naxos 8.559207)

You might also want to check out the Hovhaness recordings on the Delos CD label. They have quite a few excellent recordings of his music. I'm not sure where you are located, but the online classical CD store Arkivmusic (www.arkivmusic.com) has everything there.

I hope this helps, thanks again for listening to the podcast.

Re: Podcast: Alan Hovhaness – Symphony No. 63 “Loon Lake”

raymond_bisha — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 09:15:46 -0000

Hi Anglea, Thanks for your email, and for taking the time to listen to the podcasts over the years. I particularly enjoyed this music by Hovhaness. In a rushed world, his music is like a tonic. You might take a look at my answer to the comment from RM McRae about this Hovhaness podcast. He asks about other recordings of Hovhaness, and where to find them.

Re: An interview with composer Kenneth Fuchs

raymond_bisha — Wed, 12 Nov 2008 08:59:44 -0000

Thanks. He was great fun to interview, and is a composer I think more people should know about.

Re: Podcast: Music from the Republic of Georgia

raymond_bisha — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 09:43:23 -0000

Thanks for your email. I used music from two different CDs in this podcast. The string orchestra music pieces at the beginning of the podcast all come from a Naxos CD titled "Caucasian Impressions (Naxos 8.570324). It has music by several different composers from the Caucasian region, including Georgian composer Sulkhan Tsintsadze whose music I used. The orchestral pieces towards the end of the podcast come from a Chandos CD (CHAN 10297) featuring the music of Giya Khancheli, one of the best known of all Georgian composers. This CD includes the piece Mourned by the Wind, that I also used in the podcast. I hope this helps. Thanks for listening to the podcast.