The Toccata Classics Blog
Recording the Fourth Symphony … At Last!
In March 2020 my wife and I were all set to journey from our home in south-eastern France to Manchester to hear the BBC Philharmonic…
Launching the Pergament Permanent
I remember my first encounter with the music of Moses Pergament distinctly. In my youth I was a frequent visitor to the City Library in…
Talking About Bruno Schulz With Marius Kociejowski
Bruno Schulz was a Polish-Jewish writer and artist who lived most of his life in Drohobych – then in Austrian Galicia, now in Ukraine. He…
Helmut Rilling in Conversation, in 1998
The death of Helmut Rilling, on 11 February 2026, reminded me that we had had a thoroughly enjoyable conversation 28 years earlier, as the basis…
Remembering Robin Stevens
The news of the death of the composer Robin Stevens earlier this week (on 16 February) did not come as a surprise: Robin had been…
Concertos from the Caucasus: A Conversation about the Creation of the Recording
Posted by Martin Anderson, Producer, Toccata Classics (MA), Karen Bentley Pollick, violinist (KBP), and John McLaughlin Williams, conductor (JMW): MA: Let me start with the…
A Conversation with Per Nørgård
The death of Per Nørgård on 28 May 2025, at a grand old 92, sent me to my ‘article bank’, to look over my writings…
Grainger Transcribed: A Concert from Christopher Guild
Grainger Transcribed: A Concert of Works by Percy Grainger Transcribed for piano solo by Ronald Stevenson Christopher Guild, piano Saturday 28 June, 19:30 St. Vincent’s…
Aulis Sallinen Becomes a Patron of Toccata Classics
I am delighted to announce that Aulis Sallinen has agreed to become a Patron of Toccata Classics, joining Vladimir Ashkenazy, John Mauceri, Osmo Vänskä and…
A Spotlight on Christopher Guild for Adult Pianists
The following excerpts come from a wonderful highlight from a group built to encourage Adult Piano Beginners designed and created by Marcel Zidani: An Inside…
Virko Baley wins The American Prize Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance American Music, 2024
Virko Baley of Las Vegas NV is winner of the Ernst Bacon Memorial Award for the Performance of American Music, 2024, in the professional division, for “Music for Emily Dickinson“. Virko Baley was selected from applications…
My Grandfather Pál Hermann: A Journey of Personal and Musical Discovery
In the film project ‘VISUALS’ Paul van Gastel, grandson of the Hungarian cellist and composer Pál Hermann, charts his personal journey of discovery of his…
My Father, Pál Hermann
Corrie Hermann offers some touching and affirmative thoughts as a postscript to the third and final recording of the complete surviving works of her father,…
Darren Craig, Colleague – And Friend
Almost every word you’ll have read on a Toccata Classics/Toccata Next release or in a Toccata Press book over the past decade or so was…
Raising Rosner’s Profile: More Music on the Way
There are now five volumes of the music of the New York-based Arnold Rosner (1945–2013) on Toccata Classics: three of orchestral music, one of chamber…
Freda Swain: A Composer Unboxed
The composer David Hackbridge Johnson reacts with surprise to the piano music of the unknown Freda Swain (1902–85) – whose music, after her death, spent…