The Toccata Classics Blog
Cooking Up A Symphony: Steve Elcock Examines What Makes A Good Recipe
After I posted a recipe on one of the social networks, two composer friends suggested, jokingly, that I should come up with a recipe for…
Four Questions for Pärt Uusberg
An introduction from Martin Anderson: Toccata Classics has been promoting the music of Estonian composers since its early days, as I personally was, too, as…
Some Modest Memories of André Previn
It seems that the entire musical world has some memory of the gentle, warm and kindly man – and fabulous musician – who was André…
Announcing Toccata Next
Toccata Classics was born out of a desire to present the music of unjustly neglected composers, and to give them a chance to present themselves…
‘A Gigantic Bear Hug’ From Scotland
The third volume of Ronald Stevenson’s piano music (TOCC 0403, released on 1 February) has been probably the most interesting album of his music I’ve…
Remembering Cedric Thorpe Davie
Cedric Thorpe Davie was born into a musical family in London in 1913. His father, Thorpe Davie, was a remarkable Scot who had a successful…
Remembering Sasha: Alexander Ivashkin Honoured in Moscow
In Moscow in early November 2018, a series of events were staged to honour the memory of Alexander Ivashkin – cellist, scholar and champion of…
Rediscovering George Antheil — Not Such a ‘Bad Boy’ After All
When Martin Anderson of Toccata Classics first suggested a project of music by the American composer George Antheil, I immediately thought of the typically avant-garde…
Recording “An Outstretched Hand” and Other Chamber Works
At half past four on a Friday morning in May 2018 I set out from my home in south-eastern France to go to England. The…
An Infinity of Traces: Influence Without Anxiety
I often play a kind of party game with friends: each participant will offer a recording of a piece of music by a less-well-known composer,…
Introducing the Waldegrave Ensemble
The Waldegrave Ensemble established itself in 2009 as a flexible ensemble of wind, strings, piano, harp and brass, with a wind quintet at its core.…
All the Keys in Kent
One of the Toccata Classics releases later this summer will be a recording of a sequence of piano preludes commissioned from me in 2014 by…
Robert Saxton’s Piano Music: A Creative Collaboration
Clare Hammond introduces her album of Robert Saxton’s piano music, in preparation for release in March 2018 In August I travelled to SJE Arts in…
Rodney Newton’s Spanish Diary
UPDATE: ALBUM AVAILABLE NOW! Day 1, Sunday, 17 September 2017 This afternoon my old friend Martin Anderson and I set out for Málaga to record…
Zuzana Růžičková, Doyenne of the Harpsichord – And Mrs Viktor Kalabis
The death of Zuzana Růžičková – peacefully, in her sleep, in the early afternoon on 27 September 2017 – brings to an end one of…
Recording my Tone Poems in Liepāja
The first thing I noticed was the trees. Once we were out of Riga airport, they soon crowded up to the edge of the road;…