The Toccata Classics Blog
Martin’s Sponsored Slim Progress Report: October 13, 2016
I’ve been meaning to report back on the progress of the Sponsored Slim for a couple of weeks but hadn’t managed to get near a…
Sponsored Slim Check-In: Week One
Well, I’ve reached the end of the first week of my sponsored slim – my attempt to turn my capacious belly into music. That was…
Support Martin’s Sponsored Slim
My mum has been nagging me for years about losing weight, and I promised my partner Yodit, just before she died last year, that I…
Einojuhani Rautavaara, Symphonist
THE FINNISH COMPOSER TALKS TO MARTIN ANDERSON In the light of the death of the Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, on 27 July 2016, in a…
Toccata e due CD: Rediscovering Early Martinů – Part III
Volume One of the Martinů Early Orchestral Works series brought much satisfaction to all involved. Martin Anderson was delighted by the quality of the new…
Toccata e due CD: Rediscovering Early Martinů – Part II
The publication of Martinů and the Symphony in 2010 brought a few unexpected opportunities my way. Even before the book appeared, I had taken part…
Toccata e due CD: Rediscovering Early Martinů – Part I
In April 2013, Toccata Classics released a recording entitled Bohuslav Martinů – Early Orchestral Works, Volume 1, launching what is hoped will be a series…
Svetik, My Hair and I
My contribution to Svetik – the opening section, ‘Three Sisters’ – deals with Sviatoslav Richter’s relationship to his mother and her sister (Dagmar von Reincke,…
Coming in from the Unknown
English composer Steve Elcock describes his emergence from total obscurity At the age of seventeen, I sat the entrance examination to go to Oxford to…
Where are the Women Composers?
Women Composers Bundle Time for a little controversy on this blog – but that’s not my aim, which is to try to understand why, when…
Leif Solberg Dies at 101
The death of the Norwegian composer, organist and choirmaster Leif Solberg – in Lillehammer, during the evening of 25 January – has just been announced.…
Sviatoslav Richter: The Pianist and the Person
In the autumn of 1959 I was beginning my final year at Oxford. A friend called David Tempest, like me a piano nut, asked me…
Jaromír Weinberger Re-Discovered
Today (well, I guess it depends on when you read this) – 8 January 2016 – marks the 120th anniversary of the birth of the…
Discovering Henry Cotter Nixon
Given my long involvement with The Havergal Brian Society – I was its Secretary and Newsletter editor from 1976 to 1992 and Chairman from 1994…
Podcast: Gabriel Fauré: Songs for Bass Voice and Piano
Martin Anderson, Mary Dibbern, Roy Howat and Jared Schwartz discuss new Toccata release Gabriel Fauré: Songs for Bass Voice and Piano: http://feed.toccataclassics.com/media/2015-08-27_fauresongsandvoicespodcast.mp3 Click to listen…
Gramophone Features Toccata Classics in September 2015 Issue!
Gramophone Magazine highlights a handful of recent Toccata Classics releases in the Gramophone Collector feature: William Hurlstone: Complete Piano Music “…while I usually run a…