Archive for Guest Editorial
My Father and His Music: A Voyage of Discovery
As the Bulgarian-born Viktor Valkov picks up the baton of Leo Ornstein’s piano music from Arsentiy Kharitonov with a third volume from Toccata Classics, the…
Thym for a Song
Music: A Connected Art/Die Illusion der absoluten Musik: A Festschrift for Jürgen Thym on his 80th BirthdayVerlag Valentin Koerner, Baden-Baden, 2023Reviewed by Niall Hoskin Jürgen Thym…
“The Only One Who Sang With the Singer” – A Tribute to Margaret Singer
I was much saddened to learn of the death, on 9 July 2023, of the pianist Margaret Singer. As recently as late October 2022 she…
The Music of Alphons Diepenbrock – A Discovery for Many
Sometimes one has the impression of having been forced by fate to write a book, to start a research, to accept a commission or venture…
Where Were We When…?
There are always some coincidences when the significant events of history happen. Most people can probably remember the moment when they heard the news of…
24 Preludes Inspired by Debussy
It all began with a strange thought: what if a piece of music should suddenly forget all about itself, with only its name left behind…
George Enescu – A Musical Phenomenon
It all began with Noel Malcolm’s book, George Enescu: His Life and Music, published by none other than Toccata Press in 1990, which had been…
Arranging Wagner and the Ensuing Obsession
The release of Wagner by Arrangement, Volume Three (TOCC 0673), is the first part in a personal masterplan of Wagnerianism that has been going on for the…
Irmela Roelcke on Cloches et Carillons
My concert and recording project, Cloches et Carillons, impressed on me how much basic acoustic characteristics have influenced my most recent artistic interests and inclinations.…
A Violist’s Bucket List
I am so happy to be able to participate in the Toccata blog and tell you a little about the two albums that have been…
A Violist’s New CD Captures the Romance of Russian Sonatas
Article in the University of Denver Magazine (magazine.du.edu)by Tamara Chapman, 31 January 2022; reproduced with permission Compared with its siblings in the violin family –…
Mixing the Classical and the Popular
The urge to compose music arose after I joined a rock group in my teenage years. Although I was later classically trained, I continued to…
Adopt a Composer — Jürgen Thym and Samuel Adler
One of the most rewarding aspects of my activities as a musicologist has been following the life and works of living composers – be they…
A Symphony by Mischa Spoliansky
It may come as a surprise to many that Mischa Spoliansky, the composer of the sly and witty cabaret songs that helped to launch the…
Borrowed Time
It is something of a myth that composers tend to die after completing their ninth symphony, based on the relatively few that did so and…
Too Many Symphonies? — Part two: Fridrich Bruk
Having traversed the symphonies of Robert Keeley in Part One of this brief survey (Too Many Symphonies – Part One – posted on 9 March…