Shows
Dress Rehearsal#70 - Interview with Bulgarian Pianist Ivo VarbanovMy guest on the 70th episode of Dress Rehearsal is Bulgarian pianist Ivo Varbanov, who is a leading figure of Bulgarian music and culture abroad. After a forced hiatus from performing between 2009 to 2012 due to leukaemia he has returned to the stage with impressive performances at the Royal Festival Hall, King’s Place, Cadogan Hall, and the Bulgaria Concert Hall. He is a recipient of the Ivan Vazov Award for the popularization of Bulgarian Culture abroad, and in 2011 he also received the Silver Lion Award. Ivo started to play the piano at the age of six in his home to...
2023-08-0800 min
Dress Rehearsal#69 - Interview with pianist Eleonor BindmanMy guest on the 69th episode of "Dress Rehearsal", is New York-based pianist Eleonor Bindman, who is also an educator and a recording artist. Originally from Riga, Latvia, Ms. Bindman is known worldwide for her continued passion with the music of Johann Sebastian Bach and for her dedication in creating “transcriptions” of Bach’s orchestral music for either piano solo or for piano duet. Ms. Bindman’s arrangement of the Six Brandenburg Concertos by Johann Sebastian Bach, was a very extensive project that took several years to complete and which we featured here on this radio program in March 2021. Furtherm...
2023-07-1700 min
Dress Rehearsal#68 - Interview with Pianist Danny HoltMy guest on the 68th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is Pianist Danny Holt, who has been called “phenomenal” by the late music critic Alan Rich and hailed as one of the “local heroes” of the Los Angeles music scene, pianist Danny Holt brings his boundless energy and wit to unique interpretations of new music, 20th-century music, and obscure, unusual, and neglected repertoire from past centuries. Holt performs around the globe in concert halls (Carnegie Hall, Walt Disney Concert Hall, Hollywood Bowl), clubs (Joe’s Pub, The Blue Whale, Copenhagen Jazzhouse) art galleries (MASS MoCA, Hammer Museum), churches, living rooms, and wherev...
2023-07-0300 min
Dress Rehearsal#67 - Interview with Korean Pianist Yerin KimMy guest on the 67th Episode of "Dress Rehearsal", is Pianist Yerin Kim, who has been praised by the International Piano Magazine as a “pianist of beautiful finesse and golden tone” and “powerful and engaging, poetic and expressive with some truly original interpretive insights, all performed with a great technique” by Phoenix Classical. Dr. Yerin Kim is a recitalist, chamber musician, and educator. She has given concerts in various festivals and recitals in major venues internationally, including The Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. and Carnegie Hall in New York. Her solo debut album "First and Last Words" can be heard...
2023-06-1300 min
Dress Rehearsal#66 - Happy Birthday Johann Sebastian BachIn this episode of Dress Rehearsal we listen to some of Bach's music rendered through a less orthodox instrument, the Moog synthesizer. From the famous "Switched on Bach", a great album of the eighties, during the hour also featuring "The Art of Moog", a UK-based band that uses the Moog instrument to perform early music.
2023-06-0500 min
Dress Rehearsal#65 - Interview with British Violist Annette IsserlisMy guest on the 65th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is British Violist, Educator and Record Producer, Annette Isserlis, who is a founder member of Sir John Eliot Gardiner’s English Baroque Soloists and the Orchestra Revolutionnaire et Romantique as well as a member of the Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra, The London Classical Players and Andrew Parrot’s Taverner Players, where she became principal viola. She was also a founding member of the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment in 1986, and appeared several times as guest-principal viola in John Butt’s Dunedin Consort and in 2014 became a permanent member of Sir Andras...
2023-03-182h 00
Dress Rehearsal#64 - Interview with Italian Fortepianist Gian Maria BoninoMy guest on the 64th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is Italian pianist, fortepianist and harpsichordist, Gian Maria Bonino, who graduated in piano performance at the Giuseppe Verdi Conservatory in Milan with Prof. Lydia Arcuri and at the Lucerne Conservatory with Maestro Myeczislaw Horszowski. He also graduated in harpsichord at the Conservatory of Genova in Italy with Prof. Alda Bellasich. He has played as a soloist and in formation in international festivals such as the music festival in Ljubljana, the Festival of Mediterranean Sounds, the Floraisons Musicales, the Emilia Romagna Festival and many others. Together with flutist Andrea Oliva, he...
2023-02-2500 min
Dress Rehearsal#63 - Sir Andras Schiff revisits Brahms Piano Concerto #1 on an historical instrumentSir András Schiff in conversation about the Piano Concertos of Johannes Brahms performed on a historical piano with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. To fully bring out the characteristics of Brahms’s music Schiff’s choice of instrument is a Blüthner piano built in Leipzig around 1859, the year in which the D minor concerto was premiered. The historically informed Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment plays with the flexibility, attitude, and responsiveness of a chamber music ensemble, as they work without a conductor, listening attentively to each other. András Schiff’s collaboration with the orchestra...
2023-02-1900 min
Dress Rehearsal#62 - Interview with Violinist Valeria ZorinaMy guest on the 62nd episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is violinist Valeria Zorina, who is an award winning performer and educator currently living Madrid, Spain. Ms. Zorina recently released a CD dedicated to the "scordatura" in violin repertoire through the centuries. The "scordatura" is defined by the Harvard Dictionary of Music, as “abnormal tuning of a stringed instrument in order to obtain unusual chords, facilitate difficult passages, or change the tone color.”. In her latest CD titled "Soundmaps, Extended Realities" Ms. Zorina, along with pianist Evgeny Sinaiski, proposes an excurses of pieces spanning from Heinrich Biber to Eugene Ysaie and C...
2023-01-2200 min
Dress Rehearsal#61 - Interview with Italian Harpsichordist Enrico BaianoMy guest on the 61st episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is Italian harpsichordist, clavichordist and fortepianist, Enrico Baiano. Maestro Baiano is considered one of the most complete and interesting interpreters on the ancient music scene. In his interpretative approach, historical-stylistic rigor, expressive freedom and great virtuosity are wisely combined. The French music review “Le Monde de la Musique” wrote: “The exceptional combination of wit and flair in compositions and performer make this one of the most significant harpsichord recordings of the decade”. During the hour we will discuss of M.stro Baiano's approach to the harpsichord and how this led him to a f...
2022-12-1300 min
Dress Rehearsal#60 - Interview w/ British Composer Edward CowieThe 60th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured British composer Edward Cowie, whose first BBC Proms commission was titled Leviathan, a large-scale orchestral work premiered by the BBC Symphony Orchestra in 1975. This occasion marked the first major event in a career that would gain him national and international recognition for a new kind of ‘voice’ in the music world. Its title – arising from a conjunction between the mighty whale and a book by Hobbes with the same name – can be seen as an indication of a composer whose imagination is deeply embedded in and inspired by the forces o...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#59 - Remembering British Pianist Julian RhodesThe 59th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured British pianist, harpsichordist and organist Julian Rhodes, who prematurely died at the age of 37, having been struck by cancer. Julian's playing is unconventional, very creative and full of invention and surprises. In order to gather information about him I relied on the testimony of one of his closest friends, British virtuoso recorder player Piers Adams who was kind enough to send me a last-minute written statement about Julian, his life and his creative endeavors. During the hour we will listen to a rare recording of Julian performing live Bach's...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#58 - Interview w/ Italian Fortepianist Stefania NeonatoThe 58th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed Italian pianist and fortepianist Stefania Neonato, who has dedicated her life and musical career to historical keyboards and historically informed performance. Stefania graduated in piano performance at the Trento Conservatory and also earned a Doctor of Musical Arts degree in Historical Performance Practice at Cornell University studying with Malcolm Bilson. Stefania is currently Professor of “Historical Piano” at the Musikhochschule in Stuttgart, Germany. During the hour we'll have a chance to speak with Stefania about what is an " historically informed performance", the differences between fortepianos and modern pianos and list...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#57 - Pianist Glenn Gould talks about Pianist Arthur SchnabelThe 57th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured an instalment of a CBC program titled "The Art of Glenn Gould", in which Mr. Gould interviews Pianist Claude Frank about Artur Schnabel and plays Beethoven Piano Concerto 4 in G, Op.58, in the studio recording with Leonard Bernstein conducting the New York Philharmonic Orchestra (USA). Gould was very fond of Schnabel's art, and this is an opportunity to listen to two great artists talk about another great artist. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#56 - Interview w/ American Conductor Anna EdwardsThe 56th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed Seattle-based Anna Edwards, whose career as a violinist, educator, and symphony conductor has been inspired by her commitment to core values of high-quality musical performance, development of musicians and composers through music education, and community engagement. Anna is a passionate advocate for the music of underrepresented composers on the concert stage. Currently, Anna balances her time between conducting in the Pacific Northwest, serving as a guest conductor across the country, and developing young musicians through instruction and collaboration with professionals in concert settings. During the hour we'll have a...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#55 - Interview w/ Italian pianists Riccardo Zadra & Federica RighiniThe 55th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed Italian pianists Riccardo Zadra and Federica Righini, who are partners in music as well as in life! Riccardo and Federica, for over twenty-five years, have shared an intense activity as concert performers and teachers with a constant exploration of the numerous disciplines and paths of personal growth. Riccardo and Federica today offer individual coaching for professional musicians who are interested in studying these techniques and broadening their visions. During the hour we will have the opportunity to chat with Riccardo and Federica about their life and their pedagogical development...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#54 - Listening to Piano concertos of the 1920sThe 54th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Classical Music or Jazz or Crossover? During the hour will propose to you some not well-known piano concertos written during the 1920s that bear a strong influence from Jazz. Starting with American Composer George Antheil and his 1922 Concerto for piano and orchestra, through Aaron's Copland Concerto for piano and orchestra written in 1926, ending with Swiss Arthur Honegger's Concertino for piano and orchestra written in 1924. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#53 - Listening to New Complexity in MusicThe 52nd episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured musical movement called "New Complexity", which is characterized by the use of complex musical notation. During the hour we will listen to Michael Finnissy's entire English Country-Tunes. As Arnold Whittall reviewed it on Gramophone Magazine) he wrote "Anyone anticipating Graingerish essays in flamboyant folkishness will soon realize that they have been led up the garden path but, with luck, they won't mind too much. The tunes identified by Finnissy might ultimately be revealed if every one of the layers of transformation were stripped away. But there remains a certain...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#52 - Remembering Italian Composer Salvatore SciarrinoThe 52nd episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle featured Italian composer Salvatore Sciarrino, who recently turned 75! A native of Palermo in Sicily, the young Sciarrino was attracted to the visual arts, but began experimenting with music when he was twelve. Though he had some lessons in composition he is primarily self-taught as a composer. During the hour will go through some significant works by Sciarrino that fully depict his musical aesthetics and the range of his work, which also draws inspirations from past composers such as Domenico Scarlatti, Gesualdo da Venosa, Maurice Ravel and....a surprise encore. Don't...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#51 - Interview w/ Composer Nimrod BorensteinThe 51st episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed composer Nimrod Borenstein, who in the past few years has been enjoying a great number of works being commissioned, recorded and premiered across the globe. His compositions are performed at some of the most prestigious venues and festivals throughout Europe, Canada, Australia, the Far East, Israel, South America, Russia and the U.S.A. Among his high-profile supporters, Vladimir Ashkenazy has conducted several of Borenstein's compositions, culminating in his recording an entire album of his orchestral works for Chandos (named BBC Music Magazine ‘Choice’). Don't miss it!
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#50 - Reading Norman Cousins' The Anatomy of an IllnessThe 50th episode of Dress Rehearsal reflects on the theme of Health vs Disease through the eyes and experiences of American Journalist Norman Cousins, who was given no chances of recovery from a seemingly incurable disease and who devised his own cure mainly by "laughing" and watching funny movies. During the hour several excerpts will be played, from a 1984 fictional movie that bears the same title as Cousins’ book, Anatomy of an Illness, to a complete public radio broadcast aired in 1983, in which Cousins presents strategies for healing and life-long well-being. All accompanied by musical excerpts by Samuel Barber an...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#49 - Glenn Gould's Idea of NorthThe 49th episode of Dress Rehearsal featured Glenn Gould's "The Idea of North", which is part filmed docudrama, part fantasy, part forerunner of music television. Based on the radio play by famed Canadian pianist, North's montage of words, images and music tells a universal story of the quest for our last frontier. A young man boards a train going North. It is a real train on a scheduled run, yet also a train of mind and mythology. As the journey unfolds, he chats with a seasoned guide, and passes his time in reading, watching the rugged landscape and speculating...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#48 - Featuring Italian Composer Roberta Vacca's "Imaginary Dialogues"The 48th episode of Dress Rehearsal featured Roberta Vacca's new CD titled "Imaginary Dialogues". The new release of this project comes from the collaboration of visual artist Pierpaolo Mancinelli and Composer Roberta Vacca. The aim was to create a "bi-sensorial" work. "Imaginary Dialogues" expresses the need to combine different contemporary languages and artistic expressions created by the union of music and art. An even more urgent work in this post-pandemic phase that has imposed a restart in the world of culture, underlining the importance of rebuilding social and human relationships interrupted after a year and a half of lockdown...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#47 - Interview w/ Pianist Beverly Gilbert about Hungarian Pedagogue Ilonka Deckers-KuszlerThe 47th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed Pianist Beverly Gilbert, who has been performing and teaching in the Atlanta region and also collaborated in chamber music with the Atlanta Symphony Orchestra members and as a pianist with the Atlanta Symphony. With Beverly we talk about piano pedagogue Ilonka Deckers-Kuszler who extensively taught, in her studio located in Milan, Italy, a large number of students coming from all over the world. Both Beverly and I have been studying with her, at different times, Beverly in the seventies and myself in the nineties and would like to dedicate...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#46 - Edward Power Biggs plays the Pedal HarpsichordThe 46th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle featured a peculiar instrument, the Pedal Harpsichord and the recordings that British-American organist Edward Power Biggs made on a copy built by John Challis. The pedal harpsichord is an instrument similar to the pedal piano and certainly existed at the time of J.S. Bach. Like pedal clavichords and pedal pianos, the pedal harpsichord was probably used by organists as a practice instrument. In 1960 organist Edward Power Biggs approached American harpsichord maker John Challis and engaged him to build a pedal harpsichord. Tune in for some great music by J...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#45 - Interview w/ American Composer Jack Van ZandtThe 45th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomes Composer Jack Van Zandt who is a Los Angeles and Ireland-based composer of music for concerts, public spaces, gallery installations, television, film, and advertising. He has composed more than 300 works and his concert music has been performed in the USA, Canada, Asia and Europe. He is a co-Grammy winner in the Best Classical Compendium category. During the hour we will chat with Jack about his life as a composer and listen to some of his earlier and more recent works. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#44 - Pianist Dejan Lazic creates Johannes Brahms' Third Piano ConcertoThe 44th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" features Brahms' Third Piano Concerto. But, didn't Brahms only compose two piano concertos? Yes he did, in fact the Third is an arrangement of Brahms's Violin Concerto done by Croatian Pianist Dejan Lazic, who spent six years transcribing and adapting for the piano a work written for the violin. The practice of adapting a concerto for violin for a keyboard instrument is a route that had already been tried by Bach and Beethoven. Lazic began working on this project in early 2003 and completed it in 2008. The violin had always been a favorite love...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#43 - Intervista al Critico Musicale Luca Chierici (in Italiano)The 43rd episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, welcomed Italian Critic Luca Chierici, who has dedicated his life to studying the pianistic literature and follow the development of pianism throughout the years. Sometime in the seventies he began attending concerts of the great pianists and record them with portable equipment, thus building a collection of over 70,000 live recordings. Today Mr. Chierici regularly writes for the Italian magazine "Musica" as well as for "Il Corriere Musicale". During the hour we had a chance of discussing of his passion for the piano and the evolution of pianism. Tune in also...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#42 - Remembering Bulgarian Composer Dimitar NenovThe 42nd episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Bulgarian composer Dimitar Nenov and his monumental Piano Concerto written in 1936. In line with the recent podcast on Iannis Xenakis, in Nenov we find a similar polymath, as he, other than a composer and a pianist, was also a practicing architect, a pedagogue and a radio producer. Nenov's Piano Concerto is built as a single sonata form of gigantic proportions, exceeding even those achieved in the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner and such an immense, cathedral-like, edifice may not be so surprising as this is, after all, the work...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#41 - Viennese New Year's MusicThe 41st episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, features highlights from the New Year's Concert that legendary conductor Carlos Kleiber gave at the Musikverein in Vienna on January 1st, 1992. I purposefully let the music speak so that you can enjoy one hour of uninterrupted sounds from famous works by the Strauss family conducted with the grace and elegance of Carlos Kleiber. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#40 - Featuring Unusual Christmas MusicThe 40th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, features some Unusual and unknown Christmas Music and music inspired by the birth of Jesus. In every city in this country there are probably several performances of Handel’s Messiah being presented. If you are tired of listening every year to the usual Christmas carols on the radio, then this podcast is for you. During this hour you’ll have a chance to listen to some uncommon classical Christmas music including rare choral pieces and obscure symphonic compositions. Composers include George Crumb, Olivier Messiaen, Gerald Finzi, Michael Praetorious and Arnold Scho...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#39 - Featuring Russian Pianist Alexei LubimovThe 39th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Russian pianist Alexei Lubimov, who has explored throughout his career not only the piano but also the fortepiano, the harpsichord and the clavichord. Lubimov attracted notice with his performances of modern scores. In 1968 he performed the Moscow debuts of works by John Cage and Terry Riley, and then championed the works of Arnold Schoenberg, Anton Webern, Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Charles Ives and Ligeti. In the 1970's, his career was slowed down by the ideological censorship that prevailed in the former Soviet Union. It was during this period that his...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#38 - Interview w/ Timpanist Jason HaaheimThe 38th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, features MET Opera's Principal Timpanist Jason Haaheim! Jason was appointed at the Met in 2013 and his route to the Met was all but a linear one. In fact, prior to becoming a full-time musician Jason used to work at a nanotech lab in Chicago and had marginally studied music, having earned a Bachelor of Arts with a double major in music and physics and a Master Degree in Electrical Engineering. His dedication to pursue the dream to play professionally led him to embark on a windy, and mostly self-taught, road...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#37 - Remembering French/Greek Composer Iannis XenakisThe 36th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Greek Composer Iannis Xenakis and in particular his early electro acoustic compositions. Prior to becoming a composer Xenakis graduated in structural engineering and architecture and his mathematical background informed his compositions. While he was working for architect Le Corbusier in Paris, Xenakis engaged with electro acoustic media and produced several compositions that are regarded as milestones of electronic music. During the hour we will listen to the entire content of an early Nonesuch record titled "Iannis Xenakis - Electro Acoustic Music" that includes pieces like Concret PH, which was...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#36 - Intervista con la Compositrice Italiana Roberta Vacca (Versione in Italiano)Il 36esimo episodio del podcast "Dress Rehearsal", presso la stazione 107.3FM KBFG di Seattle, negli Stati Uniti, ha visto protagonista la Compositrice Italiana Roberta Vacca che si è diplomata in Pianoforte, Composizione e in Musica Corale e Direzione di Coro nonche' in Lingue e Letterature Straniere. Si è perfezionata in Composizione con Azio Corghi presso l’Accademia di S. Cecilia e presso l’Accademia Chigiana di Siena. Vincitrice di numerosi concorsi Nazionali e Internazionali, è stata compositrice residente presso la Macdowell Colony, la Fondazione Bogliasco e la Residenza d’artista “Le Ville Matte” di Teulada. Ha avuto commissioni da prestigiosi festival, teatri, orchestre, en...
2022-12-0600 min
Dress Rehearsal#36 - Interview w/ Italian Composer Roberta Vacca (Version in English)The 36th episode of Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle, featured Italian Composer Roberta Vacca. Roberta graduated in Piano, Composition and in Choral Music and Choir Direction. She also attended courses in Composition with Maestro Azio Corghi. Winner of numerous competitions, Roberta has had commissions from prestigious festivals and her compositions are regularly performed in Italy and abroad. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0500 min
Dress Rehearsal#35 - Remembering Russian Composer and Pianist Samuel FeinbergThe 35th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle, featured Russian Pianist and Composer Samuel Feinberg, who from an early age exhibited an extraordinary talent on the piano. At his graduation recital Feinberg performed the entire Well-Tempered Clavier by Johann Sebastian Bach by heart and so he was the first pianist to perform such a work by Bach in its integrity in Russia. In 1922, he joined the faculty at the Moscow Conservatory. When Stalin's reign of terror started to affect composers, he had to hide some of the progressive music previously composed. After 1936 his compositions became more conservative. Feinberg...
2022-12-0500 min
Dress Rehearsal#34 - Interview w/ American Composer Nina C. YoungThe 34th episode of Dress Rehearsal, on 107.3 KBFG Seattle welcomed composer and sonic artist Nina C. Young, who creates works ranging from acoustic concert pieces to interactive installations, that explore aural architectures, resonance, timbre, and the ephemeral. Her music has garnered international acclaim through performances by the New York Philharmonic and the Philadelphia Orchestra, among others. Winner of the 2015-16 Rome Prize, Nina has received recognition from the Guggenheim Foundation, the Koussevitzky Foundation, the Civitella Ranieri, the Montalvo Arts Center, and BMI. Recent commissions include "The Glow that Illuminates, the Glare that Obscures" for the American Brass Quintet and...
2022-12-0500 min
Dress Rehearsal#33 - Remembering Polish Pianist Mieczysław HorszowskiThe 33rd episode of Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle, featured Polish pianist Mieczysław "Miecio" Horszowski who had one of the longest careers in the history of the performing arts. Horszowski was first taught piano by his mother. At the age of 7 he became a pupil of Theodor Leschetitzky and started touring Europe and America as a child prodigy. In 1940 he moved to the US where he eventually became an American Citizen. Miecio was barely 5-feet tall and his hands small enough to reach an octave, but this didn't preclude him to become an international concert pianist. He i...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#32 - Interview con il fortepianista Costantino Mastroprimiano (versione in Italiano)Il 32esimo episodio del podcast "Dress Rehearsal", presso la stazione 107.3FM KBFG di Seattle, negli Stati Uniti, ha visto protagonista il fortepianista italiano Costantino Mastroprimiano, che è una delle figure di spicco della "performance storica". Mastroprimiano è specializzato nelle opere di Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, Cramer, Czerny, Kalkbrenner e Moscheles, che fa rivivere attraverso un attento studio filologico. Tra le sue registrazioni c'è il pluripremiato ciclo delle sonate complete di Muzio Clementi. Durante il programma avremo la possibilità di parlare con Constantino di una varietà di argomenti legati all'esecuzione su uno strumento storico (il fortepiano) e delle differenze con il modo in cui i...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#32 - Interview w/ Italian fortepianist Costantino Mastroprimiano (version in English)The 32nd episode of Dress Rehearsal on 107.3FM KBFG Seattle, welcomed Italian Fortepianist and Musicologist Costantino Mastroprimiano, who is one of the leading figures of the "historic performance". Mr. Mastroprimiano specializes in 18th- and 19th-century piano music, especially the works of Clementi, Dussek, Hummel, Cramer, Czerny, Kalkbrenner and Moscheles, which he revives through an attentive philological studying. Among his recordings is the award-winning cycle of Muzio Clementi’s complete sonatas. During the hour we will have the chance to speak to Constantino about a variety of subjects connected to performing on an historical instrument (the fortepiano) as well as wh...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#31 - Remembering Finnish Composer Einojuhani RautavaaraThe 31st episode of Dress Rehearsal features Finnish composer Einojuhani Rautavaara, probably the most notable Finnish composer since Jean Sibelius, Rautavaara wrote a great number of works spanning various styles. These include eight symphonies, nine operas and twelve concertos, as well as numerous vocal and chamber works. Having written early works using 12-tone serial techniques, his later music may be described as neo-romantic and mystical. During the hour will listen to several of his works including his Cantus Arcticus composed in 1972 and subtitled Concerto for Birds and Orchestra, as it incorporates tape recordings of birdsong recorded near the Arctic...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#30 - Interview with British Pianist Freddy KempfThe 30th episode of Dress Rehearsal welcomes pianist Freddy Kempf, who is one of today’s most successful pianists performing to sell-out audiences. Exceptionally gifted with an unusually broad repertoire, Freddy has built a unique reputation as an explosive performer who is not afraid to take risks. Born in London in 1977, Freddy made his concerto debut with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and further came to national prominence in 1992 when he won the BBC Young Musician of the Year Competition. In 1998, his award of third, rather than first, prize in the Tchaikovsky International Piano Competition in Moscow provoked protests from th...
2022-12-0557 min
Dress Rehearsal#29 - Remembering Dutch Composer Simeon Ten HoltThe 29th episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to Dutch composer Simeon Ten Holt, a somewhat hidden figure in contemporary music. Probably a mistake to label his music as minimalist, Ten Holt used consonant, tonal materials and his works are organized in numerous cells, made up of a few measures each, which are repeated ad libitum according to the player's preference. Many of his works are for piano or ensembles of multiple pianos. His most famous work is Canto Ostinato, which he wrote in 1976 and is considered one of the most important works in contemporary classical Dutch music history...
2022-12-0555 min
Dress Rehearsal#28 - Interview w/ American Guitarist Kevin GallagherThe 28th episode of Dress Rehearsal welcomes NY-based Guitarist Kevin Gallagher who began playing rock guitar in his formative years, but his musical appetite quickly led him to study jazz and ultimately, classical guitar. Kevin was the first-prize winner in the 1993 Guitar Foundation of America, the 1994 American String Teachers Association, and the 1993 Artists International Competition. Most notably, Mr. Gallagher also earned the distinct honor of being the only American classical guitarist ever to win first prize in the prestigious Francisco Tárrega Guitar Competition in Spain (1997). His recording for Naxos Records entitled Guitar Recital- Music from the Renaissance and B...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#27 - Remembering Italian Composer Sylvano BussottiThe 27th episode of Dress Rehearsal was dedicated to the recently deceased Italian composer Sylvano Bussotti, who passed away last on September 19th 2021. Bussotti was not only a composer but was also a painter, a scenographer and a theatre director. He made large use of graphic notation in his pieces, and he experimented the interaction between sound, notation and vision, creating a synesthetic art derived from historical avant-gardes, from Kandinsky to futurism, to Skryabin and Schoenberg, all the way to Bauhaus. His music and the type of notation he used, allowed for freedom of expression and improvisation from the...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#26 - Interview with Malaysian Pianist Dennis LeeIn the 26th episode of "Dress Rehearsal", my guest is Malaysian Pianist Dennis Lee, who is currently recording the complete piano works by Claude Debussy for UK independent label ICSM Records. Dennis Lee studied at the Royal College of Music in London, at the Akademie in Vienna and in Milan, Italy, with Ilonka Deckers-Kuszler. Dennis Lee has won many competition prizes, including Busoni, Casagrande and Sydney. He has performed with most of the BBC orchestras, the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic, Halle, etc. and appeared at the Royal Festival Hall, Barbican and in festivals like Brighton, Cheltenham, Montreux, Adelaide among others...
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#25 - Music, Power and the Soviet Anti-Formalism CampaignThe 25th episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to "Music, Power and the Soviet Anti-formalism Campaign" and explore how composers like Dmitri Shostakovich and Sergei Prokofiev suffered constant coercion and defamation from the Kremlin for writing "formalist" music that was not the prescribed art with a social purpose. On 10 January 1948, more than 70 composers were summoned to a three-day conference in the Kremlin, to be lectured on "how to write music". One of the main speakers, Tykhon Khrennikov, leader of the Union of Soviet Composers, attacked all of the greatest composers present, including Shostakovich and Prokofiev. During the hour we...
2022-12-0557 min
Dress Rehearsal#24 - Interview w/ American Flutist Emily SkalaIn the 23rd episode of "Dress Rehearsal", my guest will be Emily Skala, former Principal Flutist of the Baltimore Symphony Orchestra. Emily is a very accomplished player and educator having been with the BSO for over 30 years and having also taught at Peabody Conservatory for 28 years. Recently, Emily was "dismissed" from the BSO for having posted on her Facebook page, challenging opinions regarding the pandemic and the Covid-19 virus. During the hour Emily reveals another side of the story, in which the Facebook postings seem to take a secondary role in the situation. We will also have a chance...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#23 - Remembering Canadian Composer Raymond Murray ShaferThe 23rd episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to the recently deceased Canadian composer Raymond Murray Schafer, who died this past August 14th, 2021. Murray Schafer was not only a musician but also a writer, an educator and an environmentalist, best known for his World Soundscape Project and for his concerns for acoustic ecology. In addition, Murray Schafer used natural sounds and natural settings (like forests, lakes etc.) as backgrounds for his compositions. In "Trumpet Aubade" (for solo trumpet player) the performer sits on a small boat in the middle of a lake and plays for an audience listening from...
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#22 - French Conductor Ludovic MorlotThe 22nd episode of "Dress Rehearsal" is dedicated to Seattle Symphony's Conductor Laureate, Ludovic Morlot. Trained as a violinist, Ludovic studied conducting at the Pierre Monteux School (USA) and at the Royal Academy of Music in London and then at the Royal College of Music as a recipient of the Norman del Mar Fellowship. Ludovic is Affiliate Professor at the University of Washington School of Music and a Visiting Artist at the Colburn School. During the hour we will be discussing with Ludovic the role of the conductor in shaping orchestras' future during the current times. We'll also talk...
2022-12-0556 min
Dress Rehearsal#21 - Listening to the Pedal PianoThe 21st episode of "Dress Rehearsal" focuses on a peculiar instrument known as the "pedal piano", a piano that includes a pedalboard like an organ. The instrument gained success as composers like Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt and Charles Valentin Alkan found it useful as an alternative to practice organ music in their homes. This led some of the above composers to take the "pedal piano" more seriously and compose works especially for that instrument. During the hour we will listen to a few tracks from the CD that French Pianist and Organist, Olivier Latry, has made on...
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#20 - Interview w/ Author Pedro de AlcantaraThe 20th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" welcomes Cellist, Pianist, Composer and Author, Pedro de Alcantara, who grew up in Brazil, studied cello in NY, spent 7 years in London, and then settled in Paris. His life has been of constant transformation. He started his career as a classically trained cellist and that contributed to the continuing transformation of his thinking. After many years away from the concert stage, Pedro started performing again, but this time as an improviser, composer, singer, and multi-instrumentalist. His new music is the embodiment of transformation. The cello becomes a lute or a percussion instrument. The...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#19 - The Seven Last Words of Christ on the CrossThe 19th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" focuses on the "Seven Last Words of Christ on the Cross", the biblical story of Jesus uttering seven short phrases, from the four Gospels narrating the Crucifixion. Composers throughout the centuries have written musical settings of the seven sayings. During the hour we will listen to each of the Seven Words as put into music by different composers, starting with Heinrich Schutz (1645), Gian Battista Pergolesi (1730-1736), Saverio Mercadante (1838), Charles Gounod (1855), Cesar Franck (1859), Charles Tournemire (1935), Sofia Gubaidulina ((1982) and ending with a mesmerizing seventh word by James MacMillan (1993). Will also play a snippet of Tristan...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#18 - Interview w/ American Composer Elliott Miles McKinleyThe 18th episode of "Dress Rehearsal" welcomes Composer Elliott Miles McKinley with whom we discuss about his life growing up with another composer in the house (his father, William Thomas McKinley, was also a fine composer). We'll also extensively speak about music education and how his mission to educate led him to found a yearly composition festival in the beautiful hills around the city of Alba in Northern Italy (The festival is due to start at the end of July 2021 after a year-long hiatus due to the pandemic. To know more about it please visit https://www.albacomposition.com...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#17 - American Composer Frederic RzewskiThe 16th episode of Dress Rehearsal is dedicated to American pianist and composer Frederic Rzeswki, whose passing on June 26th 2021 left a big void in the contemporary history of music. We'll talk about his fundamental anarchism, his refusal of seeking any forms of retribution and royalties for his music (which he often made readily available on the public domain and on the website IMSLP). And we'll talk also about his fine pianism which led him to perform most of his difficult and technically challenging compositions but also works by other composers, including Beethoven's Hammerklavier which Rzewski infuses with his...
2022-12-0555 min
Dress Rehearsal#16 - Interview w/ Icelandic Cellist Saeunn ThorsteinsdottirIn the 16th episode of Dress Rehearsal my guest will be the amazing Icelandic cellist Saeunn Thorsteinsdottir who will tell us about her life as a travelling musician and recording artist, busy learning and premiering cutting-edge new music written for her. Will also hear of her love for her native Iceland and of her ongoing collaborations with Icelandic composers. Will have a chance to listen to some tracks from her latest album titled "Vernacular", including music by Benjamin Britten (and the splendid and forgotten Cello Suites, commissioned by Mstislav Rostropovitch), Halldór Smárason (who in "Minni" takes the ce...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#15 - French Organist and Composer Charles TournemireIn this episode we feature French Organist and Composer Charles Tournemire, who was well known for his improvisations, which were often rooted in the music of Gregorian Chant. His compositions include eight symphonies (one of them choral), four operas, twelve chamber works and eighteen piano solos. He is mainly remembered for his organ music, the best known being a set of pieces called L'Orgue mystique. During the hour we will listen to some of his organ music as well as an unpublished recording of his Poeme Mystique Op.33 for piano solo. Don't miss it!
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#14 - Interview w/ Ukrainian Pianist Tatiana Roitman MannIn the 14th episode of Dress Rehearsal, my guest will be Russian Pianist Tatiana Roitman Mann who is currently piano professor at Texas Tech University. During the hour we'll chat about her passion for the piano and its literature and how this passion led her to travel from her native Ukraine to Canada, then to England and then settling in the US. Tatiana is also very actively engaged in reforming music education in particular to make it more accessible to talented kids of unprivileged backgrounds. During the hour we'll have a chance to listen to her playing some Beethoven...
2022-12-0557 min
Dress Rehearsal#13 - Johannes Brahms and the Art of TranscriptionIn this episode we talk about Transcriptions and how Johannes Brahms loved transcribing his orchestral scores for piano duet so that they could be played by only two players as opposed as by an (expensive) full orchestra. Today this process of transcribing has become obsolete thanks to the fact that music is consumed through recordings that are easy to share as well as virtual renditions of orchestral scores are possible to be created using notation software like Sibelius and Finale (as many others). Tune in for a great insight on the subject and to listen to Brahms' own transcription...
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#11 - The Ghosts of Robert SchumannThis episode explores "Robert Schumann's Ghosts" and the theme between creativity and mental illness which was present throughout Schumann's life and in particular in his last years. During the hour we will listen to Schumann's last work for the piano, the "Geistervariationen'', as well as Brahms' Variations on a Theme by Schumann op. 23, which uses the same "ghost theme" that Schumann recalls being dictated, during sleep, by a choir of ghosts. Not only that, we will also listen to a very new piece by British Composer Michael Finnissy, titled "RS-Geistervariationen" (2021), which takes inspiration from both Schumann and Brahms and...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#10 - Interview w/ American Composer Anne LebaronThis episode welcomes California-based Composer Anne Lebaron who will tell us about her passion for opera and theatre and how she fuses music, stories and words in unexpected ways. We'll listen to some recordings from her opera "LSD" (and if you are asking the question "do you need to have taken LSD in order to write an opera about it?" you'll find the answer in the podcast) as well as the opera "Crescent City" and to some other of her compositions, including parts from the melologue titled "Partizan", Devil in the Belfry, The Lingering Life and many others. Don't...
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#9 - Interview w/ American Pianist Craig SheppardThis episode features Maestro Craig Sheppard with whom we converse about piano playing and pianists, teaching piano in Seattle, piano competitions (and his recent appearance as jury member in the Arthur Rubinstein competition in Tel Aviv), Franz Liszt and his 400 students as well as will play a few tracks from his recordings from Bach's The Art of the Fugue, Liszt's Anne de Pelerinages, Brahms's Klavierstucke and ending with a melancholic Schubert. Don't miss it! Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#8 - Sound IlliteratesIn this episode I'll be considering on the subject of SOUND ILLITERATES, taking inspiration from the latest book by Italian composer Carlo Boccadoro titled "Analfabeti Sonori" (literally translated as "Sound Illiterates'') who critically analyzes topics like the state of classical music in the age of the Internet and of streaming. During the hour we will sample some recordings of music by David Lang, Michael Daugherty, Patrick Belew, Wolfgang Von Schweinitz and John Cage. Don't miss it! Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#7 - Interview w/ Russian/American Pianist Yana ReznikThis episode features the very successful Russian-American Pianist YANA REZNIK. During the hour we discuss topics like freelance careers during a pandemic, music and emotions as well as we sample some tracks from her latest CD titled NOVELLAS. Don't miss it! Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#5 - Interview w/ Pianist, Organist and Conductor Wayne MarshallThis episode of Dress Rehearsal welcomes British Pianist, Organist and Conductor WAYNE MARSHALL who will tell us about his life as a young musician in the UK, his love for Stevie Wonder's songs, his on-going career as well as his latest CD "Passion Symphony", of which we will sample a few tracks. Don't miss it! Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#4 - Interview w/ King FM Radio Host Sean MacLeanThis episode features Seattle's King FM Radio Host Sean MacLean. Sean is a composer, a radio host and producer and a wine-tasting buddy. In this episode we lightheartedly touch on various topics, music, radio hosting, recordings, wine and, brace yourself, "loudness wars" both in music and in wine making. If you are curious about these topics do not miss this podcast. Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0559 min
Dress Rehearsal#3 - Interview w/ Pianist Eleonor BindmanThis episode features an interview with NY-based pianist Eleonor Bindman who is a performer, a teacher and a recording artist. Her current work is dedicated to transcribing several of Johann Sebastian Bach's orchestral works for either piano solo and for piano duet. This show focuses on her recent recording of two transcriptions, the complete Brandenburg Concertos by Bach for piano duet and the Cello Suites by Bach for piano solo.
Dress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM.
2022-12-0558 min
Dress Rehearsal#2 - Listening to the Mystic Minimalism of Arvo PartDress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM. This episode features Estonian Composer Arvo Part.
2022-12-0557 min
Dress Rehearsal#1 - Remembering Canadian Pianist Glenn GouldDress Rehearsal is a classical music show hosted by Italian pianist Lorenzo Marasso. The show airs every week on Seattle's KBFG 107.3 FM. This episode features Canadian pianist Glenn Gould.
2022-12-0559 min