Reinbert de Leeuw conducts the Radio Philharmonic Orchestra for Louis Andriessen’s 70th birthday.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 6, finale
Myung-Whun Chung conducts the Philharmonia Orchestra.
The Reger Awards: 2013 in classical music
With a local and personal slant, of course. The second annual edition.
Reger Awards: The year in classical music. Orange County Register, Dec. 28, 2013.
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10, 2nd movement
Georg Solti conducts the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra.
Classical Life: 2013 annual report
The 2013 annual report for Classical Life is in. Really. The bots at WordPress, the platform I use for this blog, produce one for me every year.
The good news is that this blog is once again in the black. That’s because we don’t pay our workers a living wage or give them raises or anything. You know, just like a regular business.
According to the annual report, there were 186 new posts for the year 2013, or, about one every other day. Why? It didn’t say.
Donations to Classical Life were up 100% or 1,000%, you pick, since we actually received our first donation this year.
The blog was viewed xx,xxx times — I’m not going to tell you. This is a privately held company.
My busiest day was February 26, when I posted various timings for La Mer. Relive the thrill.
None of the top five most viewed posts for 2013 were written during the year, which obviously is indication of something I can’t think what. The bots at WordPress say it’s because my writing “has staying power!”
They were:
3. Review: ‘The Gospel According to the Other Mary’
4. Great moments in commercial music: Air France
5. Great moments in commercial music: iPhone 4S, did Philip Glass write this?
The top five searches that brought visitors to Classical Life were “classical life, “alvin ailey,” “yuja wang red dress,” “martin bernheimer” and “the gospel according to the other mary” — which just goes to show that music critics, or at least a certain one, are almost as popular as an Asian piano virtuoso wearing next to nothing.
The top sites referring readers here were therestisnoise.com (thanks, Alex), outwestarts.blogspot.com (thanks, Brian), Facebook, mail.yahoo.com and allisyar.com (thanks, CK).
Most of my visitors came from the U.S., the U.K. and France, but I remain huge in Nigeria and Morocco, too.
My most commented on post was … In praise of critics. (Again, the fascination with music critics raises its curious head. Someone ought to make a statue to one.)
And last, but not least, the top five most active commenters were MarK, CK Dexter Haven, Lisa Hirsch, chris and Gary. Thanks and kudos to all of you for your participation in this ongoing experiment.
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 6, 3rd movement
Yuri Temirkanov conducts the Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala of Milan.
Chabrier: Bourrée Fantasque
Paul Paray conducts and sings with the Orchestre national de l’Office de Radiodiffusion Télévision Française .
2013 in classical music: R.I.P.
R.I.P.
James DePreist, Wolfgang Sawallisch, Van Cliburn, Colin Davis, Jean-Francois Pailliard, Harold Shapero, Steve Martland, Henri Dutilleux, Bruno Bartoletti, Patrice Chéreau, John Tavener, Conrad Susa, Regina Resnik, David Burge, Janos Starker, Risë Stevens, Marie-Clair Alain, Elisabeth Fürtwangler, Adolph Herseth, Rafael Puyana, Zheng Cao, Richard Traubner, Claude Monteux, Yuli Turovsky, Robert Ward, Deanna Durbin, Lotfi Mansouri, Ray Dolby, Hugh Maguire, Tom Krause.
Adventures in audiophilia
I take a test drive with new Blu-ray audio recordings from Decca and Deutsche Grammophon, comparing them with vinyl and CD recordings on my home stereo.
Critic’s notebook: Adventures in audiophilia. Orange County Register, Dec. 19, 2013.
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