Wednesday 17 September 2008

Oxford English Dictionary: a quick read?

I heard a fascinating item during the night on The Word, the BBC World Service programme about books and writing. Ammon Shea revealed why he chose to spend a year of his life holed up in a library in New York reading all twenty volumes of the Oxford English Dictionary from cover to cover. It is worth a listen. I have been wondering what the musical equivalent would be? Reading the whole of Grove I suspect would be a revelation; listening to all recorded music would probably be impossible. Any ideas?

Tuesday 9 September 2008

Pawel Lukaszewski on Hyperion

A new recording of choral music by Pawel Lukaszewski has recently been released on Hyperion. Performed by the Choir of Trinity College, Cambridge, and conducted by Stephen Layton, it makes a brilliant precursor to our recording with Polyphony of Pawel's Via Crucis, due out in the first part of 2009. BBC Music Magazine said: 'Layton's affinity with this radiant, accessible music is clear as he guides the Trinity College Choir, which sings with passion and purity throughout the programme.'