The Strad | MEMETERIA by Thomas May

November 11, 2025 • 12:56 pm Comments Off on Concert review: Tafelmusik with Rachel Podger

Concert review: Tafelmusik with Rachel Podger

Rachel Podger with members of Tafelmusik; photo: Jorge Gustavo Elias

Early Music Seattle presented a stimulating evening with Tafelmusik and the inimitable Rachel Podger. My review for The Strad:

Early Music Seattle, the region’s principal presenter of period performance, welcomed Tafelmusik for the Seattle stop on its twelve-city tour of the North American West Coast – aptly titled ‘Brilliant Baroque’. With principal guest director Rachel Podger leading from her baroque violin, the sixteen-member ensemble offered a sequence of works shaped, in part, by an aesthetic of translation and rearrangement – whether from solo to chamber forces or from the opera stage to more intimate instrumental settings.
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Filed under: early music, review, The Strad

October 24, 2025 • 5:00 pm Comments Off on Sharing the Spotlight: The Isidore Quartet at Honens 2025

Sharing the Spotlight: The Isidore Quartet at Honens 2025

*The Isidore Quartet at Honens: Adrian Steele, Phoenix Avalon, Joshua McClendon and Devin Moore, with finalist Carter Johnson in the centre; photo: Jorge Gustavo Elias*

–> Follow the final round and announcement of awards starting at 7pm MDT on the Honens livestream here.

Tonight is the final round at the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition. I spoke with violinist Phoenix Avalon of the Isidore String Quartet about the experience of partnering with each of the three finalists in last night’s first round of the finals. Here’s my interview for The Strad:

For a string quartet, sharing the spotlight with fellow chamber musicians is second nature – but not usually in circumstances like this. The New York City-based Isidore Quartet took the stage last night (23 October) for the chamber-music final of the 2025 Honens International Piano Competition, held at the Jack Singer Concert Hall in the Werklund Centre, downtown Calgary, Alberta. ..

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Filed under: competitions, Honens International Piano Competition, pianists, string quartet, The Strad

October 7, 2025 • 1:19 am Comments Off on Happy Birthday! Yo-Yo Ma at 70

Happy Birthday! Yo-Yo Ma at 70

The legendary cellist was born on 7 October 1955. The Strad takes a look at some moments of the cellist’s unparalleled career over the decades…

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Filed under: music news, The Strad, Yo-Yo Ma

October 6, 2025 • 1:15 pm Comments Off on JACK Quartet Celebrates Helmut Lachenmann at 90

JACK Quartet Celebrates Helmut Lachenmann at 90

*JACK Quartet in rehearsal with Helmut Lachenmann; courtesy of JACK Quartet*

To celebrate the 90th birthday of German avant-garde composer Helmut Lachenmann, the JACK Quartet perform his three string quartets in a single evening at Columbia’s Miller Theatre – and reflect on their long association with his radical sound world. My interview with the ensemble for The Strad:

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Filed under: JACK Quartet, string quartet, The Strad

September 18, 2025 • 4:48 am Comments Off on Opening Night at Boulez Saal in Berlin

Opening Night at Boulez Saal in Berlin

*Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes open the Pierre Boulez Saal season; photo: Peter Adamik*

I reviewed opening night with Christian Tetzlaff and Leif Ove Andsnes at Berlin’s Pierre Boulez Saal for The Strad:

In his famously mischievous binary, Ned Rorem asserted that ‘the entire solar system is torn between two aesthetics: French and German’ – with the kicker: ‘If you agree with all this, you’re French. If you disagree, you’re German’. …
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Filed under: Brahms, Maurice Ravel, Mozart, pianists, Pierre Boulez Saal, reviews, The Strad, violinists

September 10, 2025 • 5:37 am Comments Off on Touching Eternity: Matthew Barley’s Dialogue with Pärt and Bach

Touching Eternity: Matthew Barley’s Dialogue with Pärt and Bach

As Arvo Pärt turns 90, British cellist Matthew Barley speaks about creating ’Touching Eternity’, a candlelit program that weaves Bach, Pärt and Tavener into a shared ritual of sound and silence.

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Filed under: Arvo Pärt, Bach, cellists, The Strad

August 7, 2025 • 11:51 am Comments Off on Across the Americas: The Miró Quartet Celebrates Alberto Ginastera

Across the Americas: The Miró Quartet Celebrates Alberto Ginastera

*Miró Quartet: Daniel Ching, Joshua Gindele, John Largess and William Fedkenheuer*

Here’s an interview I did for The Strad with the Miró Quartet on their new recording of the complete quartets by Alberto Ginastera:

Among the Miró Quartet’s projects marking its milestone 30th-anniversary season in 2025 is a new recording of the three string quartets by Alberto Ginastera. For the String Quartet No. 3, Miró is joined by soprano Kiera Duffy. Long a staple of the ensemble’s live repertoire, these works trace the full arc of the Argentine composer’s creative evolution. As violist John Largess notes, they synthesise Argentine folk idioms with bold modernist language, making extraordinary technical demands.

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Filed under: South America, string quartet, The Strad

March 20, 2025 • 12:34 am Comments Off on James Ehnes in The Strad

James Ehnes in The Strad

James Ehnes; photo courtesy Seattle Chamber Music Society

Along with my feature on Abel Selaocoe in Strings, my other cover story this month is a profile of the fabulous violinist and music director James Ehnes for The Strad:

Over a weekend in early December 2024, James Ehnes was in Seattle to perform all ten violin sonatas of Beethoven, partnering with pianist Orion Weiss. Presented in two concerts, each met with rapt attention, the performances were part of a new initiative of Seattle Chamber Music Society (SCMS) to engage audiences during the long interval between its flagship summer festival and the winter festival starting in late January.

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Filed under: James Ehnes, profile, Seattle Chamber Music Society, The Strad

March 7, 2025 • 11:04 am Comments Off on Rediscovering French Composer Fernande Decruck

Rediscovering French Composer Fernande Decruck

Here’s my recent interview for The Strad with conductor Matthew Aubin on his mission to reclaim attention for Fernande Decruck’s music:

For decades, French composer Fernande Decruck (1896–1954) was known only for her Sonata in C-sharp for alto saxophone, a staple of the classical saxophone repertoire. Many of her compositions were left unpublished at her untimely death at the age of 57 and sank into oblivion.

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Filed under: music news, recommended listening, The Strad

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