Furniture music

Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye; Stravinsky: Le Sacre du printemps Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy (piano) Harmonia Mundi HMM902752 49:20 mins Those of us lucky, as I was at both their Ragged Music Festival and

Arvo Pärt’s music has a sound which appears hauntingly simple, though it stirs complex emotions. Much of it is written for voices singing sacred texts, but there are also instrumental works composed i

Norman Lebrecht on Music HE WORKED SO ...

The solo cello carves out a slow-moving phrase. It’s not a melody as such, but it becomes a refrain, passed on to the accompanying six cellos. The listener becomes Hercule Poirot, picking out clues hi

Piano Trios; Piano Quintet, Op. 57* *Julia Fischer (violin),*Nils Mönkemeyer (viola); Oliver Schnyder Trio Prospero PROSP0035 76:52 mins Shostakovich’s Piano Quintet explores a bewildering variety of

New Generation Publishing 379pp (hb) £18.99 The ambition of Will Fraser’s debut novel is never in doubt. Weaving together sometimes self-conscious observations about the nature of music with slow-burn