@robccowan

Broadcaster and writer

 United Kingdom
robccowan.wordpress.com
Joined July 2009
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Listen to Korngold playing Korngold - utterly magical! robccowan.com/2024/06/05/kor…
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had me utterly transfixed Philip
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Thanks all. Very much appreciated x
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THE OLD BOY IS 76 TODAY!

With Granddaughter Elizabeth a month ago after a fish supper! Here is just a handful of ideas for musical gifts – recent cd releases – for anyone who has a birthday at around the same t…

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THE WORLD’S OLDEST PREJUDICE … still going strong

Music in the stream of life? Mutually reflective or separate worlds? I’d say the former, as anyone who has experienced a Proustian moment when a certain piece, even a particular musical phrase, spa…

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CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLERS – 4

I have to admit I’m a real pushover when it comes to boxed sets that combine the familiar with the unfamiliar, especially if performance and recording standards are high. Sony Classical’s 12-cd set…

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CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLERS – 3

In case anyone tells you that Eugene Ormandy: The Columbia Stereo Recordings 1958-1963, 88 cds, 19439977432, c£178.00, is prematurely deleted I can assure you that it isn’t. The fact is that Sony s…

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CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLERS – 2

For many listeners the name Frederick Delius conjures, in musical terms, the transitional seasons and gentle nostalgia – pieces like ‘On Hearing the First Cuckoo in Spring’, ̵…

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CHRISTMAS STOCKING FILLERS – 1

A SOVIET MASTER PIANIST REDISCOVERED It was back in 2000 that I chanced upon a flawed but charismatic’ 1963 live (mono) recording of Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto by the Soviet pianist Yakov F…

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AN AUTUMN PIANO TRIO

A BBC ex-colleague of mine once suffered a rap over the knuckles for describing Bach’s Goldberg Variations, on air, as being “what Mr. and Mrs. Goldberg got up to on their wedding night”. Had the ‘…

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Rob Cowan@robccowan30 Aug 2023
robccowan.com/2023/08/30/rob…

Rob chats to daughter Victoria and co-host Mark on Tring Radio

a bit of fun -and some great music

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robccowan.com/2023/08/30/rob…

Rob chats to daughter Victoria and co-host Mark on Tring Radio

a bit of fun -and some great music

robccowan.com
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robccowan.com/2023/08/21/18-…

18 VIVALDI VIOLIN CONCERTOS superbly played

The Three Seasons of Antonio Vivaldi (Arcana A550, 3 cds, released on 8th September, c£29.25) is not, you’ll be relieved to know, the ‘famous four’ minus one but an ingenious sequence of violin con…

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CLASSIC BOULT, TCHAIKOVSKY’S FIFTH … AND THE CRITIC’S LOT!

A very special forthcoming ICA Classics release devoted to live performances under Sir Adrian Boult (ICAC 5173, 2 cds,) includes the conductor’s last performing appearance at a public concert, the …

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ONE OF THE FEW LIVING VIOLINISTS REALLY WORTH HEARING …..

…… Sherban Lupu, who took lessons and master classes with such legendary violinists as Yehudi Menuhin, Henryk Szering, Nathan Milstein, Norbert Brainin and Sandor Vegh, has just died at the age of …

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THE LATE BERNARD KEEFFE – MAVERICK CONDUCTOR, EDUCATOR, AND TELEVISION PIONEER

prepared especially for this blog by the distinguished writer and broadcaster Jon Tolansky As a directionless school-leaver who had been an academic disaster, I was immensely fortunate that my fath…

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JOHN RUSKIN AND MARIA CALLAS: some parallels

A few years ago, I visited one of my local libraries to collect a set of The New Grove Dictionary of Opera that I had on reserve, the Chief Librarian having promised me their copy as soon as it bec…

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