Mastodawn

Clara Schumann: after 200 years still overshadowed by Robert https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2019/09/13/clara-schumann-after-200-years-still-overshadowed-by-robert/ #ClaraSchumann, #ClaraWieck, #JohannesBrahms, #RobertSchumann

Clara Schumann: after 200 years still overshadowed by Robert

Two hundred years ago, on 13 September 1819, Clara Schumann was born in Leipzig, as Clara Wieck. She ranks as one of the greatest pianists of the nineteenth century. Against her father’s will…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks May 13

Clémence de Grandval’s Mazeppa: powerful opera without pedantry

Where Mazeppa is revered as a hero in Ukraine, because he stood up against Russia, in Grandval's opera he cowardly betrays the Ukrainians....

https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/05/12/clemence-de-grandvals-mazeppa-powerful-opera-without-pedantry/

#ClémenceDeGrandval, #Mazeppa, #MünchnerRundfunkorchester, #MihhailGerts, #NicoleCar, #PalazzettoBruZane, #TassisChristoyannis

Clémence de Grandval’s Mazeppa: powerful opera without pedantry

During her lifetime, Clémence de Grandval was a celebrated composer, but after her death her music soon disappeared from the concert stage. The Palazzetto Bru Zane label now presents her opera Maze…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Apr 12

Phyllis Tate portrays Jack the Ripper in her thriller opera The Lodger

https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/04/10/phyllis-tate-portrays-jack-the-ripper-in-her-opera-the-lodger/ #DavidFranklin, #GregEldridge, #JackTheRipper, #OperWuppertal, #PhyllisTate, #TheLodger

Phyllis Tate portrays Jack the Ripper in her opera The Lodger

In the late nineteenth century, Jack the Ripper raped, murdered and mutilated several women in London. The perpetrator was never found, but many artists drew inspiration from him. The first was Mar…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Mar 31

Nearly an interview with Galina Ustvolskaya, 1995

'Frau, Frau, Frau!‘ she interrupts Suslin.

Crestfallen, he looks at her: what shall he say? – Her name is, bless her eyes, GALINA!'

https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/galina-ustvolskaya-sind-sie-mir-nicht-bose-very-nearly-an-interview/ #DmitriShostakovich, #GalinaUstvolskaya, #ReinbertDeLeeuw, #ValeryGergiev, #ViktorSuslin

Galina Ustvolskaya: ‘Sind Sie mir nicht böse!’ (very nearly an interview)

Twenty years ago, Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006) passed away. As a composer she uncompromisingly followed her own path and never conformed to the socialist realist style the Soviet apparatchiks imp…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Mar 19

'An additional stumbling block was Sofia Gubaidulina's unshakeable Russian Orthodox faith, which she expressed in every note. '
Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Revue’ proves unexpected gem https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/03/10/sofia-gubaidulinas-revue-proves-unexpected-gem/ #AliciaDiPiazza, #BaselSinfonietta, #SofiaGubaidulina, #TitusEngel, #Zeitgestalten

Sofia Gubaidulina’s ‘Revue’ proves unexpected gem

Sofia Gubaidulina, one of the great composers of the post-World War II era, passed away in March 2025. During the Soviet dictatorship, she encountered strong opposition from the authorities and was…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Mar 11

Sofia Gubaidulina's ‘Revue’ proves unexpected gem https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/03/10/sofia-gubaidulinas-revue-proves-unexpected-gem/ #AliciaDiPiazza, #BaselSinfonietta, #SofiaGubaidulina, #TitusEngel, #Zeitgestalten

Sofia Gubaidulina’s ‘Revue’ proves unexpected gem

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Mar 4

Will Mahsa Vahdat be able to sing in Iran now Ayatollah Khamenei is dead? She told me in 2023: ‘My voice is my home’ https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2023/10/26/mahsa-vahdat-tours-with-amsterdam-sinfonietta-my-voice-is-my-home/ #AmsterdamSinfonietta, #AtabakElyasi, #ForoughFarrokhzad, #MahsaVahdat, #MarjanVahdat

Mahsa Vahdat tours with Amsterdam Sinfonietta: ‘My voice is my home’

The internationally renowned Iranian singer Mahsa Vahdat (Tehran, 1973) tours with Amsterdam Sinfonietta, singing her own settings of Persian poetry. She moved from Iran to the US in 2015, but ‘I l…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Mar 2

Marcel Worms & Ursula Schoch release CD ‘Female Composers from the Netherlands’ https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2024/04/03/marcel-worms-ursula-schoch-release-cd-female-composers-from-the-netherlands/ #HenriëtteBosmans, #MajoieHajary, #MarcelWanders, #RosyWertheim, #UrsulaSchoch

Marcel Worms & Ursula Schoch release CD ‘Female Composers from the Netherlands’

Women composers still not a given, shows new CD Marcel Worms & Ursula Schoch

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Feb 24

In 2006 Galina Ustvolskaya died. In 1995 she unexpectedly turned up in the Amsterdam Concertgebouw, and I managed to arrange an interview with her. However....
https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2026/02/23/galina-ustvolskaya-sind-sie-mir-nicht-bose-very-nearly-an-interview/

Galina Ustvolskaya: ‘Sind Sie mir nicht böse!’ (very nearly an interview)

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks

Thea Derks Feb 22

On the cutting edge: Delta Piano Trio plays Lera Auerbach https://theaderks.wordpress.com/2024/02/29/on-the-cutting-edge-delta-piano-trio-plays-lera-auerbach/ #DeltaPianoTrio, #GerardSpronk, #IreneEnzlin, #LeraAuerbach, #MilkingDarkness, #VeraKooper

On the cutting edge: Delta Piano Trio plays Lera Auerbach

Lera Auerbach (b. 1973, Chelyabinsk) grew up under Soviet dictatorship, but decided to trade it for the free West during a concert tour of America in 1991; a few months later, the Soviet Union fell…

Contemporary Classical - Thea Derks