Archive for November, 2023

  • Elite Recordings for Vox Re-Released

    November 29, 2023

    Naxos has released audiophile editions of two acclaimed Vox recordings conducted by Leonard Slatkin and featuring the first and third symphonies of Rachmaninov. Karl Nehring of Classical Candor characterized the albums as “excellent performances, excellently recorded, making them eminently recommendable for fans of these gorgeously tuneful symphonies.”

  • Rave Reviews in Spain

    November 9, 2023

    Music critics offered positive assessments of Leonard’s concerts in Valencia and Madrid. Writing for Scherzo, respected writer and composer Tomás Marco characterized Slatkin as “an interesting and reliable maestro who accompanied Achúcarro very well and in the second part made an excellent version of Jean Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1.”

  • Slatkin in Spain, Poland, Ireland, and France

    November 1, 2023

    Leonard is conducting in Europe this fall, with concerts in Spain, Poland, Ireland, and France. Program highlights include Resphigi’s Pines of Rome in Valencia, Sibelius’s Symphony No. 1 in Madrid, Gershwin’s American in Paris in Katowice, Copland’s Symphony No. 3 and Vaughan Williams’s Sea Symphony in Dublin, and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring in Lyon.

  • NOVEMBER 2023

    The road beckoned, and I travelled west and east for what I hoped would be lovely sets of concerts. That wish has so far come true, but the intrusions on beauty by events taking place at home and abroad prevented total immersion in the music.

    Over and over, I kept wondering what those of us who practice our art in public could do as war broke out in Gaza. And as usual, there was no answer. Organizations and individual artists can make statements, but ultimately we are powerless to do much more than offer some sort of diversion for a little while to those who attend our performances. The audience comes to the concert hall or opera house to escape the outside world. And, to an even greater degree, so do my fellow musicians, who work tirelessly to get to the heart and soul of the music we play.