Category Archives: Classical Music News

Maestro and Lady Downes End Their Lives

Heartbreaking – but also enormously courageous. With the Maestro “nearly blind and increasingly deaf” and his wife facing terminal pancreatic and liver cancer, they decided to end it together and on their terms. Sir Edward Downes was perhaps best known for his work in the opera pit, but his thrilling recordings of Gliere’s Ilya Murometz and powerful, propulsive Rachmaninoff’s Symphony No.2 remain favorite recordings of mine. Every one of his recordings that I’ve heard yields consistently excellent orchestral playing and character.

More details here.

John McGlinn, 1953-2009

Rumors had been circulating since early in the week that John McGlinn, the brilliant conductor most well known for his extensive research into and revivals of prewar American musical theater works, had died. I somehow missed the Playbill obituary on Tuesday, but saw the New York Times obit online a few hours ago. Minutes later, a mutual friend called; she was as shocked and saddened as I was to have our worst fears confirmed.

I first encountered John back when I was working at BMG Classics.

Continue reading John McGlinn, 1953-2009

Lukas Foss, 1922-2009

Sad news to report: Composer and conductor Lukas Foss has died here in Manhattan. His original works were imbued with as much wit and often subversive humor as “advanced avant-garde compositional techniques.” On the few occasions I had to chat with him, he proved as wryly humorous and spirited and  as Paradigm and Baroque Variations. He was also a remarkably good pianist, and his MCA recording of the Mozart Quintet for Piano and Winds with the Amherst Saxophone Quartet is an unexpected case study in superb chamber musicianship. The Buffalo News has posted an obituary.