Philip Spires commonplace book

I have kept a commonplace book for many years. It's a place where scraps of impressions are filed for future reflection. It's not a diary, it's just a mental scrapbook, concentrating on book reviews, concert reviews, visual arts and some occasional pieces on travel. It is also a place where I occasionally reflect on what I write. Details of my books can be found at http://www.philipspires.co.uk

Showing posts with label classcial music. Show all posts

Wednesday, September 10, 2025

Denia International Piano Festival Programme 2 oct Duo Bringuier-Monakh

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Wednesday, July 23, 2025

Edmon Levon conducts the Valencia Youth Orchestra in Coleridge-Taylor, González Gomá, Rossini and Tchaikovsky, with Ignacio Soler

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In human affairs, enthusiasm is often associated with youth, whereas competence that approaches perfection is usually only possible in mat...

Sunday, July 13, 2025

Carlos Santo plays Tchaikovsky in a remarkable free concert in ADDA, Alicante: En homenaje a D. Rafael Beltran

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This was a free concert “ En homenaje a D. Rafael Beltran. Fundador de la Sociedad de Conciertos de Alicante” who died last month at the age...

Monday, June 16, 2025

ADDA under Josep Vicent in Saint-Saens and Strauss, with Daniel Oyarzabal, Amanda Forsyth and Pinchas Zuckerman

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Stars shine brightly and that shining can cover immense distances. Their light travels in straight lines, unless there is, as Einstein descr...

Tuesday, January 14, 2025

Josep Vicent directs ADDA Simfonica in Rimsky-Korsakov and Bizet, Scheherazade meets Carmen

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When you go to concerts regularly, there are works that tend to appear frequently. After the first few times in the concert hall, there is...

Friday, November 8, 2024

Shunta Morimoto at the Denia International Piano Festival in Bach, Chopin and Liszt

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I don ’ t normally write detailed reviews of chamber music concerts. It ’ s not because they often aren’t memorable, it ’ s just that I te...

Monday, October 28, 2024

Mahler Seven by the Tonhalle Zurich under Paavo Jarvi in ADDA Alicante

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A concert program that devotes 77 minutes to a single work is not commonly encountered. Yes, there are the symphonies of Mahler and Bruckner...

Saturday, October 19, 2024

Paquito D'Rivera and Aaron Copland under Jost Vicent in Adda, Alicante

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Apparently, this was a program of two halves. Meaningless phrases are always the best openings… On the face of it, the first half of this co...

Sunday, September 29, 2024

ADDA Alicante under Josep Vicent begin a new season with Bruckner's Seventh Symphony

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Anton Bruckner was born in 1824, meaning this year is his bicentenary. In recognition of this, the new season of Alicante concerts opened ...

Saturday, May 18, 2024

ADDA Simfonica with Irene Theorin under Josep Vicent in Strauss and Shostakovich

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Concerts seasons often parade a procession of “great works” calculated to promote ticket sales. Anything less well known is often regarded...

Sunday, May 5, 2024

A dream of a concert: Tomas Brauner and Senja Rummukainen join ADDA Simfonica in Smetana, Prokofiev and Martinu

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“Such stuff as dreams are made on, we are all spirits and are melted into air” are words that ought to remind us of the ephemeral, temporal ...

Friday, March 1, 2024

The Desconstruction of Mahler: ADDA under Josep Vicent with Patrick Messina in Adams, Brahms and Berio

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This was a very special concert. It will live in the memory for as long as breath continues. It was nothing less than a triumph of artistic ...

Wednesday, January 24, 2024

Something special - Pablo González, Francesco Piemontesi and the Dresden Philharmonic in Beethoven and Strauss

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Something special was experienced by the ADDA audience last night. On the face of it, the concert was almost conventional, as concerts somet...

Monday, December 18, 2023

Gustavo Gimeno and the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in Sibelius and Mahler

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Gustavo Gimeno conducted the Orquestra de la Comunitat Valenciana in the latest concert of ADDA’s Pasions season. The program juxtaposed two...

Thursday, December 14, 2023

Josep Vicent conducts Beethoven and Montsalvatge in Alicante

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Beethoven ’ s Ninth Symphony is one of those works I can hear anytime I want. I play it to myself in my head - at least, I think I do. It ...

Saturday, November 25, 2023

Pimchas Zukerman plays Elgar with Orchestra National de Lyon under Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider in ADDA Alicante

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When writing reviews, the pressure to express opinion often leads to overstatement. It is a position. I usually try to avoid, and I do so by...

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About Me

philipspires: I was born in Wakefield and was brought up in Sharslton, a mining Village. I went to London University and then became a maths teacher, working initially as a volunteer teacher in Kenya. I spent sixteen years in London, in Balham and Islington. In 1992, I left Britain for Brunei and then Zayed University in Abu Dhabi. I currently live in La Nucia, near Benidorm in Spain. I am interested in the relationship between nature and nurture, birthright and experience. Themes of culture and identity and their relation to economic and social roles underpin my writing. What we are born into relates to what we become, but we are rarely in control. What others do, our interests and intellects and the way we choose to earn a living, all of these shape us into what we become. It may be that culture is the sum of all assumptions that others make on our behalf, whereas identity represents our reactions to them. I did a PhD on the effects of education in economic development in the Philippines. I was President of Alfas del Pi Music Society for twelve years.

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