We last spoke with composer and pianist Timo Andres early in the lockdown, after he made a series of videos for a recital program that had been cancelled at Carnegie Hall. Over the past few months, Andres has refined the art of filming himself at the piano, and uses both audio and video recording as part of his creative process. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next T...
Oct 28, 2020•1 hr 9 min
Pianist Simone Dinnerstein used the lockdown to record an album of music by Philip Glass and Franz Schubert. We discuss how she built her career, how she recorded this album, and talk about Schubert's wonderful last piano sonata. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest: Simone Dinnerstein Show notes : A Character of Quiet Paapa Essiedu in Hamlet at the Roy...
Oct 14, 2020•42 min
Is stereo the right way to listen to music? After all, it is an artificial attempt to reproduce the sound of live music. Perhaps we should revolt against the tyranny of the sweet spot. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : Grateful Dead June 1976 box set Bob and Ray Throw a Stereo Spectacular How To: Position Desktop Speakers BOSE 201 Bookshelf Sp...
Sep 30, 2020•31 min
Following our discussion of CDs in episode #190, we continue our discussion about these plastic discs, mainly because Doug bought some new audio gear and is now CD-obsessed. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : Episode #190 - Nostalgic about CDs Elizabethtown The Curious Case of Benjamin Button Wendy Brooke on Twitter @ProgRockers The story of th...
Sep 16, 2020•31 min
We begin an irregular series of key albums that stand out in the history of music. For our first foray into this type of discussion, we talk about The Rolling Stones' Exile on Main Street. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : The Renaissance Men of Music Exile on Main Street Exile on Main Street (Wikipedia) Stones in Exile (Wikipedia) Robert Fran...
Sep 02, 2020•34 min
We wax nostalgic about CDs, those plastic (and partly metal) discs that changed the music industry starting in the mid-1980s, and whose popularity has waned since the rise of streaming. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : CD Text to CD Info AppleScript Dave’s Picks Volume 34 FNAC Goldberg Variations by Kenneth Gilbert Compact disc bronzing (Wiki...
Aug 19, 2020•26 min
A reviewer suggested that we mentioned John Cage in this podcast as a "cheap marketing ploy." That made use think about taste: highbrow, lowbrow, and unibrow. We reflect on whether we are really the "Renaissance men of music." Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : John Cage Trust Episode #186 - Harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani Episode #7 – Music and ...
Aug 05, 2020•28 min
Kathryn Williams plays the flute, and, because of some health issues, has a unique approach to the breath. In addition to being a free diver, she has been commissioning pieces of music for one single breath. And she's going to try to break the Guinness world record for the longest sustained note on a wind instrument. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest...
Jul 22, 2020•38 min
John Wyver's company Illuminations produces films of live performances: theater, dance, opera, and music. He joins us to discuss the future of live performances in what he calls The After, that period when Covid-19 is just a memory. Will live performances be able to start again even if there isn't a vaccine? How can social distancing allow live performances to return? Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what ke...
Jul 08, 2020•42 min
We meet harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani, who is showing how the harpsichord is no longer an instrument just for "old" music. His latest recording features contemporary music for harpsichord and electronics. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Mahan Esfahani Musique? Modern and electro-acoustic works for harpsichord Show notes : Wigmore Hall The Poems o...
Jun 24, 2020•52 min
Plex is a great way to manage your media library. Doug and Kirk discuss how they use it. Note: we recorded this episode before the lockdown began, but held off publishing it because we had a number of interviews with musicians in lockdown. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Show notes : Plex A Suitable Boy Our next tracks : Ustad Vilayat Khan: From the NCPA...
Jun 10, 2020•20 min
TJ Connelly is a sports DJ: he provides "scores" for live sporting events, such as baseball, football, and hockey games. Since the lockdown, he's been out of work, and he has been focusing his attention on Uncertain Times, a daily streaming radio show. We talk with him about what it means to score live sports, and how his streaming show is reconnecting him with real radio. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is wh...
May 29, 2020•49 min
Timo Andres is a young composer and pianist, nominated for the Pulitzer Prize in 2016. We discuss his music, and how he missed his first solo recital at Carnegie Hall du to the coronavirus lockdown, and decided to make home videos of all the works to present his program to the public. (Apologies for the audio; we made some mistakes when recording.) Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks...
May 22, 2020•1 hr 2 min
Oliver Craske has just published the first biography of the legendary Indian musician Ravi Shankar. Craske knew and worked with Shankar near the end of his life, and carried out extensive research to tell the tale of the man who brought Indian music to the west. (Apologies for the poor Skype audio quality.) Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Oliver ...
May 15, 2020•36 min
Anne Midgette resigned as classical music critic for the Washington Post a few months ago, but she is well placed to discuss the dangers facing live performances of classical music in The After. And she tells us about the historical novel she's writing about the woman who built pianos for Beethoven. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Anne Midgette A...
May 08, 2020•43 min
We talk with harpsichordist, conductor, and "general music addict" Richard Egarr, about original performance practice in early music. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Richard Egarr Show notes : Richard Egarr on Harmonia Mundi Richard Egarr on Linn Records Academy of Ancient Music Goldberg Variations Johann Sebastian Bach's tuning How Equal Tempera...
May 01, 2020•40 min
We talk with pianist Marc-André Hamelin, whose repertoire, in more than 60 recordings, covers many little-known composers, as well as a number of twentieth-century works, by composers such as Ives, Rzewski, and Feldman. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Marc-André Hamelin Show notes : Marc-André Hamelin on Hyperion Records Marc-André Hamelin stream...
Apr 24, 2020•43 min
We talk with Ian Bostridge, Kirk's second-favorite lieder singer, about life in lockdown, and about Schubert's Winterreise, the song cycle that Bostridge is best known for, through his many performances, recordings, films, and a book he wrote about it. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Ian Bostridge Show notes : Lieder (Wikipedia) Ian Bostridge – a...
Apr 17, 2020•40 min
Michael Connelly writes crime fiction, and his character Harry Bosch loves jazz. We talk with Michael about how he decided what music Bosch liked, and how he uses music in the novels and TV series. Help support The Next Track by making regular donations via Patreon. We're ad-free and self-sustaining so your support is what keeps us going. Thanks! Support The Next Track . Guest : Michael Connelly The Murder Book Podcast Sound of Redemption – The Frank Morgan Story Music from Bosch playlist (curat...
Apr 14, 2020•35 min
A lot of musicians, suddenly faced with no opportunities for public performance, are opting to stream live from their homes. Andy Doe joins us to discuss what it means for all the musicians to have to build streaming studios in their homes from scratch, and gives tips on how best to set up cameras, lights, and microphones. Guest : Andy Doe Show notes : Tim Cook's video Rode NT-USB Mini , a small, inexpensive USB microphone with good audio quality May Morning - Magdalen College Impulse response r...
Apr 10, 2020•34 min
We chat with violinist Alina Ibragimova, who is taking advantage of the lockdown to learn the Paganini caprices in her home in London. Guest : Alina Ibragimova Alina Ibragimova on Hyperion Records The Alina Ibragimova Violin Playlist on Apple Music Show notes : Alina Ibragimova and Cédric Tiberghien Review of Rolf Wallin violin concerto, Proms 2018 Bach: Sonatas and Partitas for solo violin Our next tracks : Takemitsu: From Me Flows What You Call Time (CD); Berliner Philharmoniker & Yutaka S...
Apr 07, 2020•30 min
In this episode, we talk with the pianist and author Stephen Hough, about how the lockdown is affecting him, how he has "the backside of a rhinoceros," and we discuss how classical concerts could change in the future. Guest : Stephen Hough Angela Hewitt on Twitter Stephen Hough on Hyperion Records The Stephen Hough Piano Playlist an Apple Music Rough Ideas: Reflections on Music and More Show notes : I miss concerts but solo music-making seems more sublime than ever (Guardian) MacArthur Fellows E...
Apr 03, 2020•34 min
In the first of a number of out-of-band episodes that we're planning to release in the coming weeks, we talk with pianist Angela Hewitt, best known for her extraordinary recordings of all of Bach's keyboard works. Guest : Angela Hewitt Angela Hewitt on Twitter Angela Hewitt on Hyperion Records The Angela Hewitt Bach Playlist an Apple Music The Angela Hewitt Baroque Playlist on Apple Music Show notes : Led by the hand (article about Murray Perahia's thumb injury) Virtuoso mourns beloved £150,000 ...
Mar 31, 2020•35 min
These are difficult times for many people, who are now required to stay at home. Music can help us get through this. In this "two guys not in a pub" episode, Doug and Kirk reflect on social isolation and music. Show notes : Bus-sized fatberg weighing 40 tonnes cleared from London sewer GrimeGran's Twitter feed The Dropkick Murphys - Streaming Up From Boston Royal Shakespeare Company in cinemas National Theatre Live Dead & Company YouTube channel (lots of videos, including full concerts) The ...
Mar 25, 2020•31 min
While there are lots of reasons to opt for minimal audio equipment, for some people there is an enduring allure for vintage stereo amps and receivers from the hi-fi heydays of the 1970s. The time when audio gear had knobs and dials and VU meters, like the fins and grilles on 1950s cars. We discuss our lust for those baroque audio devices of yore. Show notes : How a Digital Guy Fell in Love with a Vintage Stereo Receiver Braun Regie 550 CEV550 Dieter Rams Design Flickr stream of vintage hi-fi gea...
Mar 11, 2020•28 min
Ashley Kahn wrote the book on Miles Davis's Kind of Blue, the jazz album everyone owns if they one at least one jazz album. We talk with Ashley about the recording of Kind of Blue, and about its legacy. (Apologies for the audio issues.) Guest : Ashley Kahn Kind of Blue: The Making of the Miles Davis Masterpiece Show notes : Miles Davis: Kind of Blue Glenn Gould's 1955 and 1981 recordings of Bach's Goldberg Variations Episode #1 – Songs to Albums to Songs Miles Davis: Ascenseur Pour L'Echafaud: O...
Feb 26, 2020•36 min
We talk with Kyle Devine, author of a new book about the environmental impact of music recordings, which raises a number of issues that we had never previously considered. Guest : Kyle Devine Decomposed: The Political Ecology of Music Show notes : Nightmares on wax: the environmental impact of the vinyl revival Shellac (Wikipedia) Vinyl Record Production in Peril After Fire at California Plant What the Vinyl Records Comeback Really Looks Like… Phtalate (Wikipedia) William T. Vollmann: Carbon Ide...
Feb 12, 2020•41 min
Andy Doe joins us again to discuss the perils of having software-controlled audio equipment. After the Affaire Sonos, when the company announced that a lot of its older products would become "obsolete," perhaps it's time to think more carefully about how long hardware we buy will last, when it depends on software. Guest : Andy Doe Show notes : Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance LSO Live Starting in May 2020, some of our oldest products will no longer receive software updates or new f...
Jan 29, 2020•37 min
Chris Connaker of Audiophile Style renovated the attic of his house and turned it into the ultimate listening room. He then tuned it using amazing speakers, acoustic treatment, and DSP (digital signal processing). He explains how he went about this, and how the room itself is perhaps the most important element in an audio system. Guest : Chris Connaker Show notes : A New Listening Room Part One A New Listening Room Part Two: Acoustics, Speakers, DSP REW (Room EQ Wizard) DSP - Digital Signal Proc...
Jan 15, 2020•35 min
For the first episode of the new decade - the last one recorded in the previous decade - Doug and Kirk look back on their year in music. Show notes : Honkyoku (Kirk's shakuhachi website) The Zen of Everything (Kirk's podcast) Rode Procaster microphone Yamaha AG03 mixer Episode #147 - Kirk's New Sonos Amp KEF Q350 speakers Q Acoustics 3020I speakers Amazon Echo Dot Tivoli Audio model One Episode #162 - Apple's New Improved macOS Media Apps Doug's AppleScripts Time Out: We Don’t Give Music Enough ...
Jan 02, 2020•35 min
