Classical Recommendations
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Horns, Handley and the Heavens - My Life In Music
24th Jun 2024
Our Head of Digital David Smith introduces some of the recordings that have moulded his musical tastes - from Romantic orchestral heavyweights to early sacred music.
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From Bach to Westlake … and Bach
17th Jun 2024
In the latest instalment of our Recollections series, retired South African Anglican priest and amateur trumpet-player Mike McCoy reflects on some of the recordings which have shaped his musical tastes - featuring artists including Wendy Carlos and Wolfgang Gönnenwein....
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From Boult to Björling - My Life In Music (so far!)
8th May 2024
Our new Product Manager Matthew Ash introduces himself with a whistle-stop tour through some of the recordings which shaped his love of music - including works by Holst, Milhaud, MacMillan and Adès.
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From The Lone Ranger to Rigoletto
14th Mar 2024
In the fifth instalment of our Recollections series, Richard Inverne recounts how impersonating the masked hero to the strains of Rossini’s William Tell Overture as a toddler paved the way to falling in love with bel canto, Verdi, Puccini and more...
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The Unsung Composers of the Golden Age of Hollywood
29th Feb 2024
In the fourth instalment of our Recollections series, Briana Hilton delves into the legacies of three giants of film music: Max Steiner, Franz Waxman and Bernard Herrmann.
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A Lifetime with Bernstein
21st Dec 2023
As Bradley Cooper's Maestro lands on Netflix, our Finance Assistant Sue Nicholls takes time away from the books to reflect on some of the many occasions when Bernstein's music has inspired and moved her.
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A Flashback and a Hope, through Venezuelan Guitar
11th Oct 2023
In the second instalment of our Recollections series, Orlando Guedez Calderin (President of the International Institute of Business Analysis in Colombia) recounts how a 1957 recording of Antonio Lauro's Guitar Concerto No. 1 stirs a host of 'memories and hopes' about his homeland of Venezuela.
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A Life With Shostakovich
26th Sep 2023
In the first instalment of our Recollections series, Hoi F. Cheu PhD (Director of the Centre for Humanities Research and Creativity at Laurentian University and Director of Doran Planetarium) recounts how a teenage encounter with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony shaped his extraordinary dual career - and several close relationships...
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Introducing our Recollections project
21st Aug 2023
Presto Music is a company run by music-lovers, for music-lovers, so this is a call-out for your own personal stories - if you have an interesting tale behind a much-loved recording, we would love you to share it with us...
