BBC recruits Israeli artist for its New Generation

BBC recruits Israeli artist for its New Generation

News

norman lebrecht

June 24, 2021

BBC Radio 3 has published its lates crop of New-Gen Artists. Among them is the promising Israeli pianist Tom Borrow.

Helen Charlston mezzo-soprano (UK)
Konstantin Krimmel baritone (Germany)
Kunal Lahiry collaborative piano (Indian-American)
Maria Duenas violin (Spain)
Mithras Trio piano trio (UK)
Quatuor Mona string quartet (France)
Tom Borrow piano (British-Israeli)
William Thomas bass (UK)

Tom’s first NGA engagement will be this August with the Ravel G-major Concerto in Belfast with the Ulster Orchestra.

Comments

  • Nik says:

    What is “collaborative piano”? Is that the new term for an accompanist?

  • John Borstlap says:

    But is he good, and/or representative of his gen?

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O4PJjb8IiH4

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6UMIfR6tzT4

    Yes, and no – musicians are too individual to represent a group.

    The Franck above is stunning.

  • Rachelle Goldberg says:

    Tom Borrow is a terrific pianist. I saw him perform at the Buchmann-Mehta School of Music Tel Aviv University 2017/18 He is studying with Professor Tomer Lev. Someone to watch out for

  • Peter San Diego says:

    Are the other artists chopped liver?

  • Nijinsky says:

    I don’t think I’ve ever heard the Ravel concerto before. The subtlety of being able to color these phrases, and not…..
    Not lose the legato, how the notes came together by themselves to become music in Ravel’s mind
    Not lose the emotion
    Not lose what happens by itself from that magical involuntary world where music comes from

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iK8z2de8TyA

    • John Borstlap says:

      The slow movement of that concerto is played in a too romantic way. Ravel obviously meant a purity of line which does not need emphasis to make its point. But everybody plays it as a romantic ‘song’.

      • Nijinsky says:

        I don’t agree, you can have your ideology of how it should be played, but you aren’t some law unto yourself of how everyone should play it. I don’t think it’s played in a too romantic way. I don’t even think it’s played in a romantic way, it’s played in non constrained manner allowing the flexibility of the line to come through. Thank God then, that this great artist wasn’t hampered by you throwing your insults at him, when he didn’t do things your way. He plays it his way, and that’s why he’s himself, and that’s his part of being human, regardless of your constraints or how you think nature should have made him.

      • Nijinsky says:

        It’s awfully nice, and such an amazing example of justice for the arts that you try to brainwash me Mr. Borstlap, as to how someone else should play Ravel. Unfortunately, I don’t have the insecurities that I need to believe you to walk around with a chip on my shoulder. Sorry. And I think this artist does bring out a purity of line, because it’s unconstrained.

      • Nijinsky says:

        What gets to me is how so often a true talent, before they can even find out how they relate to their art, they get beaten down with “how-it-should-be-done,” in relationship to someone’s ideology. That anyone would venture to do anything as innocence as liberate the colors and flexibility in a line of Ravel so that there’s a reason the music exists rather than its beaten down with some mental construct of how it should be…..

        Something akin to Dickens Circumlocution Office in little Dorrit, where it has to be such constructed ideology that it can’t be how things work, because then there would be nothing to indoctrinate others about would it speak for itself, thus only those partake that have learned how not to do it.

        If purity is some fundamentalist indoctrination, there you have the problems on the planet, between countries, between people and what’s lacking of what it is to be human.

  • V.Lind says:

    Why is an Israeli artist singled out for the headline? Why not the Indian-American? (Which, I believe, not being into multi-cult but rather favouring the melting pot, Americans would call American)? And is he Israeli, or British-Israeli? Is he somehow more featured in this group than others? I’m not sure I get the point.

    • N Mancini says:

      Usual bbc one sided tripe.

      • V.Lind says:

        The BBC had nothing to do with this headline. Their material lists all the artists and does not single one out. My question is why he is singled out here.

        • Saxon says:

          NL is worried about whether the BBC is “anti Israeli” or “anti-semetic” (many people think they are “the same thing”). So he is very sensitive to whether the BBC would include someone like this on their programme.

    • Andrew476 says:

      Someone is full of hate

      • V.Lind says:

        Who? I see a list of young artists who have been chosen. I am just asking if this one is primum inter pares, as the BBC has not elected to make a special mention of him.

    • Michel Lemieux says:

      You can headline whatever you want on your own website, V.

      Lebrecht has been a long-standing champion of Israeli musicians. It’s a small country which produces a very high number (per capita) of world-class classical musicians.

      This is not about politics.

  • fflambeau says:

    Toy Boy? Look at the provocative position of the hands. It is not only scantily-clad women who are used in marketing, these days.

    • BRUCEB says:

      Yes, nothing screams “sex” like a hand halfway into a pocket, with the other hand just kind of hanging there. /eyeroll

      I mean, he’s pretty, but seriously?

  • MOST READ TODAY: