How thrilled were we to interview young cellist Nicolas Altstaedt for October's austere Black & White issue of Auditorium Magazine? Pretty dang thrilled. Onstage, the soft-spoken, Berlin-based soloist delights with his two cellos, young and old -- a 1789 Giulio Cesare Gigli and a 2012 Robert König -- turned out in scruffy-lux Issey Miyake gear. Offstage, he's a dream boss as the artistic director of the Lockenhaus Chamber Music Festival. Download some black & white swoon right here.
We also reviewed the Jan Vogler & Hélène Grimaud Schumann Fantasiestücke & Dichterliebe CD, a super-friend dialogue between two artists, Vogler's cello ripping through Heine's poems. Novel and unexpected, this one's not for the Lieder purists.
The latest issue (which is sadly OC-free) switches back to color.