Author archive: Nick Breckenfield

As part of its focus on Brahms Third String Quartet, originally scheduled for the ‘lost’ 20-21 season, the Dudok Quartet Amsterdam commissioned Dutch writer Jan Brokken for an essay on the work.  Reprinted here with permission and downloadable in both Dutch and English, Brokken’s essay is illustrated with images from the Quartet’s complete recording of […]

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Most films or TV programmes betray the time of their making in some way. Sometimes, it’s an obvious stylistic tick. Sometimes it will be a cultural quality unrecognised at the time, and sometimes it will be the constraints or opportunities of technology. Watch any TV archive footage or old movie and the clues are hard […]

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To Be or Not To Be… There !

Some five months on since my last concert I now find myself once again waiting in anticipation to go out onto the stage. Sweat is forming on my palms, my heart is pounding in my chest, cello in my hand but this time there is the unfamiliar addition of a face mask in solidarity of […]

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Nobody Dares to Cough!

Since the beginning of the Covid-19 crisis it has been the Trust’s aim to be of support not only to our current winners but also our BBT alumni (110 soloists and ensembles in all) in whatever way we can. To accomplish this has been a challenge and a privilege for the BBT team.  Never have […]

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BBT Masked

Sharpening our ears to to the comfort of music   Who has been talking? Who has been singing? Tell me your name, please tell me. Ah your name is Song. And where would you be, since I cannot see you? You are in my heart, you mean, are you sure? And where may I take […]

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The Anchor of Awareness

What strange and uncertain times we are living in. The past few months have challenged the accepted way of doing things in unprecedented ways, both professionally and personally for millions of us. The widespread effect of coronavirus is inevitably something we have not been spared. The most immediate change for our team was the rapid […]

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Adpating to the ‘New Normal’