Classical music
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 11 September 2010
Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers are something of a musical enigma. Neither their true pitch nor order of movements, their origins, nor even whether they were intended as a complete sequence is known for certain, prompting scholar Denis Arnold to conclude... Read more... |
Röschmann, Collins, BBCPO, Noseda, Royal Albert HallThursday, 09 September 2010
Maybe it's a truism that most instrumental music, at least before World War One, aspires to the condition of song. Few have gone farther in that respect than the composers of the three purely orchestral works in last night's Prom. Add to the mix a... Read more... |
Edward Gardner: another live wire for BirminghamThursday, 09 September 2010As the glorious parade of British orchestras at the Proms has showcased, it's never been a better time for the native music scene across the board. Now the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, currently enjoying a honeymoon period with its Music... Read more... |
What I'm Reading: Conductor Peter PhillipsWednesday, 08 September 2010
Next to choose some favourite books is conductor Peter Phillips, whose touring lifestyle can make "summer reading" something of a year-round phenomenon. When Phillips founded the vocal ensemble the Tallis Scholars in 1973 it was a hobby among... Read more... |
Orchestre National de France, Gatti, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 08 September 2010
It was one of those moments that every conductor (and orchestra) dreads: “The Procession of the Sage” from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is in rip-roaring full cry, percussion grinding and scratching, high trumpet screeching – but Daniele Gatti,... Read more... |
RSNO, Denève; Ensemble Matheus, Spinosi, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 07 September 2010
Is that asking a lot? Probably not, considering what's already been achieved at this year's BBC Proms. Looking back on it, last night felt implausibly rich yet gloriously digestible, too, at least in retrospect. I couldn't have predicted that I... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: René Jacobs InterviewSunday, 05 September 2010
René Jacobs: singer, conductor, scholar, archivist, alchemist, teacher. In recent years he's been "rehabilitating" the Mozart operas for the Harmonia Mundi label, eradicating 19th-century retouchings and stylistic anomalies in order to restore these... Read more... |
The Lying Down Concert: Earthrise, Royal Opera HouseSunday, 05 September 2010
We should lie down to listen to music much more often. Gravity pulls away the thought and frown lines, smoothes the intellectual tracks and folds on the face, while you feel the blood in your head pumping lushly to dreamier parts of your brain.... Read more... |
Mattila, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Royal Albert HallSunday, 05 September 2010
My abiding memory of the Berlin Philharmonic’s second Prom under Sir Simon Rattle on Saturday will be of 6,000 people listening with rapt, or at any rate silent, concentration to Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Has it ever happened before? Perhaps... Read more... |
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Royal Albert HallFriday, 03 September 2010
Call me a paradoxically wary old Mahler nut, but I reckon that given 24 months of anniversary overkill, it might keep things fresh to catch each of the symphonies live no more than once a year. So, having heard an Everest of a First Symphony from... Read more... |
Unlikely soulmates: Beyoncé and Turnage hammer out that ringThursday, 02 September 2010Did anyone find the aged-rocker thrash of Mark Anthony Turnage's new work at the Proms, Hammered Out - a bit of a disappointment to Edward Seckerson - oddly familiar? This brilliant YouTube remix will tell you why. And for all the orchestral flash... Read more... |
Sarah Willis, First Lady of the French HornThursday, 02 September 2010
No woman has ever achieved a higher profile on the French horn than Sarah Willis. Why? It's not as if she is a renowned soloist. But she is the first and only woman to join the brass section of the world's most celebrated and widely followed... Read more... |
