Tchaikovsky
Eugene Onegin, Royal Opera review - the heart left coldWednesday, 25 September 2024
Emotional truth is elusive in Tchaikovsky’s “lyrical scenes” after Pushkin’s verse-novel. Overstress every feeling, as conductor Henrik Nánási did last night, and you leave some of us in the audience feeling manipulated. Play it cool, which is what... Read more... |
Blu-ray: The Music LoversTuesday, 13 August 2024
Discussing 1971’s The Music Lovers with writer John Baxter, director Ken Russell suggested, among other things, that “music and facts don’t mix”. They don’t always line up here, but this film does stand up as a worthy successor to the BBC’s Delius:... Read more... |
Prom 17, Kozhukhin, RPO, Petrenko review - four tripartite masterpiecesFriday, 02 August 2024
Under its master music director, the once-torpid Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has given us some of the most brilliant concerts of the 2023-4 season. Their Prom together changed course from the Elgar/Rachmaninov theme and dared even more, placing... Read more... |
Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium review - making a moveMonday, 11 March 2024
Continuing the relationship with choreographer Örjan Andersson – who choreographed their landmark project Goldberg Variations – Scottish Ensemble gave the first of their latest movement-inspired performance, Impulse: Music in Motion in Glasgow on... Read more... |
Swan Lake, Royal Ballet review - grand, eloquent, superbFriday, 08 March 2024
In uncertain times like these, the single thing that every flagship ballet company needs is a convincing iteration of a 19th-century blockbuster. New works are all very well and necessary, but they don’t have the pulling power of Swan Lake, or the... Read more... |
Tchaikovsky's Wife review - husband materialSunday, 31 December 2023
The movies haven’t been kind to Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. The Nutcracker Suite was a highlight of Walt Disney’s Fantasia (1940) perhaps, but the 1969 Soviet biopic directed by Igor Talankin was tedious and Ken Russell’s The Music Lovers, released... Read more... |
Nutcracker, Tuff Nutt Jazz Club, Royal Festival Hall review - a fresh, compelling, adult take on a festive favouriteWednesday, 13 December 2023
Intimacy isn’t everything, but there’s nothing like seeing dance live and up close. A good seat in a large theatre will give you the whole stage picture but lose the detail. Lost too will be that quasi-visceral connection with the movement.A... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Polkas, fans and chestnut treesSaturday, 28 October 2023
Kabeláč: Eight Preludes, Motifs from Exotic Lands, Smetana: Dreams Jan Bartoš (piano) (Supraphon)Anyone interested in 20th century music should investigate Supraphon’s box set of Miloslav Kabeláč’s eight symphonies. when you've done that, get... Read more... |
Connolly, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - beginning with a fanfareMonday, 02 October 2023
The opening concert of a new season often tends to be a statement of intent, and this was John Storgårds’ opener of the first full season since he was appointed chief conductor of the BBC Philharmonic. He’s hardly a newcomer to them, though, since... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Penitence, pipe smoking and soot spritesSaturday, 05 August 2023
Otto Klemperer: The Warner Classics Remastered Edition (Warner Classics)The young Otto Klemperer’s conducting career was encouraged by no less than Gustav Mahler, Klemperer’s meteoric rise leading him to become director of Berlin’s Kroll Opera... Read more... |
Goosby, RSNO, Bringuier, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - lyrical colour and dynamic brillianceThursday, 27 April 2023
When a publication as venerable as Gramophone features an artist on its front cover, it’s a surefire sign that they’ve hit the big time. This month that honour fell to young American violinist Randall Goosby and, coincidentally, he was the soloist... Read more... |
Osborne, RSNO, Chan, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - cinematic sweep and surging dramaTuesday, 21 March 2023
Two women featured prominently in this programme; the one a composer and the other a conductor.To the composer first. Long before she hit New York big time, Anna Clyne was at Edinburgh University, so there’s a strong link with Scotland that the... Read more... |
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