Baroque
Classical CDs Weekly: Falla, Rameau, Nikolaus HarnoncourtSaturday, 31 March 2012
De Falla: Nights in the Gardens of Spain, The Three-Cornered Hat, Homenajes Jean-Efflaum Bavouzet (piano), Raquel Lojendio (soprano), BBC Philharmonic/Juanjo Mena (Chandos)Spanish conductor Juanjo Mena has recently succeeded Gianandra Noseda... Read more... |
FAR, Wayne McGregor|Random Dance, Sadler's Wells TheatreTuesday, 20 March 2012
This is a great spring for dance-lovers. Tucked in for two nights at Sadler's Wells (catch it again tonight) is the return of Wayne McGregor's FAR, well timed to appear just before his latest ballet at Covent Garden next week. Uniquely among... Read more... |
Bach Cantatas: celeb seeks crowd-fundingTuesday, 20 March 2012
Fancy buying a new recording of Bach’s Cantatas? It’ll cost only slightly more than a regular CD. The only snag is it hasn’t been recorded yet, which is where you come in.Over the last few years Sir John Eliot Gardiner has been steadily releasing a... Read more... |
Trpčeski, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tognetti, Queen Elizabeth HallWednesday, 30 November 2011
A music broadcaster commented after last night’s concert by the Australian Chamber Orchestra that all the hype, all the talk about the surf-obsessed, free-spirited leader Richard Tognetti, had left her half expecting them to surf onto the stage of... Read more... |
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Gardiner, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 10 November 2011
We all know the question at issue last night at the Young Vic where Hamlet was opening, but down the road in the Queen Elizabeth Hall it was one of applause. Clapping between movements is a well-worn topic; we’ve had editorial, essays, even an RPS... Read more... |
Les Arts Florissants, Union ChapelFriday, 14 October 2011
“They should have trance nights here,” I heard a young man say to his girlfriend as we entered the domed, craggy splendour of Islington’s Union Chapel. Still a working church, this Victorian Gothic monster is an architectural Escher fantasy of... Read more... |
Frans Hals at the Metropolitan Museum, New YorkMonday, 29 August 2011
If one comes away with any certainty from the New York exhibition Frans Hals at the Metropolitan Museum (until 10 October) it is that the Golden Age Dutch master (1582/3-1666) keenly understood and sympathised with his fellow human beings. Whether... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Martinpelto, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Runnicles/ Tallis ScholarsFriday, 05 August 2011
Leonard Tanner, my old choirmaster, used to say that Brahms was a composer with his feet in three different camps: the Baroque period, the Classical period, and the Romantic. Possibly he had a fourth leg too, poking into the music of the future.... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Les Talens Lyriques/ BBC Philharmonic, NosedaMonday, 01 August 2011
According to Classic FM’s managing director Darren Henley there are many people who find the term “chamber music” offputting, if not downright intimidating. Perhaps the best explanation of the genre comes from a musicologist who has termed it “the... Read more... |
The Rite of Spring, Peckham Car Park/ Yellow Lounge, London Bridge ArchesSaturday, 30 July 2011
Forget almost everything you thought you knew about classical music. Forget the regulations and the rigmarole, the politeness and the prissiness. Forget the preening institutions. Forget the vocal doom-sayers. Classical music is in the throes of an... Read more... |
La Verità in Cimento, Garsington OperaTuesday, 21 June 2011
With so many of the premieres and rediscoveries of the summer opera season coming from the bel canto repertoire, it’s lovely to see Garsington Opera striking out in a different direction. Following on from last year’s L'Incoronazione di Dario (and... Read more... |
The Infernal Comedy, Barbican HallSaturday, 18 June 2011
The Barbican committed a grave sin last night. It forgot that people matter more than art. That their responsibility to the families of those who Jack Unterweger (the subject of John Malkovich's music drama, The Infernal Comedy)... Read more... |
