BBC
BBC Proms: Der Freischütz, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, GardinerSaturday, 10 September 2011
What kind of work could possibly elbow aside the time-honoured ritual of performing Beethoven's Ninth on the penultimate (ie, the last serious) night of the Proms? The kind that even Beethoven was gobsmacked by. That's the sort of reputation that... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Jansen, Philadelphia Orchestra, DutoitFriday, 09 September 2011
After filing for bankruptcy earlier this year, the Philadelphia Orchestra seemed poised to be the flagship cultural casualty of the financial crisis. Five months on and the bills continue to rise, but in the best Titanic tradition the band are... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Tetzlaff, BBCSO, RobertsonWednesday, 07 September 2011
I’ve noted before the lingering John Wilson effect on the BBC Symphony Orchestra, whereby that pioneer of Hollywood-style authenticity always leaves the strings especially who play for him in good, vibrato-drenched shape for late-Romantic music.... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Mutter, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, HoneckWednesday, 07 September 2011
Earlier this year, conductor Manfred Honeck revealed to me his love of old vinyl: the crackle, the fizz, the lost musical traditions. His performances are marinated in this obsession. The idiosyncrasies of his interpretations hark back to a time... Read more... |
How Facebook Changed the World: The Arab Spring, BBC TwoTuesday, 06 September 2011
It seems unlikely that the founding fathers of social media had in mind a revolution of any greater magnitude than turning your teenager’s bedroom walls inside out and making themselves rich in the process. Still, here we are, less than a decade... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, HoneckMonday, 05 September 2011
In a week that sees Proms visits from two major American orchestras, it fell to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise the curtain for their blue-blooded “Big Five” colleagues the Philadelphia Orchestra. With Tchaikovsky... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Missa Solemnis, London Symphony Orchestra, DavisSunday, 04 September 2011
While revered and respected, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis has never inspired audiences with the same affection as Bach’s B minor Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, or even Mozart’s Coronation or C minor settings. Perhaps it’s the austerity, the monumentality... Read more... |
The Jonathan Ross Show, ITV1Saturday, 03 September 2011
When Michael Parkinson voluntarily took his talk shows off-air, he stayed away for rather more than a decade. Eventually he returned from the wilderness to his natural home on Saturday night and was rightly greeted as the prodigal son of chat.... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Lazić, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer/ Audience Choice PromSaturday, 03 September 2011
"Don't expect polish," announced Ivan Fischer apologetically. "Things vill go rrrong. We may start pieces again." The tuba had been turned into a tombola. The percussionists were playing their buttocks. Someone else was blowing a Hungarian... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Shaham, Israel Philharmonic Orchestra, MehtaFriday, 02 September 2011
Police. Placards. Protests. And bag checks. It meant only one thing. Jews were performing at the Proms. Here we were in the Royal Albert Hall in London in 2011 witnessing a stage of musicians being barracked and abused for having the gall to be... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Ma, BBCSO, RobertsonWednesday, 31 August 2011
Over the past six weeks of the Proms the BBC’s hard-working Symphony Orchestra has performed everything from Britten to Brahms, Verdi to Volans. Their Mahler with Ed Gardner was an operatic epic, their programme of English music for Mark... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Fray, Netherlands Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, Van ZwedenWednesday, 31 August 2011
David Fray certainly has the locks to be a piano virtuoso (eat your heart out, Franzi). And he has the looks, the troubled brow, the pallor and a suitably eccentric manner (the Glenn Gould hunch and hum came out for all the runs). But does he... Read more... |
