Berlin Philharmonic
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Barbican HallTuesday, 22 February 2011![]() Sir Simon Rattle's clever programming struck again last night, showing us that musical neoclassicism - for want of a better word, which would be something like neo-everything - didn't begin with Stravinsky, whose Apollo ballet is surely his most... Read more... |
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Queen Elizabeth HallMonday, 21 February 2011![]() Anything anyone else can do, we can do better, seemed the mantra last night. It's probably a bit churlish to accuse the finest orchestra in the world of arrogance - surely that's their job? But the first night of the Berlin Philharmonic's four-... Read more... |
Competition: Sarah Willis horn CDs to give awayMonday, 06 December 2010![]() We’ve got some CDs to give away, a recording of French horn music by Sarah Willis, the First Lady of the French Horn, who is also second horn in the Berlin Philharmonic. Our interview with Sarah in early September has proved to be one of the most... 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... |
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... |
Vuvuzela: a final note from BerlinThursday, 22 July 2010The vuvuzela's long and literally monotonous journey from Soweto to the very epicentre of high European culture is complete. During the World Cup they blew it with incessant vigour on the terraces of South Africa's stadiums. Now they're blowing it... Read more... |
Now Newsnight is at it...Tuesday, 06 July 2010The BBC's cultural conscience has been pricked, it would seem, by the World Cup now reaching its endgame in South Africa. Either that or departments don't talk to one another. Singing for Life, Sunday night's documentary on BBC Four about the young... Read more... |
All Das Jazz: the Berlin Phil swing with Wynton MarsalisTuesday, 15 June 2010![]() "It was only on Monday afternoon that the final scores of three of the movements were put into my hands," says Sir Simon Rattle, chuckling at the memory and casting a mock glance of disapproval at the composer and trumpeter Wynton Marsalis who is... Read more... |
The Berlin Philharmonic European Concert 2010, Sheldonian Theatre, OxfordSaturday, 01 May 2010![]() "Madness! Madness! Everywhere madness!" The unsung words of cobbler-philosopher Hans Sachs in the third-act prelude to Wagner's Die Meistersinger might seem like an odd opening manifesto for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra's annual May Day... Read more... |
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