Berlioz
theartsdesk in Setúbal: Youth and music under the jacarandasWednesday, 02 July 2014
José Mourinho is Setúbal’s most famous son. Non-Portuguese readers are not expected to know the two other celebrities most feted by this extraordinary port city on the estuary of the River Sado, with miles of sandy beaches opposite where a school of... Read more... |
Benvenuto Cellini, English National OperaFriday, 06 June 2014
Tumblers, confetti, stiltwalkers, flags, crowds, a giant skull, and that’s just the overture. If anyone thought that Terry Gilliam might struggle to match the scope, scale or impact of 2011’s Damnation of Faust with his follow-up then they’re... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Soprano Corinne WintersSunday, 01 June 2014
In February 2013 Corinne Winters created an absolute sensation in her operatic European debut when Peter Konwitschny’s starkly intense staging of Verdi’s La Traviata arrived at English National Opera. Vocally, physically, dramatically her Violetta... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Robin TicciatiSaturday, 10 May 2014
Poised when I met him six weeks ago between 40th anniversary celebrations of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, of which he has been a shaping chief conductor for the past five years and putting his new music directorship of Glyndebourne... Read more... |
Donose, Philharmonia, Gardner, RFHFriday, 04 April 2014
Arise, Sir Edward – Gardner, not Elgar, whose First Symphony the former conducted last night. Well, maybe a knighthood’s too premature; although the daft honours system has rewarded others in the operatic world for less, and Gardner has already... Read more... |
St Lawrence String Quartet, San Francisco Symphony, Tilson Thomas, RFHSunday, 16 March 2014
A voyage around Beethoven by Ives and John Adams, and then beyond him by Berlioz, added up to a vintage San Francisco Symphony programme from its music director Michael Tilson Thomas. Forty years on from his first concert with SFS, he’s still... Read more... |
L'Enfance du Christ, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Roth, BarbicanSunday, 15 December 2013
For seasonal fare that’s also profound, few pre-Christmas weekends in London can ever have been richer than this one. Hearts battered by John Adams’ nativity oratorio El Niño last night, one hoped for more soothing medicine this afternoon in the... Read more... |
Opinion: Why I won't attend Gergiev's concertsMonday, 04 November 2013
Last Thursday I was giving a talk before a concert in Birmingham, decently but not inspiringly conducted by the much-liked Vasily Sinaisky. Had I been in London I could have taken my pick between two greater interpreters, Valery Gergiev launching... Read more... |
La Damnation de Faust, LSO, Gergiev, BarbicanMonday, 04 November 2013
Berlioz wanted to make the first arrival of his demon onstage unforgettable, with an extreme sound effect - violins and violas marked sul ponticello, strettissimo, starting fortissimo, with interjections from three trombones snarling in minor... Read more... |
Philharmonia Orchestra, Salonen, Royal Festival HallFriday, 27 September 2013
“Lighting design”. Are there two more terrifying words to find in a concert booklet? Since I last went to a normal concert, it seems that the lunacy that is the tradition of bathing audience and stage in as much light as possible as if we were some... Read more... |
Prom 33: Uchida, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, JansonsSaturday, 10 August 2013
Precious few musicians can instill such a sense of intimacy into their playing as to have us believing that the Royal Albert Hall is the Wigmore Hall and that their performance is for an audience of one and not six thousand. Mitsuko Uchida is... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Timo Andres, Berlioz, SchoenbergSaturday, 03 August 2013
Timo Andres: Home Stretch Timo Andres (piano), Metropolis Ensemble/Andrew Cyr (Nonesuch)Begin with Timo Andres’s realisation of Mozart’s Coronation piano concerto. Mozart omitted to write down the soloist’s left hand part, so Andres provides... Read more... |
