Haydn
City of London Sinfonia, Southwark Cathedral review – towards Haydn’s last symphonyWednesday, 18 November 2020
Nearly two weeks into the latest lockdown, and already I feel nostalgic about the last day of freedom. You should too, just watching the film released last night of the CLS’s most recent happening in Southwark Cathedral. It’s of the evening... Read more... |
The music of isolation: conductor Ian Page on 18th century 'Sturm und Drang'Saturday, 06 June 2020
My latest recording with The Mozartists is the first in a seven-volume series [reviewed by Graham Rickson in his Classical CDs Weekly column] exploring the so-called “Sturm und Drang” (literally translated, “storm and stress”) movement that swept... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Berlioz, Markus Reuter, The MozartistsSaturday, 06 June 2020
Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Rêverie et caprice, La mort d'Ophélie, Sara la baigneuse Utah Symphony/Thierry Fischer, with Philippe Quint (violin) (Hyperion)Just two big symphonies by French composers can be counted as standard repertoire.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Poulenc, Simon HöfeleSaturday, 28 March 2020
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier George Lepauw (piano) (Orchid Classics)How a pianist tackles the opening C major Prelude of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier can often set the tone for what follows. You’d expect Glenn Gould’s quirky traversal to... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home: 1 - Budapest's Quarantine SoiréesWednesday, 18 March 2020
The great Chilean pianist Claudio Arrau noted of 1920s Berlin that "itimes of trouble, people seek a better life in culture". But what if that culture can no longer be accessed live? Earlier this week theartsdesk brought you reports of two... Read more... |
ECO, Zacharias, Fairfield Halls Croydon review - green-fingered HaydnWednesday, 13 November 2019
Switch off for a phrase or two and it’s easy to miss the point in a Haydn symphony that makes each one of them odd and unique. In No. 74, played last night with understated class by the English Chamber Orchestra, that point occurs in the first... Read more... |
'These were the quartets that made us fall in love with the genre': Dudok Quartet Amsterdam on HaydnSaturday, 02 November 2019
As a string quartet, it’s not easy to distinguish yourselves from others. There are so many string quartets playing the great repertoire, and the level of quartets has never been as high as it is now. Everybody is trying to be unique.We are all part... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Mahler, Matthew WhitesideSaturday, 02 November 2019
Haydn: Opus 20 String Quartets, Nos 2, 3 & 5 Dudok Quartet Amsterdam (Resonus)When discussing Haydn’s music it's difficult to avoid using words like ‘elegant’, ‘witty’ and ‘brio’, but I'll do my best. The writer E.T.A Hoffman should... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Korngold, Philippe ManourySaturday, 14 September 2019
Haydn, arr. Stegmann: Symphonies 44, 75 and 92 Ivan Ilić (Chandos)The easiest way for amateur music lovers to get to know orchestral pieces used to be through piano transcriptions and chamber arrangements. Liszt’s versions of Beethoven... Read more... |
Prom 14: The Creation, BBC Proms Youth Choir, BBC Philharmonic, Wellber - Haydn on the edgeTuesday, 30 July 2019
Hello sun, hello great whales, hello choral counterpoint. If there is a more life-enhancing work than Joseph Haydn’s oratorio The Creation, I’ve yet to hear one. Its sheer joie-de-vivre was a felicitous arrival at the Proms, where it really... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Haydn, SibeliusSaturday, 06 April 2019
Brahms: The Cello Sonatas The Fischer Duo: Norman Fischer (cello), Jeanne Kierman (piano), with Abigail Fischer (mezzo-soprano) (Centaur Records)Comparing Brahms’s pair of cello sonatas is like looking at the two piano concertos. There’s the... Read more... |
Bevan, Padmore, Foster-Williams, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - rural blissMonday, 04 March 2019
Just as our brief, premature spring collapsed into the bluster of Storm Freya, the Enlightenment certainties of Haydn’s more dependable cycle of nature blew into the Royal Festival Hall. Perhaps because its lovely but (for the most part) serene... Read more... |
