Mozart
Classical CDs Weekly: Borgström, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Alec Frank-GemmillSaturday, 28 April 2018
Borgström: Violin Concerto, Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 Eldbjørg Hemsing (violin), Wiener Symphoniker/Olari Elts (BIS)Hjalmar Borgström sounds like the name of a BBC Four gumshoe, a melancholy detective solving crimes in downtown... Read more... |
The Marriage of Figaro, English Touring Opera review - vanilla Mozart still tastes sweetThursday, 26 April 2018
The Fates did not want theartsdesk to review English Touring Opera’s new production of The Marriage of Figaro. The Beast from the East intervened to prevent a colleague from covering it at the Hackney Empire at the start of its tour in February: now... Read more... |
DVD/Blu-ray: Bergman's The Magic FluteFriday, 20 April 2018
Opera on film's most magical offering, better by some way than Joseph Losey's cinematically tricksy Don Giovanni, at last makes it to Region 2 in this BFI dual-format release. I've watched Ingmar Bergman's sublime response to Mozart many times, and... Read more... |
The Moderate Soprano, Duke of York's Theatre review - love and opera with a flinty edgeSaturday, 14 April 2018
"What could be more serious than married life?" asked Richard Strauss, whose operas became a surprising pillar of Glyndebourne's repertoire some time after the early days dramatised in David Hare's play. "Honour" might have been the answer of... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Handel, MozartSaturday, 07 April 2018
Brahms: Symphonies 1-4 Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Robin Ticciati (Linn)Slimmed-down Brahms is more common than it used to be, and geeks will probably cherish a pioneering set recorded in the 1990s by Sir Charles Mackerras with the Scottish... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Lucerne Easter Festival: Haitink, Schiff and an alternative PassionFriday, 30 March 2018
Anyone passionate about great conducting would jump at the chance to hear 89-year-old Bernard Haitink giving three days of masterclasses with eight young practitioners of the art, his eighth and possibly last series in Lucerne (though he's not... Read more... |
Gerhardt, RPO, Payare, RFH review - personality muted by faceless conductingWednesday, 28 March 2018
Former Royal Philharmonic Orchestra principal conductor Charles Dutoit has been exposed, to little surprise from musicians, as something of a roué whose apparent refusal to take "no" for an answer has rubbed up against the new #MeToo world. So his... Read more... |
Glyndebourne Opera Cup - a view from insideTuesday, 27 March 2018
I was on a panel of six critics convened to choose the winner of a special "media award" at the Glyndebourne Opera Cup on Saturday evening. What follows is therefore not a review, but rather a chance to chew over the concept and its highs (and... Read more... |
Goode, BBC Philharmonic, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review – making beautiful musicMonday, 05 March 2018
Just over a year since his Bridgewater Hall début, Ben Gernon appeared with the BBC Philharmonic there again – this time well into his role as their Principal Guest Conductor, yet his first concert with them there since officially taking up the... Read more... |
Clare College Choir, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review – romance and dramaThursday, 01 February 2018
It began in semi-darkness. Appropriate for Arvo Pärt, perhaps – after all, Manchester Camerata have played his music in Manchester Cathedral to great atmospheric effect in the past. But the Choir of Clare College Cambridge, conducted by Graham Ross... Read more... |
Hagen Quartet, Jörg Widmann, Wigmore Hall review – proportion and eleganceWednesday, 31 January 2018
Jörg Widmann writes fast. He is also one of the few young German composers who can write distinctive and idiomatic music without feeling the weight of his country’s musical heritage on his shoulders at every turn. Surprisingly, then, his Clarinet... Read more... |
Louise Alder, James Baillieu, Wigmore Hall review - sensual heat thaws a winter's eveningMonday, 22 January 2018
Rapture, ecstasy, ardour, and a few cheeky fumbles in the bushes – Louise Alder and James Baillieu’s Wigmore recital promised “Chants d’amour” and delivered amply, giving us love in all its bewildering, technicolour variety. From the heady eroticism... Read more... |
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