Classical music
theartsdesk at the Three Choirs Festival - Purcell, Gabriel Jackson and DurufléThursday, 29 July 2021
King Arthur, as every schoolgirl knows, never actually existed, so it made perfect sense that the Gabrieli Consort’s Worcester Cathedral performance of Purcell’s semi-opera about the mythical British king and his battles with the Saxon incomers made... Read more... |
Opera in Song, Opera Holland Park review – world-class singers in a brilliant recital triptychWednesday, 28 July 2021
Now that the summer opera-house companies have pulled off staged triumphs under the most difficult of circumstances, it’s time to celebrate semi-al-fresco concerts. Not so many have cropped up as I’d hoped after the success of the Battersea Park... Read more... |
Classical CDs: wolves, woodwinds and a masonic funeralSaturday, 17 July 2021
Martha Argerich Edition (EuroArts)Almost eight hours of Martha Argerich on film. What a glorious prospect! This six-DVD set mostly consists of recordings of live concerts. The set was released to celebrate the great Argentinian’s 80th birthday... Read more... |
East Neuk Festival 2021 / Benjamin Baker, Fidelio Orchestra Café review – singing in the rainFriday, 16 July 2021
The heading may be a bit misleading. There were no vocalists at this year’s ingeniously adapted East Neuk Festival – live events held exclusively in the big space of the Bowhouse, St Monans, to a compulsorily limited audience – and the only rain was... Read more... |
Carducci Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - complexity and depthMonday, 12 July 2021
This programme was a bit of a calling card from the Carducci Quartet. They have previously recorded all three works, and the three composers, Haydn, Shostakovich, Beethoven, clearly play to their strengths. Add to that a modest running time, the... Read more... |
'You have to be willing to kill your darlings': conductor Clark Rundell on advice from composer Louis Andriessen (1939-2021)Thursday, 08 July 2021
It’s taken me a day to try to find some words to share at the passing of my dear friend, mentor and guardian angel Louis Andriessen and I’m grateful to theartsdesk for giving me the space. It is such a profound loss because of the profound gifts he... Read more... |
Dunedin Consort, Butt, Wigmore Hall review – bijou BachMonday, 05 July 2021
The Edinburgh-based Dunedin Consort are regular visitors to the Wigmore Hall, and their concert on Saturday night was greeting by a full house. In these Covid times, that meant an audience of just 200, but from the applause, they were clearly... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Solo harp, solo trumpet and two discs of orchestral jazzSaturday, 03 July 2021
Reicha Rediscovered, Volume 3 Ivan Ilić (piano) (Chandos)Antoine Reicha’s L’Arte de varier tantalises before you’ve heard a note; the composer’s Opus 57, its theme followed by 57 variations. Reicha was an exact contemporary of Beethoven and... Read more... |
Never to Forget, Spitalfields Festival review – moving musical tributes to lost care and health workersFriday, 02 July 2021
During early lockdown in 2020 Howard Goodall published an article pondering the role of the composer in a pandemic. His answer was that music has throughout history been successful at memorialising people and events, and that it could do so again.... Read more... |
Tenebrae, Short, Saffron Hall review - from dark shadows to bright heavensMonday, 28 June 2021
While the big choral societies are asking, with good cause, why they remain silenced when it’s OK for football fans to sing on the terraces, the top voices of smaller ensembles are being heard again by select audiences. Not so small, in the case of... Read more... |
First Person: Héloïse Werner on a live collaboration with fellow composers and performersMonday, 28 June 2021
It’s not every day that you have the opportunity to perform with musicians like the ones I’ll be sharing the St John’s Smith Square stage with on Saturday 3 July; organist Kit Downes and cellist Colin Alexander are some of the best musicians I know... Read more... |
'In music, we are together': saxophonist Jess Gillam on returning to concerts with audienceThursday, 24 June 2021
For over a year, many concert halls' doors have been firmly shut, the curtains drawn and the lights out. As we begin to emerge into a new world and live performance makes a comeback, I feel we are facing a bittersweet moment in the arts. As some... Read more... |
