Classical music
Shakespeare Re-Shaped, Opera Up Close online review - Verdi on the sofaWednesday, 24 March 2021
The screen lights up, the Zoom link connects and there, blinking back at you (30% awkward, 70% enthusiastic) is a familiar face. Is it definitely working? Can you hear me? What do we say now? God, I'm getting old. Even after 12 months of... Read more... |
Isata Kanneh-Mason, Hallé, Elder online review - triumphant film returnFriday, 19 March 2021
Sir Mark Elder and the Hallé are back in the Bridgewater Hall for the first programme in the second tranche of the orchestra’s digital Winter Season – filming that had to be postponed from its original planned date but is triumphantly achieved now.... Read more... |
Steven Osborne 50th Birthday Concert, Wigmore Hall online – perfect symmetriesMonday, 15 March 2021
Some pianists would take the chance of a birthday celebration to pioneer a solitary epic. Not the ever-collegial, unshowy, some would even say visionary Steven Osborne. For this ultimately unforgettable Wigmore Hall concert, he’s devised a programme... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Big symphonies, archlutes and the healing power of the violaSaturday, 13 March 2021
Bach: The English Suites Paolo Zanzu (harpsichord) (Musica Ficta)I’m a recent convert to Bach keyboard music played on harpsichord, having recently immersed myself in the Erato box set containing Zuzana Růžičková’s Bach recordings made in the... Read more... |
Myaskovsky Dialogues, Yekaterinburg online review - revival and revelationWednesday, 10 March 2021
The reputation of Nikolai Myaskovsky has long been cast into shadow by the more exportable extroversion of his contemporaries Prokofiev and Shostakovich. Even at their darkest moments, neither of them does Russian gloom quite like Myaskovsky, but... Read more... |
Levit, Berlin Philharmoniker, Paavo Järvi, Digital Concert Hall review - optimal light and darkTuesday, 09 March 2021
It seems right that (arguably) the greatest orchestra in the world has (unarguably) the best livestreaming and archive service. Thanks to a vital musicians’ Covid testing set-up, the Berlin Philharmoniker is even more supreme online now that it can... Read more... |
Pushkin House Music Festival online review - Russian around BloomsburyMonday, 08 March 2021
Sergey Prokofiev died on 5 March 1953, on the same day as Stalin. Perhaps that uncomfortable coincidence makes March the perfect time for a festival of Russian music. Pushkin House, the Russian cultural centre based in a Georgian villa in Bloomsbury... Read more... |
Two LSO concerts on Marquee TV review - vibrant triptychesFriday, 05 March 2021
In amongst the heavy-hearted duty of supporting orchestras by watching their concert streamings – not something I’d do by choice – there are two real joys here. One is the discovery of Austrian composer Franz Schreker’s Chamber Symphony of 1916. The... Read more... |
Gillam, Manchester Camerata, Kuusisto, Stoller Hall online review - calm and exhilarationMonday, 01 March 2021
Manchester Camerata’s performance with Jess Gillam at Chetham’s School of Music was filmed in private on 9 January (and the sound was broadcast on BBC Radio 3 on the 19th), but to see it in its full visual glory we had to wait until a one-off... Read more... |
‘The Healing Power of Music’: composer Nigel Hess on great-aunt Myra’s wartime concertsMonday, 01 March 2021
It has been well-documented over the last few months that there has been an upsurge in listener numbers for many radio stations offering classical music – notably BBC Radio 3, Classic FM and Scala Radio – and, during these unprecedented times it... Read more... |
Urioste, Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place online review - superb musicianship in compelling close-upSaturday, 27 February 2021
The clever programming of the “Unwrapped” series has been transformational for the reputation of Kings Place. Ever since the Bach series in 2013 these year-long sequences of concerts and other events have succeeded in silencing the crustier... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dusty graveyards, bell sounds on pianos and a cold Cambridgeshire fenSaturday, 27 February 2021
The Way of Light – The Music of Nigel Hess (Orchid Classics)You’ve probably heard Nigel Hess’s music without realising it. He’s scored multiple RSC productions and has provided incidental music for dozens of films and television programmes.... Read more... |
