Classical music
BBC Proms live online: BBC Singers, BBCSO, Oramo review – threnodies to an empty hallSaturday, 29 August 2020
So the bubble of reactionary brouhaha over the Last Night of the Proms quickly burst: there can be no argument about singing “Land of Hope and Glory” or “Rule, Britannia!” when they’re to be presented in their original Proms forms (Elgar’s Pomp and... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Feldman, Paul van KempenSaturday, 29 August 2020
Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/William Steinberg (DG)Cologne-born Hans Wilhem Steinberg was a youthful Music Director of the Frankfurt Opera in the early 1930s. He was relieved of his role, mid-rehearsal, in 1933,... Read more... |
Rapture captured: instrumentalists and singers at the 2019 BBC PromsFriday, 28 August 2020
As two weeks of livestreamed Proms begin tonight, we just want to be there in the Royal Albert Hall. The exuberance of our lead picture tells one story of a Prom which had to be witnessed live to be believed: the annual visit of the National Youth... Read more... |
Antics before an audience: conductors at the 2019 BBC PromsWednesday, 26 August 2020
What a difference a year makes. Live Proms will be back from Friday, but the very essence of the world's biggest music festival will be missing: the audience, and especially the Prommers whose rapt attention while standing has taken so many visiting... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Andrew Hamilton, NielsenSaturday, 22 August 2020
Bach Sean Shibe (guitar) (Delphian)The lute was mostly used as a continuo instrument during Bach’s lifetime though he did compose a small number of solo lute works. They were written using two-stave keyboard notation rather than traditional... Read more... |
BCMG, Heinen, Brindleyplace Birmingham review - from the concrete canyons to the starsFriday, 21 August 2020
Birmingham emerged from musical lockdown with Stockhausen. It couldn’t have been anyone else, really. There’s something about Stockhausen’s fusion of modernity and goofy intergalactic romanticism that clearly strikes a chord in the Second City... Read more... |
Kaleidoscope Collective, Wigmore Hall online – playing with panache, as if to a live audienceWednesday, 19 August 2020
If it all comes across as vividly as this on screen, imagine what it would have been like to witness in person. Which quite a few of us very nearly did, until we had to be disinvited owing to changed government guidelines. Hopefully the move back to... Read more... |
Pavel Kolesnikov and Samson Tsoy, Bold Tendencies review - visions under the car-park roofMonday, 17 August 2020
Before the not-quite-clear all-clear was given for distanced performances indoors, Bold Tendencies already had the perfect summer solution in the floor space beneath its rooftop terrace in Peckham’s former multi-storey car park. Never was its... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Respighi, The Red Book of OssorySaturday, 15 August 2020
Debussy: Images, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune Hallé/Sir Mark Elder (Hallé)That Debussy used the Geordie folksong The Keel Row in the first of his three Images for Orchestra is well known, and careful listening makes one realise that he... Read more... |
Charles Owen, Fidelio Orchestra Café review - high-profile, robust romanticsThursday, 13 August 2020
Composer Gian-Carlo Menotti once asked rhetorically what society wanted of performing artists – “the bread of life or the after-dinner mint?” There were a couple of audience members last night – unique in my experience so far of the Fidelio... Read more... |
The Telephone, Scottish Opera/Cargill, RSNO, Søndergård, Edinburgh International Festival online - human emotions in digital formWednesday, 12 August 2020
Lockdown, perhaps more than any other time, has amplified how modern technology can be both a blessing and a curse. Of course, it’s wonderful to have the means to connect with friends and family scattered across the globe; carry on working, learning... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: William Dawson, Ulysses Kay, Janáček, Norwegian Trombone EnsembleSaturday, 08 August 2020
William Dawson: Negro Folk Symphony, Ulysses Kay: Fantasy Variations, Umbrian Scene ORF Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra/Arthur Fagen (Naxos)William Levi Dawson’s Negro Folk Symphony was, briefly, a roaring success after Leopold Stokowski gave... Read more... |
