Mozart
Don Giovanni, Royal OperaTuesday, 04 February 2014
If you don’t believe in the angels, or at least the good, of Don Giovanni, don’t stage it. Mozart may well be telling us, as Kasper Holten partly seems to be, that the antihero is a void, a mask-wearer and a creature of thrusting appetites, on his... Read more... |
Mark Wigglesworth for ENOThursday, 23 January 2014
This is great news. It should have been great news back in 2006-7, when Wigglesworth – Mark, not to be confused with the young, photogenic Ryan, composer and, when I last saw him, barely competent baton-wielder - was among the contenders for the... Read more... |
Kožená, Les Violons du Roy, Barbican HallSunday, 12 January 2014
Last night’s Mozart and Haydn concert at the Barbican was billed as Magdalena Kožená with Les Violons du Roy. In practice it actually turned out to be Les Violons du Roy with Magdalena Kožená, which (barring a few die-hard fans of the Czech mezzo)... Read more... |
Christian Zacharias, Wigmore HallThursday, 09 January 2014
It's a considerable irony that a musician as dedicated and as serious as pianist/conductor Christian Zacharias should suddenly, at the age of 63, gain bragging rights on Youtube (see next page). There wasn't really that much he could do about it. It... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Ramon Humet, Mozart, Ronald StevensonSaturday, 04 January 2014
Ramon Humet – Niwa - Chamber Works London Sinfonietta/Nicholas Collon (Neu Records)Ramon Humet's Four Zen Gardens opens this arresting compilation; nine short movements for three percussionists. A solitary rainstick adds a splash of aqueous colour... Read more... |
Vadim Gluzman, Angela Yoffe, Wigmore HallSunday, 29 December 2013
There were two strong reasons, I reckoned, for struggling to the Wigmore Hall during the interstitial last week of the year. One was an ascetic wish to be harrowed by a mind and soul of winter, both within and without, in Prokofiev’s towering D... Read more... |
The Magic Flute, English National OperaFriday, 08 November 2013
There’s a scene in Mozart’s most metaphysical opera which Ingmar Bergman, creator of what is still the richest of all Magic Flutes, describes as “at the outermost limit of life”. Hero Tamino seems to have reached a point of no return and no going... Read more... |
Don Giovanni, Opera VeraSunday, 03 November 2013
For a brand-new opera group to set something as ambitious as Don Giovanni before an audience demands sackfuls of self-awareness and confidence. But the eight young singers of Opera Vera are no mere enthusiasts – they are rich in experience and can... Read more... |
Milton Court Opening, GSMDFriday, 27 September 2013
Night life in the Square Mile, at least from the perspective of my evening routes around the Barbican, is dominated by booze and sportiness. The way to last Thursday’s concert was blocked by a Bloomberg relay marathon, and cycling through the tunnel... Read more... |
Uchida, London Symphony Orchestra, Ticciati, BarbicanFriday, 20 September 2013
Rumour machines have been thrumming to the tune of “Rattle as next LSO Principal Conductor”. Sir Simon would, it’s true, be as good for generating publicity as the current incumbent, the ever more alarming Valery Gergiev. But if the orchestra... Read more... |
Le nozze di Figaro, Royal OperaTuesday, 17 September 2013
Revivals, especially at Covent Garden, too often wrong-foot high expectations. This one should have shone, with two known treasures among the cast (Lucy Crowe and Luca Pisaroni), an experienced Mozart conductor in John Eliot Gardiner and a handsome-... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Timo Andres, Berlioz, SchoenbergSaturday, 03 August 2013
Timo Andres: Home Stretch Timo Andres (piano), Metropolis Ensemble/Andrew Cyr (Nonesuch)Begin with Timo Andres’s realisation of Mozart’s Coronation piano concerto. Mozart omitted to write down the soloist’s left hand part, so Andres provides... Read more... |
