GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No 8 Minnesota Orchestra/Vänskä
07/03/2024The Eighth is often the Mahler symphony that seems to inspire conductors who fall short in the others. That’s a sweeping generalisation, of course, but look no further than a conductor like Solti whose Mahler always struck as one-dimensional but who rose magnificently to the operatic aspirations of the Eighth. After all, in some respects … [Read More]
MUSICALS Podcast: Edward Seckerson meets ZACHARY JAMES
For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Zachary James, who’s currently hotting up the Underworld on the other side of that wall in Hadestown. James, who originated the role of Lurch in the Andrew Lippa musicalisation of The…
DAME PATRICIA ROUTLEDGE: Facing The Music – A Life in Musical Theatre
Dame Patricia Routledge trained not only as an actress but also as a singer and had considerable experience and success in musical theatre, both in this country and in the United States of America. Her many awards…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Brahms Double Concerto / Viotti Violin Concerto No 22 / Dvořák Silent Woods – Christian & Tanja Tetzlaff, Deutsches SO Berlin/Järvi
The dedication on this album reads ‘In Memoriam Lars Vogt’ – and that gives it a special resonance. Christian Tetzslaff and his sister Tanja Tetzslaff made music with him together and independently on many occasions and in…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Respighi Roman Trilogy – Orchestra Sinfonica Nationale della RAI/Trevino
Respighi’s obsession with the ‘Eternal City’ is writ spectacularly large in his three symphonic evocations and maybe in some subliminal way an Italian orchestra like this one can identify better than most with the mythic elements, pictorial…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Santtu conducts Mahler Symphony No. 2 ‘Resurrection’ – Philharmonia Orchestra/Santtu-Matias Rouvali
Like so much of what I’ve heard of Santtu’s work of late this Mahler 2 is decidedly hit and miss – with the emphasis, I regret to say, very much on the latter. It’s strange how the…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Rodgers & Hammerstein’s Oklahoma! – Soloists, Sinfonia of London/John Wilson
This is important. Oklahoma! was a big moment – perhaps the big moment – in musical theatre’s ‘coming of age’. Granted that sixteen years earlier Oscar Hammerstein II and Jerome Kern had already called time on the…
MUSICALS Podcast: Edward Seckerson meets OLIVER TOMPSETT
Edward Seckerson meets Oliver Tompsett at London’s Wonderville Bar & Café to chat over his ongoing journey from The Who’s Tommy (title role) at Arts Ed and a veritable portfolio of rock/pop shows – Our House, Rock of Ages, We…
LEONARD BERNSTEIN: Some Other Time
Jewish Literary Foundation presents Book Week 24, Kings Place Sunday 3 March 2024 A celebration in conversation and song of the legendary composer and conductor, with Edward Seckerson, Petroc Trelawny and West End stars Christina Bianco and Julian…
John Weidman on Pacific Overtures & collaborating with Stephen Sondheim
In the latest MUSICALS podcast EDWARD SECKERSON talks to playwright and book writer JOHN WEIDMAN who collaborated with the late, great Stephen Sondheim on three of his shows – Pacific Overtures, Assassins, and Road Show – and was in London for a long-awaited…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Price Piano Concerto/Symphony No 1/Ethiopia’s Shadow in America – His Resignation and Faith – Kanneh-Mason, Chineke!/Suganandarajah/Cox
It’s strange, but after decades of neglect the music of Florence Price seems uncannily familiar. The soulful themes with their American Deep South tinta, the trumpet-led brass chorales, the jazzy jubas – this is Price’s musical milieu…