GRAMOPHONE Review: Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet – Los Angeles Philharmonic/Dudamel
This wonderful score is such a good fit for Dudamel’s sleek Los Angeleans. There is what I would call a tinge of Americana about Prokofiev’s big lyric melodies in this of all his pieces and within a…
Desmonda Cathabel & Dylan Wood: Doomed Lovers Duets + ‘Comparing Notes’ post show interview with Edward Seckerson
Fresh off their run as Eurydice and Orpheus in the West End’s Hadestown, Desmonda Cathabel (Mamma Mia: I Have a Dream, Miss Saigon, Disney’s Aladdin) and Dylan Wood (Orphans, Moorcroft, No Love Songs) are no strangers to playing doomed lovers together. “Wood’s chemistry…
SOME OTHER TIME: Leonard Bernstein – In Words & Music with Kim Criswell and Edward Seckerson
Writer, Broadcaster and Presenter EDWARD SECKERSON was one of the last journalists to interview the legendary Leonard Bernstein less than a year before he died in 1990. A passionate, some might say fanatical, advocate of Bernstein’s exceptional talents as…
MARTI WEBB in Conversation with EWdward Seckerson – Newbury Spring Festival
Marti Webb is renowned for her leading roles in West End musicals. She gained prominence through performances in productions such as Evita, in which she played the role of Eva Perón from 1979, and Tell Me on a…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 7 – Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Järvi
There have been a couple of stand-out recordings of Mahler’s ‘rogue’ Seventh in recent times – none more illuminating or hard to beat than Rattle’s Bavarian RSO account – but after Paavo Järvi’s brilliant rendering of the…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Ragtime – 2025 Broadway Cast Recording
I don’t think anyone would argue with the assertion that this is one of the great theatre scores of the last half century. That Stephen Flaherty and Lynn Ahrens actually auditioned for it – three or fours…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Cello Concertos 1 & 2 – Alexander Kniazev, Yokohama Sinfonietta/Yamada
Shostakovich’s two cello concertos plainly share the same musical DNA – but it’s almost as if the Second (which I am delighted to see becoming more and more core repertoire and a work of choice among leading…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 1 – Tonhalle-Orchester Zürich/Järvi
I do believe this is one of the best – perhaps even the best – account of Mahler’s precocious First Symphony that I’ve heard on disc since the celebrated Bernstein/Concertgebouw version. Paavo Järvi and his Zurich orchestra…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Walton Cello Concerto, Symphony No. 1, Scarpino – Jonathan Aasgaard, Sinfonia of London/Wilson
A whiplash Scapino, ducking and diving with impunity, sets the tone of this marvellous disc. As so often with John Wilson’s work it’s the precision, the clarity, and the keenest articulation that defines it. The level of…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bennett & Duke Violin Concertos – Chloë Hanslip, Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Litton
The great practitioners of Broadway and Hollywood – composers, arrangers, orchestrators – spawned catalogues of what might be considered more ‘legitimate’ music that the world rarely saw or heard. Broadway’s ‘Music Man’ Meredith Wilson’s symphonies, Hitchcock’s Bernard…
