GRAMOPHONE Review: Offenbach Six Fables de La Fontaine – Karine Deshayes, Orchestre de l’Opéra de Rouen Normandie/Haeck
The shocking pink packaging says it all. If Offenbach had a colour then this might be it. Then there’s the quirky illustration of besuited animals relating, of course, to the Six Fables of De La Fontaine –…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – January 2020
As a new year and a new decade beckon we continue to live in uncertain times for print journalism. The digital world has opened up new and exciting frontiers for sure; it has sharpened communication and promoted…
COMPARING NOTES: Musical Theatre Stars @ Pizza Express Live Holborn
COURTNEY BOWMAN Sunday 15th March 2020 at 2.00pm (Doors 12.30pm) Comparing Notes brings stars of the West End and Broadway to PizzaExpress Live Holborn. In a lively and informal mix of performance and conversation host Edward Seckerson…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 8 – Soloists, Choirs, Düsseldorf Symphony Orchestra/Fischer
Rather as he did for his controversial (and somewhat disappointing) account of Das Lied von Der Erde Adam Fischer offers a kind of apologia in the liner note as to the particular challenges of the Eighth Symphony…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. 4 – London Symphony Orchestra/Noseda
It’s the symphony that might or might not have recalibrated Shostakovich’s future and it’s still one of the trickiest to pull off in performance. Noseda meets it halfway – which makes for plusses and minuses. His LSO…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. 7 ‘Leningrad’- Bavarian RSO/Jansons
One of these days a Mariss Jansons recording will arrive that will confound my expectations. This, alas, is not it. You can tell at once from the cultured, well-rounded, Bavarian sound that the very notion of something…
GRAMOPHONE Review: ‘Wien’ – Jonas Kaufmann, Rachel Willis-Sørenson, Vienna Philharmonic/Fischer
If you’re watching the calories, stop reading now. This evocative collection of Viennese sweetmeats, of wine, women, song and Sachertorte, does not countenance the notion of abstinence. Kaufmann’s love affair with Vienna – City of Dreams –…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – December 2019
What’s in a name? Plenty. The revival of the Sinfonia of London in such spectacular style with John Wilson’s glorious account of the Korngold Symphony is probably even more of a nostalgic occasion for me than it…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – November 2019
I need to say a few things about Jessye Norman – gone but never forgotten, her majestic voice for the ages forever enshrined for posterity in countless recordings, her aura somehow immortal. I saw her perform many…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – Awards Issue 2019
Reflecting once again on yet another season of Henry Wood Promenade Concerts my thoughts turn to the venue itself – the Royal Albert Hall – loved and loathed in equal measure, the grandest of grand edifices, a…
