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…
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…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – October 2019
It’s always exciting when a significant new voice arrives on the music scene and Decca really pushed the boat out a couple of months back for the debut release of the young Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen. She…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – September 2019
Movie music aficionados are a very particular breed – serious, knowledgeable, fanatical. Even the soft-core variety – as I once was – are fiercely defensive of their favourite practitioners. The music and the indelible images they amplify…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – August 2019
This month’s cover feature has prompted some age old cravings in me. I have travelled far and wide in the United States, I have repeatedly given my regards to Broadway, the American Songbook is as much a…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – July 2019
A number of years ago, during the run of my erstwhile BBC Radio 3 show Stage and Screen, I took to the stage of the Royal Opera’s Linbury Theatre with the soprano Renée Fleming for an in-depth…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – June 2019
There is an undeniable thrill in hearing special talent from other cultures embrace our music as their own. A few nights ago (at the time of writing) I had the pleasure of hearing Vassily Petrenko power the…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – May 2019
I was a little late to the party in respect of Vladimir Jurowski’s scintillating new recording of the original 1877 version of Tchaikovsky’s Swan Lake with the State Academic Symphony Orchestra of Russia (Yevgeny Svetlanov’s orchestra) but…
