GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – January 2021
During the best part of the last year we’ve come to appreciate, indeed rely upon, the technology, endeavour, and resource that has kept the music coming through lockdown after lockdown and seen a comparatively new phrase become…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – December 2020
Like many I was thoroughly absorbed by John Bridcut’s touching film about Bernard Haitink – The Enigmatic Maestro. Not entirely sure about the title because what you see is surely what you get with Haitink: a decent,…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Britten Sinfonia da Requiem – City of Birmingham Symphony/Gražinytė-Tyla Orchestra
Capitalising on Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla and the CBSO’s ‘Record of the Year’ triumph at this year’s Gramophone Awards this purely digital release – a growing trend – gives notice of a two-CD release (scheduled for March next year)…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Shostakovich Symphony No. 11 ‘The Year 1905’ – London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jurowski
Hard on the heels of the thrilling John Storgards/ BBC Philharmonic account on Chandos comes another performance I was lucky enough to experience live in December of last year. And a marked distinction in approach is immediately…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – November 2020
Among the many treasured recordings that I have found refuge in during a spring, summer and autumn of discontent for live music and theatre this year a souvenir DVD of the fabulous 2005 David McVicar staging of…
COMPARING NOTES: Vasily Petrenko in conversation
Vasily Petrenko, celebrated Chief Conductor of the Oslo Philharmonic (between 2013-2020), the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Music Director Designate of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra discusses his new recording of Prokofiev and Myaskovsky with his Norwegian orchestra, his…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Tchaikovsky Swan Lake excs – Philharmonia Orchestra/Rouvall
Like Oliver Twist I’m left wanting more. Clearly this Suite from Tchaikovsky’s masterpiece was part of a larger concert programme serving its purpose well in the wider context – and maybe, just maybe, it was just too…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Das Lied von der Erde – Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer / Het Collectief, de Leeuw
Listening to Ivan Fischer’s account of Das Lied von der Erde so soon after nominating Jurowski’s Berlin/Pentatone recording for ‘Record of the Month’ (September) only serves to underline how pointedly Jurowski and his Berlin Radio engineers made…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – Awards 2020 Issue
Reflecting on ‘Callow meets Rattle’ in the September issue, the theatre animal within me (some readers may be unaware that I was briefly an actor in another life) is moved to consider once more why Leos Janacek…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Russian Colours – Camerata Tchaikovsky/Zhislin
The small and perfectly formed have come into their own during the pandemic with new and existing chamber arrangements making virtue out of necessity and ensembles like Yuri Zhislin’s terrific 19-strong Camerata Tchaikovsky fashioning more of less…
