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 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: 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 Review: Heggie ‘Woman: the making of…’ – Lillian Farahani/Maurice Lammerts van Bueren
“Woman the making of…’ Intriguing title. And it takes its cue from Jake Heggie’s very first commission – written in 1995 to original texts by Philip Littell – which was, to borrow a more iconic title, ‘all…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Duruflé Requiem / Debussy Nocturnes – Kožená, Berlin Radio Choir, Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin/Ticciati
For two works so diametrically opposed in feeling, philosophy and belief, these marvellous pieces sit well together. They also appear to chime with Robin Ticciati’s very particular sensibilities as a conductor. And he plainly adores them. So…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Beethoven Symphony No. 3 / Strauss Metamorphosen – Sinfonia Grange au Lac/Salonen
The intriguingly named Sinfonia Grange Au Lac (literally The Barn on the Lake) bows in here under its first mentor and incumbent Esa-Pekka Salonen. A unique custom made orchestra for a custom made venue and festival –…
