GRAMOPHONE Review: Sondheim Company – 2018 London Cast / Follies 2018 NT Cast
We should celebrate the fact that within the space of a year London has played host to stagings of not one but two Sondheim masterpieces that have all but redefined them in theatrical terms. Dominic Cooke’s handsome…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Brigadoon – New York City Center 2017 Cast/Berman
Of all Lerner and Loewe’s Broadway shows – and it’s a small but perfectly formed list – Brigadoon has to be my favourite. My Fair Lady is undoubtedly one of only a handful of musicals that could…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Songplay – Joyce DiDonato
What we have here is the epitome of what we Brits call a ‘Marmite’ experience with elements to love and/or loathe whether or not you buy the concept in the first place. Joyce DiDonato’s fans will, of…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – December 2018
The recent revival of The Gershwins’ Porgy and Bess at English National Opera and the prospect of comparing all its available recordings in BBC Radio 3’s Record Review early next year has prompted me to look a…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Broadway – Renée Fleming, BBC Concert Orchestra/Fisher
After her previous forays into jazz and inde-pop to say nothing of her recent stint on Broadway as Nettie Fowler in Rodgers and Hammerstein’s Carousel it was almost inevitable that a Broadway album would be forthcoming from…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bernstein Wonderful Town – Soloists, London Symphony Orchestra/Rattle
I’ve always been slightly puzzled as to why Simon Rattle (and subsequently Mark Elder) chose to anoint this particular show amongst Bernstein’s Broadway canon – not because I don’t love it as dearly as the others but…
GRAMOPHONE Review: There’s A Place For Us – Nadine Sierra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Spano
Why does everything nowadays have to be marketed with an angle, a message? There are no more recital discs, just albums. That’s a way of connecting the classical and pop worlds – I see that. But do…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Carousel – 2018 Broadway Cast Recording/Rodgers & Hammerstein
Carousel is arguably the most beautiful of all Broadway’s ‘Golden Age’ scores; Rodgers’ finest hour. Of that I, personally, am in no doubt. But like all the great Rodgers and Hammerstein shows it’s a totally integrated, cohesive,…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – June 2018
With the arrival of this column came the reinstatement of an important strand of repertoire in Gramophone’s pages – Musical Theatre. As I have argued for some time – in these pages and elsewhere – Music Theatre…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bernstein Mass – Philadephia Orchestra/Nézet-Séguin
The more live performances, the more live recordings, one experiences of this marvellous piece the more challenging it seems. No question that Bernstein’s inaugural recording – with an extraordinary cast that had been in intensive rehearsal for…
