Fidelio, English National Opera (Review)
The first words we hear don’t belong to Fidelio at all, the first music does, but not at all where you expect to find it. If you’ve read your programme (and who does before the show begins?)…
Elektra, Royal Opera House (Review)
Applause for the conductor – even if it is Andris Nelsons – is just about the last thing we need to hear when Richard Strauss is about to fling down the brutal chords which spell out the…
London Symphony Orchestra, Uchida, Ticciati, Barbican Hall (Review)
From Mozart’s pen to Mitsuko Uchida’s fingers and one last time for Sir Colin Davis – Mozart’s wistful Rondo in A minor. If ever music crossed thresholds this not so little Rondo with its lilting Siciliana-like melody…
The Last Night of the Proms, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
As it came to pass, Marin Alsop’s nationality was rather more of a factor than her gender on this historic Last Night of the Proms – but her deft put-down of remarks made only the week before…
Prom 72: Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Calleja, Zhang, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
It was too little too late to redress the scant attention gives to Verdi’s bicentenary at this year’s Proms but the “Maltese Tenor” – Joseph Calleja – arrived with an eleventh hour offering of low-key Verdi arias…
Prom 68: Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Skride, Petrenko, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra made quite a splash with their Tchaikovsky symphony series under Mariss Jansons back in the 1980s. The watchwords then were freshness and articulation, a re-establishment of Tchaikovsky’s innate classicism – and so it…
Prom 64: London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vavic, Jurowski, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
Legends, myths, and Nietzsche’s Superman – which for the purposes of this London Philharmonic Prom was none other than Vladimir Jurowski himself. His extraordinary ear, his nurturing and layering of texture, was a constant source of intrigue…
Prom 59: “Hollywood Rhapsody”, John Wilson Orchestra
It was the biggest orchestra John Wilson had ever fielded for his annual Prom jamboree and this time the stage – or should I say silver screen – was all theirs. I’m pretty certain the actual 20th…
Prom 53: Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra, Nézet-Séguin, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
With the imminent release of a scorching account of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathétique” Symphony Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra set the bar very high (too high?) for their Prom curtain-raiser – Tchaikovsky’s Fantasy-Overture “Romeo and Juliet”. The…
Prom 51: London Symphony Orchestra, Bostridge, Harding, Royal Albert Hall (Review)
How better to remember the great Sir Colin Davis than with a life-affirming blast of Tippett brass? Fanfare No.5 from The Mask of Time (arr. Meirion Bowen), xylophone-driven and sounding like it might morph at any moment…