Der Rosenkavalier, Glyndebourne Festival Opera
You can count on Richard Jones for challenging our perceptions and turning expectation on its head but the image of the Marschallin rising Venus-like from her bath while showers of water rain down like gold dust on…
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…
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall *** (Review)
Opera with and without words, with and without voices – the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s new season began with a typically provocative piece of Vladimir Jurowski programming: an intriguing juxtaposition of the ripest Strauss and Zemlinsky affording dissatisfaction…
Prom 75: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Haitink, Royal Albert Hall – Review ****
The Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra can play Haydn’s last symphony – No 104 “London” – in its sleep but that is not, I hasten to add, the impression one wants to take away from any performance of it…
Prom 5: BBC Philharmonic Orchestra, Mena, Royal Albert Hall – review
Beginning and ending in C major – but only just (Sibelius’ 7th Symphony is the most equivocal C major in music) – this BBC Philharmonic Prom under their new Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena began by reasserting that…
Strauss “Der Rosenkavalier”, English National Opera
For those of us who believe (and don’t we all) that Octavian should end up with his true love – as opposed to his “fairy tale” romance – and live out his days with the Feldmarschallin, Maria…
Prom 21: CBSO & CBSO Chorus, Nelsons, Royal Albert Hall
At 33, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra’s Music Dirctor Andris Nelsons is young but still almost a decade older than Richard Strauss was when he showed the world how he planned to go on with his…
Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Jansons, Royal Festival Hall
The Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra brought Strauss – oodles of it – for this Shell Classics International at the Royal Festival Hall; and as they signed off with one of those signature Rosenkavalier waltzes, all swooning strings…
Philharmonia Orchestra, Nelsons, Royal Festival Hall
The heroics came fast and fervently with Andris Nelsons and the Philharmonia Orchestra emerging from suffocating pianissimi to rip out the exultant fanfares of Beethoven’s Leonora No.3 Overture as if already limbering up to take on Strauss’…