Classical Explorer

I was lucky enough to attend the Guildhall Godlier Medal last Thursday May 8). The announcement of the winner from the Guildhall School of Music and Drama is a follows: Guildhall School of Music & […]

Bach, Tchaikovsky, Mussorgsky, Debussy, Babadjanian Nikita Lukinov (piano)  Bach Prelude and Fugue in C sharp minor (Well-Tempered Clavier Book I)  Tchaikovsky The Seasons, Op. 37b: May; June  Mussorgsky Night on a Bare Mountain (arr. piano)  […]

Mendelssohn, Chopin, Schumann Alon Kariv (piano); English Chamber Orchestra / Roberto Forés Veses (conductor). Cadogan Hall, London, 11.05.2025 Mendelssohn Overture, ‘The Hebrides,’ Op. 26 (1829)  Chopin Piano Concerto No. 1 in E minor, Op. 11 […]

  Handel’s last oratorio presents, amongst the composer’s catalogue of undeniable masterpieces, a masterwork of stunning stature. Not a note is misplaced in Jephtha: long though it is (more of that later), everything is perfectly […]

Christophe Rousset’s performance of Bach’s Osterortorium, BWV 249, in Aix en Provence recently led me to his disc from 2011: Frans Brüggen’s Amsterdam account with the Orchestra of the 18th Century and Cappella Amsterdam with […]

Weinberg, Shostakovich Quatuor Danel Wigmore Hall, 6.5.2025 Weinberg String Quartets: No. 14, Op. 122 (1978); No. 15, Op. 124 (1980)  Shostakovich String Quartet No. 14 in F sharp, op. 142 (1973)    This was a […]

Janáček The Excursions of Mr Brouček (‘Výlety páně Broučkovy’; concert performance). Cast; Tenebrae; London Symphony Orchestra / Sir Simon Rattle (conductor). Barbican Hall, 04.05.2025 Cast:  Broućek – Peter Hoare  Mazal/Blankytný/Petřík – Aleš Briscein  Malinka/Etherea/Kunka – Lucy […]

Israeli pianist Alon Kariv will play Chopin’s First Piano Concetto on Sunday, May 11 at London’s Cadogan Hall with the English Chamber Orchestra. Ahead of that performance, I met Alon to discuss all things piano, […]

Julia Wolfe appointed the Orchestra’s first Composer in Residence, with four works featured in the season, including a newly commissioned symphonic arrangement of her Pulitzer-winning Anthracite Fields Focus on opera, with Principal Guest Conductor Anja Bihlmaier […]

This might be Classical Explorer‘s first encounter with Arturo Toscanini, the great enigma. For years, I railed against him, both of my feet firmly in the Furtwängler camp. Cue a sheaf of reviews for the […]