BBC SO / Hrusa concert at the Barbican
London already knows the incoming music director of the Royal Opera as an orchestral conductor of distinction in Mahler and the Czech repertoire, but Hrůša’s Shostakovich was new – to me at least – and […]
Classical Source Reviews
BBC Symphony Orchestra – An evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter
This typically thoughtful programme from Sakari Oramo was marketed as ‘an evening-long meditation on life and the hereafter’. The Lark Ascending is scarcely that – Ursula Vaughan Williams also maintained that her husband, a reluctant countryman, could […]
New York Philharmonic – Nathalie Stutzmann conducts The Ring Without Words
Der Ring des Nibelungen, Wagner’s epic of warring gods and mortals struggling for possession of the magic Ring that grants power to rule the world, takes at least fifteen hours to play out, but on this […]
Renée Fleming & Inon Barnatan at the Kravis Center, West Palm Beach – “Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene”
On long walks during the live performance hiatus brought about by the Covid pandemic, Renée Fleming conceived what became her album, ‘Voice of Nature: The Anthropocene,’ juxtaposing vocal classics featuring imagery of nature with works […]
New York Philharmonic – Justin Freer conducts John Debney’s score for Elf
Jon Favreau’s comedy Elf, the story of Buddy, a human accidentally transported to the North Pole as a toddler and raised among Santa’s elves, who travels to New York City at age 30, in full […]
New York Philharmonic – Ton Koopman conducts Handel’s Messiah
Over the past two decades a period-instrument aesthetic has dominated the Philharmonic’s annual presentations of Messiah with early-music specialists such as Harry Bicket, Jeanette Sorrell, Masaaki Suzuki and Fabio Biondi recruited to conduct them. This year Ton Koopman, founder […]
Hélène Grimaud at Carnegie Hall
Eight months after her dazzling performance of Robert Schumann’s Piano Concerto with the Bamberg Symphony and Jakub Hrůša, Hélène Grimaud returned for a recital combining ‘The Three Bs’. She began with an uncommonly resonant reading […]
New York Philharmonic – Keri-Lynn Wilson conducts Shostakovich’s Festive Overture & Symphony No.10 – Frank Huang plays Prokofiev’s Second Violin Concerto
For her New York Philharmonic debut, Keri-Lynn Wilson, founder of the Ukrainian Freedom Orchestra, led an all-Russian program, Shostakovich’s Symphony No.10 in conjunction with William Kentridge’s Oh to Believe in Another World,surveying the composer’s rocky relationship […]
Florida Grand Opera – Mozart’s Die Zauberflöte – directed by Jeffrey Marc Buchman; conducted by Christine Brandes
Jeffrey Marc Buchman’s new production of The Magic Flute presents the story as the imaginative creation of a group of teenagers immersed in a role-playing game, such as Dungeons & Dragons. Stephan Moravski’s scenic designs, implemented by […]
Czech Philharmonic at Carnegie Hall – Semyon Bychkov conducts Mahler’s Five & Gil Shaham plays Dvořák’s Violin Concerto
This second evening in a three-day Carnegie Hall residency as part of the Czech Philharmonic’s North American tour and New York City’s contribution to the 2024 Year of Czech Music, especially noteworthy as it marks […]
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