Such is the dramatic vitality of Verdi’s Rigoletto that there is already a sense that it presents a metatheatre of a corrupt, cruel world, embodied in microcosm in the Duke of Mantua’s court. In her […]
The music of Amy Beach rarely if ever fails to impress, and to delight. Her expression seems so natural, so unforced, her vernacular so charmingly American, imbued with the warmth of both heart and hearth, […]
This is another somewhat unusual (and likely hard-to-find) release, appearing on a label I’ve never heard of, la dolce volta. Similar to the Paris Polonais disc I recently reviewed, this one seems to be available […]
Five months since including Sofia Gubaidulina’s 1996 Concerto for Viola and Orchestra, the Philharmonic gave its first-ever performance of her Fairytale Poem. Composed for a 1971 children’s radio program, the alluring piece is based on […]
What an opportunity this is! As the Khachaturian Competition in Armenia (Yerevan) consistently proves, Aram Khachaturian (1903-78) is a composer to be reckoned with (see my review of that competition in 2021 here). He is […]
Joseph Haydn: Symphony No. 43 in E flat major ‘Mercury’, Symphony No. 44 in E minor, ‘Trauer’, Symphony no. 47 in G major, ‘Palindrome’; Concerto Copenhagen, Lars Ulrik Mortensen; Berlin ClassicsReviewed 22 October 2024 Small […]
Sinfonia Smith Square (Photo: Camila Pastorelli) Every year, Sinfonia Smith Square’s Fellowship programme welcomes 34 talented graduate musicians to form an orchestra. Through world-class collaborations, bold programming, and educational leadership projects, the programme intensifies their […]
Returning to the UK for the first time in 27 years, the Yomiuri Nippon Symphony Orchestra began its three-venue tour with blistering performances of two Western classics and music by the largely self-taught Akira Ifukube […]
Andrew Ford: The Shortest History of MusicOld Street Publishing234 pages, 45 imagesReviewed 21 October 2024 Global musical history digested into just over 200 pages; Ford’s book deftly manages the compression whilst bringing out a wide […]
When the Paris Opera planned to give the first performance at the theatre of Verdi’s Otello the maestro was extremely puzzled when it was announced that they would be performing the opera in Italian. Hitherto the […]
