Exile: Koptachinskaja and Kaufmann
“Exile” is certainly a topic du jour, even more so Han wan Paicia Kpopatchinskaja and Thomas Kaufmann recorded this Alpha disc in March 2024 in Bern, Switzerland. So it is that most composers on this […]
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From bel canto to Harlem Renaissance: Lawrence Brownlee & Iain Burnside’s recital at Wigmore Hall
Lawrence Brownlee Tenor Lawrence Brownlee is on of the premier bel canto tenors around at the moment. And he’s rightly busy, his season included a last-minute step-in as Elvino in Bellini’s La sonnambula at the […]
A somewhat quirky mood: Stephen McNeff’s new violin concerto for Fenella Humphreys & London Mozart Players mixes Baroque inspiration with something more contemporary
The London Mozart Players (Photo: Kaupo Kickkas) On Friday 21 November 2025, violinist Fenella Humphreys, the London Mozart Players and conductor Jonathan Bloxham will give the premiere of the Violin Concerto by Stephen McNeff at […]
Brahms & Mozart in Paris
Brahms, Mozart Axelle Fanyo (soprano); Agnieszka Rehlis (mezzo); Werner Güra (tenor);Guilhem Worms (bass); Chœur Orféon Donostiara; Le Cercle de l’Harmonie / Jérémie Rhorer, conductor. Philharmonie, Paris, 4.11.2025 Brahms Alto Rhapsody, Op. 53 (1869) Mozart Requiem, K 626 (1791, completed Süssmayr) Jérémie Rhorer […]
Nuit blanche: pianist Jodyline Gallavardin’s exceptional disc
Lyonnaise pianist Jodylne Gallavadin’s second album for Scala Music is a noctunal odyssey. recorded in September 2024 in Scala’s studio in Provnce and produced by Cécile Lenoir. Gallavadin’s own notes include a poem (in Freach […]
A new solo album from British pianist, Alexander Ullman, features a thoroughly enjoyable and entertaining selection of music by Edvard Grieg – ‘The Chopin of the North’
Edvard Grieg: Songs, Moods and Lyric Pieces; Alexander Ullman; Rubicon Classics Reviewed by Tony Cooper (31 October 2025) The prize of Ullman’s album, though, is his transcription of Peer Gynt Suite, No.1, drawing out the colour […]
Guildhall School of Music & Drama – Opera Double Bill – Smyth’s Der Wald and Respighi’s Lucrezia
Two rare one-Act operas featuring stories of jealous, murderous lust, offer some fascinating juxtapositions – Der Wald (premiered 1902), Ethel Smyth’s second opera, but a late essay in Wagnerian Romanticism if more sensational (and written in German); and […]
Portraits of Mind: music by Ian Venables, Ralph Vaughan Williams & George Butterworth in a glorious celebration of Venables’ 70th birthday at Temple Music
Temple Church Ian Venables: Out of the Shadows, Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on Greensleeves, On Wenlock Edge, Love Bade me Welcome, Butterworth: Love Blows as the Wind Blows, Ian Venables: Portraits of Mind; Gwilym Bowen, Gareth […]
Schubert’s Ninth Symphony – and more – from Birmingham
This was the conclusion of Edward Gardner’s Schubert cycle (we covered volume 3 here, . The great composer’s earlier symphonies produced daily regularly – round one a yea between 1813 and 1818. You might remember […]
Small but perfectly formed: Wexford’s chamber version of Zemlinsky’s Der Zwerg still thrills and moves
Zemlinsky: The Dwarf (Der Zwerg) – Eleri Gwilym, Charne Rocheford Wexford Festival Opera (Photo: Pádraig Grant) Zemlinsky: The Dwarf (Der Zwerg); Eleri Gwilym, Charne Rocheford, Charlotte Baker, Ross Cumming, director Chris Moran, music director Christopher […]
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