From Estonia with love: Neeme Järvi conducts Lalo
What joy this disc brings! We previously met Neeme Järvi and his Estonian orchestra here; when it comes to Lalo, they are on top form, and supported by one of Chandos’ best recordings. I vaguely […]
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Belgian ensemble, Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition at the National Centre for Early Music
Ayres Extemporae, winners of the 2024 York International Young Artists Competition The 2024 York International Young Artists Competition took place on Saturday 13 July 2024 at the National Centre for Early Music in York, as the […]
Opera Holland Park 2024 – Wolf-Ferrari’s Susann’s Secret & Leoncavallo’s Pagliacci
Opera Holland Park’s new production of Pagliacci this season is paired, not with its usual partner Cavalleria rusticana, but with a contrastingly comic take on the theme of suspicion and jealousy, Wolf-Ferrari’s Susanna’s Secret (a revival of John Wilkie’s production from 2019). Her […]
Yuja Wang at Tanglewood – Shostakovich, Barber and Chopin
Yuja Wang began with eight selections from Shostakovich’s cycles Opuses 34 & 87 blended into a continuous whole, creating dreamy auras, sweet melodies, dance-like passages, and a march, all decorated with shimmering figures, trills and […]
The return of “The Watchman”
In a joint enterprise between writer and musician Hana Gubenko and myself, Samuel Taylor-Coleridge’s short-lived political journal The Watchman returns in a new guise, as an internet magazine designed to stimulate and inform. Here, in […]
Excellent Stravinsky from Galicia. Superb sound from BIS. How does it compare with Andrew Davis on Chandos?
The Orquesta Sinfonica de Galicia is one of my favorite concert orchestras to watch on YouTube. They present full length concerts in excellent sound and high-quality videography – with expert, knowledgeable camera operators who zoom […]
A sound world that is at once distinctive, appealing and engaging: Maria Faust’s Mass of Mary on Estonia Record Productions
Maria Faust: Mass of Mary; Collegium Musicale, Helina Kuljus, Lili Kirikal, Oliver Povel, Maria Faust, Kirstjan Kungla, Indrek Vau, Andres Kontus, conductor: Endrik Üksvärav; Estonian Record ProductionsReviewed 16 July 2024 Jazz, chant and polyphony side-by-side […]
An intergenerational community: Garsington Opera brings its Youth and Adult community companies together for Andrew Norman’s A Trip to the Moon
Andrew Norman: A Trip to the Moon – Youth Company rehearsal, Garsington Opera 2024 (Photo: Julian Guidera) American composer Andrew Norman is perhaps best known for his orchestral works from Sacred Geometry (2003) to Play […]
A rich sophistication of thought running through this programme that seems worlds away from the typical debut recital: Awakenings from Laurence Kilsby & Ella O’Neill
Awakenings: Brahms, Saint-Saens, Wolf, Schoenberg, Stenhamer, Rebecca Clarke, Prokofiev, Hugh Wood, Jake Heggie, Weill, Britten: Laurence Kilsby, Ella O’Neill; AVI MusicReviewed 15 July 2024 An intriguing & eclectic programme full of disturbing elements complemented by […]
Appealing to an opera audience with song repertoire: Opera in Song returns to Opera Holland Park
Schubert: Die schöne Müllerin – James Baillieu, Julien Van Mellaerts, Christopher Purves – Opera in Song at Opera Holland Park, 2022 Opera in Song, curated by baritone Julien Van Mellaerts and pianist Dylan Perez, has […]
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