Resonance: Farrenc, Schumann, Durosoir
To my count, this is the eighth post on Classical Explorer featuring playing by Emanuel Despax: he is worth the focus, for sure, a rare meeting of musical sensitivity and high technique. ThePiano Quintet in […]
classical music
Jessye Norman: The Unreleased Masters on Decca
After Pappano’s Tristan, Jessye’s Isolde: as part of Decca’s “The Unreleased Masters,” a selection of excerpts which “for various reasons, was never published”. Masur’s way with the Prelude is mobile, and climax-focused, the Leipzig Gewandhaus […]
Conducting is a profession of lifelong learning: Vasily Petrenko on nurturing talent & broadening horizons
Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors in Yerevan, Armenia (Photo: © Primavera Foundation of Armenia) Vasily Petrenko’s Academy for Young Conductors takes place each year in Yerevan, Armenia. The Academy brings together Vasily Petrenko, Music […]
Czech Discoveries: Kukal and Teml on Animal Music
After an all-Czech Wimbledon Ladies’ Final, a very much all-Czech symphonic release: Ondřej, Jiří, Jakub and Tomáš conspire to give is a very special disc of live performances. Ondřej Kukal (born 1964) is a graduate […]
Compelling music drama: Wagner’s Tristan und Isolde returns to Longborough Festival Opera with Peter Wedd & Catharine Woodward, conductor Anthony Negus
Wagner: Tristan und Isolde – Peter Wedd – Longborough Festival Opera (Photo: Matthew Williams-Ellis) Wagner: Tristan und Isolde; Peter Wedd, Catharine Woodward, Catherine Carby, Robert Hayward, Alistair Miles, director: Carmen Jakobi/Guido Martin-Brandis, conductor: Anthony Negus; […]
Style & enjoyment: John Wilson & Sinfonia of London bring Cheltenham Music Festival to a close with a light music programme culminating in Eric Coates’s rarity Cinderella
John Wilson & Sinfonia of London at Cheltenham Town Hall, Cheltenham Music Festival(Photo: Still Moving Media for Cheltenham Festivals) Sullivan, Delius, Vaughan Williams, Richard Rodney Bennett, Walton, Eric Coates, Elgar, Haydn Wood, Robert Farnon, Vivian […]
Manchester Camerata unveils its 2027/27 season
MANCHESTER CAMERATA, LED BY MUSIC DIRECTOR GÁBOR TAKÁCS-NAGY, UNVEILS 2026-27 SEASON OF CONCERTS ACROSS GREATER MANCHESTER AND LONDON ALONGSIDE GROUNDBREAKING COMMUNITY AND HEALTHCARE WORK AMC Gospel Choir, pianist Ethan Loch, Kantos Chamber Choir, composer Rushil Ranjan and soprano Ying Fang announced as Artistic Partners for 2026-2029 Second edition of Here […]
Bello tiempo passato
“Fine old days”: Boerio (probably)’s 1673 comic intermezzo We are in the world of the commedia dell’arte here. In the early 1670s, soon after Venetian opera became established in Naples, a series of comic figures […]
There is no iceberg, no skeleton key; Finnegans Wake is not a cipher. It is only itself.
A drawing of Joyce (with eyepatch) by Djuna Barnes from 1922, the year in which Joyce began the 17-year task of writing Finnegans Wake “Finnegans Wake has been ill-used by approaches that attempt to ‘decode’ it […]
Full circle: Blackheath Halls Community Opera celebrates 20 years with a return ‘Carmen’, the opera that launched the company
Twenty years ago, Blackheath Halls launched an ambitious annual community opera project with a production of Bizet’s Carmen. This September, the project returns to the opera that started it all, celebrating two decades of creativity, […]
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