Back in June 2024 Vache Baroque staged six multi-sensory concert experiences of Handel’s L’Allegro Part I (setting a text based on Milton) in collaboration with BitterSuite (a group that creates music experiences that take inspiration […]
Sinfonia Smith Square Sinfonia Smith Square (formed from the merger of Southbank Sinfonia and St John’s Smith Square) has been awarded £452,035 grant by The National Lottery Heritage Fund for upgrades to Smith Square Hall. The […]
The legendary tabla player, composer, actor and producer Zakir Hussain died today in a US hospital at the age of 73. A government minister declared him ‘irreplaceable’. Zakir Hussain shot to fame in the 1970s, […]
The emeritus music director of the Chicago Symphony seems charmingly vague about his successor in an interview with Dennis Polkow. Or maybe he’s just kidding, with a touch of malice. Excerpt: “I didn’t want to […]
An ecstatic reception of Petrenko’s Mahler Ninth with the Israel Philharmonic has been accompanied by thoughtful reviews. Petrenkko himself wrote in a programme note that he did not accept the collective conducting wisdom that the […]
NB: I’m reposting this, as one of next week’s posts will be a full Trittico from Vienna …. Puccini Suor Angelica (sung in English, traans. Amanda Holden). Cast; Chorus and Orchestra of English National Opera […]
It is nice to hear the choir of my old college, King’s College, London, in so vibrant form; the composer here, Edward Nesbit, is currently lecturer in composition there. Christmas music is traditionally reflective: the […]
Peggy Lee Fever, written by Otis Blackwell and Eddie Cooley (collectively known as John Davenport), was originally recorded in 1956 by Little Willie John (who?), Fever has been recorded by countless singers in hundreds of […]
The Vienna State Opera has published a closely-observed article by conductor Jendrik Springer on working with the intense Christian Thielemann. First of all: never call him Maestro. That’s what I advise all singers who are […]
The Bulgarian conductor Delyana Lazarov a, former assistant to Mark Elder in Manchester, has been named principal guest conductor in Utah from mid-2025. She will work with newly appointed music director Markus Poschner. ‘Delyana’s electric […]
