Weckmann Sonatas on cpo
This is fascinating: it reminded me so much of the amazing Les Éléments concert in Périgord last summer; music of openness and exuberance of invention. Matthias Weckmann seemed to be pulled towards Dresden as if […]
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Adila Fachiri, Marie Soldat and … one Donald Francis Tovey
So what’s the big deal hee? Two violinists on one disc, one of them – Adila Fachirri – performing with Donald Francis Tovey, he of the Essays in Musical Analysis. Toccata Classics has released recordings […]
St John’s Cambridge Choir returns: O Holy Night
The choral tradition of excellence at St John’s College, Cambridge carries on under Christopher Gray, continuing the work of Andrew Nethsingha. Adophe Adam’s O holy night will need little introduction, but what a lovey arrangement […]
%20TallWall%20Media_Oxford%20Song.jpg?w=510&resize=510,510&ssl=1 "There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner in Oxford")
There was no closure here: four Irish women composers give voice to women of the Magdalene Laundries in remarkable performances from Lotte Betts-Dean & Deirdre Brenner in Oxford
The Magdalene Songs – Deirdre Brenner, Lotte Betts-Dean – Oxford International Song Festival (Photo: TallWall Media) The Magdalene Songs: Elaine Agnew, Elaine Brennan, Rhona Clarke, Deirdre McKay; Lotte Betts-Dean, Deirdre Brenner; Oxford International Song Festival […]
“A Festival with a Mission”: Aix Easter Festival 2026 announced
So the Aix-en-Provence Easter Festival 2026! The official release is below, to which I would add a few highlights: It is good to see Yuliana Adveeva on the books, a pianist who hs impressed in […]
The Music of Sergej Maingardt
It is important to listen to consider and absorb the music of our time. For some hat means a post-Modern construct; which can be relatively easy on the ear; for others (I remember, notably in […]
Manchester Camerata at Wigmore Hall
It’s amazing what can change in three quarters of an a hour. This short lunchtime concert at Wigmore Hall preesnted some remarkable music in superb performances: the known, the lesser-known and the (probably) unknown. But […]
A series of high-profile concerts in Paris marked the centenary of the celebrated and distinguished Russian-born cellist, Valentin Berlinsky, founder and cellist of the Borodin String Quartet.
Schubert: Trout Quintet – Mikhail Kopelman, Loïc Rio, Laurent Marfaing, François Kieffer, Grigory Kovalevsky, Elisabeth Leonskaja (Photo © Nathanael Charpentier / © Association La Clé des Portes) First concert (presented by Clément Rochefort)JS Bach: Cello […]
Fantasia Orchestra launch residency at Smith Square Hall with Birdsong-themed concert
Jess Gillam, Tom Fetherstonhaugh & Fantasia Orchestra in rehearsal (Photo: Fantasia Orchestra) In May last year I chatted conductor Tom Fetherstonhaugh [see my interview] about Fantasia Orchestra which he founded way back in 2016 (when he […]
Heavenly Harmony: for 2026, the London Handel Festival ranges from oratorio & opera seria to the more intimate, including the composer’s living room
The Foundling Hospital chapel where Handel presented Messiah annually Cities change and cities develop. Which means that a festival that seeks to celebrate Handel in the city of his adoption constantly needs to reinvent itself. There are […]
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