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 Alastair White:Here Comes Everybody: an overture to Finnegans Wake; Ensemble Exposé, […]
We need to hear more music by Amglo-Irish composer Ernest John (Smeed) Moeran (1894-1950). Arnold Bax referred to Moeran as “the last true Romantic”. His life was a toubled one: he was wounded in the […]
.jpg?w=510&resize=510,510&ssl=1 "By turns illuminating & compelling: the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra on terrific form in Britten & Vaughan Williams at the BBC Proms")
Britten: Violin Concerto – Simone Lamsma, Andrew Manze, Royal Liverpool Philharmonic – BBC Proms (Photo: BBC/ Chris Christodoulou) Vaughan Williams: Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis, Britten: Violin Concerto, Carmel Smickersgill: A Brick Thrown […]
Elgar Variations on an Original Theme. Op. 36, ‘Enigma‘ (1888/9) Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 4 in F minor, Op. 36 (1877/8) Elgar and the Berliner Philarmoniker? Well, there is precedent of the orchestra in English music […]
With Meditations for Harpsichord, British-Polish harpsichordist Katarzyna Kowalik will gather together nine newly commissioned works by five British and four Polish composers. The project will receive its world premiere at Colet House in London on […]
As his Grande Messe des Morts (Requiem) in Pappano’s LSO performance proved conclusively (August 15), there are fewer if any better spaces to hold Berlioz’ monumental imagination. From the religious to Goethe’s great work of […]
ORA Singers’ Graduate Composers‘ scheme forms a core part of their Composers’ Pathway – their work to support composers at any stage in their careers. The Graduate scheme champions early-career composers by offering them a […]
Composer Helen Caddick and textile artist Margo Selby collaborated on an immersive cross-genre piece, moon landing, for Collect 2024 at Somerset House. [see my article] As part of the exhibition at the Saatchi Gallery (which closes […]
Just as the Philharmonia Orchestra is using VR to enable people find out what it is like to join a live orchestra [see my article]. Another project is doing something similar but with a real […]
Handel’s Italians: Italian castrati in the London oratorios – music from Handel’s Esther, Deborah, Athalia, Belshazzar, Messiah, Theodora; Carlo Vistoli, Giulia Semenzato, Le Concert d’Astrée, Emmanuelle Haïm; Harmonia MundiReviewed 1 September 2026 This rather imaginative recital focuses on music from […]
%20&%20Samantha%20Price%20(Dido)%20-%20credit%20Richard%20Hubert%20Smith.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "Less is more: Elena Langer's Ariadne & Purcell's Dido hit home in finely abstract productions, a real ensemble achievement from English Touring Opera")
