Earthcycle: Orchestra of the Swan
The Stratford-upon-Avon based ensemble Orchestra of the Swan is one of the most inventive groups around in the UK today – this extends from their programming to their use of multimedia to the subjects they […]
reviews
Benjamin Grosvenor at the Wigmore: Brett Dean, Bach, Brahms
Bach – Prelude in E minor, BWV 955a (transcribed Siloti) Brett Dean – Hommage à Bach (2010): Prélude; Hommage à Kurtág (2011); Music for Drakenstein – Two Etudes (2018, world première); Hommage à Janáček (2009); Hommage à Lutosławski (2017); Hommage à Bach (2010): Chorale; Faustian Pact (Hommage à Liszt) (2023, UK premiere) Brahms – Klavierstücke, […]
A German in Venice – Schütz alongside music he could have heard in Venice, a wonderfully life-affirming disc
Schütz: A German in Venice – Schütz, Monteverdi, Rossi, Grandi, Cavalli, Sances; David de Winter, The Brook Street Band, FHR;Reviewed 24 April 2024 A wonderfully engaging and life-affirming disc which mixed Schütz’s music with pieces […]
Summer at Snape, Britten Pears Arts’ series of events at Snape returns for 2024
Summer at Snape, Britten Pears Arts’ series of events at Snape returns for 2024 with 50 events from 26 July to 31 August. Visiting orchestras include John Wilson and the Sinfonia of London in Britten […]
Schoenberg: Exploring New Worlds – Lewes Chamber Music Festival 2024
The 13th Lewes Chamber Music Festival takes place from 6 to 8 June 2024 with artistic director Beatrice Philips bringing together 18 of today’s most exciting chamber-musicians and soloists to explore the musical ties between […]
Enriching, uplifting, entertaining & inclusive: Paradox Orchestra to perform at Sheffield Cathedral in support of the Archer Project
The Paradox Orchestra (Photo: Elizabeth Brown) The Yorkshire-based Paradox Orchestra, whose founder Michael Sluman I chatted to recently [see my interview ‘No boundaries or rules‘], is presenting a series of concerts for charitable causes across […]
Handel’s Ariadne: the London Handel Festival’s “Arianna in Creta”
Handel’s Arianna: An unforgettable close to the London Handel Festival’s ‘Spring Awakenings’ festival This is not the London Handel Festival’s first stab at Handel’s unjustly neglected opera, Arianna in Creta; it was previously staged […]
Disruptors: BBC Young Musician Keyboard Category Final winner Ethan Loch joins Manchester Camerata for music by Beethoven and local composer Carmel Smickersgill
Ethan Loch at the BBC Young Musician 2022 Final (Photo: BBC) For their next performance in Manchester, the Manchester Camerata is changing their base of operations and giving a concert in the Albert Hall on […]
Attention must be paid: the Engegård Quartet at Conway Hall in Mozart, Bartok, Maja Ratkje, and Fanny Mendelssohn
Fanny Hensel (Mendelssohn) in 1842 Mozart, Bartok, Maja Ratkje, Fanny Mendelssohn; Engegård Quartet; Conway HallReviewed 21 April 2024 Playing of extraordinary vividness and presence by the Norwegian ensemble in a programme moving from Mozart and […]
Holst 150, complete Shostakovich quartets, Gilbert & Sullivan’s The Sorcerer: Lichfield Festival 2024
The Hub at St Mary’s – Brodsky Quartet at Lichfield Festival, July 2023 (Photo: Tyler Whiting) The Lichfield Festival returns for ten days of classical, folk, world, jazz, cabaret and popular music, theatre, dance and the […]
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,%20Jessica%20Cale%20(Giulietta)%20(c)%20Richard%20Hubert%20Smith.jpg?w=160&resize=160,160&ssl=1 "Musical magic moments: Bellini's The Capulets & the Montagues at English Touring Opera takes us firmly into the 1950s and New York's mean streets")
