Stravinsky
Isserlis, LPO, Jurowski, BBC Proms review - a final hand full of acesFriday, 13 August 2021
We finished with a pure Hollywood moment when John Gilhooly – as Chair of the Royal Philharmonic Society – popped up after the warm applause to announce that the Society had awarded its gold medal to Vladimir Jurowski. Oddly, Covid rules meant that... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Big boxes, Russian ballets, wind concertos and baroque sonatasSaturday, 31 July 2021
Riccardo Muti – The Complete Warner Symphonic Recordings (Warner Classics)As with Warner Classics’s recent André Previn box set, begin at the end. Jon Tolansky’s audio documentary is on the last disc in this 91-CD box, chronicling Riccardo... Read more... |
The Soldier's Tale, Scottish Chamber Orchestra online review - top performers master a baggy mini-monsterTuesday, 12 January 2021
Born in exigency at the end of the First World War and soon kiboshed by the Spanish flu, The Soldier’s Tale as originally conceived is a tricky hybrid to bring off. Not so the suite – Stravinsky’s mostly incidental-music numbers are unique and vivid... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Stravinsky, Weinberg, Igor LevitSaturday, 12 December 2020
Stravinsky: Petrushka, Rossini/Respighi: La Boutique Fantastique Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko (Onyx)Stravinsky’s Petrushka is usually played in the 1947 revision, so it’s a pleasure to hear the 1911 original. The... Read more... |
Hutchings, Britten Sinfonia, Paterson, Barbican online review – saluting an American classicThursday, 19 November 2020
When Aaron Copland wrote his most beloved work, Appalachian Spring, in 1943/44, he gave it the unfussy working title of “Ballet for Martha” – Martha being the choreographer Martha Graham, for whom he’d written the score. It was only shortly before... Read more... |
First Person: tenor Nicky Spence on working with Blackheath locals on screen StravinskyFriday, 09 October 2020
As patron for a community organisation, I see clearly how opera is the biggest collaboration going. Between stage, orchestra pit, school liaisons, chorus leaders, make-up bays and the magicians of the technical team, every cog is of equal... Read more... |
CBSO 100th Birthday Celebration online review - top musicians let down by sound and visualsTuesday, 08 September 2020
Let’s start by echoing Simon Rattle’s sense of “how lucky we are”, in our case to be able to share with a 75-piece City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra its centenary to the very day, and celebrate the programme, the performers, the front man too (... Read more... |
Dancing at Dusk: A Moment with Pina Bausch’s 'The Rite of Spring' review - an explosive African riteSaturday, 04 July 2020
There’s sun and sand, and both are golden – but this is no holiday beach. Distantly, out of focus, you can make out a man with a donkey and cart. Off-camera, some locals kick a ball. A square of sand about the size of a tennis court has been... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Korngold, Gabriel Prokofiev, Barbara HanniganSaturday, 30 May 2020
Korngold: Violin Concerto, String Sextet Andrew Haveron (violin), RTÉ Concert Orchestra/John Wilson, Sinfonia of London Chamber Ensemble (Chandos)Erich Korngold began writing his String Sextet in 1914, when he was just 17. Listeners immune to... Read more... |
The Rake's Progress, Complicité online review - well-projected journey from pastoral to madhouseWednesday, 08 April 2020
One way to look at Stravinsky's celebrated collaboration with W H Auden and Chester Kallman is as a numbers opera in nine pictures, four of them indebted to Hogarth's series of paintings/prints. So it's not surprising that visual flair has marked... Read more... |
Blomfield, Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review - sounds of a troubled truceTuesday, 21 January 2020
Concert programmes that set out to tell us a story can prove a mixed blessing. Yes, it’s valuable and stimulating to find ideas, and narratives, embodied in the musical flow. But great pieces, well-performed, have a habit of cutting loose from the... Read more... |
Wang, Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dudamel, Barbican review - much more than glitz and glamourTuesday, 19 November 2019
The megastars are here at the Barbican, for an intensive three days in the case of the LA Phil and Gustavo Dudamel, throughout the season as the hall shines an "Artist Spotlight" on pianist Yuja Wang. Despite a shallow opener showcasing the... Read more... |
