Strauss
Buchbinder, Gewandhausorkester Leipzig, Nelsons, Barbican / COE Soloists, St John's Smith Square review - European sophistication in spadesWednesday, 11 May 2022
When in 2018 Andris Nelsons and his "new" Leipzig orchestra sealed an auspicious partnership with a locally significant but modestly scaled symphony, Mendelssohn’s “Scottish” (No. 3), they could not have foreseen two years ahead when the bigger... Read more... |
RSNO, RCOS Students, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - a massive gesture of solidarityMonday, 02 May 2022
In my last review from Edinburgh, I remarked on the sheer size of the National Youth Orchestra of Scotland, with over 100 players on stage. Little did I know that two weeks later the Royal Scottish National Orchestra would swell its ranks with... Read more... |
Die ägyptische Helena, Fulham Opera review - mythological mess impressively handledWednesday, 20 October 2021
So Helen of Troy arrives at a church in Fulham via Poseidon’s island palace and a pavilion at the foot of the Atlas Mountains. She’s trickier than ever in the golden but tangled web Richard Strauss and his myth-and-symbol-mad poet Hugo von... Read more... |
Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review - the really big orchestra is back for cosmic StraussFriday, 01 October 2021
Two suns, two moons, two Philharmonia leaders sharing a front desk, two aspirational giants among Richard Strauss's symphonic poems bringing the number of players, in the second half, to 134. Who’d have thought we’d be witnessing such phenomena when... Read more... |
Ariadne auf Naxos, Edinburgh International Festival review – apt setting for Strauss hybridMonday, 30 August 2021
This lively interpretation of Richard Strauss’s opera within an opera provides a feast for the senses as a musical highlight of the Edinburgh international Festival. As with the rest of the festival’s 2021 programme, the opera is performed outdoors... Read more... |
Der Rosenkavalier, Garsington Opera review - musical marvels, drama less often fulfilledFriday, 18 June 2021
Whatever else happens on the country opera scene this summer, the golden rose award for sheer chutzpah goes to the ever-ambitious Garsington team in pulling this off in no small style. Planning any production of Richard Strauss and Hugo von... Read more... |
Der Rosenkavalier, Bavarian State Opera online review - myth-making magicMonday, 22 March 2021
Venus, Cupid, Folly and Time stalk this haunting dream of a Rosenkavalier. The love games of teenager Octavian and his experienced mistress the Marschallin are sexy and plausible; the comedy of ridiculous Baron Ochs keeps a low profile, but stays... Read more... |
Williams, Hallé, Elder online review - big results from small forcesSaturday, 12 December 2020
The second of the Hallé’s Winter Season concerts-on-film is scarcely less ground-breaking than the first. But this time we are in the orchestra’s second home, the former church now extended to be Hallé St Peter’s in the regenerated part of... Read more... |
BBC Proms live online: Hough, BBC Scottish SO, Chauhan review - sombre reflections on lockdownMonday, 07 September 2020
The BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra’s Prom was a sombre contribution to an otherwise upbeat season. The mood was reflective – looking back on lockdown. The concert was given at City Halls, Glasgow, where the privations of social distancing were also... Read more... |
BBC Proms live online: Viennese Night review - sophisticated pleasuresTuesday, 01 September 2020
Viennese operetta is like that other great Central European treat, goulash. It comes in many forms. In Vienna it’s coffeehouse comfort food; in Slovenia they add bacon for a smoky tang. And in the marketplaces of Transylvania it comes in bubbling... Read more... |
A masked elegy: portraits of string players at the Fidelio Orchestra CaféFriday, 07 August 2020
Out of a silent and empty City of London, unusually still even for a Sunday afternoon, it felt surreal to come upon a centre of light and activity. Raffaello Morales, Renaissance man, conductor of the Fidelio Orchestra and owner/impresario of its... Read more... |
Elektra, Salzburg Festival, Arte review - distancing, but not in the physical senseTuesday, 04 August 2020
So much for the assertion that nowhere in the world would be staging the big Strauss and Wagner operas for the indefinite future. With a combination of lavish funding and good pandemic management on Austria's part, it’s been possible in Salzburg.... Read more... |
- 1 of 13
- ››
