Classical music
Prom 26, Feldmann, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier review - two warhorses and a femmageFriday, 09 August 2024
This was my first Prom of the season – always an exciting moment, even in my fourth decade as an attendee. I was hearing the BBC Philharmonic under its newly appointed Principal Guest Conductor, the excellent Anja Bihlmaier, in a programme of two... Read more... |
Schola Cantorum de Venezuela / Llewellyn, Lepper, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - scorching energy and deep tendernessFriday, 09 August 2024
The Queen’s Hall isn’t going to know what has hit it after the opening weekend of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. What’s usually the festival’s demure home of chamber music – string quartets, piano trios and so on – was still... Read more... |
Bach/Mendelssohn St Matthew Passion / First Night at the Hub, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - a reimagining and a joyous celebrationThursday, 08 August 2024
When I first started attending the Edinburgh International Festival in the 1990s, the Opening Concert (capitals intentional) was a grand Usher Hall affair on a Sunday evening; a central work of the western classical tradition to set the festival... Read more... |
Prom 23, Grosvenor, LPO, Gardner review - strange meetingsWednesday, 07 August 2024
Not everyone knew what to expect from this fascinating programme. Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, last of his orchestral masterpieces, is nothing like the more familiar aspects of his piano concertos. Nor is Busoni’s nominal attempt at the form,... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Haapsalu Early Music Festival 2024 - other-worldly instruments, perfect programmes and haunting venuesTuesday, 06 August 2024
The buildings, 13th-16th century, are earlier than the music (mostly Baroque). And what buildings. Non-Estonians like myself had heard that Haapsalu was a fine seaside town; but tourist publicity neglected the glory of the castle and cathedral, a... Read more... |
Prom 21, Osborne, Sinfonia of London, Wilson review - a spectacular drive across AmericaMonday, 05 August 2024
Does John Wilson ever stumble?The Sinfonia of London, the Gateshead-born conductor’s ad hoc all-star super-band, rode into a full-to-bursting Royal Albert Hall once again last night with an all-American Proms programme that promised not just crowd-... Read more... |
La Pasión según San Marcos / Carmen, Opéra Comique, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - united in story and songMonday, 05 August 2024
Trouble. Overly honest. Too opinionated. Ultimately get killed for refusing to let go of their principles and kowtowing to the status quo. I didn’t ever expect myself to be writing about the similarities between Carmen and Jesus Christ, but... Read more... |
Prom 19, Rummukainen, Dandy, BBCSO, Oramo review - inward reflections and choral transcendenceSunday, 04 August 2024
How do you get five thousand plus people into the Albert Hall to hear two Sanskrit-based rarities by British-born composers? Simple: place the Elgar Cello Concerto in between them. Here was another daring Prom programme that totally worked, not... Read more... |
Prom 17, Kozhukhin, RPO, Petrenko review - four tripartite masterpiecesFriday, 02 August 2024
Under its master music director, the once-torpid Royal Philharmonic Orchestra has given us some of the most brilliant concerts of the 2023-4 season. Their Prom together changed course from the Elgar/Rachmaninov theme and dared even more, placing... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: violinist Braimah and cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, guitarist Plínio Fernandes, on their two Fantasia PromsThursday, 01 August 2024
It seems like only yesterday – the date in fact was 22 December 2016 – that 17-year-old Sheku Kanneh-Mason, fresh from his win as BBC Young Musician of the Year, played the Haydn C major Cello Concerto in a Pimlico church with a group of young... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Ryedale Festival: dances, and songs, to the music of timeMonday, 29 July 2024
“Cherish the moments. They go ever so quickly.” Sheila Hancock, beloved actor, writer – and award-winning singer, notably of Stephen Sondheim in Sweeney Todd – gave us that carpe diem nudge in the course of an afternoon discussion of her favourite... Read more... |
Prom 10, Van der Heijden, BBCSSO, Ryan Wigglesworth review - an engaging and esoteric delightSaturday, 27 July 2024
What is Englishness? Over the last century the answer has changed substantially. Yet last night’s Prom, which – according to the programme – set itself the task of celebrating “all things English” had a very particular answer.This was an England of... Read more... |
