Classical music
András Schiff, Wigmore Hall review - Bach in isolationFriday, 08 January 2021
Amid madness, fear and death, there is still an oasis in the music of Bach - and Bach played by András Schiff in the Wigmore Hall is a special type of haven. Normally one can’t get in to those concerts because they are instantly sold out, even... Read more... |
Gabrieli Consort, McCreesh online review - joyous Bach Christmas OratorioThursday, 07 January 2021
After the main portion of the Voces8 Live from London Christmas festival revelled in the variety of its groups and repertoire, the final stretch allowed a single group to explore a single masterpiece by a great composer. And although it offered... Read more... |
Vienna New Year’s Day Concert, BBC Two/Radio 3 review - noble integrity and missionary zealSaturday, 02 January 2021
“Without a care” (Ohne Sorgen, the title of a fast polka by Josef Strauss performed here with deadpan sung laughs from the players) was never going to be the motto of a Vienna Philharmonic concert without an audience. Introspection and even sadness... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Sibelius, Roger Désormière, George SzellSaturday, 02 January 2021
Sibelius: The Seven Symphonies, Kullervo Minnesota Orchestra/Osmo Vänskä (BIS)Osmo Vänskä’s first BIS Sibelius cycle caused a stir in the late 1990s, as much for the Lahti Symphony Orchestra’s light, transparent playing as for Vänskä’s... Read more... |
Bevan, LPO, Jurowski, RFH online review – never-ending storiesFriday, 01 January 2021
The LPO, and its soon-to-depart chief conductor Vladimir Jurowski, began its 2020 Vision season back in February. It set out to mix and match the music of three centuries and show how it echoes in contemporary works. Well, little of that turned out... Read more... |
'Having to establish a real conversation with the audience is a good challenge': Raffaello Morales on a possible musical futureThursday, 31 December 2020
As this most remarkable year prepares to enter the history books, most of us who are part of the music industry have come to realise that the western world is desperately looking for solutions to an emergency of unprecedented dimensions in post... Read more... |
Best of 2020: Classical music concertsMonday, 28 December 2020
No picture of a musician tells more of a story about 2020 than the above image of cellist Steven Isserlis, stepping out on 8 July to play, what else but Bach, to his first live – albeit small – audience in just under four months. At that point it... Read more... |
Voces8 LIVE from London online review part 2 – an assortment box of Christmas choral treatsSunday, 27 December 2020
I gave a rare five stars to the first half of the Voces8 LIVE From London Christmas online festival and the second five concerts matched the first in their vitality, virtuosity and variety. It is astonishing how many different approaches there can... Read more... |
Best of 2020: Classical CDsSaturday, 26 December 2020
My first shortlist had 27 discs on it, but, after much soul-searching, I’ve whittled it down to 12. These are all physical releases: I like being able to read sleeve notes in print as opposed to a screen, and CDs do sound better. Here goes:Conductor... Read more... |
Stile Antico, The Cardinall's Musick, Wigmore Hall online review – lightening our darknessTuesday, 22 December 2020
Suitably enough, this year’s musical Christmas arrived at the Wigmore not in a dazzle of joyful light and bedecked with winter greenery, but with a lonely band of singers facing the gloom of an unlit, empty hall as fear and confusion multiplied... Read more... |
Dame Fanny Waterman (1920-2020) - some recollections, with love and affectionTuesday, 22 December 2020
Dame Fanny Waterman was a true force of nature, in the best sense of the word. Her diminutive height belied a giant intellectual force and a steely determination to achieve the seemingly unachievable through every means she could muster.She... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Christmas CDs 2020Saturday, 19 December 2020
Bach: Christmas Oratorio Stuttgarter Hymnus-Chorknaben, Handel’s Company/Rainer Johannes Homburg (MDG)Another year, another new Bach Christmas Oratorio. Not that I’m complaining; this one is another zinger, up there with excellent contemporary... Read more... |
