Bach
Written By Mrs Bach, BBC FourSaturday, 21 March 2015
The Australian musician and musicologist Martin Jarvis, connected with Charles Darwin University in the Northern Territory, has been obsessed for the past 25 years with proving that Anna Magdalena Wilcke, Johann Sebastian Bach’s second wife, was not... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Birkin, WeinbergSaturday, 28 February 2015
Bach: The Six Cello Suites Viola de Hoog (Vivat)Two hours of solo instrumental music may sound daunting. Bach's six cello suites are anything but. They were composed when the cello was beginning to supersede the fretted viola de gamba, an... Read more... |
Alexander Ivashkin Memorial Concert, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 13 February 2015
A memorial concert to a busy man. Alexander Ivashkin, who died last January, was a cellist, a scholar, a teacher, an authority on Russian music, and much else besides. This evening’s concert faced up to the daunting challenge of commemorating the... Read more... |
Bach B minor Mass, Trinity College Choir, OAE, Layton, St John's Smith SquareTuesday, 23 December 2014
While the embers of the concert year are dying out around the country, you can be sure of a great blaze-up at St John’s Smith Square. The annual Christmas Festival of quality early-music groups and top choirs – this is the 29th – now traditionally... Read more... |
Chung, Kenner, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 03 December 2014
In one way, it makes sense to give your London comeback concert in the venue where you made your European debut 44 years ago. Yet the Royal Festival Hall is a mighty big place for a violin-and-piano recital. Kyung Wha Chung had no problem nearly... Read more... |
Stations of the CrossWednesday, 26 November 2014
There is ice at the heart of German director’s Dietrich Brueggemann’s Stations of the Cross (Kreuzweg). Winner of this year’s Berlinale Silver Bear for best script – the director wrote the film in collaboration with his sister Anna – it’s a chilling... Read more... |
Triptych, Rambert, Sadler's WellsWednesday, 19 November 2014
How long should a dance programme be? Opera and theatre habitués can be surprised by outings to contemporary dance, where the pieces might be shorter than the intervals, and a 7:30 start could see you comfortably on the 9:15 train home. But the... Read more... |
RPO, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Zukerman, Royal Festival HallTuesday, 28 October 2014
This concert was part of a tour of Canada’s National Arts Centre orchestra to five cities in the UK themed around the anniversary of the start of World War One. The Ottawa-based orchestra joined forces with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Prokofiev, ShostakovichSaturday, 25 October 2014
Bach: Partitas 1-6 Igor Levit (piano) (Sony)Martin Geck's sleeve essay accompanying this pair of discs is a good read, hinting at the subtleties and complexities lying just below the surface of what may, superficially, look like six simple... Read more... |
Daniil Trifonov, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 01 October 2014
Daniil Trifonov, 23, has shot to prominence as one of the hottest pianistic properties of the moment. With multiple competition wins behind him, including the Tchaikovsky in his native Russia, plus a recording contract with DG and a frenetic globe-... Read more... |
Prom 66: St Matthew Passion, Berlin Philharmonic, RattleSunday, 07 September 2014
Peter Sellars’ work used to be about making a statement. He would dislocate texts from contexts, subvert musical suggestion and ignore written statement for the sheer joy of the artistic friction it would generate. The beauty of his St Matthew... Read more... |
theartsdesk in La Foce: War and Peace in Val d'OrciaSunday, 10 August 2014
“If this isn’t nice, what is?” Kurt Vonnegut’s vow to repeat his Uncle Alex’s mantra when things were going “sweetly and peacefully” has been much on my mind during various idylls this war-torn summer. It certainly applied to hearing three boys and... Read more... |
