Royal Albert Hall
theartsdesk Q&A: Director Robert LepageSaturday, 29 January 2011
Robert Lepage is not just one of the most fêted and sought-after theatre directors in the world; he is also one of the most prolific. His international breakthrough came with The Dragon Trilogy in 1985, and since then the French-Canadian’s work has... Read more... |
Year Out/Year In: Classical Music and OperaFriday, 31 December 2010
Earlier this month, George Osborne, Vince Cable and Jeremy Hunt were spotted in a Royal Opera House box surveying the country's most expensive artistic patrimony. What they thought - and how they and the Arts Council might wield their axe - will... Read more... |
a-ha, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 09 October 2010
Twenty-five years ago, a-ha achieved something unprecedented for a Norwegian band: they entered the British charts. The week of 5 October, 1985 saw “Take On Me” enter the Top 40. Three weeks later it peaked at number two. To mark the anniversary, a-... Read more... |
The Last Night of the Proms, Fleming, Rysanov, BBCSO, BělohlávekSunday, 12 September 2010
It must have been with a leaden heart that the BBC Proms planning team realised that 2010's Last Night would fall plumb on 9/11. How to reconcile all the traditional Brit triumphalism and singing of Jerusalem with the rather more contemporary need... Read more... |
The Art of Conducting 2010Saturday, 11 September 2010
Chris Christodoulou has been honing his focus on conductors in past Proms seasons to wonderful effect, but this year has produced a galaxy of master portraits that outdoes even the immortal cartoons of Gerard Hoffnung in entertainment value. We’ve... Read more... |
Monteverdi Choir, English Baroque Soloists, Gardiner, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 11 September 2010
Monteverdi’s 1610 Vespers are something of a musical enigma. Neither their true pitch nor order of movements, their origins, nor even whether they were intended as a complete sequence is known for certain, prompting scholar Denis Arnold to conclude... Read more... |
Orchestre National de France, Gatti, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 08 September 2010
It was one of those moments that every conductor (and orchestra) dreads: “The Procession of the Sage” from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is in rip-roaring full cry, percussion grinding and scratching, high trumpet screeching – but Daniele Gatti,... Read more... |
RSNO, Denève; Ensemble Matheus, Spinosi, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 07 September 2010
Is that asking a lot? Probably not, considering what's already been achieved at this year's BBC Proms. Looking back on it, last night felt implausibly rich yet gloriously digestible, too, at least in retrospect. I couldn't have predicted that I... Read more... |
Mattila, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Royal Albert HallSunday, 05 September 2010
My abiding memory of the Berlin Philharmonic’s second Prom under Sir Simon Rattle on Saturday will be of 6,000 people listening with rapt, or at any rate silent, concentration to Schoenberg, Webern and Berg. Has it ever happened before? Perhaps... Read more... |
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Royal Albert HallFriday, 03 September 2010
Call me a paradoxically wary old Mahler nut, but I reckon that given 24 months of anniversary overkill, it might keep things fresh to catch each of the symphonies live no more than once a year. So, having heard an Everest of a First Symphony from... Read more... |
Gerhaher, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Blomstedt, Royal Albert HallThursday, 02 September 2010
Yet again I leave a Herbert Blomstedt concert with a sense of wonderment and bemusement. Wonderment at the extraordinary music-making that this man is capable of. Bemusement as to why he is not better known, his talents not more widely recognised,... Read more... |
Hänsel und Gretel, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Ticciati, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 01 September 2010
Everyone concerned has, of course, total confidence and bags of experience at the end of a riotous run, warmly applauded by Edward Seckerson at Glyndebourne. Yet there were dangers to be negotiated. Only Irmgard Vilsmaier's Sieglinde-cum-Fricka of a... Read more... |
