GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – April 2022
I never need much of an excuse to write about Leonard Bernstein – but in the wake of the Spielberg remake of West Side Story (doubtless laden with awards by the time these words are published) I…
COMPARING NOTES with DESMONDA CATHABEL
Sunday 5th June 2022 3.00pm Crazy Coqs, Brasserie Zédel Comparing Notes brings stars of the West End and Broadway to Crazy Coqs. In a lively and informal mix of performance and conversation host Edward Seckerson will be getting…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Ravel Orchestral Works, Sinfonia of London/Wilson
John Wilson is on a mission to bring his restorative ear to bear on Ravel’s orchestral catalogue – so expect more of insight and excellence from this source. Astonishing to think that a score as frequently performed…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Transmissions – Edgar Moreau, Luzerner Sinfonieorchester/Sanderling
The cello as cantor. And for Edgar Moreau the incantations plainly run deep. The ‘Transmission’ of the title goes from the heart to the heart, every prayerful inflection, every melismatic phrase invoking something as personal as it…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – March 2022
Recent times have taught us to take nothing for granted – so dare I get too excited about the rescheduling of live events with the great Dame Janet Baker with whom I shall be bound to three…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Métamorphoses Nocturnes (Strauss/Respighi/Schoenberg) – Appassionato/Herzog
Something of a revelation, this disc, this programme (the Respighi was new to me) – and for the creator of Appassionato, Mathieu Herzog (late of the Ébene Quartet), something plainly close to his heart. Appassionato is a…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 6 – Düsseldorfer Symphoniker/Fischer
This final chapter of Adam Fischer’s distinctive, occasionally inspired, Mahler cycle draws to a close dare I say that it is nothing if not fatalistic that the traumatic Sixth should have coincided with the start of the…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – February 2022
I don’t think anyone would dispute that programme building is a real art. The structure, the proportions, the way chosen pieces impact upon each other. You can be creative but you can also be capricious. I’m thinking…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – January 2022
It’s 1992 and Sam Mendes’ celebrated staging of Sondheim and Weidman’s Assassins is in rehearsal at the Donmar Warehouse. In the green room Stephen Sondheim sits reading a copy of Gramophone during the lunch break (yes, really),…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Bartók Concerto for Orchestra/Music for Strings, Percussion & Celesta – Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra/Mälkki
Susanna Mälkki’s thrilling sojourn in Duke Bluebeard’s Castle was roundly welcomed by me in the June edition of Gramophone – and now on much more familiar ground she and the outstanding Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra work more conspicuous…
