GRAMOPHONE Review: Beethoven Symphony No. 3 / Strauss Metamorphosen – Sinfonia Grange au Lac/Salonen
The intriguingly named Sinfonia Grange Au Lac (literally The Barn on the Lake) bows in here under its first mentor and incumbent Esa-Pekka Salonen. A unique custom made orchestra for a custom made venue and festival –…
ANTONIO PAPPANO in conversation with Edward Seckerson
Thursday 30th January 2020 7.30pm Bishopsgate Institute. Join us in the stunning Grade II* listed Great Hall at Bishopsgate Institute as we welcome the acclaimed conductor, pianist and Music Director of The Royal Opera, Antonio Pappano, who…
SIR JOHN TOMLINSON CBE in conversation with Edward Seckerson
Champs Hill Friday 31st January 2020 7.30pm Champs Hill is delighted to be welcoming the great British bass – Sir John Tomlinson, CBE, in Conversation with British music journalist and radio presenter, Edward Seckerson. With excerpts from…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – October 2019
It’s always exciting when a significant new voice arrives on the music scene and Decca really pushed the boat out a couple of months back for the debut release of the young Norwegian soprano Lise Davidsen. She…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Tchaikovsky: ‘The Tchaikovsky Project’ Complete Symphonies & Piano Concertos – Gerstein, Czech Philharmonic/Bychkov
Now we have the complete portrait, as it were, of Tchaikovsky through the eyes of Semyon Bychkov many of the issues I addressed when reviewing the original releases of the 6th ‘Pathétique’ and Manfred Symphonies are thrown…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Copland: Quiet City / Dvořák: Symphony No. 9 ‘From The New World’ / Ives: ‘Holidays’ Symphony – Solistes Européens Luxembourg/König
It’s a neat idea framing Dvorak’s ubiquitous ‘New World’ with two miniatures of authentic Americana – one rural, one urban – from perhaps her most famous sons: Ives and Copland. But that’s about as far as my…
GRAMOPHONE: From Where I Sit – September 2019
Movie music aficionados are a very particular breed – serious, knowledgeable, fanatical. Even the soft-core variety – as I once was – are fiercely defensive of their favourite practitioners. The music and the indelible images they amplify…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 9 – Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Blomstedt
School of Barbirolli. That was my first thought as the faltering pulse of the opening bars ushered in the warm and consoling first theme, first heard, of course, in the second not first violins. No hint so…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Mahler Symphony No. 4 – London Philharmonic Orchestra/Jurowski
A Mahler 4 as insightful and as individual as we have come to expect from this source. How rarely we hear the opening bars of the symphony delivered precisely as Mahler instructs: Bedächtig. Nicht eilen (Deliberate. Don’t…
GRAMOPHONE Review: Barber Vanessa (BluRay/DVD) – Glyndebourne Festival Opera, London Philharmonic Orchestra/Hrůša
Since it was unveiled at last year’s Glyndebourne Festival Keith Warner’s handsome and insightful staging of Barber’s Vanessa has probably done more to silence the work’s naysayers than any in recent memory. It’s a piece that has…
