It will probably come as no surprise to anyone familiar with the weird and wonderful work of Dave Molloy that this so-called ‘Chamber Choir Musical’ is an extraordinary confection. I listened to it on the same day…
A brand new label showcasing both the National Symphony Orchestra and their home – the Kennedy Center – in Washington DC offers two familiar postcards ‘From the New World’ in performances that should but don’t stand out…
Let me say straight away that Vanska is temperamentally far better suited to the pristine, child-like world of the Fourth Symphony than he was to the epic Second. There are many aspects of this excellent performance (and…
A great deal has already been written about Beethoven this year. There will be more. Allow me to add to it. I have a vivid memory – a particular concert that took place on 9 June 1981…
Gramophone has already singled out this young man as one to watch and from the shaping of his solo entrance in the Tchaikovsky alone there’s a ‘presence’ about Johan Dalene’s playing that announces a musician of special…
This is one of those discs which commands respect (this conductor is pretty much always a safe investment) without setting the world on fire. I kept waiting for, anticipating, moments in all of these pieces when Petrenko…
A treasure, to be sure. Four years before Bruno Walter’s celebrated, indeed classic, Vienna recording (1952) with Kathleen Ferrier, the man who conducted the world premiere of Mahler’s pantheistic symphony with voices takes his newest discovery from…
After so many years of concert-going – including a time when writing for The Guardian and The Independent newspapers that I was averaging three concerts a week minimum – it’s good to be reminded that I can…
The shocking pink packaging says it all. If Offenbach had a colour then this might be it. Then there’s the quirky illustration of besuited animals relating, of course, to the Six Fables of De La Fontaine –…
As a new year and a new decade beckon we continue to live in uncertain times for print journalism. The digital world has opened up new and exciting frontiers for sure; it has sharpened communication and promoted…
