conductors
Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review - the really big orchestra is back for cosmic StraussFriday, 01 October 2021
Two suns, two moons, two Philharmonia leaders sharing a front desk, two aspirational giants among Richard Strauss's symphonic poems bringing the number of players, in the second half, to 134. Who’d have thought we’d be witnessing such phenomena when... Read more... |
First Person: conductor Enrique Mazzola on Verdi's time-travelling 'Luisa Miller'Friday, 30 July 2021
It is difficult to know why some operas succeed while others remain unknown. The reasons can be emotional or historical, or it might be as simple as a poor cast who couldn’t quite launch the opera into the stars. In the case of Luisa Miller, we have... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Three great conductors remembered, Mahler with accordion and a song cycle with no singerSaturday, 05 June 2021
André Previn: The Warner Edition – Complete HMV & Teldec Recordings (Warner Classics)Flicking through this box set will provoke a Proustian rush if you’re of a certain age. These recordings were mostly made for EMI, though Warner Classics... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: conductor Klaus MäkeläThursday, 25 March 2021
Let the facts – and the music-making you can see and hear online – speak for themselves first. Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä became the Oslo Philharmonic’s chief conductor last September, at the age of 24; he takes up the same post with the... Read more... |
The Choir: Singing for Britain Finale, BBC Two review - stirring songs from a garden shedWednesday, 08 July 2020
Once again the incredible healing powers of Gareth Malone swung into action, as his quest to find a universal anthem for the Covid crisis boiled up to a climax (BBC Two). Considering that he’s been masterminding his Home Choir and his songwriting... Read more... |
Philharmonia, Channel 4 review - death on the podiumMonday, 01 June 2020
Great idea to use a symphony orchestra as the basis for a TV drama, because all of human life is there. Not to mention death, since this entertaining, though melodramatic, new French import (Channel 4) began with the dramatic collapse on the podium... Read more... |
Classical Music/Opera direct to home 4 - Rattle in the etherSunday, 29 March 2020
He may no longer be the Berlin Philharmoniker's Chief Conductor, but by a combination of serendipity and foresight on the orchestra's part, Simon Rattle's last concert in Berlin for the foreseeable future was filmed without an audience and led the... Read more... |
Mahler's Eighth, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - a symphony of 600Monday, 20 January 2020
“Try to imagine the whole universe beginning to ring and resound” wrote Gustav Mahler of his Eighth Symphony. “There are no longer human voices, but planets and suns revolving.” It’s an image that captures the impossible scale and mind-boggling... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Olari Elts in TallinnSunday, 22 December 2019
Arriving in Tallinn hotfoot from Paavo Järvi's inaugural concert as chief conductor of Zurich's Tonhalle Orchestra, and expecting the limelight to belong to composer Erkki-Sven Tüür on his 60th birthday, I found another Estonian bonus in store. Not... Read more... |
'In every concert, I want to try to tell a story': Conductor Omer Meir Wellber at the BBC PhilharmonicThursday, 12 December 2019
Omer Meir Wellber may be the first chief conductor of a major orchestra to have begun his tenure with a children's concert. But the young new music director of the BBC Philharmonic was proud that this was how his first public appearance since... Read more... |
Remembering Mariss Jansons (1943-2019)Wednesday, 04 December 2019
He was indeed "one of the greats" among conductors, as theartsdesk's Gavin Dixon put it in reviewing Mariss Jansons' January visit to the Barbican, and remains so by virtue of his recordings. Affable and natural in person, though not hugely... Read more... |
'A laboratory for everything': Jasper Parrott on the future of his classical music agencySaturday, 05 October 2019
Fiftieth anniversary? It seems incredible but also so exhilarating not least because these times we live in now seem to me to be a golden age for music of all kinds and in particular for what we label so inadequately classical music. This flowering... Read more... |
