Debussy
Upshaw, London Symphony Orchestra, Adams, Barbican HallFriday, 18 January 2013
Want to learn more about 20th century music in action? Starting tomorrow, you could lose yourself in the labyrinth of the Southbank’s year-long The Rest is Noise festival, and plough your way through Alex Ross’s monumental but partisan study of that... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Berlin Philharmonic, RattleFriday, 31 August 2012
It's not completely unheard of what Sir Simon Rattle did at the start of last night's Prom, where he elided two familiar works - Ligeti's colouristic classic Atmosphères and the Prelude to Act One of Wagner's Lohengrin - into a... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Peter Grimes, English National Opera/ BBC Symphony Orchestra, KnussenSunday, 26 August 2012
After the all-singing, all-dancing, all-helicoptering brilliance of Stockhausen Mittwoch aus Licht, the dry routine of an opera in concert didn't seem a very enticing prospect. That's the problem with this year's Cultural Olympiad. We're... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Verbier: Flowers, Cows and Musical StarsFriday, 27 July 2012
Can this really be only an afternoon’s travelling away from traffic-choked London? I’m waist-deep in wild blue lupins on a verdant Swiss mountain looking for a concert hall.A cow’s bell nearby is slightly frustrating - beyond the lupins, I guess, is... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Pelléas et Mélisande, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, GardinerMonday, 16 July 2012
How silly an armchair looks in the Royal Albert Hall - like a rubber duck floating in the Pacific. Yet how right it was for those behind this excellent semi- staged Proms performance of Debussy's Pelléas et Mélisande to try to recreate a bit of... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Handel, Kuss QuartetSaturday, 30 June 2012
Debussy: Préludes, Trois Nocturnes Prélude à l’après-midi d’une faune Alexei Lubimov (with Alexei Zuev) (ECM)Historically informed readings of 20th-century music no longer surprise us; Simon Rattle has recently performed La Mer on period... Read more... |
Aimard, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Rattle, Royal Festival HallMonday, 11 June 2012
The repertoire of the OAE is creeping away from the 18th century and into the 20th with such unashamed eagerness, it wouldn't be at all surprising to see them throwing up an urtext edition of "Hit Me Baby One More Time" in a few seasons. Last... Read more... |
Rattle rolls up for The Night ShiftFriday, 25 May 2012Sir Simon Rattle has a reputation as one of classical music's most persuasive talkers. Only not with a baton in his hand. His skills as both a verbal and musical communicator will be simultaneously on view for the first time next month when he makes... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Debussy, Rachmaninov, StravinskySaturday, 05 May 2012
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 Peter Hill (piano) (Delphian)Book 2 of Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier doesn’t often appear without Book 1. It’s sometimes unfairly perceived as drier, more academic than its predecessor. Bach’s didactic aim... Read more... |
Tetzlaff, London Symphony Orchestra, Eötvös, Barbican HallMonday, 30 April 2012
“I don’t want to be a Cyclops,” Pierre Boulez said in 2010, faced with the prospect of conducting a Chicago concert with only one working eye. Eye troubles, alas, have continued to bedevil the octogenarian giant of contemporary music, which is why... Read more... |
Apollo/ Jeux/ Suite en blanc, English National Ballet, London ColiseumThursday, 29 March 2012
Just a typical night at the ballet. The sun god rises with his goddesses, people play tennis and flirt in a garden, a handsome young chap struts his considerable stuff on a Twenties beach, and an array of white-tutu’d ballerinas perform deliciously... Read more... |
Ballet for £10 - English National Ballet reach outWednesday, 28 March 2012English National Ballet is offering best seats for its current London Coliseum season this week for £10 as it tries to broaden the potential ballet audience from the familiar pleasures of Swan Lake or The Nutcracker to the sophisticated delights and... Read more... |
