Debussy
Kaufmann, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall, BirminghamThursday, 08 March 2012
There was a lovely narrative to last night's CBSO concert. The muggy oppressiveness of Britten's Four Sea Interludes (and Passacaglia) appeared somehow explained by Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, then dissolved by the love letters that were the Strauss... Read more... |
theASHtray: Klinghoffer, Cape Town, and Debussy pisses off the poetsSaturday, 03 March 2012
Who does the PR these days for Middle Eastern extremists? Whoever it is clearly wasn’t on board when the Palestine Liberation Front decided to whack the Achille Lauro. Or wasn’t aware that chucking a wheelchair-bound pensioner into the Med was the... Read more... |
Duke Bluebeard's Castle, Philharmonia Orchestra, Salonen, Royal Festival HallFriday, 04 November 2011
Sometimes the most disturbing images exist only in our imaginations - and so the questions posed in the preface to Bartók’s operatic masterpiece Duke Bluebeard’s Castle become especially pertinent: “Where did this happen - outside or within? Where... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Dvořák, De Falla, Music Makes a City (DVD)Saturday, 29 October 2011
Dvořák: Symphony No 9, Czech Suite, Two Slavonic Dances Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/José Serebrier (Warner Classics)It’s easy to become a little obsessed with obscure, underrated music. You bang on and on about works which you’re convinced... Read more... |
Damrau, De Maistre, Queen's Hall/ Aimard, Bamberg SO, Nott, Usher Hall, EdinburghSaturday, 03 September 2011
What do visiting German performers add to the Edinburgh International Festival's Auld (Scotland-France) Alliance thread? Simple: when they communicate as superbly as soprano Diana Damrau and Jonathan Nott's Bambergers, the music-making works at the... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Booth, BBC Symphony Orchestra, KnussenSaturday, 30 July 2011
All aboard the chrome locomotive for composer-conductor Oliver Knussen’s annual magical mystery tour. You may notice rather few fellow passengers in the Albert Hall; that’s a given with this event (though the Proms could have thrown in and... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Osborne, BBC Philharmonic, MenaSaturday, 23 July 2011
If much of the Austro-German repertoire is about hiking to a spiritual peak, the Franco-Spanish is about diving down to the orchestral depths. The music of Ravel, Debussy and Falla has beefy shoulders and powerful legs. But the vast watery expanse... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Grainger, LullySaturday, 14 May 2011
This week we review Bellérophon, a rare Baroque opera from Lully which was exhumed by Christophe Rousset and performed for the first time last year, Debussy recorded live from the Barbican, and we answer the key question: how much is too much Percy... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Cuenca: Religious Music WeekSaturday, 23 April 2011
It’s Holy Wednesday in Cuenca, and going round the corner into Cathedral Square I’m surrounded by hordes of guys in multicoloured mufti who look like the Ku Klux Klan, with unnecessarily pointy hoods. Twenty of them are carrying a heavy float with a... Read more... |
Pelléas et Mélisande, Barbican HallTuesday, 19 April 2011
"Ne me touchez pas! Ne me touchez pas!" Mélisande's jittery first words could be the motto for the whole of Pelléas et Mélisande. How to touch, what to touch, when to and when not to touch, more specifically, how to mark without bruising,... Read more... |
Schäfer, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallThursday, 02 December 2010
Despite footsteps in the snow, as creepily characterised by Debussy's prelude of the same name, and sleighbells to launch a childlike symphonic journey, interior illumination should have been at the core of this concert. Sadly, given Colin Matthews'... Read more... |
Orchestre National de France, Gatti, Royal Albert HallWednesday, 08 September 2010
It was one of those moments that every conductor (and orchestra) dreads: “The Procession of the Sage” from Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring is in rip-roaring full cry, percussion grinding and scratching, high trumpet screeching – but Daniele Gatti,... Read more... |
