Haydn
Yevgeny Sudbin, QEHThursday, 14 May 2015
Mahler once wrote that his symphonies were edifices built from the same stones, gathered in childhood. In each of the four recitals I’ve heard from Yevgeny Sudbin, he’s moved several of his repertoire cornerstones around to different effect in the... Read more... |
Sci-Fi Week: Scoring the ImpossibleWednesday, 26 November 2014
Classical composers have always enjoyed depicting the implausible. Operas based on mythological subjects abound, creating near-impossible staging demands. Musical works based on science fiction are far rarer. Haydn's plodding opera Life on the Moon... Read more... |
OAE, Tognetti, Queen Elizabeth HallWednesday, 26 November 2014
As I sat, engaged and occasionally charmed but not always as impressed as I’d been told I would be, through violinist-animateur Richard Tognetti’s lightish seven-course taster menu of string music with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, it... Read more... |
Beatson, Scottish Ensemble, Queen's Hall, EdinburghWednesday, 29 October 2014
I declare an interest. In the last 10 years or so the Scottish Ensemble has twice, at my invitation, visited the Borders village where I live, about 30 miles south of Edinburgh. On both occasions the ensemble performed a rich and challenging... Read more... |
Life on the Moon, English Touring OperaSaturday, 18 October 2014
You may be more familiar with the Italian title, Il mondo della luna, but chances are you won’t have seen this or any of Haydn’s other 16 operas. You haven’t missed much, at least until the last of his works as court composer to the Esterházy family... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Adams, Haydn, Danjulo IshizakaSaturday, 11 October 2014
John Adams: City Noir, Saxophone Concerto St. Louis Symphony/David Robertson, with Timothy McAllister (saxophone) (Nonesuch)There's a lot going on in John Adams's City Noir. Ideas come thick and fast, and for every few that are skilfully... Read more... |
Remembering Christopher Hogwood (1941-2014)Saturday, 27 September 2014
He was not only a bracing conductor/harpsichordist pioneer in period-instrument authenticity, writes David Nice, but also a gentleman and a scholar. My only direct acquaintance with Christopher Hogwood, who died earlier this week at the age of 73,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Dvořák, Haydn, Janáček, Thomas LarcherFriday, 25 July 2014
Dvořák: Symphony no 8, Janáček: Symphonic Suite from Jenůfa Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra/Manfred Honeck (Reference Recordings)Dvořák's Seventh has the Brahmsian drama, and the Ninth has the crowd-pleasing tunes. But the major key Eighth is... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Setúbal: Youth and music under the jacarandasWednesday, 02 July 2014
José Mourinho is Setúbal’s most famous son. Non-Portuguese readers are not expected to know the two other celebrities most feted by this extraordinary port city on the estuary of the River Sado, with miles of sandy beaches opposite where a school of... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Weinberg, Battle for MusicSaturday, 08 March 2014
Haydn: Nelson Mass, Symphony no 102 Boston Baroque/Martin Pearlman (Linn)In a week bristling with geo-political tension, we need Haydn's "Mass for Troubled Times" more than ever. Here, Boston Baroque's natural trumpets blast out their tattoo... Read more... |
Belcea Quartet, Wigmore HallSaturday, 02 November 2013
Pure, unorthodox genius: the terms apply both to the three works on the Belcea Quartet’s programme – Haydn at his most compressed, Britten unbuttoned and sunny, Shostakovich hitting the tragic heights – and, if the term “genius” can be applied to re... Read more... |
Milton Court Opening, GSMDFriday, 27 September 2013
Night life in the Square Mile, at least from the perspective of my evening routes around the Barbican, is dominated by booze and sportiness. The way to last Thursday’s concert was blocked by a Bloomberg relay marathon, and cycling through the tunnel... Read more... |
