Mendelssohn
CD: Tori Amos - Night of HuntersMonday, 19 September 2011
It’s been a while since Tori Amos did something as straightforward as writing a bunch of songs, recording them, and then releasing them as a CD. Her releases over the past decade or so have been, for instance, “themed” into horticultural... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Elijah, Gabrieli Consort & Players, McCreeshMonday, 29 August 2011
Mendelssohn loved looking back. And nowhere more so than in his blockbuster oratorio, Elijah. But what was most striking about last night's monumental performance at the Proms was how much he was also clearly looking forward and outward, and how... Read more... |
Anyone for Demis? How the World Invaded the Charts, BBC FourFriday, 19 August 2011
"Anyone for Demis?" wasn’t the only question posed by this trawl through some of the foreign – not American - popular music that’s been hugged to our collective bosom. That the large, hirsute, kaftan-shrouded Greek wonder that’s Demis Roussos was... Read more... |
Mendelssohn on Mull: Close-up with Chamber MusicWednesday, 13 July 2011
Getting to Mull is an improbably romantic journey to classical music-making. One can easily understand why Mendelssohn was so affected by his experiences in Scotland – and Mull. On the three-hour train journey from Glasgow one sheds the habits of... Read more... |
Emerson String Quartet, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 08 April 2011
Could you get a more American string quartet than the Emersons? They dress like Yanks. They play like Yanks. They're even shaped like Yanks. There's Steve Martin on viola, Steve Buscemi on cello, Laurel and Hardy on violins. The night started in... Read more... |
Estonian Philharmonic Chamber Choir, Cadogan HallWednesday, 09 February 2011
We are spoiled for choral choice in Britain. With the likes of The Sixteen, The King’s Singers, Polyphony and I Fagiolini just the start of the roster of talent, and an amateur choral scene of serious heft, the temptation is to look no further than... Read more... |
Szymczewska, LPO, Vänskä, Royal Festival HallThursday, 14 October 2010
The flurry of fanfares at the start of Magnus Lindberg’s Al largo (UK premiere) sounded almost Waltonian. Or maybe that was because the prospect of Osmo Vänskä in Walton’s First Symphony was such an enticing one that premonitions of its highly... Read more... |
Chamber Orchestra of Europe, Fischer, Royal Festival HallSaturday, 29 May 2010
Rossini provided the lively curtain-raisers to both halves of this Chamber Orchestra of Europe concert, streamed live to Aberdeen where Shell, the sponsors, have something of a vested interest in keeping their employees entertained. The liquid gold... Read more... |
Philharmonia Orchestra, Ashkenazy, RFHSunday, 31 January 2010
There are still pockets of musical snobs who want to keep Elgar's two symphonies for the English, and off the worldwide roll call of orchestral masterpieces. Yet a steady line of international conductors - from Solti and Svetlanov to... Read more... |
Nikolai Demidenko, Wigmore HallMonday, 07 December 2009
Piano ballades and fantasies are the repositories of dreams. They are the places where the mind is left to wander, to roam precipitously, unaided by known paths, undisturbed by familiar structures. The romantic fantasies and ballades of last night's... Read more... |
Prom 69: Chailly/Leipzig Gewandhaus OrchestraTuesday, 08 September 2009It was a hallucination, I know, yet it wasn't unconvincing. The lurching, Alpha-maleish pose on the podium, the muscular pawing, the slight animal crouch, all lent weight to the idea that I had harboured for most of last night's performance of... Read more... |
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