Schubert
Winterreise, Finley, Drake, Wigmore HallThursday, 16 January 2014
Of Schubert’s two great cycles, the youthful ardour of Die schöne Müllerin sits best with a tenor while the bleak wretchedness of Winterreise lends itself to the baritone voice. These, of course, are personal prejudices, for both works can be sung... Read more... |
Christian Zacharias, Wigmore HallThursday, 09 January 2014
It's a considerable irony that a musician as dedicated and as serious as pianist/conductor Christian Zacharias should suddenly, at the age of 63, gain bragging rights on Youtube (see next page). There wasn't really that much he could do about it. It... Read more... |
Winterreise, Gilchrist, Tilbrook, Temple ChurchThursday, 19 December 2013
A rare thing indeed. A British singer/pianist duo has had the patience, and also been given the opportunities over a number of years, to own and to inhabit a thoroughly individual and intelligent interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise.Tenor James... Read more... |
Pavel Haas Quartet, Trifonov, Wigmore HallTuesday, 03 December 2013
There are probably more fine string quartets in the world than audiences to listen to them, or so a gloomy estimate from a major chamber music festival would have us believe. Fortunately the Wigmore Hall usually guarantees crowds to hear the best,... Read more... |
Britten 100: An Aldeburgh Centenary DiaryTuesday, 26 November 2013
The most intensive period of music-making I’ll ever experience, celebrating the 100th birthday of Benjamin Britten in and around his home town, ended on Sunday. I’m an Aldeburgh resident and I attended everything on offer. I thought the best way to... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Akira Miyoshi, Schubert, Ashley WassSaturday, 21 September 2013
Akira Miyoshi: Piano works Yukiko Kojima (piano) (Odradek)Akira Miyoshi was born in Tokyo in 1933. Listen blind to the earliest piece on this disc and you’d think it could be an early work by the late Henri Dutilleux, and it’s no surprise to... Read more... |
Prom 73: Imogen Cooper, Paul LewisFriday, 06 September 2013
It’s not because I lament the annual end of a love-hate relationship with the Albert Hall that the last few days of Proms feel rather melancholy. A bittersweetness lies rather in the drawing-in of evenings, however hot it is, so late night Schubert... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Verbier: Festival scales new heightsSunday, 04 August 2013
The moment when Alfred Brendel shuffled on stage during the Verbier Festival’s 20th Anniversary Concert not to play, but to turn pages for long-time colleague Emmanuel Ax, expressed everything that is so special, so extraordinary about this festival... Read more... |
Britten and Poulenc at the Cheltenham Music FestivalThursday, 11 July 2013
"Britten or Poulenc?" The question may seem a fatuous one, geared to the 100th anniversary of the Englishman's birth and 50 years since the Frenchman's death. Yet it certainly livens up what would otherwise be the usual dreary artists' biographies,... Read more... |
Vengerov, Golan, Barbican HallThursday, 21 February 2013
Maxim Vengerov’s four-year absence from the London stage is recent enough that any performance by him has the added value of having been clawed back from a jealous god. That a violinist of such explosive talent could have been permanently silenced... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: John Cage, Schubert, StravinskySaturday, 02 February 2013
John Cage 100 Various artists (Wergo)Wergo’s handsomely produced box set was assembled for last year’s John Cage centenary. Fans will lap it up, and one hopes that curious newcomers will take the plunge and open their ears to this... Read more... |
Rachlin, BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Runnicles, Glasgow City HallsFriday, 01 February 2013
Viennese night in Glasgow’s Candleriggs was hardly going to be a simple matter of waltzes and polkas. True, its curtain-raiser was a Blue Danube with red blood in its veins rather than the anodyne river water of this year’s New Year concert from... Read more... |
