Vivaldi
The South Bank Show: Nicola Benedetti, Sky Arts 1/ The Good Guys, Sky 1Monday, 02 July 2012
There are worse assignments than making a film about Nicola Benedetti, and the glamorous 25-year-old violinist had clearly entranced Lord Bragg. Mind you, you'd struggle to find much to dislike about her. She's funny and articulate and has a billion... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Ligeti, Ravi Shankar, VivaldiSaturday, 23 June 2012
Beethoven: Sonata no 32, Ligeti Études Books 1 and 2 Jeremy Denk (Nonesuch)The word Études conjures negative associations for musicians. They’re studies. Which suggests endless practice. As New York-based Jeremy Denk says in his notes, they’re... Read more... |
L'Olimpiade, Garsington OperaMonday, 04 June 2012
Despite ever-more determined attempts by musicologists to broaden the baroque repertoire of our opera houses, Handel still very much has things his own way. But in this Olympic year a sly challenge has emerged from Antonio Vivaldi’s L’Olimpiade –... Read more... |
La Verità in Cimento, Garsington OperaTuesday, 21 June 2011
With so many of the premieres and rediscoveries of the summer opera season coming from the bel canto repertoire, it’s lovely to see Garsington Opera striking out in a different direction. Following on from last year’s L'Incoronazione di Dario (and... Read more... |
Classic Brits 2011Friday, 13 May 2011
In case anybody had the bizarre notion that the Classical Brits was getting a trifle too classical, the 2011 version of the event was rebranded as the Classic Brit Awards. That would seem to open the door to almost anything - classic rock perhaps... Read more... |
Orlando Furioso, Barbican HallSaturday, 26 March 2011
Ariosto’s epic poem Orlando Furioso has yielded more than its fair share of operatic spin-offs. Inspiring three operas apiece from both Handel and Vivaldi, as well as works from Lully, Haydn, Caccini and Rameau, its vivid stories of love, magic and... Read more... |
La Serenissima, Cadogan HallFriday, 04 February 2011
According to the wit of either Dallapiccola or Stravinsky (history is divided), Vivaldi was responsible for writing not 600 concertos, but the same concerto 600 times. It’s a joke that has lingered stubbornly in the popular imagination. Had the... Read more... |
Mingardo, Gritton, The English Concert, Bicket, BarbicanSaturday, 27 November 2010
Before Mozart, there was Pergolesi. The 18th century couldn't get enough of the Neapolitan prodigy. He was the first great tragic musical wünderkind of the Enlightenment, prefiguring what Mozart would become for the 19th century. Like Mozart,... Read more... |
The English Concert, Alice Coote, Wigmore HallThursday, 28 October 2010
There is an excess about the Wigmore Hall’s Arts and Crafts cupola that lends itself to extravagant musical passions. The mural’s cloudy images may profess to picture music as an abstract creature, but the golden tangle of rays and warmly naked... Read more... |
RSNO, Denève; Ensemble Matheus, Spinosi, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 07 September 2010
Is that asking a lot? Probably not, considering what's already been achieved at this year's BBC Proms. Looking back on it, last night felt implausibly rich yet gloriously digestible, too, at least in retrospect. I couldn't have predicted that I... Read more... |
Nigel Kennedy's Polish AdventureMonday, 14 June 2010
Brilliant though it was to be shooting an Imagine film for BBC One, we did experience the occasional tremor of foreboding about making a programme with Nigel Kennedy. We (that's me and director Frank Hanly) had a bit of previous with Nigel - I'd... Read more... |
Ottone in Villa, Barbican HallSaturday, 22 May 2010
A beloved regular of concert hall, radio and recording, the music of Vivaldi has more or less failed to find its way into the contemporary opera house. If we are to believe his own claims, the composer died with over 90 operas to his credit – double... Read more... |
