Compositional stimulus comes in many forms, and for this concert given by the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra under its principal guest conductor Anja Bihlmaier, impetus derived from an early form of…
Author: David Truslove
PROMS 2026: Grandeur and Intimacy Shape Pappano’s Revelatory Berlioz Requiem
Who in their right mind today would write such a wildly ambitious Requiem? In addition to a requirement for a large choir, Berlioz’s orchestral forces demand four brass bands and…
PROMS 2026: Polished Performances from the Choir and Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
This concert was dubbed a “musical postcard from 18th-century Vienna”, with sacred and secular offerings spanning six decades. Finding works to programme alongside Haydn’s late ‘Nelson Mass’, or, if you…
Longborough Festival Opera’s Hansel and Gretel
How we respond to any production of Humperdinck’s musical Märchenspiel (Fairy Tale) may depend on whether we want to explore our inner child and be charmed by eye-catching visuals or a wish…
Glyndebourne’s Gloriously Colourful and Magnificently Sung Die Entführung aus dem Serail
Themes of fidelity and mercy in Mozart’s 1782 Singspiel might bring to mind similar notions nearly a decade later in Così fan tutti and La Clemenza di Tito. With its witty commentary on servant/master…
PROMS 2026: Mixed Performances from the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and Ryan Wigglesworth in Dean, Elgar & Weir
Two contemporary works and “the greatest symphony of modern times” gave an opportunity for the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra to show off their credentials in the first of four Proms appearances. They…
A Highly Impressive Samson et Dalila from Dorset Opera Festival
Of Camille Saint-Saëns’s thirteen operas, only his Samson et Dalila remains part of the repertory. Yet it’s not often performed outside London and rarely appears at country house settings. Dorset Opera’s first…
An Entertaining, Pocket-Sized Magic Flute at West Green
“All women need a man beside them” declares the Speaker as he instructs Tamino in the Temple of Wisdom, his misogyny prompting a few knowing smiles in Richard Studer’s new…
PROMS 2026: A Transatlantic Brew for the First Night of the Proms
Festivities began no more obviously than with Copland’s three-minute Fanfare for the Common Man, one of ten declamatory works prompted by Eugene Goosens. His request to score the piece for brass…
Riotous comedy in Gerald Barry’s The Importance of Being Earnest at Garsington
Under the guiding hand of Jack Furness, this new production brings out all the surreal joy of Gerald Barry’s operatic adaptation of Oscar Wilde’s celebrated satire. It’s a first for…