In a concert that could have been titled ‘Towards Bach’, the Marian Consort fashioned a themed programme that linked two towering German composers: Heinrich Schütz and Johann Sebastian Bach. They…
Author: David Truslove
Angel Blue excels as Violetta at the Royal Opera House
Another revival of Richard Eyre’s seemingly timeless production of La traviata (first unveiled in 1994) has returned to the Royal Opera House. It provides a further opportunity to hear yet…
Dove, Weir and Martin from the Choir of Westminster Abbey
Hyperion has brought together three composers with a special affinity for choral music, as already demonstrated in earlier recordings devoted solely to their music on Delphian, Naxos and Opus Arte…
Eastertide Evensong from St John’s College, Cambridge
Does the release of a second live evensong album from this celebrated choir reflect a growing interest in the music and ritual within our great cathedrals and collegiate chapels? Whatever…
Mixed performances in Menotti and Weir from the Guildhall School of Music & Drama
In food terms this was a programme comprising starter and main course, a well-designed menu beginning with a romantic comedy and followed by a picaresque meditation on fate with much…
Covent Garden’s ‘Heart of Darkness’ Rigoletto
In his first production since taking up his appointment as Director of Opera in 2017,Oliver Mears’s thought-provoking staging clearly acknowledges Rigoletto as a timeless classic. His presentation debuted in September…
As the leaves fall: impressive new choral disc from Guildford Cathedral Choir
The music of Harold Darke and Maurice Duruflé might seem curious bedfellows on this recent disc from Guildford Cathedral Choir, with girls’ and men’s voices, issued by Regent. Yet both these relatively…
Varied performances from the London Handel Players at the Wigmore Hall
Loss and celebration were the themes embedded in a programme comprising two secular cantatas from J.S. Bach’s Leipzig years, and a single aria attributed to him but now believed to…
Mesmerising performances from the LSO and Noseda at the Barbican
‘He liked to think that he wasn’t afraid of death. It was life he was afraid of, not death. He believed that people should think about death more often, and…
Le nozze di Figaro at the Royal Opera House
As an exploration of 18th-century class structures Le nozze di Figaro is a timeless classic which no number of revivals will diminish. With its thumb-nosing at society’s upper echelons, it’s no…