On the concert platform, operatic stage and recording studio, Tim Mead has established himself as one of Britain’s foremost countertenors. This recent issue from Alpha is his first solo album…
Author: David Truslove
Carmen at English National Opera
Calixto Bieito’s grimly visualised Carmen has now reached its third revival. First presented by ENO at the Coliseum in 2012 (and much travelled around Europe since its launch in Barcelona…
A dramatic masterclass from Véronique Gens in Poulenc’s La Voix Humaine
This recent issue from Alpha brings together two sides of Poulenc’s strikingly individual musical personality. Both works, some ten years apart, inhabit a similar bittersweet quality, yet while his operatic…
Echo: an exquisite new disc from Ruby Hughes
“Words mean more than what is set down on paper”, the poet Maya Angelou has written. “It takes the human voice to infuse them with deeper meaning”. These assertions may…
Superb selection of Psalms from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge
This recent collection of psalms from the Choir of St John’s College, Cambridge is a fine tribute to the work of Andrew Nethsingha who has been its Director of Music…
A masterly traversal of Duparc songs
The habit among composers of almost excessive self-criticism has been a curiously French phenomenon over the last century, typified by Dukas, Duruflé and his younger, more progressive contemporary Henri Dutilleux.…
Fine collaborations between Claude Debussy & Mikko Franck
Some twenty years ago Finnish conductor Mikko Franck, then in his early 20s, was considered classical music’s Next Best Thing: his debut conducting disc with the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra…
Mid Wales Opera triumphs with Puss in Boots
Mid Wales Opera has virtually created an instruction manual for the performance of community-based opera in rural areas, shrink-wrapping works into spaces that rarely enjoy professional presentation. Its month-long SmallStages…
Welsh National Opera’s The Makropulos Affair: a magnificent achievement
The question of why we should crave immortality is central to Janáček’s penultimate opera. As a composer he defied old bones and enjoyed an Indian summer, finding recognition during his…
Characterful Mahler from Les Siècles, François-Xavier Roth and Sabine Devieilhe
Harmonia mundi’s recent disc of Mahler’s 4th Symphony provides a remarkably flowing and vivid account, fashioning a new perspective on a much-recorded work. Inner detail is heard afresh with instruments…