Igor Stravinsky’s lost Funeral Song, (Chante funËbre) op 5 conducted by Valery Gergiev at the Mariinsky in St Petersburg This extraordinary performance was infinitely more than an ordinary concert, even for a world premiere of an unknown work.
Author: Anne Ozioro
Gothic Schubert : Wigmore Hall, London
Macabre and moonstruck, Schubert as Goth, with Stuart Jackson, Marcus Farnsworth and James Baillieu at the Wigmore Hall. An exceptionally well-planned programme devised with erudition and wit, executed to equally high standards.
Walter Braunfels Orchestral Songs Vol 2
Honours yet again to Oehms Classics who understand the importance of excellence. A composer as good, and as individual, as Walter Braunfels deserves nothing less.
Shakespeare in the Late Baroque – Bampton Classical Opera
Shakespeare re-imagined for the very Late Baroque, with Bampton Classical Opera at St John’s Smith Square. “Shakespeare, Shakespeare, Shakespeare….the God of Our Idolatory”. So wrote David Garrick in his Ode to Shakespeare (1759) through which the actor and showman marketed Shakespeare to new audiences, fanning the flames of “Bardolatory”. All Europe was soon caught up in the frenzy.
Beat Furrer FAMA – Hˆrtheater reaches London
Beat Furrer’s FAMA came to London at last, with the London Sinfonietta. The piece was hailed as “a miracle” at its premiere at Donaueschingen in 2005 by Die Zeit: State of the Art New Music, recognized by mainstream media, which proves that there is a market for contemporary music lies with lively audiences
Franz Schreker : Die Gezeichneten (Les StigmatizÈs). Lyon
Franz Schreker Die Gezeichneten from the OpÈra de Lyon last year, now on arte.tv and Opera Platform. The translation, “The stigmatized”, doesn’t convey the impact of the original title, which is closer to”The Cursed”.
Walter Braunfels : Orchestral Songs Vol 1
New from Oehms Classics, Walter Braunfels Orchestral Songs Vol 1. Luxury singers – Valentina Farcas, Klaus Florian Vogt and Michael Volle, with the Staatskapelle Weimar, conducted by Hansjˆrg Albrecht.
Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg, Munich
Die Meistersinger at the theatre in which it was premiered, on
Wagner’s birthday: an inviting prospect by any standards, still more so
given the director, conductor, and cast, still more so given the opportunity to
see three different productions within little more than a couple of
months).
Tannh‰user: Royal Opera House, London
London remains starved of Wagner. This season, its major companies offer but two works, Tannh‰user from the Royal Opera and Tristan from ENO.
Donizetti : Lucia di Lammermoor, Royal Opera House
When Kasper Holten took the precaution of pre-warning ticket-holders that the Royal Opera House’s new production of Lucia di Lammermoor featured scene portraying ‘sexual acts’ and ‘violence’, one assumed that he was aiming to avert a re-run of the jeering and hectoring that accompanied last season’s Guillaume Tell. He even went so far as to offer concerned patrons a refund.