In Dreams, Desires, Desolation, baritone Trevor Alexander and pianist Peter Crockford present a miscellany of English song. There are both art songs – some well-known, others less familiar – and…
Category: Reviews
‘Love, viewed from the dark side’: Christof Loy’s production of Strauss’s Elektra at the Royal Opera House
Skimming through some of the critical literature on the myth of Electra – who, following the murder of her father, the Mycenaean King Agamemnon, at the hands of her mother…
Homelands: songs of exile, alienation and escape
Homelands is the title of this programme, curated by pianist and writer Aron Goldin and released by Rubicon last October. However, in the context of creative artists’ representation of ‘home’,…
Lawrence Foster conducts Kodály and Bartók on Pentatone
In a tribute essay to Kodály in the 1965 Aldeburgh Festival programme Benjamin Britten suggested, ‘There can be no composer of our century who has done more for the musical…
Songs of Antiquity: James Newby and Joseph Middleton at Wigmore Hall
Titled Songs of Antiquity, this recital by baritone James Newby and pianist Joseph Middleton began and ended both in the past and in darkness, the Prologue and Epilogue composed by…
Silver Bells: VOCES8 on Christmas Eve
In 2021, VOCES8 invited us to pull a Christmas Cracker. This year they encouraged us to relish the quiet sparkle of Silver Bells. Their Christmas Eve live stream, from the…
A seasonal masterpiece: Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols at Temple Church
Britten’s A Ceremony of Carols, for three-part treble voices and harp, is one of the composer’s most joyful works, its expression direct, strong and true. It was composed in the…
Resonemus laudibus: a Renaissance Christmas from The Sixteen at Wigmore Hall
“Let praises resound!” was the rallying cry of this Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital of Christmas music by The Sixteen. It’s common, these days, for vocal ensembles to juxtapose old and…
A children-friendly Hansel and Gretel at Covent Garden
Hunger and gluttony; poverty and glamour; homelessness and tinselly angels; the reality of rags and the sparkle of magic. The stark juxtapositions evident on the Strand, during my walk from…
An imaginative disc of French sacred song from Ad Fontes
This recent compilation for solo voice, harp and organ is a delightful tour d’horizon of songs referencing the Virgin Mary, with works written by those associated with the French organist-composer…