Composer Arnold Bax once compared Bach’s last movements to “the running of a sewing machine.” If that be the case, surely they constitute the most epic runnings of sewing machines…
Category: Recitals/Concerts
Wozzeck as Photonovel at the Royal Festival Hall
101 years after its premiere in Berlin, Wozzeck remains the epitome of the modern opera. It also remains astonishing: for its musical sophistication as Berg’s score morphs from scene to…
Ring excerpts in San Francisco
San Francisco Symphony offered a brief Wagnerian orgy just now — a 65 minute orchestral concoction made of bits of Rheingold, Walküre, Siegried and Gotterdammerung. It began in the very darkened…
World-Class Conservatory Orchestra Gives Beautiful Mahler 4 at Washington National Cathedral
It is always a privilege to experience the beauty of the gothic masterpiece that is Washington National Cathedral, and doubly so with music. The space itself is only enhanced by…
Two Easter Messages from Jordi Savall in Hamburg
The Christian calendar regards Easter as its acme, for the message is all about the Resurrection. Though it is a movable feast and therefore not linked to a particular date,…
An ‘authentic’ Rigoletto in Paris
Concert performances are often seen as pale imitations of the real thing, only one step behind that nebulous term, ‘semi-staged’. And yet, sometimes they remain memorable in their own right:…
The Last Castrato Visits the Palace of Versailles
This concert, a tribute to the castrato Giovanni Battista Velluti (1780 –1861), packed both a theatrical and musical punch. Of course, the venue, the sumptuously decorated Salon d’Hercule in the…
Voices from Finland: Wennäkoski and Sibelius
There are few composers who have had quite the influence on their fellow compatriots as Sibelius has had on his. Whether it is the effect of the music itself, or…
Nine is the Number of the Game: Tan Dun Conducts the London Philharmonic
Napoleon Bonaparte is reputed to have once said: “China is a sleeping giant, when she wakes she will shake the world”. It occurred to me while listening to the Chinese-American…
Le Familier et le Moins Familier with Marianne Crebassa
Originally announced as a programme of works by thirteen different composers detailing the journey of a woman’s love throughout her lifetime, and tailor-made for Elsa Dreisig, the content of this…