Wine, women and song. Immortalized by Johann Strauss II in his 1869 Op.333 waltz, Wein, Weib und Gesang, this was also the title that John Addington Symonds gave to his…
Category: Recitals/Concerts
The Faerie Bride: sensuousness and mysticism at the Three Choirs Festival
This programme by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales, conducted by Martyn Brabbins, on the second evening of this year’s Three Choirs Festival presented three works that were prevailingly sombre…
‘Mozart and the Munich Hofkapelle’: an enlightening evening
To the Munich Residenz’s Rococo Cuvilliés-Theater, once simply the Residenztheater, for a fascinating concert entitled ‘Mozart and the Munich Hofkapelle’. It was here, on 29 January 1781, that Idomeneo received…
Stirring performances at the First Night of the BBC Proms
This season opener brought together something new, rare and familiar – and with it, in the first half, a clear plea for freedom explicit in the choice of music by…
Kazuki Yamada and the CBSO bring England and Japan into a wonderfully rewarding communion at Snape Maltings
We’ve become used to ‘hybrid’ meetings, where some members of a team meet in a workplace while others tune in from home, hotel rooms or elsewhere. Well, this is something…
Les Siècles, the London Symphony Chorus and François-Xavier Roth: a gripping and ravishing concert of French music at the Barbican
When I look for a classic French orchestral sound I’d normally turn to an orchestra such as the Paris Conservatoire Orchestra or the Orchestre de la Société des Concerts du…
A triumphant final concert with the LSO from Simon Rattle at the Barbican
Sir Simon Rattle’s final Barbican concert with the London Symphony Orchestra as their Music Director ended his six-year tenure – perhaps one that was shorter than it might have been…
The English Music Festival, Dorchester-on Thames
Warm summer sunshine, a long bank holiday weekend, four days of English music in a lovely Oxfordshire village among convivial company: what a treat. Well, the holiday exodus from the…
Ecstasy and Revolution: The Bells and Prometheus with Kochanovsky and the Philharmonia
The anniversaries of composers always provide a decent opportunity to hear music we rarely do. Serge Rachmaninoff’s 150th anniversary is a major chance to do that – although he is…
England’s Orpheus: Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford at Wigmore Hall
One imagines that, when compiling their programme for this recital at Wigmore Hall, Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford sat down and drew up a list of their ‘desert island’ favourites. …