A truthful Winterreise from Ian Bostridge and Angela Hewitt at Wigmore Hall

Wunderlicher AlterSoll ich mit dir gehn?Willst zu meinen LiedernDeine Leier drehn? [Strange old man!Shall I go with you?Will you grind your hurdy-gurdyto my songs?] If the answer to the wanderer’s…

Diana Damrau, Jonas Kaufmann and Helmut Deutsch at the Barbican Hall

Good to see such a full hall for these two beloved singers with one of the finest collaborative pianists of them all.  This programme was a celebration of the lives…

Stream of Tears (Iberian roots): The Sixteen at Wigmore Hall

Marian devotion in the New World was the focus of this concert by The Sixteen at Wigmore Hall.  Perhaps it was coincidental that it happened to be Mother’s Day in…

St John Passion: devotion and drama from Mark Padmore and the OAE

J.S. Bach’s two settings of the Passion of Christ are soaring manifestations of early modern Lutheran devotion, profound meditations on suffering (from the Latin verb, patior, meaning ‘to suffer, bear…

Louise Alder and Joseph Middleton at Wigmore Hall

Louise Alder’s lunchtime recital at Wigmore Hall, with pianist Joseph Middleton, was almost operatic in its scope and emotional energy.  And, Alder showed her fearlessness by opening her programme with…

A Twitcher’s Delight: Roderick Williams and Andrew West at Milton Court

A serious birdwatcher would take exception to being called a twitcher.  Whereas the former is happy to wait patiently and passively for avian visitors to visit their locale, twitchers chase…

Barbican Centre at 40: shortcomings and memorable moments

London’s Barbican Centre is 40 years old. Its inaugural concert back then for the official opening of the Barbican Centre – given on the 3rd March – had been played…

Origin: This is CLS

In 1971, the year in which he made his professional debut as a conductor, the late Richard Hickox founded the Richard Hickox Orchestra and the Richard Hickox Chorus, and commissioned…

Voices Unwrapped: Roderick Williams and members of the Aurora Orchestra at Kings Place

“Love, meet me in the green glen,Beside the tall elm-tree,Where the sweetbriar smells so sweet agen.”  The poet-speaker’s call to his beloved to join him, at sunset, in the green…

La voix humaine: Barbara Hannigan and the LSO at the Barbican Hall

Barbara Hannigan’s quasi-miraculous and multifaceted feats in this concert with the London Symphony Orchestra at the Barbican Hall made me reflect on what it is and means to ‘conduct’ a…