A discontented and depressed composer demonstrates his talents in the hope of employment elsewhere? Is that how we are to understand the publication in Venice, in 1610, of Monteverdi’s Vespers…
Category: Recitals/Concerts
A formidable Dame Patricia Routledge as the formidable Dame Myra Hess
It came as something of a shock to me to discover that Dame Patricia Routledge is now 92 years old. She is much shorter than one imagines, given the massive…
The 66th Kathleen Ferrier Awards 2021
For the second year running, the Kathleen Ferrier Awards were delayed until the autumn and the participants had only a panel of illustrious judges and a small private audience before…
VOCES8 and O/Modernt bring holy minimalism to Wigmore Hall
This was the third performance by VOCES8 that I’d attended or viewed in two weeks, which confirms that their virtuosity is matched by their versatility, and that they have a…
A Christmas Cracker from VOCES8
Christmas crackers usually come stuffed with a flimsy paper crown, a tacky toy, a plastic puzzle and a bad joke. But, open a VOCES8 Christmas Cracker and you’ll find the…
Virtuosic performances by Tenebrae at the Wigmore Hall
Tenebrae has clearly reached that point in its timeline when it could build a roster of virtually unknown pieces and still attract an audience, safe in the knowledge that its…
Magical music-making from Padmore and Biss at Milton Court
‘Glorious and emblazoned in their gentlest blood marriage, they stand there before us, the gentlest of all arts, the art of poetry and the art of music.’ Robert Schumann’s essay,…
Scenes from the Wild: a stunning new orchestral song-cycle from Cheryl Frances-Hoad
Dara McAnulty’s Diary of a Young Naturalist, the winner of the 2020 Wainwright Prize, chronicles the turning of the seasons from the spring equinox of 2018, when McAnulty was fourteen,…
New Worlds – South America: The AAM and VOCES8 at Milton Court
The Academy of Ancient Music’s New Worlds series stopped off in South America this week, by way of Cambridge and London, when they were joined by VOCES8 to explore the…