‘God made Sun and Moon to distinguish the seasons, and day, and night, and we cannot have the fruits of the earth but in their seasons.’ So preached John Donne…
Category: Recitals/Concerts
Varied performances from the London Handel Players at the Wigmore Hall
Loss and celebration were the themes embedded in a programme comprising two secular cantatas from J.S. Bach’s Leipzig years, and a single aria attributed to him but now believed to…
Mesmerising performances from the LSO and Noseda at the Barbican
‘He liked to think that he wasn’t afraid of death. It was life he was afraid of, not death. He believed that people should think about death more often, and…
A Musical Banquet: Iestyn Davies and Thomas Dunford
Hot off the press in 1610 was A Musicall Banquet furnished with varietie of delicious Ayres, Collected out of the best Authors in English, French, Spanish and Italian – a compilation…
ETO at Home: Ferrandini’s Il pianto di Maria
English Touring Opera’s ETO at Home project has seen the company produce a series of films of operas, large scale vocal works, chamber music and song which can be viewed…
Exile and Isolation: Julian Anderson’s Suite from Exiles, the LSO and Simon Rattle
Often you go to concerts and the programming isn’t especially obvious – why are these works being played besides each other? This is particularly the case with concertos and symphonies.…
Hasse’s serenata, La Semele, at Wigmore Hall
The cultural influence of Ovid’s Metamorphoses is immeasurable. A source of inspiration for artists, sculptors, novelists, poets and composers for centuries, its myths have furnished countless composers and librettists with…
Angels and Demons: Christmas Eve with I Fagiolini
I Fagiolini can always be relied upon to bring a double shot of invention and intellect to a choral Christmas cocktail. Stalwarts of VOCES8’s Live from London festivals, their Monterverdian…
A Renaissance Christmas: Stile Antico, live from London
Place ‘A Renaissance Christmas’ alongside ‘Stile Antico’ and one might comfortingly anticipate familiar festive fare, immaculately performed. That final expectation was rewardingly fulfilled in this instalment of VOCES8’s Live from…
‘Hymns to the Virgin’: The Tallis Scholars at St John’s Smith Square
St John’s Smith Square’s 36th Christmas Festival has gone ahead as planned. That in itself is something to grant seasonal cheer, especially at what again is proving a trying time…