After performing Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs with English Symphony Orchestra in March of last year, soprano, April Frederick, went down with Covid. For a month she was unable to sing due to numbing fatigue. On the 26th July she returned to singing, recording Strauss’s magnificent songs on a new album called Visions of Childhood with ESO. This is an astonishingly…
Author: ArtMuseLondon
ArtMuseLondon is a site for reviews of art exhibitions and music in London, and general cultural musings, written by people with a keen interest and an honest, accessible approach.
Vida Breve: Stephen Hough, piano
‘Vida Breve’ (Short Life) – Stephen Hough, piano (Hyperion CDA68260) It seems fitting that Stephen Hough’s new album ‘Vida Breve’, featuring music on the theme of death, should be released while we are still in the thrall of the coronavirus. But this album is not a response to the pandemic and was in fact conceived…
Edinburgh a divided city in Alastair White’s Fantasy Opera
In his new opera, ROBE, Alastair White focusses on the town of Edinburgh. This is the future, and the Scottish city has lost its way. Mapmaker Rowan is called in by the elders to map it out again, so that it may relive. In order to carry out this enterprise, Rowan is to pierce the…
César Franck’s Cello Sonata
After the Paris Commune came to an end in 1871 and right up to the First World War, Paris enjoyed a period of frenzied reconstruction and renewal. Paris’s renaissance is referred to today as la Belle Epoque (The Beautiful Era). Most memorable were the universal exhibitions that took place during this period of great optimism,…
Himalayers: revisiting and revising ‘Black Narcissus’
‘Black Narcissus’ has, like the mountain palace of Mopu itself, been haunting me for some days now, after watching both the new TV adaptation and going back to the 1947 Powell & Pressburger (‘P&P’) film. What is the allure of this strange story, and why does Rumer Godden’s original novel somehow elude both versions? *…
Margaret Catchpole Horse Stealer
Based on Victorian bestseller The History of Margaret Catchpole, ‘Margaret Catchpole’, the opera, is the story of a Suffolk servant girl who steals a horse to join her lover in London. In the 18th century when this true story played out, horse-stealing was a capital offence. Stephen Dodgson’s opera was a slow burner during his lifetime. It…
Tracing the blues
Singer and guitar player, Skip James. Born 1902 Yazoo County, Mississippi In the 1920s and early 1930s *RACE record companies such as OKEH in America, went in search of the South’s most talented African-American blues artists. Musicians and singers were brought off the streets, where they had been performing for nickels at a time, and…
Thrill of ‘La chasse’: I Fagiolini, ‘The Stag Hunt’
Harmony, hilarity – and a touch of horror – are seamlessly combined in this cunning, captivating new release from the innovative vocal ensemble I Fagiolini. Sidestepping the more conventional CD or digital audio formats, ‘The Stag Hunt’ is a nine-minute film, featuring a performance of Renaissance composer Clément Janequin’s ‘La chasse’. Following a brief opening…
20 from 2020
However badly this year has treated us – and in the UK, it has treated those working in the arts very badly indeed – we have still been lucky enough to hear an astonishing amount of great music. Before joining ArtMuseLondon, I would normally assemble a couple of ‘round-up’ posts for my own blog ‘Specs’…
The Christmas Story in Art
Guest post by Dr Chris Davies Paintings of The Feast of the Nativity, The Adoration of the Shepherds and The Adoration of the Magi The Feast of the Nativity The most challenging task for any artist seeking to represent Christ is how to depict his dual nature, human yet fully divine. Christian art is above…
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