The Cartier show at the V&A is officially open and what a glittering show it promises to be! I haven’t been yet and before taking myself along to South Kensington, I have been perusing the pages of Cartier, a V&A publication, which accompanies the exhibition. The heavy tome is a catalogue of sumptuous jewellery that…
Category: review
Song cycle: Carolyn Sampson & Joseph Middleton, ‘Schubert’s Four Seasons’
Carolyn Sampson deftly sidesteps that ‘difficult 103rd album’ syndrome, teaming up with regular duo partner Joseph Middleton on the remarkable ‘Schubert’s Four Seasons’ – a worthy successor to their first two releases dedicated to this composer, ‘A Soprano’s Schubertiade’ and ‘Elysium’. Followers of this team will be well aware of their gift for programming, and…
Bechstein Hall – London’s high tech salon
The new kid on the block for classical music is Bechstein Hall, a new 100-seater recital space which opened at 22 Wigmore Street at the end of last year. Sporting a flagship showroom for its concert pianos, and thirteen practice rooms, Bechstein’s focus is still on promoting its world-class pianos, but what everyone is getting…
New tradition: an African Concert Series update
Back in 2018, pianist Rebeca Omordia released a solo recital CD called ‘Ekele’, which showcased African art music – that is, works by African composers who had studied and were influenced by Western classical repertoire. To me – and no doubt many others who came across the album – it was an ear-opening journey into…
‘Chiseled in Crystal’ – Discover the Haunting Music of Anima Mea
Guest review by Michael Johnson It is a rare occurrence for me to slide a CD into my player and fall immediately under the spell of haunting, hypnotic music I had never heard before. But “Anima Mea” (La Musica LMU 094), performed by the Pascal Trio and the young counter-tenor Paul Figuier, did just that….
ENO orchestra accompanies NOS young artists to stardom at Sinfonia Smith Square
Have you ever wondered how opera stars are made? One tends to think of a simplistic scenario, one in which opera stars are born with a god-given voice, which, eventually, projects them to fame. But life is not a TV competition. For most young artists, there is a process, and it can be lengthy, lonely…
Martha and Marios duo – a match made at the Barbican
To the Barbican Centre I went last week to see Martha Argerich perform Beethoven’s Concerto no. 2 in B flat major with the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra. On the program also, Samuel-Coleridge Taylor ‘s Ballade in A minor and Tchaikovsky’s Symphony No 4 in F minor. Outside the Barbican auditorium a long queue snaked around the pillars of…
Exploring Stephen Hough’s ‘The World of Yesterday’: A New Piano Concerto
‘The World of Yesterday’ – written & performed by Sir Stephen Hough, Halle orchestra, Sir Mark Elder British pianist Sir Stephen Hough hadn’t intended to write a piano concerto. But during the dark days of the COVID pandemic, he was approached to write a score for a film about a concert pianist writing a piano…
Blood ties: ‘Festen’, Royal Opera; ‘Mary, Queen of Scots’, English National Opera
It’s been an intense week. Two operas, over two consecutive evenings, spent with two explosively dysfunctional onstage families. Time to decompress. If you keep an eye on London operantics, you’ll be aware of the world première of Mark-Anthony Turnage’s ‘Festen’ (libretto by Lee Hall, directed by Richard Jones) at Royal Ballet & Opera. And if…
10th Anniversary of Philip Glass’s Etudes: A New Interpretation
To mark the 10th anniversary of the publication of Philip Glass’s 20 Etudes for piano in November 2024, SOMM Recordings has released a Special Edition of Selected Etudes, performed by pianist and composer, Giusto Di Lallo. Following in the Etude-writing tradition of Chopin and Liszt – pedagogical tools to help pianists improve their playing –…
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