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…
Tag: Classical music
Pianist Joanna Kacperek produces a captivating album with ‘Variations’
With ‘Variations’, pianist, Joanna Kacperek, has chosen to focus on the humble variation. Like many other composers before them and since, Beethoven, Robert and Clara Schumann, Brahms and Chopin, composed many variations. On this album, Kacperek artfully displays the creative possibilities of these variations, which were a way of exploring a theme for these composers,…
Odaline de la Martinez reflects upon her musical career and why she only gets depressed one day a year – if that!
Chachi – or Odaline de la Martinez in full – is a woman of many talents. The Cuban-born, musical polymath, was the first female composer to conduct at the Proms, in 1984. An energetic promoter of women composers and Latin American music, she is conducting at the 9th London Festival of American Music at the…
Bywater’s staging of Britten’s Turn of the Screw lifts the opera to new heights
Benjamin Britten’s opera, The Turn of the Screw, is a psychological thriller based on Henry James’s novella of the same title. In the world of opera, psychological thrillers are thin on the ground and for good reason – it is hard to express narrative ambiguity or uncertainty in musical theatre. Isabella Bywater’s production at English National Opera…
English Touring Opera kick starts its 2024 Autumn Season with an entrancing production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s ‘Snowmaiden’
Last week English Touring Opera opened their Autumn touring season with Rimsky-Korsakov’s Snowmaiden. The Snowmaiden premiered at the Mariinsky Theatre, St Petersburg, in 1882 and the Hackney Empire’s plush red stage curtain certainly brought a flavour of Imperial Russia to this evening’s performance.. The stage was lit with a circle of light – glass panels encased wintry…
‘Edgar’ – Puccini’s early unloved opera performed at Opera Holland Park
2024 is the centenary of Puccini’s death. In order to honour the great man, James Clutton, Director of Opera at OHP, opted to put on Tosca this season and also Edgar, a little-known early work of Puccini’s. Edgar premiered at La Scala in 1899 and received a lacklustre reception. Believing he could improve on the opera,…
“a warm tribute” – Matt Dibble: 24 Preludes & Fugues
“a warm tribute” – Matt Dibble: 24 Preludes & Fugues
Paul Grant Cuts It as the Barber of Seville at Opera Holland Park
It was over to Opera Holland Park again, this time for Rossini’s The Barber of Seville. In its time, this opera was a huge success and it remains popular to this day. I have seen it twice in the last few months, at English National Opera, and last Thursday at Opera Holland Park. What makes this such…
Tosca and her Toy Boy tenor impress at OHP
Opera Holland Park has opened the season with Puccini’s operatic blockbuster Tosca. At OHP the stage was transformed into a back alley in Rome. It was 1968, mid-election, and there was trouble on the streets. In the opening scene, the police laid into demonstrators, political prisoners hid out in the church, while police chief, Scarpia, issued…
The Kukal Quartet make their UK debut at the Czech Centre London
2024 has been the “Year of Czech Music” at the Czech Centre, London. Concerts and films have abounded to remind Londoners not only of the Czech Republic’s incredibly rich heritage but also of its continuing support for its emerging arts and music. One Czech quartet which came to my attention this week was the Kukal…
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