Prom 13: The Wreckers
Blown in like a storm petrel from deepest, darkest Sussex, Ethel Smyth’s The Wreckers (or should that be Les Naufrageurs, given the decision to sing it in French?)
July 24, 2022
2022 sees the BBC Proms restored to its full eight-week glory. Starting on 15th July 2022 there are 84 concerts over 57 days with over 3,000 musicians. The Classical Source shall bring you reviews up until the spectacular Last Night on Saturday 10th September.
Prom 5: BBC Philharmonic – Juanjo Mena conducts Bruckner & Bach – Lawrence Power plays MacMillan’s Viola Concerto
This Prom was to have featured the premiere of Cassandra Miller’s Viola Concerto, but the withdrawal of Omer Meir Wellber presumably necessitated the partial change
July 18, 2022
BBC Proms 2022 – Verdi’s Requiem
Verdi’s Requiem is no stranger to the First Night of the Proms and can work well in the cavernous and unpredictable acoustic of the Royal
July 15, 2022
The National Gilbert & Sullivan Opera Company – Utopia, Limited – with Ben McAteer, Anthony Flaum, Monica McGhee & Paul Featherstone; directed by Jeff Clarke; conducted by John Andrews
After the hiatus of a couple of years owing to disagreements among composer, librettist and their impresario, Richard D’Oyly Carte, Utopia, Limited (1893) marked a return to
August 5, 2022
Opera Holland Park 2022 – Delius’s Margot la Rouge & Puccini’s Le Villi
Opera Holland Park’s double bill presents an intriguing pair of short operas by composers with seemingly little connection between them. But not only do they
August 4, 2022
West Green House Opera – Donizetti’s L’elisir d’amore
Victoria Newlyn’s production of Donizetti’s comic opera (1832) makes good use of West Green’s ‘theatre on the lake’, positioned upon the island in the latter,
July 30, 2022
Longborough Festival 2022 – Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero & Freya Waley-Cohen’s Spell Book
Francesca Caccini’s La liberazione di Ruggiero dall’isola d’Alcina (1625) was the occasion for several firsts in operatic history – the first surviving opera written by a woman;
July 28, 2022
West Green House Opera – Mozart’s Le nozze di Figaro
Such is the enduring appeal and ingenuity of Mozart’s first collaboration with Lorenzo Da Ponte that it generally survives whatever is thrown at it in
July 23, 2022
Bampton Classical Opera – Haydn’s Fool Moon
If the eighteenth-century Enlightenment project sought to return to first principles and restructure society according to the precepts of reason, then its exponents in the
July 22, 2022
Bernstein
Leonard Bernstein’s Candide contains some very fine music without convincing as operetta or musical. It has been
October 30, 2021
Dinara Klinton plays Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Sonatas
Few bona fide keyboard titans play every Prokofiev Piano Sonata, and only a small cohort
August 4, 2021
Tchaikovsky’s Fourth & Sixth Symphonies and Violin Concerto – Erich Kleiber, Ruggiero Ricci, Malcolm Sargent [Eloquence]
This Fourth Symphony of Tchaikovsky first appeared on a five-disc 78rpm set in 1949, but
July 12, 2021
The Launy Grøndahl Legacy Volume 3 – live in 1955 & 1957 [Danacord]
Launy Grøndahl is here presented as a notable champion of the music of his compatriots.
July 12, 2021
Prokofiev: The Decca Masters – Nikolai Malko, Eric Tuxen, Adrian Boult, Jean Martinon [Eloquence]
It seems reasonable that Peter and the Wolf should be narrated by a BBC announcer,
July 12, 2021
Anatole Fistoulari conducts Tchaikovsky’s Seranade and Ballet Music [Eloquence]
Half a century and more ago Anatole Fistoulari’s (1907-95) name appered on many a recording
July 12, 2021
These are usually taken from press releases provided to us and published verbatim.
A Tanglewood Diary 2022 – July 7-16
I spent ten days at Tanglewood, the Boston Symphony Orchestra’s summer home, which brings performers, teachers and students together, enabling music-lovers to experience a wide
July 7, 2022
Music for the End of Time – BBCSO Total Immersion – Theresienstadt
It is impossible to take in the scale and thoroughness of what happened in Theresienstadt (Terezín in Czech), the fortress town in Moravia that Nazi
January 23, 2022
Cumbria Opera Festival – Roderick Williams, Trouble in Tahiti, A Hand of Bridge, and Così fan tutte
Here are three reviews (the first two from Jane Bagot, the last from Colin Marston) of concerts that took place as part of Cumbria Opera
October 11, 2021
Feature LP Review – Tchaikovsky|Fischer|Kreizberg; Nopigom|Hwang; Tchaikovsky|Leningrad|Mravinsky
Tchaikovsky – Violin Concerto in D, Op.35; Sérénade mélancolique, Op.26; Valse-Scherzo, Op.34; Souvenir d’un lieu cher, Op.42* Julia Fischer (violin), Russian National Orchestra, Yakov Kreizberg
July 5, 2021
Feature LP Review – Beethoven|Cello Sonatas|Mainardi|Zecchi; Milstein Recital|Bussotti; Leonard-Morgan|American Dharma
Beethoven – The Cello Sonatas; Seven Variations on ‘Bei Männern, welche Liebe’ from Die Zauberflöte, WoO.46 Enrico Mainardi (cello) & Carlo Zecchi (piano) Recorded at
July 5, 2021
Feature LP Review – van der Aa|Time Falling; Massenet|Birmingham|Fremaux; Biber|Rosenkranz-Sonaten
Michel van der Aa – Time Falling Kate-Miller Heidke (singer), Netherlands Chamber Choir, Michel van der Aa & Thijs de Vlieger Recorded at Exalto Studios,
July 5, 2021