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The Rautio Trio returns in Beethoven

The Rautio Trio returns in Beethoven

A truly cherishable disc replete with fresh, youthful, vibrant music-making

Meet Michael Haydn and his string quartets

Meet Michael Haydn and his string quartets

A beautifully life-enhancing disc

Mozart and Poulenc from the Nagano tribe

Mozart and Poulenc from the Nagano tribe

What a great coupling! Two Mozart Concertos for multiple keyboards, plus the Poulenc. A match made in heaven. The same could be said fo the performers, a true family team (Kent Nagano, his wife, and their daughters). Inspired by the Casadesus family's performances, this is the stuff of

Unalloyed Delight: Handel's Acis & Galatea at Opera Holland Park

Live Performance

Unalloyed Delight: Handel's Acis & Galatea at Opera Holland Park

Do catch this Acis, which must surely be the first of many forays into Handel opera by Opera Holland Park

The Music of Milica Djordjević

The Music of Milica Djordjević

Bavarian Radio's series Musica Viva always seems to exude a sense of discovery, of freshness, of hope that contemporary music that matters is alive and well: we can look back, for example, to the music of Arnulf Herrmann (this post) and Rebecca Saunders (this post). Now we come

A pair of secrets: Wolf-Ferrari and Leoncavallo at Opera Holland Park

Live Performance

A pair of secrets: Wolf-Ferrari and Leoncavallo at Opera Holland Park

Wolf-Ferrari and Leoncavallo: Soloists; Children from Pimlico Musical Foundation; Chorus of Opera Holland Park; City of London Sinfonia / John Andrews (conductor, Wolf-Ferrari), Francesco Ciliuffo (conductor, Leoncavallo) Wolf-Ferrari – Il segreto di Susanna Production: Director – John Wilkie Designer – takis Lighting Designer – Mark Jonathan Cast: Clare Presland – Countess Susanna Richard Burkhard – Count Gil

The Power of Chinese Symphonic Music: Xilin Wang's Third Symphony

The Power of Chinese Symphonic Music: Xilin Wang's Third Symphony

This is not for the faint-hearted, but it is, absolutely, recommended.

From Estonia with love: Neeme Järvi conducts Lalo

From Estonia with love: Neeme Järvi conducts Lalo

What joy this disc brings!

The return of "The Watchman"

The return of "The Watchman"

In a joint enterprise between writer and musician Hana Gubenko and myself, Samuel Taylor-Coleridge's short-lived political journal The Watchman returns in a new guise, as an internet magazine designed to stimulate and inform. Here, in our first issue, we present four articles: an Editorial, a book review, a

The Watchman in Conversation: Exploring Arts, Watching Connections

The Watchman in Conversation: Exploring Arts, Watching Connections

Welcome to the first podcast by The Watchman, available on Spotify. A full internet magazine will follow shortly, but until then here's a brief explanation of what The Watchman is, taken from the first issue: The Watchman is a joint enterprise between writer and musician Hana Gubenko and

REPOST: Fear No More: Brindley Sherratt's remarkable disc

REPOST: Fear No More: Brindley Sherratt's remarkable disc

Billed as Sherratt's “debut song recital recording,” all I can say is what a way to start

Repost: Wagner Parsifal with Jonas Kaufmann and Elīna Garanča

Repost: Wagner Parsifal with Jonas Kaufmann and Elīna Garanča

Musically, this is the finest of recent Parsifals

Bruckner 1: the ill-fated Linz version

Bruckner 1: the ill-fated Linz version

A must for Bruckner fans

Purcell's Fairy Queen at Thaxted

Purcell's Fairy Queen at Thaxted

Purcell’s timeless music triumphed in the Armonico Consort and Players’ delightful performance of The Fairy Queen

Robert Levin and the AAM complete their Mozart series

Robert Levin and the AAM complete their Mozart series

Quite right Levin & the AAM's cycle should be crowned by these two titans of Mozart's œuvre

Two Sides of Prokofiev, from Strasbourg

Two Sides of Prokofiev, from Strasbourg

Back in 2022, I reported from a concert in Strasbourg's Palais de la Musique et des Congrès that included the pieces here, plus on that occasion Shoskakovich's First Violin Concerto with Simone Lamsma (stepping in for an indisposed Patricia Kopatchinskaja). That was in May of that

Puccini's Edgar gets a rare outing in the park

Puccini's Edgar gets a rare outing in the park

Without hearing this, how can we ‘know’ Puccini?

A delightful Magic Flute at Thaxted

Live Performance

A delightful Magic Flute at Thaxted

Wild Arts continues to entertain and to stimulate in equal measure

City Noir: Marin Alsop conducts John Adams

City Noir: Marin Alsop conducts John Adams

Adams' music scintillates and glittes undr Alsop

Mozart's Così: the Royal Opera's mixed(-up) evening

Mozart's Così: the Royal Opera's mixed(-up) evening

Mozart Così fan tutte (ed. Ferguson/Rehm). Cast; Chorus and Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden / Alexander Soddy. 26.06.2024 Cast: Ferrando – Daniel Behle Guglielmo – Andrè Schuen Don Alfonso – Gerald Finley Fiordiligi – Gold Schultz Dorabella – Samantha Hankey Despina – Jennifer France Production: Jan Philipp Gloger (director) Olive Platt

French Opera Overtures

French Opera Overtures

What an amazingly life-enhancing disc!

An opera by Schubert?! Fierrabras is a revelation ...

An opera by Schubert?! Fierrabras is a revelation ...

This performance of Fierrabras from the 2014 Salzburg Festival persuades me more than ever that we need more Schubert opera in our lives.

Handel from Berlin: Psalms in near-perfect performances

Handel from Berlin: Psalms in near-perfect performances

Opening in a blaze of raw Handelian energy, this is a disc for the ages. Three psalms: Dixit Dominus, Laudate pueri, Nisi Dominus, all magnificently shaped by Justin Doyle with a simply superb line-up of soloists. Handel led in Rome for 1707 to 1710. We hear here the young Handel,

Thaxted Festival (1): Nadine Benjamin enthrals

Live Performance

Thaxted Festival (1): Nadine Benjamin enthrals

Thaxted Festival: Liszt, George Hall, Verdi, Puccini Nadine Benjamin (soprano); Jan Karl Rautio (piano). Thaxed Parish Church, 22.06.2024 Liszt Enfant, j’étais roi, S 283. Oh, quand je dors.S 282. Hall Settings of d’Annunzio: L’ora e tarda; O falce di Lunacalante Verdi In solitaria stanza.

The Unstoppable Rise of Nikolai Kapustin

The Unstoppable Rise of Nikolai Kapustin

A brilliant, life-enhancing disc. Kapustin’s music is addictive