Colin Clarke

Live Performance

Morceaux en forme de poire: Hommage à Erik Satie from Ensemble Ricercata

A fascinating concert, beautifully presented and performed

Mäkelä's Berlioz

In terms of career trajectory, thee is no equalling Klaus Mäkelä. He collects principal positions with the World's major orchestras like others collect stamps. And yet, should we believe the hype? This release suggest not; and there have been warning signs for previous concerts, too ... There is such

Yunchan Lim's epoch-making performance of Rach 3

Yuncham Lim cerainly made waves wt this performance: live at the 2022 Van Cliburn International Piano Competition. He was 18..  Lim's debut studio album Chopin Étude was the subject of a post on Classical Explorer here. Dominic Fyfe, Label Director, Decca Classics, says: The creation of a recorded

18th century

More Pleyel: The London Mozart Players on cpo

A beautifully produced and executed disc of refreshing rarities

Donizetti Songs, #1: Lawrence Brownlee & Carlo Rizzi

We began our coverage of Opera Rara's Donizetti Songs #4 because of the inclusion of a setting of some of the libretto for La Straniera, and we covered Bellini's opera of that name recently. now back to the beginning - Genesis, as it were - with

Live Performance

Evgeny Kissin at the Barbican: Bach, Chopin, Shostakovich

Kissin remains a force to be reckoned with

Live Performance

My Father's Son: Nicky Spence and Dylan Perez at Thaxted Festival

This is programming at the highest level realised by the finest of executants

Nicolas Namoradze stuns at Wigmore Hall

Scriabin, Bach, Beethoven Nicolas Namoradze (piano). Wigmore Hall, 23.06.2025 Scriabin  Piano Sonata No. 10, Op. 70 (1912/13)  Bach    Prelude & Fugue in E, BWV 878 (WTC II)  Scriabin   Fugue in E minor, WoO 20 (1892)  Bach    Prelude & Fugue in G sharp minor, BWV 863 (WTC I)

Love and Loss in Thaxted: Alexander Chance and Toby Carr

Love and Loss: Music for Countertenor & Lute Songs by Dowland, Danyel, Rosseter, Campion, Purcell, Blow and Cynthia Harper. Alexander Chance (countertenor); Toby Carr (lute). Thaxted Parish Church, 22.06.2025 (9pm)  A stroll through Elizabethan lute song as the sun sets is just the ticket, Especially after Nicky Spence

A Mafia Widow: Lehár's ever-popular score undergoes a transplant

It’s been a while: well, over 40 years, since I heard Lehár's Die lustige Witwe, in an amdram production just outside of Manchester in which I was playing French horn. Has absence made the heart grow fonder?  Well, there is no doubting that having the orchestra of

#MOZART250: The Mozartists at Wigmore Hall

#MOZART250: Rachel Podger plays Mozart. Rachel Podger (violin); The Mozartists / Ian Page (conductor). Wigmore Hall, Londo, 18.06.2024 (CC)    Haydn  Symphony No. 66 in B flat  (1775/6)  Mozart Violin Concertos: No. 2 in D, K 211 (1775); No. 5 in A, K 219. Symphony in D, K   196,

Donizetti: Songs on Opera Rara, #4

Opera Rara's Donizetti Song Project is the latest in their alchemical mix of musicology and performance. But why say with Volume Four first? Because recently we heard Bellini's La straniella (see this post), and Donizetti sets part of the source text by Charles Vivto Prévost, Viscose

Dresden Festspiele II: Britten and Shostakovich in Dresden

Britten, Shostakovich Augustin Hadelich (violin); Dresden Philharmonic Orchestra / Michael Sanderling (conductor). Kulturpalast, Dresden, 13.06.2025 Britten Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 15 (1939)  Shostakovich Symphony No. 8 in C minor, Op. 65 (1943)  Great programming here: a celebration of the famous meeting of Benjamin Britten with Dmitrii Shostakovich

Heinrich Heine. Paris. Musik: Dresden Festspiele 2025 (I)

Heinrich Heine. Paris. Musik Benjamin Appl (baritone); James Baillieu (piano); Barbara Auer (narrator); Jens Harzer (narrator); Helmut Butzmann (concept). Palais im Großen Garten, Dresden, Germany, 12.06.2025   Lieder with readings might be an Appl preference, when one considers his Alpha Classics disc, again with pianist James Baillieu, Forbidden Fruit.

Chamber

Marschner: Piano Trios, Volume 1

A most rewarding disc

Beethoven

Beethoven's Missa solemnis on Alpha

From the heart, may it go to the heart

Chopin

Pollini's early take on Chopin's Etudes

A remakable document

Handel

Enchantress Sandine Piau at Wigmore Hall

an all-Handel experience that will not easily be forgotten

Live Performance

Schubert and Byrd at Wigmore Hall: Mishka Rushdie Momen impresses, again

Mishka Rushdie Momen remains, as much as ever, a name to watch

Rachmaninov

Unmissable Rachmaninov from Boris Giltburg

Superb pianism; and. fascinating arrangement

Go, Lovely Rose: Songs of Roger Quilter

Firstly, what a beautiful disc this is, from each and every angle: the performer, one of the most experienced tenors active today, James Gilchist, with a superb pianist, Anna Tilbrook, captured in Chandos' trademark excellence of recording. Secondly, what sevice to music itself. The output of Roger Quilter (1877-1953)

Rare Bellini: La straniera

Bellini La strraniera (concert performance) Cast; Chorus and Orchestra of Chelsea Opera Group /. Stephen Barlow (conductor) Cadogan Hall, London, 01.06.2025 Cast:   Alaide (La straniera) - Helena Dix  Valdeburgo – Dan D’Souza  Isoletta – Geogia Mae Bishop  The Lord of Montolno – Kevin Hollnds  Osbirgo – Will Diggle  Arturo – Thomas Elswin  Prior

Live Performance

Dudok Quartet Amsterdam at Wigmore Hall

Mozart, Tchaikovsky Dudok Quartet Amsterdam. Wigmore Hall, 1pm, 01.06.2025 Mozart String Quartet No. 14 in G, K 387 (1782)  Tchaikovsky String Quartet No. 2 in F, Op. 22 (1874)  The Dudok Quartet Amsterdam comprises Judith van Dreel and Marleen Wester, violins, Marie-Louise de Jong, viola, and Davd Faber,

Ravel ‘Daphnis’ from Strasbourg

Aziz Shokhakimov's continuing success with the Strasbourg orchestra is exemplified in this recording. Good timing, too, given the Ravel celebrations this year. Recently, we covered a live performance in Strasbourg of Stravinsky's Rite could with are Debussy (Printemps) and a Mozart Piano Concerto. And here we

Chopin

Benjamin Grosvenor's Chopin

This is core repertoire, so it needs to be special. It is