by Dominic McHugh
With a well-known cast and production team, the Royal Opera’s new production of Donizetti’s La fille du rgiment – its first in forty years –…
by Dominic McHugh
Gordan Nikolitch is one of the wonders of the classical world. On Thursday and Sunday he led the London Symphony Orchestra’s concerts at the Barbican...
by Dominic McHugh
Maria Joo Pires playing the piece in the second of her two concerts with the London Symphony Orchestra. Although her tone was creamy and her...
by Dominic McHugh
I half expected the London Symphony Orchestra to acknowledge Sir Colin Davis’ entrance tonight with a rendition of ‘Hail to the Chief’.For this was his...
by Dominic McHugh
Mozart was born 250 years ago this month, and it’s the centenary of Shostakovich‘s birth in September. Bernard Haitink joined the London Symphony Orchestra to...
by Dominic McHugh
Opera doesn’t get much better than The Marriage of Figaro.The score is probably Mozart’s finest for the stage, full of comedy, romance, envy, joy and...
by Dominic McHugh
It’s a sure sign of disaster when the loudest cheer during an opera comes in response to a circus divertissement. Sadly, this was the case...
by Dominic McHugh
It’s only a year since the Royal Opera revived Sir Richard Eyre’s atmospheric staging of Verdi’s La traviata. Why is it back so soon, especially...
by Ben Hogwood
With the centenary of Shostakovich’s birth nearly upon us, Valery Gergiev will be the focus of the commemorations for many, the start of his Barbican...
by Ben Hogwood
Bruckner’s Eighth symphony is the biggest of all 19th century symphonies, and if any one orchestra could exercise a performing claim on it, that orchestra...
by Ben Hogwood
Any quibbles about this being yet another major orchestra to bring Stravinsky’s Rite Of Spring to the Proms were thrown emphatically out of court at...
by Ben Hogwood
Rumon Gamba has made his name more recently as a prolific conductor of film scores by British classical composers, and on that basis the drama...
by Ben Hogwood
Considering the Concertgebouw rank as one of theworld’s top orchestras it was disappointing to see anumber of empty seats in the Albert Hall to greettheir...
by Ben Hogwood
Phew. A hot Royal Albert Hall is not the place to be on such a clammy night, still less if the music programmed is a...
by Gareth Webb
This performance of Verdi’s Requiem by the BBC Symphony Chorus and the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus satisfied in places but missed the mark in...
by Ben Hogwood
Henryk Gorecki’s third symphony has enjoyed an extraordinary popularity over the last decade or so, with a pioneering recording from Dawn Upshaw that has made...
by Ben Hogwood
A most endearing feature of the Proms is the encouragement of youth orchestras, and tonight it was the turn of the European Community ensemble to...
