Classical and Opera Reviews
by Barry Creasy
Valentine’s Day at the Wigmore Hall was never going to be an affair of chocolates, flowers and overwrought romanticism, and Stile Antico’s presentation of Renaissance…
The Queen Elizabeth Hall was a slightly unusual choice of venue for Crouch End Festival Chorus’s performance of Elgar’s Gerontius, and the onstage personnel (120-strong...
Situated near Winchfield in Hampshire, West Green House Opera may be smaller than Glyndebourne, Garsington or the Granges, but, judged by the standards of its...
Although it has quite a history, Nevill Holt Opera, situated near Market Harborough in Leicestershire, always feels new because it constantly seems to be at...
This production of Katya Kabanova is the second in the Royal Opera House’s long-awaited Janáček cycle, which began with From the House of the Dead...
The original Swingles group was formed in Paris in 1962; with a move to London in the early 70s and a few variations on their...
A year following the Bourbon Restoration of 1814, Louis XVIII had the remains of his executed relatives (Louis XVI and Marie-Antoinette) re-interred in the crypt...
Although the majority of events in the 2019 London Handel Festival do not begin until late March, the strong musical credentials that underlay La Nuova...
This concert from violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien provided everything that one might expect from this outstanding long-term partnership, and perhaps a little...
A German interviewer once asked the Austrian baritone Florian Boesch, how Wigmore Hall audiences respond to recitals, given that they are English and Lieder is...
What’s Opera, Doc? For Stefan Herheim, it’s clearly not a comfortable evening’s entertainment – this first London showing of Herheim’s brilliant 2016 production for Dutch...
The inclusion of the celeste in the title of Bartók’s Music for strings, percussion and celeste always seems odd, as it has little prominence (indeed,...
Kings Place’s Venus Unwrapped season (celebrating music written by women across the centuries) opened on Thursday evening with a sparkling presentation of works by the...
Kings Place has devoted a year-long season – Venus Unwrapped – to concerts featuring the works of female composers, largely performed by female artists. We...
Michael Chance, Director of The Grange Festival in Hampshire, devised this performance in the hope that it would encourage the pulses of those privileged to...
Given that the orchestration of Chopin’s F-minor Piano Concerto was a team effort, there is probably no musical heresy involved in the performance of the...
The first concert of 2019 for many of us, this performance of music by Purcell, Blow, Pelham Humfrey and William Williams, directed by Robert King,...
In contrast to the rather more glitzy seasonal concerts on offer in London, the Christmas Festival at St John’s Smith Square, now in its 33rd...
It’s unusual for the first and last songs of a recital to show the singer at his best, but so it was at this thoughtfully...
Berlioz’s L’Enfance du Christ is a bit of a divider. It’s certainly quite different from the composer’s other large works; there’s little of the grotesque...
Mahan Esfahani is currently in the midst of a planned sixteen-strong series, in which he will perform every piece that J. S. Bach wrote for...
Stile Antico @ Wigmore Hall, London
Ladytron – Ladytron
This Music Made Me: Ladytron
Ariana Grande – thank u, next
The Dream of Gerontius @ Queen Elizabeth Hall, London
Yo La Tengo, Poppy Ackroyd, Neneh Cherry… This Week In Gigs
Interview: Mercury Rev – “We really wanted that southern gothic feel that Bobbie Gentry had.”
Preview: West Green House Opera 2019
