Classical and Opera Reviews
by Steven Johnson
Shankar 100 is a year long series taking place at the Southbank Centre commemorating the centenary of the birth of Ravi Shankar. He may be…
David Lang’s Prisoner of the State is a modern day take on Fidelio, and it achieves the right balance between creating a work that speaks...
In this programme of song from French, British and German composers, one might have picked holes in minor elements, but overall the combination of baritone...
Musical Christmas miscellanies can be a bit hit or miss, but Graham Johnson’s Songmakers’ Almanac’s A Winter Birthday on Saturday was everything you’d want it...
It’s not easy to be original in baroque music in the 21st century: the composers would appear to have been discovered, the performers seem to...
What better way to take your mind off the political skulduggery of the day than a concert devoted to three of this country’s finest composers...
The Tallis Scholars’ Reflections formed their contribution to the St John’s Christmas Festival this year, and the group, under its founder-director, Peter Phillips, chose to...
It may be difficult for us to imagine a Christmas when ‘Once in Royal David’s City’ and ‘Hark! The Herald Angels Sing’ did not take...
When the English diarist John Evelyn visited the Teatro Novissimo in Venice in 1645 he recorded his impressions of the opera he saw there, Ercole...
Far la Ninna Nanna, the title of L’Arpeggiata’s Christmas themed concert is an Italian phrase meaning ‘to sing a lullaby’, and lullabies there were aplenty,...
Trevor Pinnock’s 1988 recording of Messiah is rightly the stuff of legend. Its crisp attacks and lithe textures have now passed into common currency for...
Who is Othello? Is he a towering commander whose strength is suddenly taken from him by the machinations of a lesser man with a quicker...
For their contribution to the St John’s Christmas Festival, the a-cappella ensemble The Cardinall’s Musick presented ‘Vigilia di Natale’, a programme featuring sacred music of...
Like Orphée aux enfers, written six years earlier, Offenbach’s La belle Hélène of 1764 is a parody of an ancient myth. Both employ Ludovic Halévy...
One of the undoubtedly great productions during Edward Gardner’s tenure as Music Director of English National Opera was David Alden’s Peter Grimes. Gardner conducted the...
The Seraphin Project was set up under the aegis of King’s College Cambridge to foster musical collaboration across the generations, and to mix student musicians...
Haydn’s Il mondo della luna of 1777 utilises a libretto by Carlo Goldoni first written in 1750 and forming the basis for at least six...
The feast of St Cecilia, patron of musicians is in November, and The Sixteen opted to celebrate it with a programme of 20th and 21st-century...
This Temple Music recital which took place in the august, yet intimate, surroundings of Middle Temple Hall was a cause for rejoicing on so many...
Two world-class instrumentalists playing together can be risky; while no-one doubts their individual abilities, sometimes the chemistry doesn’t work, and chamber music cannot ever be...
The LA Phil were in town for a short residency at the Barbican as part of a celebratory centenary tour with their music director, Gustavo...
Sukanya @ Royal Festival Hall, London
Algiers – There Is No Year
Lina_Raül Refree – Lina_Raül Refree // Lee Ranaldo & Raül Refree – Names of North End Women
Keeley Forsyth – Debris
Louise – Heavy Love
Holy Fuck – Deleter
…And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead – X: The Godless Void And Other Stories