Reviews
25th August 2018 saw the 100th birth anniversary of American composer, conductor and pianist Leonard Bernstein. The Boston Symphony Orchestra chose for their two successive Lucerne Festival concerts Serenade, after Plato’s Symposium and Mahler’s Third Symphony a composer much associated with him. The Serenade is scored for violin,
Reviews
It was now the turn for three evenings with the London Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Sir Simon Rattle their new Music Director. I attended the first two of these evenings – Messiaen on the 9th and Ravel on the 10th. The first concert was shared with the Lucerne Festival
Reviews
After two successive evenings with the Royal Concertgebouw it was the turn of the Vienna Philharmonic. What great orchestras they both are but sounded very different in tone quality; the former with much warmth and gravitas, the latter more streamlined and brilliant. On the first night we heard Haydn’s
Reviews
It was with great applause that the audience welcomed the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra from Amsterdam to the Lucerne Festival. The works for their two concerts were by the great Austrian masters of the late 19th century Bruckner and Mahler. Also framing these works were masterpieces by Alban Berg of the
Reviews
Home to major symphony orchestras from all over the world the Lucerne Festival is very special for this reason alone. It is the only city in Europe that boasts an array of the best symphony orchestras, conductors and soloists! I attended the second of two concerts given by the Munich
Reviews
Legendary pianist and conductor now in his late seventies joined hands with two young string players in two concerts covering the six important piano trios of Beethoven. Violinist, his son Michael Barenboim and young Persian-Austrian cellist Kian Soltani joined the veteran pianist whose playing remain youthful, vigorous and highly communicative.
Reviews
Not many festivals in the world can pride themselves on hosting the Berlin Philharmonic on two successive nights. Needless to say there was a buzz in the air as the capacity audience anticipated the two very different programmes. As the current music director of the Bavarian State Opera, the young
Reviews
Georges Bizet’s most famous work is the opera Carmen a contemporary tale of French verismo replete with on-stage cigarette- girls, Spanish dances, bull fights and on-stage stabbing. Its popularity has far out stripped that of its ten year’s previous story set in ancient times on the island of
Reviews
A magnificent show of Tchaikovsky’s dramatic tragedy was performed for the sixth time on 25th August to an appreciative audience. The opera by Tchaikovsky has a libretto by his brother Modest based on a novel by Alexander Puchkin. The premiere took place in 1890 in St. Petersburg’s Mariinsky
Reviews
Last night I attended the first performance of my week in Salzburg during the conclusion of the Summer Festival. It was the sixth performance of Mozart’s last opera the Magic Flute (Die Zauberflöte). Billed initially by Mozart as a “German opera” it was also described as “grand opera”. Its
Reviews
Those of us present at Mumbai’s century-old Opera House between 1-3 August were lucky enough to be treated to a really delightful evening. The opera house, built in the early 20th century in Indo-European Neo-Baroque architecture, lay unused for twenty three years from 1993 to 2016. It was formally
Interviews
Brahms and Gerald Finzi at first glance make strange bed-fellows but this recital in Pune made it convincing. Baritone Rahul Bharadwaj has a brisk and confident personality eminently suited to the heavy Germanic nature of Brahms’ emotional music. His open-throated voice and forward diction made for an engaging beginning to