Reviews
The marvellous Italian mezzo Cecilia Bartoli produced and sang in this remarkable festive semi-staged performance of Rossini’s timeless comedy La Cenerentola. She started her career at the age of 19 with the music of Rossini and it is with this composer that her gifts are most closely allied. In
Reviews
Last but by no mean least was the turn of the London Philharmonic - a beautifully streamlined sound and a high level of musicality. This performance had a special glow to it not least because of conductor Marin Alsop’s mercurial direction. She chose her own arrangement of the Suite
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,
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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
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A week into Beethovenfest, the magic has failed to subside. The air is still abuzz with excitement with concerts taking place regularly, providing much on offer for, and tailored to, the varied, musical inclined population of the city of Bonn, Ludwig van Beethoven’s birthplace. This time, we shift to
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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
Quintessence is defined as the exemplar of a quality or class. In the context of the second day of Beethovenfest, the Russian National Orchestra (RNO), under the accomplished baton of director and conductor Mikhail Pletnev, presented three works from three different composers, which are regarded as the quintessence of the
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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
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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
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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.
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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
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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