Reviews
It was a privileged audience who was invited to one of the most delightful concerts of the season at the new auditorium of the Goethe Institut, now in Park Mansions Park Street. On an early Saturday evening, even with the traffic at its most frenetic state, who would have cared
Reviews
Children sorting rubbish in the freezing cold, teenage hawkers operating amidst traffic, homeless men and women huddling by the motorway: a walk down the Avenue de la Porte d’Aubervilliers does not readily suggest the world’s sixth wealthiest country. But this is the 19th arrondissement of Paris, home to
Reviews
This first edition of the SOTA festival that took place from January 2 – 6 2018 in Hyderabad is the brain child of local pianist, executive and artistic director, Timothy Marthand. It is the culmination of over 25 years of research and collaboration with renowned artists and an ongoing commitment to
Reviews
I first heard Milen Manoj, the genius Indian pianist, in his debut recital at the NCPA in April of this year. He impressed greatly in a varied recital which included the Appassionata sonata. He seemed to me then to have tremendous potential, but I hardly imagined the complete transformation that
Reviews
On the 21st and 22nd November Gauthier Herrmann was joined by 13 young French musicians for the twentieth edition of the Artie’s festival, a major bi-annual chamber music festival at the NCPA, now completing ten years successively. Over the years, we have heard much fantastic music including Beethoven string
Reviews
Robin Ticciati/Scottish Chamber Orchestra Dvořák Symphony No. 8 Mitsuko Uchida, Piano 12 October, 2017 Usher Hall, Edinburgh If this is Robin Ticciati’s farewell season with the Scottish Chamber Orchestra, then their opening concert was a fine display of everything that Ticciati and the orchestra have achieved together during
Reviews
I still do not know exactly, what most of the other participants in the concert on 6 October actually thought of it, as we haven’t really met each other since the combined onstage photo-op at its end. Perhaps, we would now hate the very sight of each other, so
Reviews
I journeyed back to Austria for the last three nights of summer bliss in Europe. The night of September 5th I was to see Mozart’s opera buffa, Le Nozze di Figaro. This masterpiece the fruit of the legendary Lorenzo da Ponte and Mozart collaboration was a rib-tickling roller-coaster ride
Reviews
I journeyed to Torre del Lago for the Puccini festival 2017 to hear La Bohème on 30th August, the last night of the festival. The 63rd Festival Pucciniano featured the Tuscan verismo maestro’s popular works Bohème, Tosca and Butterfly as well as Turandot and La Rondine on the fabled
Reviews
Neck to neck, two great symphony orchestras finished the festival programme on a high note. This was the Berlin Philharmonic (Monday 28th August) and Pittsburg Symphony orchestra (29th August). I took a few days off writing to journey to Italy, the home of opera and then on to Vienna for
Reviews
On Sunday 27th August, there was a concert performance of Donizetti’s bel canto masterpiece - Lucrezia Borgia. With a line-up of some of the best singers in the world, this was a three hour long performance. Victor Hugo’s Lucrèce Borgia, performed for the first time on 2 February
Reviews
It is not often that Anne-Sophie Mutter appears anywhere in recital. But here she is on my fourth day at the festival in recital with her long time accompanist Lambert Orkis. From start to finish it was clearly proving to be one of the most outstanding concerts of the festival.