Mark has been Bachtrack’s English editor since 2014. He is an experienced critic, writing over 500 reviews for the site, as well as contributing to Gramophone and Opera magazines. He is a member of the Music and Dance Sections of The Critics’ Circle. He also writes programme notes and is an occasional blogger at Beckmesser's Quill. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie.
Schubert's Unfinished Symphony proves a memorable climax to the young Norwegian conductor's matinee at Bridgewater Hall, after a lacklustre Beethoven piano concerto.
Matthias Naske bereitet sich auf die Feier seines zehnjährigen Dienstjubiläums im Wiener Konzerthaus vor. Er reflektiert über die Herausforderungen, die die Pandemie mit sich bringt, und über die Kuratierung eines vielfältigen Programms für die Stadt.
“I've written only one masterpiece. Unfortunately it has no music in it.” To which work was the self-critical Maurice Ravel referring and where does it come in our playlist of the dapper Frenchman’s top ten?
Als Komponist von rund 500 Konzerten und etwa 90 Opern hat Antonio Vivaldi, der „Rote Priester”, viel mehr zu bieten als die weltbekannten Vier Jahreszeiten.
“Give me a laundry bill and I will set it to music.” Composition seemed to come easily to Rossini. He wrote around 40 operas in only 17 years... but then he suddenly stopped. Enjoy our top ten selection.
“Abandon hope all ye who enter here” could have been the strapline for this brilliantly constructed, brilliantly played concert featuring music by Sibelius, Tchaikovsky and Thomas Adès himself.
Ann Yee and Natalie Abrahami give Rusalka an ecological reading, but it's the musical side of things that really takes flight in The Royal Opera's new production.
Child prodigy, keen traveller, champion of Bach – Felix Mendelssohn packed a lot of music into his short life, music that teems with freshness and vigour.
The Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment dip into the late Romantic period to make the case for more Saint-Saëns in this rip-roaring concert under Russian conductor Maxim Emelyanychev.
“Peace Shall Defeat War” is the apposite subtitle of the finale to Boris Lyatoshynsky's Third Symphony, a work championed by Kirill Karabits in a concert featuring his fellow Ukrainian Anna Fedorova playing Rachmaninov.
Giacomo Puccini knew how to pull the heartstrings in his music. He made his soprano characters suffer... but also composed some of his best music for them.
Violin dealers J & A Beare celebrate its 130th anniversary in lavish style by bringing together eight of the Cremona luthier’s exceptional instruments for a concert directed by Dutch violinist, Janine Jansen.
