Finde Artikel | Katy S. Austin

The classy Elias String Quartet brighten the morning with enjoyable Haydn and Mendelssohn, but Britten doesn't sit quite right. 

This a was breathtaking but not breathless concert by Alina Ibragimova, a brilliantly accomplished individual interpretation of three of Bach's solo partitas and sonatas for violin.

Dancing, jokes, a pogrom and Bryn Terfel balancing on milk vats. It could only be Fiddler on the Roof. Grange Park Opera took an eclectic combination and planted if successfully on the Proms stage.

Rich gifts of from the distinctive OAE, with Vikoria Mullova adding austere authority to Brahms and Ádám Fischer bringing out all the colour in Dvořák's “New World” Symphony.

The BSO seamlessly jumped between all-out dramatic terror, soppy love and adventure in an eclectic mix of 21 pieces of "heroic" film and video game music from the past five decades. 

Seven works by English composers created a journey from beauty to death as Remembrance day approaches. There wasn't much dwelling on the horrors of war itself, but plenty of human emotion and a sense of life sadly lost.

Kiril Karabits brings out the climaxes, in a solid performance of Bruckner's Seventh Symphony in Basingstoke, couple with Mozart's Clarinet Concerto.

Infectious energy from musicians who breezed through a diverse and challenging programme without music stands or chairs, in which Benedict Mason displayed his originality.

This Winchester Chamber Music Festival programme made a stab at being eclectic, with two sets of early 20th century Webern miniatures to start. Yet the meat was in two substantial Romantic works by Schumann and Brahms. 

Read our review of Michael Mayer's production of Verdi's Rigoletto in its 2013 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of Cesare Lievi's production of Rossini­'s Cenerentola in its 2009 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

Read our review of  Richard Jones' production of Engelbert Humperdinck's Hansel und Gretel in its 2008 broadcast from the Met Opera in New York.

The Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra's arrival at the Proms with their musical director Yannick Nézet-Séguin was popular, selling out seats and drawing a full arena crowd. There was an atmosphere of anticipation for a famously enigmatic conductor and a colourful programme. The concert didn’t disappoint with its marriage of Tchaikovsky and Wanger, and the cryptic Symphony No.

The BBC Proms 2013 began with some of the best of English composers. Tonight for Prom 28 it was the turn of some of Scotland’s finest, as Donald Runnicles conducted the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra in a performance of James MacMillan’s Violin Concerto. There were plenty of old favourites from Beethoven and Strauss Jr.

The inaugural Bristol Proms are nearly over. Indeed, if you’re reading this any later than Saturday evening, they’ve been and gone. The festival, run by the Bristol Old Vic, has deliberately been unlike its London namesake.

On a hot, humid summer’s evening, Sakari Oramo made his debut as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. That the occasion was the first night of the BBC Proms 2013 didn’t seem to bother him. The Finn’s combination of serenity and confidence – and just enough passion to assure us that he was enjoying it – set the tone for an intriguing, if oddly assembled programme.

35 years and many revivals after it was first seen, the late Joachim Herz’s version of Madam Butterfly (“Madama” spelt without the “a” here) is still going. For WNO’s themed series of “Free Spirits”, Caroline Chaney took on the revival director’s mantle. The result was a reliable production lacking in originality but not in warmth.

Verdi’s Rigoletto is possessed of a truly tragic plot. A physically disabled jester keeps his innocent daughter locked up except for weekly church visits, a situation which she only lightly resists. Rigoletto believes a curse is to blame for his daughter being killed, although she only dies as a substitute for the man Rigoletto himself has arranged to be assassinated.

Today it is thought that J.S. Bach’s chamber and ensemble music, including the four Orchestral Suites, date from his time in Leipzig from the 1720s onwards. When all the Orchestral Suites (BWV1066–1069) are put together, their inventive and varied nature is evident. The suites make great use of all ensemble instruments and incorporate a range of structures, as well as internal forms and dances.

The name of experimental opera and theatre company Opera in Space refers to its aim of interacting with the spaces in which it performs (no, nothing to do with astronauts or sci-fi interpretations). The Bussey Building was the chosen space for its most recent operatic subject.

It’s very difficult to write about Berlioz’s Les Troyens without mentioning its length. Tonight’s cinema screening of Fransesca Zambello’s lush production was billed at 341 minutes – that’s 5.6 hours. But beamed live from the Metropolitan Opera in New York, those 5.6 hours entailed spectacular operatic entertainment.

For those who like their orchestral music Romantic, strident and generally unrelenting, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on 1 November was just the job. Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major, played by Nicola Benedetti, was sandwiched in between two emotionally charged pieces of Tchaikovksy as the RPO under Diego Matheuz played to a packed Royal Festival Hall.

Michael Tippett died 14 years ago but his diverse canon has been relatively underrepresented since, the pacifist A Child of Our Time being perhaps the exception. In tonight’s Barbican outing, it was surprising but refreshing to see his Triple Concerto for violin, viola and cello, written in 1978–9, paired with Henk de Vlieger’s orchestral contraction of Wagner’s Ring cycle.

The opera group The Wedding Collective describes Finding Butterfly as a “re-interpretation” of Puccini’s revered Madama Butterfly. Indeed, their version takes the heroine as the core of its plot – but this is a very different opera to Puccini’s.

Ralph Vaughan Williams wrote nine symphonies. Tonight, the middle three were lined up in an engrossing triptych, written by a mature composer who, in his sixties and seventies, showed no lack of energy. Andrew Manze, Associate Guest conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, took a relaxed approach to all three allowing the emotion written into the score to emerge unrepressed.

The 2012 Tête à Tête opera festival is continuing on the bold course begun in 2007. Over halfway through its breathless 18-day schedule, it all seems as fresh as when it started. Its sixth season contains some typically outlandish operatic gems, most relatively brief in length.

David McVicar’s production of Berlioz’s opera Les Troyens at the Royal Opera House last month was notable for several reasons. Firstly, stellar vocal performances from world-class lead singers; secondly, brilliant acting; thirdly, ravishing music; and lastly, a memorable set – including a curious giant horse and human made out of what looked like scrap weapons and tools.

The Tenth Anniversary of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Scheme is a landmark of no small size. This summer performance brought back some of the best singers it has produced for a semi-staged rendition of Rossini’s one-act 1825 opera Il Viaggio a Reims. It was a celebratory display of virtuoso held together with a generous dose of self-indulgence.

Fact is, they say, stranger than fiction. Damon Albarn’s latest foray onto the operatic stage certainly makes strange the true-life story of Elizabethan intellectual and philosopher John Dee.

The Sixteen’s three appearances in the line-up for this year’s Spitalfields Music Festival showcase the breadth of their repertoire. On June 15 and 16, they will premiere Alan Roth’s new musical setting of Beckett monologues, Old Earth. First, on June 9, was something altogether more familiar.

The voices of Trio Mediaeval take you by surprise. Essentially, they take French, English and Norwegian polyphony and give it an electronically amplified, spaced-out twist. Much of Norway’s early musical history is unknown, the largely Christian folk tradition passed down orally rather than in writing, although monasteries from the 12th century onwards played a large role.

With countless accolades in recent years, and his chamber opera Clemency nominated for Best New Opera Production in this year’s Olivier Awards, James MacMillan continues to enjoy a place as one of Britain’s most prestigious living composers – not that this appeared to intimidate the young but highly capable throngs of the Guildhall Symphony Orchestra, whom he conducted on Wednesday evening.

It had lain in the archives of the British Library since around 1986. Now, rediscovered by a PhD student and transcribed by Stephen Anthony-Brown, Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s opera Thelma has at last received its world première in the capable hands of Surrey Opera.It’s a small miracle that Thelma, written between 1907 and 1909, came to be performed at all.

Frank Bridge, his pupil Benjamin Britten, and Ralph Vaughan Williams: three composers defined by their role in steering English music into the twentieth century. With Britten’s centenary approaching in 2013, Kings Place’s two-concert series of English string music was a timely reminder of the musical imagination that flourished in this country at the turn of the twentieth century.

Sometimes it seemed as though the sun would never set on Dawn. At nearly three hours long, it made for a blockbuster opening to the '50 Years of Minimalism' festival. Thankfully, the Labèque sisters, a rock ensemble, electronic keyboard and the obligatory tape machine on stage were brilliant company for the whole, overlong affair.

Originally penned by Joseph Conrad in 1903, Heart of Darkness deals with the deepest, most dangerous misunderstandings between human beings. Set during the era of imperialism, ship’s captain Charlie Marlow relates to his London dockyard comrades a disconcerting tale of a journey to the heart of an African jungle.

The Jette Parker Young Artists double bill of Jules Massenet’s rare one-act opera Le Portrait de Manon (sequel to Manon) and Hector Berlioz’s Les Nuits d’été, featured romance, mystique and sumptuous singing.

Steve Reich has been a Barbican mainstay of 2011. In his 75th birthday year, the composer’s significant influence on contemporary classical music was honoured with the Reverberations Festival in May.

Music and politics combine to form a potent mix. Art in its exclusive pursuit, can arguably avoid making a political statement; but it can also shine a bitingly harsh light on political themes, thus bringing them close to home through personal acts of dramatisation. Manifest Destiny 2011 proudly does the latter.

Ivan Fischer is acquiring, if he hadn’t already, a reputation as one of the great musical mavericks alive today. Shortlisted for this year’s Gramophone Artist of the Year award, he has a track record for accessibility and great musical energy.

How much wine can a cast pretend to drink over the course of one production? If such a record has been set Adam Spreadbury-Maher, Ben Cooper and Robin Norton-Hale’s Don Giovanni presents a good challenge. For much of this production characters, music and set seemed drunk on wine and melodrama, high on the drug of their own confident style – but all were ultimately weakened by their instability.

The first thing I must say about the Tallis Scholars’ Prom 28 is that it was my most moving experience of this year’s Proms so far. Bar none. When Peter Phillips’ ensemble comes to the Royal Albert Hall, the question in one’s mind is not whether they will give a world-class performance – they usually do.

There are some works that appear year after year in a subtly different, equally sumptious incarnation. Strauss’s Four Last Songs ranks among that number. In 2010, Sir Simon Rattle, Karita Mattila and the Berliner Philharmoniker brought us this soulful masterpiece for Soprano and orchestra in one of the season’s most memorable Proms.

On paper, Strauss’ Till Eulenspiegels lustige Streiche seems a non sequitur to choral and orchestral works by Elgar and Grainger. In Proms 24, Elgar’s part-song There is sweet music and Violin Concerto in B minor were at home next to Grainger’s setting of Londonderry Air and likeable In a Nutshell suite.

From Soprano Svetla Vasseliva’s vampish allure to Gianandrea Noseda’s warrior-like conducting, Prom 22 was a quintessentially Romantic affair with Russia at its heart.

Oliver Knussen has taken the BBC Symphony Orchestra on some interesting journeys during his relationship with them, as both composer and conductor. Of all these journeys, Prom 19 surely ranks among the most fascinating. Under Knussen’s masterful conducting, the orchestra and Claire Booth gave us a scintillating if sometimes overwhelming exhibition of six intense early Twentieth Century works.

A split-level stage featuring an ornate stairwell and scaffolding was the setting for this the tenth Jette Parker Young Artists’ Summer Performance. Entitled ‘Veneziana’, the specially compiled programme embodied the visions of Venice dreamt by Rossini, Donizetti, Britten and Offenbach in six sets of Opera Scenes.

The Wigmore Hall on July 13th was The Jupiter Quartet’s only UK appearance on their America-based Summer tour. They used the opportunity to showcase the innovations which occurred within the String Quartet repertoire through the twentieth century , ending with a homage to the form’s Classical peak.

With their appetite for musical diversity and youthful enthusiasm, the six-year-old Aurora Orchestra and their principal conductor, Nicholas Collon, have grand ambitions. With ‘When Doves Cry’ they did not disappoint, showing both their exceptional aptitude for showcasing contemporary music and a promising ability to inject freshness into seminal classical works.

This was the second vocal concert of late (the last being Ariodante with Joyce DiDinato) to feature an exemplary female soloist caged inside an otherwise nondescript performance. Jérémie Rohrer tried in vain to force energy out of French chamber choir Les Elements and period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie.