The New York Philharmonic opened its season last night with a splendidly conceived mash-up of selections from Prokofiev’s Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately, the first half of the concert was less compelling.
Listening to Grisey's Quatre Chants two decades after its composition, it is clear that he was on a threshold into a new approach to dramatic vocal music.
Akram Khan's bold reimagining of Giselle continues to go from strength to strength. After touring to venues from Moscow to Chicago, it returns to Sadler's Wells.
A sharp, well-drilled ensemble and heavenly Fauré, Stravinsky and Tchaikovsky couldn't adequately compensate for the mixed bag of principal performances and the outdated look of Balanchine's Jewels at New York City Ballet.
A case of musical minds being in particularly close interpretative sync, revealing the music not through showy display but through restrained but intense concentration.
Kasper Holten's psychological take on the louche lothario remains controversial, but in its third revival, Erwin Schrott's powerful assumption of the title role is a delight.
Pianist Alexander Gavrylyuk delivers a knockout Rachmaninov Paganini Rhapsody while JoAnn Falletta and the Virginia Symphony Orchestra and Chorus present memorable Tchaikovsky and Ravel scores.
Opening their season with an all-Russian programme, Royal Northern Sinfonia ventured beyond the standard chamber orchestra repertoire, with patchy results.
Barrie Kosky's stark, spare La bohème gave it a rare spark of humanity focused on Marina Costa-Jackson's haunting Mimì, whose existence became the central focus even when she wasn't singing.
Downes' playing is soulful, perhaps rather American, which gave Schumann a late-night jazziness. That tendency fit better with selections by Nina Simone and Harlem Renaissance composers Margaret Bonds and Florence Price.
A mesmerising Stravinsky Rite of Spring from Mihhail Gerts and RTÉ NSO while Irish pianist Fiachra Garvey impresses in Rachmaninov's Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini.
The trio gave a flowing, elegant reading of the “Archduke”in which the three fast movements were brought into line with the golden glow of the theme and variations.
Berlioz on acid: Nicholas Collon and Mathew Baynton lead the Proms audience through the streets of Paris before a wild ride through the Symphonie fantastique.
In the exquisite singing line of the second movement, the appeal was not just in her beauty of tone but in the concentrated feeling Mullova brought to the shaping of each phrase.
During Henry Wood’s Prom years, Wednesday was Bach Night. To commemorate the 150th anniversary of his birth, the Proms revived this tradition in the final week with a couple of modern twists.
A brilliantly staged production of Reimann's Ghost Sonata by Opera Australia shows once again that modernist opera can be compelling if a provocative story is rendered by an outstanding cast.
Daniel Barenboim conducts much of Siegfried as an intimate chamber opera, resulting in an unexpected musical joy, with an excellent cast of singers headed by Michael Volle’s Wanderer.
Festivals and academies breed familiarity and mutual compassion between audiences and returning artists. Yet the warmly informal feel of this concert owed mostly to the close relationships between the musicians themselves.
Playing under its music director Gábor Takács-Nagy, the VFCO radiated joy for music-making; the very thing Verbier – and now Tsinandali – is all about.
The Staatsoper Berlin celebrate the arrival of Michael Volle, a splendid Wotan, aided by a strong ensemble of singers and Daniel Barenboim's leadership.
