Hello friends,

Welcome to our newsletter, where Mark is delighted that there are two Verdi operas among this week's streaming suggestions: Cape Town Opera's Aida and La traviata from the Teatro Amintore Galli in Rimini. We reviewed Cape Town Opera very recently – a Porgy and Bess with Chineke! at the Musikfest Berlin – so have high hopes for South African director Magdalene Minnaar's production. 

Plenty to catch in our reviews section too, including a new ballet based on Charlie Chaplin's City Lights. 

Mark, Elisabeth and Jo

The Bachtrack Insiders

Personal picks from our site

Mark Pullinger Editor ​​​​​​
Gabriel Fauré

There's something about the music of Gabriel Fauré (d. 4th November 1924) which reminds me of autumn, especially the late chamber music which is often suffused with a wistful melancholy. I chose a lot of his chamber music for my top ten playlist, so pour yourself a cup of something hot, snuggle into an armchair and enjoy... 

Elisabeth Schwarz Editor
Southbank Centre

I love London's Southbank Centre. The brutalist architecture, the diversity, the atmosphere – it's a true oasis! I attended an afternoon talk at the London Literature Festival last Saturday and ended up sitting in one of the many cafés for hours, eating (delicious!) cake, listening to a community class discussing their ideas of a publishing house, watching both ballroom and break dancers rehearse next to each other, and grandparents eating pizza with their grandchildren. Read our feature about this unique venue to explore what's on – from food markets to fabulous classical concerts.

Jo Johnson Head of Marketing 
Gold standard

Since Monday marks my 4th anniversary of joining Bachtrack, I thought I'd take a look back and see if I could pinpoint my absolute favourite thing on the site since 2022. Despite some hard lobbying by my fellow newsletter editors to pick their joint playlists – which you should absolutely explore – I have chosen something which I think Bachtrack does really well, and is exactly the kind of article that our intelligent and curious readers (that's you, by the way! 😚) enjoy: an in-depth look at something you didn't know you wanted to know. You'll have to click the button to find out what it is...

Out and about

Our tips on what to see live in the UK this week

Shostakovich 7
Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow
31st October
Brace yourself for wartime drama on a heroic scale as Bassem Akiki conducts the Royal Scottish National Orchestra in this sonic blockbuster.
Also in Edinburgh and Dundee

Junyan Chen in Recital
Kings Place, London
1st November
The 2024 Leeds Piano Competition winner performs a recital at the London Piano Festival, moving from Rachmaninov through Chick Corea to Brahms.

Sunshine Symphonies
Bristol Beacon
5th November
Prokofiev's light-hearted and whimsical Classical Symphony joins Beethoven's sunny and exuberant Second Symphony. In between, Boris Giltburg performs Schumann. Mark Wigglesworth conducts the Bournemouth Symphony.
Also streaming, see below

Iphigénie en Tauride
London Coliseum
Opens 6th November
Gluck's rarely performed opera makes its English National Opera debut in a new staging – sung in French – by Olivier Award-winning director Lyndsey Turner.

Photography credits:
Teodor Kuchar and the Ukrainian National Philharmonic Orchestra (aka Kyiv Philharmonic) © Sofia Johanson;
Aida © Oscar O'Ryan | Cape Town Opera, Anja Bihlmaier © Phil Sharp, La Traviata © Teatro Amintore Galli, Mark Wigglesworth © Sim Canetty-Clarke;
Yuja Wang and the Wiener Symphoniker © Julia Wesely | Musikverein Wien, Kosuke Okumura and Yui Yonezawa (City Lights) © Photo by Takashi Shikama, Charlie Chaplin™ © Bubbles Incorporated SA, Alex Esposito, Hyeonsol Park, Marina Rebeka, Vittorio Grigolo and Ernesto Petti (Faust) © Brescia e Amisano | Teatro alla Scala;
Johann Sebastian Bach © Public domain