Pushing the definition of Chamber Music at Kuhmo Festival

An introductory reading by local writer Philip Pullman was an appropriate introduction to the “Dusk to Dawn” concert, one of the last in this year’s Oxford Chamber Music Festival (themed “Fairytales and Fantasy”). The collision of a light-hearted surface with darker undertones was not just in Pullman’s retelling of the Grimm stories, but pervaded Artistic Director Priya Mitchell’s programming.

The Castle in the Water, Sallinen's new “chronicle”, is a new work of innovative beauty. Tragic, comic and epic, in seventy-five minutes it tells the history of Olavinlinna and gives a snap-shot of those connected to it.

The loud cheers for the performers were richly deserved, although Jörg Widmann’s imposing but sprawling Babylon was not well-served by the concert format.

Animated characters are the real stars of an imaginative production of The Magic Flute. 

Unter fast 40 Romeo-Vertonungen die wohl kürzeste: aus Blachers Komprimierung von Shakespeares Tragödienstoff zieht die Duisburger Neuinszenierung intensive Überzeugungskraft.

El Liceu comienza su temporada con La flauta mágica, en una producción de inspiración cinematográfica que conforma un espectáculo audiovisual abierto a todos los públicos completado por una interpretación ágil de la partitura.