Parry's Judith superbly performed at the Royal Festival Hall

By Mark Valencia, 04 April 2019

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“The London Mozart Players responded wonderfully to Vann’s energetic and pinpoint-clear baton work”

Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 3 April 2019

Parry, Judith

Sarah Fox, Soprano

Kathryn Rudge, Mezzo-soprano

Toby Spence, Tenor

Henry Waddington, Bass

William Vann, Conductor

London Mozart Players

Crouch End Festival Chorus

A choral treat to savour: Verdi’s Requiem at the BBC Proms

David Karlin, 23rd July

An outstanding choral performance by nearly 300 singers of the BBC National Chorus of Wales and the Crouch End Festival Chorus lights up Verdi’s hybrid of opera and devotional music.

*****

An exhilarating all-American Prom from Ryan Bancroft and BBC NOW

Mark Thomas, 31st July

Ryan Bancroft and the BBC NOW offer scintillating playing in John Adams’ Harmonium, plus an exciting world premiere from Derrick Skye and a stunning Copland concerto with clarinettist Annelien Van Wauwe.

****1

Back with a bang: Verdi's Requiem opens the BBC Proms season

Mark Pullinger, 15th July

A huge hall, a huge orchestra and a huge chorus letting rip with a monster of the choral repertoire… We've missed this.

****1

Prom 66: John Luther Adams delivers a massive hymn to the land

Gus Mitchell, 8th September

John Luther Adams piece unfolds with the patience and weight of the geological time, leaving a powerful mark.

*****

Contemplations on death from Tchaikovsky and Simpson

Dominic Lowe, 27th July

Juanjo Mena and the BBC Philharmonic juxtaposed Simpson's oratorio, The Immortal, inspired by mediums and seances, with Tchaikovsky's Sixth Symphony where life slips away into the void.

***11

A Berlioz Requiem of scale and sensitivity

Mark Valencia, 13th November

The silence of the Cenotaph was swept away by the greatest howl of anguish in music.

****1

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Mark Valencia

Mark has worked in arts journalism for four decades, both as a writer and as a French-English translator. Nowadays he focuses his energies on reviewing opera and music. Mark also writes for Opera magazine and for Musical America as a correspondent for Europe and the UK.