★★★★½ First-rate performance of symphonic repertoire’s central pillar leaves an overwhelming impression. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The Rite of Spring may have caused a riot, but this oratorio needed the police to keep the audience in order. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The further removed we are from the era of the American iconoclast Charles Ives (1874-1954), the stranger his music sounds.
The Russian maestro conducted the Mariinsky Orchestra at the Palmyra Ruins, recently recaptured from Islamic State. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
★★★★☆ Caetani’s no-nonsense authenticity rehabilitates Soviet musical propaganda. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Both orchestras registered profits in 2014 but still made a loss in 2015 despite increased Government subsidy. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Almost 90 years after its premiere, the popular orchestral work is now free to perform. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
A spirited cast make this intriguing portrayal of the bohemian classic well worth seeing.
Recording of the Month – May 2016 The title of Swedish clarinettist Martin Fröst’s Sony Classical debut says it all while implying so much more. Growing out of a live music project Fröst was already working on in Stockholm, Roots is an entirely organic listening experience, resembling (not so much contemplating) an ancient, solitary tree but strolling through a fragrant garden where a profusion of different plants brings forth flowers and fruits in eclectic abundance. Apart from Crusell’s famous Introduction and Variations on a Swedish Air and specially commissioned works by Anders Hillborg, the rest of the music here has undergone multiple metamorphoses, whether through transcription, arrangement, variation, improvisation or a new setting. Unfolding chronologically through time and space, the programme seamlessly connects each work by avoiding spaces between tracks; implicit is the invitation to find further connections in a shared heritage of dance and song, sacred ritual and secular entertainment, as well as folk and art music. Roots opens gently with Hildegard of Bingen, Fröst’s solo clarinet gliding between declamation and song before choir and orchestra enter almost surreptitiously; the following presto from a Telemann concerto originally for recorder and flute thus feels like a rude… Continue reading Get…
Four hours in a theatre is one of our Editor’s not-so-secret pleasures. But is this becoming an impossible ask for many?
★★★★☆ British conductor Paul Goodwin works his Baroque magic on this modern orchestra. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
Zubin Mehta, an outspoken genius among conductors, shares his astonishing life story. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
The manuscript of troubled composer Sir Malcolm Arnold’s Seventh Symphony has been found after 30 years missing. Continue reading Get unlimited digital access from $4 per month Subscribe Already a subscriber? Log in
