Chief Conductor Mariss Jansons and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks at Carnegie Hall on Friday 8 November 2019. © BR / Astrid Ackermann Friday 8 November 2019 marked an end of an era. At 8 pm, Mariss Jansons walked to the podium at the Isaac Stern Auditorium / Ronald O. Perelman Stage of Carnegie Hall... Continue Reading →
Artistic Director André de Ridder © Maarit Kytöharju / Musica nova Helsinki In one form or another, Musica nova Helsinki, Finland’s biggest contemporary music festival and one of the leading events of its kind in Europe, will launch again on 2 February. Due to the pandemic, the details of the 2021 festival are still in... Continue Reading →
Sir Simon Rattle and the Symphonieorchester des Bayerischen Rundfunks in rehearsal at the Herkulessaal. © BR / Peter Meisel Announced on Monday, and rumored for some months, Sir Simon Rattle has been appointed as the Chief Conductor of the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra and Chorus beginning with the 2023/2024 season. The initial five-year contract was... Continue Reading →
Over the years we’ve had the luxury to hear John Williams’s music performed in concert and on disc by many of the world class orchestras from the London Symphony Orchestra to the Los Angeles Philharmonic. A year-or-so ago, in January 2020, Williams guest-conducted the Vienna Philharmonic for the very first time, with an extensive programme... Continue Reading →
Paul McCreesh and the Gabrieli Consort & Players perfroming the Christmas Oratorio at St John's, Smith Square. © Live from London / VOCES8 Written for the Christmas season of 1734, Johann Sebastian Bach’s six-cantata cycle known as the Christmas Oratorio (Weihnachtsoratorium), BWV 248 is an exuberant celebration of the birth of the Redeemer. Contrary to... Continue Reading →
Artistic Director Kirll Petrenko conducting Berliner Philharmoniker. © Stephan Rabold When the Berliner Philharmoniker elected Kirill Petrenko as their new Artistic Director to succeed Sir Simon Rattle back in June 2015, the news took great many of us by surprise. Two years had passed since Rattle’s announcement to step down in 2018, and speculations about... Continue Reading →
Manifestations of immense, refined beauty, the late works of Peter Lieberson are such masterpieces of the 21st century music. Among his oeuvre, the two song cycles based on the poetry of Pablo Neruda are peerless in their detailed conception and heightened emotional impact, clad in astounding vocal and orchestral raiments. Premiered in 2005,... Continue Reading →
Subtitled Musical drama after the manner of an oratorio, George Frideric Handel’s Semele, HWV 58 (1743) is an intriguing affair. Standing apart of both his Italian operas and English oratorios, Semele is somewhat sui generis. In fact, what Handel devised within one month in the summer of 1743, was a fully-fledged opera in English. Interestingly,... Continue Reading →
The English Symphony Orchestra and Principal Conductor Kenneth Woods performing at Wyastone Concert Hall. © ESO A century ago, in the previous Twenties, the contemporary music world was set in an uproar by jazz. Composers from Stravinsky to Ravel and Copland to Antheil were enchanted by the sound-world of this New World vernacular and began... Continue Reading →
Ludwig van Beethoven statue at the Vienna Konzerthaus. © Jari Kallio As we have now reached the end of the savage parade known as 2020, it might be appropriate to take a look at this bizarre year, which happened to be the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. While we could carry on our... Continue Reading →
