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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Tag Archives: Salzburg Festival

Seven days, seven reviews.

13 Monday Jul 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, CBSO, David Matthews, David Nice, Donizetti, Ex Cathedra, Gavin Plumley, Jessica Duchen, Lichfield Festival, Longborough Opera, Newark, Salzburg Festival, The Arts Desk

It’s been a busy week, but gratifyingly, a lot of my reviews seem to have gone up nice and promptly. Here’s everything I haven’t already posted up here:

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My debut feature for The Arts Desk: and what a pleasant surprise when my colleague (and recent travelling companion in Denmark) David Nice and his husband Jeremy arrived unexpectedly in Lichfield on Saturday for an impromptu visit in which (I’d like to think, anyway) this article may have had some hand…

The CBSO and Lahav Shani play Beethoven, Mendelssohn and David Matthews. Let’s just pray no-one’s seriously trying to line this chap up to follow in the footsteps of Andris Nelsons (at least not for a few years yet, anyway).

Ex Cathedra at Lichfield Festival – it takes something fairly special to get me this enthusiastic about a capella choral music.

Longborough

Don Pasquale at Longborough – god, I love Longborough, where a picnic can cost £60 a head and still taste delicious.

Purfling Powerhouse

And my visit to the wonderful Newark School of Violin Making is up on Amati Magazine: my thanks, again, to Jessica Duchen for entrusting me with such a fascinating assignment and Ben Schindler at the School for making me so welcome.

Now, one more Salzburg Festival programme note to polish off – Mozart’s Symphony No.1 K.16 (Salzburg’s commissioning editor, Gavin Plumley, has an uncanny knack for spotting the bits of repertoire that only I could fall in love with) – and then we’re off to stay at the Gellert Hotel, Budapest: four nights of operetta (Kalman’s Die Csardasfurstin), art nouveau spas, goose liver, Tokaj and general Habsburg-era fun.

And I don’t have to write a single word about it! (Though I probably shall…)

Young Orchestra for London

23 Monday Feb 2015

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Barbican, Ben Gernon, Berliner Philharmoniker, Salzburg Festival, Simon Rattle, Young Orchestra for London

I finished my full-time job at the CBSO on 11th February – and haven’t stopped for  a moment since. It’s no secret that freelance work tends to be higher-intensity than work in an office, and I’ve certainly found that to be the case; even more so since I’ve been entirely freelance.

Anyway, I didn’t have any time for nostalgia about my old career because first thing on 12th February, I was chatting on the phone to Gavin Plumley about this year’s Salzburg Festival programme. Then, with barely time for the big mug of freshly-ground coffee I’ve been promising myself as a perk of the freelance job, I was on the train down to London to attend the final rehearsals and debut performance of Sir Simon Rattle’s Young Orchestra for London at the Barbican – an afternoon’s work that, entirely unexpectedly, culminated in my hearing Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker perform the last three Sibelius symphonies. Now that is a perk – and definitely worth the mad sprint to Euston afterwards, just in time for the last train to Lichfield.

After nearly two decades in the orchestra business, it’s encouraging to know that I can still get a bit of a buzz from being given something like this.

20150223_145038

And it was fantastic to catch up with some old colleagues – Ben Gernon and Paul Keene – to meet hitherto Twitter-only acquaintance Kelly Lovelady and, of course, to gather vox pops and backstage stories for the purpose of my visit: a “Digital Essay” on this whole fantastic project. I finished the words on Sunday 15th February and Sidd Khajuria and his team at the Barbican transformed it into a rather fabulous-looking digital account of the Young Orchestra, ready to go live on Friday 20th.

Here it is. It was huge fun to write, but I can’t deny that I’m thrilled with the transformation that Sidd and his colleagues have wrought on my words. This was the first big job of my fully-freelance career, and I couldn’t have asked for a more inspiring one.

 

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