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Richard Bratby

~ Classical music writer, critic and consultant

Richard Bratby

Tag Archives: The Spectator

Forward, looking backward

19 Friday Jun 2020

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Anniversary, BBC, Birmingham, CBSO, Christmas, Jessica Duchen, John Suchet, Norman Lebrecht, Symphony Hall, The Spectator

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It was very wet in December. That’s my excuse for those shoes.

Life comes at you fast, they say: Forward was published in November and for the next few weeks it seemed like there was hardly a night that I wasn’t at a CBSO concert or at CBSO Centre, signing copies. It was exhausting but huge fun: not just because of the many kind comments about the book itself, but also because it was a chance to meet and chat to the CBSO’s supporters. That was always my favourite part of the job when I was duty manager for concerts at CBSO Centre – the enthusiasm that people feel for “their” orchestra is genuinely touching, and the stories that they have to tell of their concert-going activities are endlessly enjoyable. I spoke to ex-players, ex-singers, and audience members with memories stretching back to the George Weldon era in the late 1940s. Since I always intended the book to be a centenary gift from the orchestra to its friends and followers, this was enormously gratifying.

Maria & Forward

My fabulous colleague Maria made the whole thing possible (and discovered most of the best pictures). When the  very first copy of the book arrived at CBSO Centre, the occasion  seemed to call for at least one bottle of fizz.

But it was still something of a surprise to realise that it was actually out there, making its way in the world and being read far beyond Birmingham. I popped into Waterstones on New Street and Foyles in Grand Central to sign copies. “It’s nice to have something in the local history section that isn’t Peaky Blinders” commented the manager. I gave an interval interview about the history of the orchestra on BBC Radio 3, and recorded a series of short films for the CBSO website. The Spectator kindly asked me to write something about the history of the CBSO for its Christmas edition, and BBC Music Magazine followed suit shortly afterwards.

Then there were the reviews, which if I’m honest I dreaded – but since I dish it out regularly as a critic, I was hardly in a position to expect sympathy. In fact, reviewers seem to have been very positive. I was particularly delighted to be reviewed in The Oldie; Richard Osborne wrote that “Such books can be a terrific bore but this is a gem: a lovingly researched, entertainingly written and handsomely designed and printed volume”. Jessica Duchen gave the book one of her end-of-year personal “Awards” on her long-running blog: “gorgeously produced, seamlessly readable, superbly expressed and full of splendiferous anecdotes. A wonderful anniversary tribute to the orchestra, with the lightly-worn engaging touch of the insider who knows exactly how it really works”.

John Quinn, on MusicWeb International, did the book proud: “Richard Bratby has told the story uncommonly well. His style is eminently readable and clear. It’s obvious that the book has been scrupulously researched.” Nigel Simeone, in Gramophone found it “thoroughly engaging” and Norman Lebrecht, in The Spectator (a review of which, like the Gramophone write-up, I knew nothing in advance), noted – with typical acuity – that “no nation state in modern times has chosen great leaders so unerringly well as the CBSO”. BBC Music Magazine gave it five stars.

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John Suchet was kind enough to endorse the book, so it was a lovely coincidence that we both ended up signing at the same table at Symphony Hall on 22 November. One purchaser wanted John to sign Forward instead of me: and who can blame them?

Since then…well, we all know the story and the fact that the book is currently only available for purchase online is of no significance beside the fact that the CBSO’s long-planned centenary celebrations are on hold and that everyone involved with the orchestra is intensely, anxiously trying to find a way to salvage something. There isn’t much comfort to be had in the current situation, and I’ve never believed that history repeats itself.

But one constant of the CBSO’s history has been the depth of the support that it has received from the community that it serves; that, and a near-miraculous ability for doing great things under intense pressure. The CBSO has turned a crisis into a triumph quite a few times over the last 100 years. Things are worryingly quiet at the moment – though as the orchestra’s CEO Stephen Maddock pointed out a few weeks ago, if you think planning a concert season is hard work, just try cancelling one. But we wait; we hope; we keep the faith. Let’s hope the dawn is not far away.

Unprecedented folly

26 Sunday Feb 2017

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Birmingham, Ljubljana, The Spectator

Mahler in Ljubljana: what were they thinking?

Reiner in Ljubljana: what were they thinking?

Like many people in the world of classical music, I’m worried by the trend of appointing young, unproven conductors to posts in major orchestras and opera houses. Sure, they look good in PR photos, but what experience can they possibly bring?

And what hope is there for the future of music if we continue with this craze for youth over experience? I’m talking about the likes of this young Gustav Mahler (23) at Olmutz, Hans Richter (25, Munich), Richard Strauss (21 – Meiningen – rumour has it he shares an agent with Hans von Bulow, if you want to know how this whole shadowy machine really works), Bruno Walter (21, Breslau), Otto Klemperer (22, Prague), Fritz Reiner (22, Laibach), Carlos Kleiber (28, Dusseldorf), Bernard Haitink, (26, Amsterdam), and Leonard Bernstein (25, New York).

Or worst of all, Wilhelm Furtwangler (21, Zurich) and Herbert von Karajan (21, Ulm) – what hope do either of these admittedly talented young people have of developing naturally as musicians when forced into the spotlight, and placed under such unrealistic pressure at such a young age? I fear for the art of music – really, I do.

Anyway, here’s something I wrote on the subject for The Spectator.

April scribblings

29 Friday Apr 2016

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Birmingham Post, English Touring Opera, Gavin Plumley, Gramophone, Johann Strauss, Mozart, Opera North, The Arts Desk, The Spectator, Welsh National Opera

Twenty minutes ago in Lichfield we had a hailstorm. Now it looks like this:017

I’ve given up trying to wrap my head around the seasons because this month it’s been pretty much non-stop scribble scribble scribble, as George III supposedly said to Dr Johnson. I’ve had reviews in The Spectator for Birmingham Conservatoire’s Anglo-French triple-bill and the RAM’s May Night, reviewed a new opera and a Shakespeare celebration for The Birmingham Post and taken the road to Buxton to cover English Touring Opera’s spring season (well, 2/3 of it) for The Arts Desk. Not that I need much excuse to visit Buxton Opera House: this has surely got to be Britain’s best drive to work. Bit of RVW on the stereo: magic.

A515 Buxton

And last night I heard the UK premiere of a masterpiece – also for The Arts Desk.

On top of that, I’ve been working with The Philharmonia, Performances Birmingham, the CBSO and Warwick Arts Centre on their 16-17 season brochures. It’s a privilege to see what’s coming up next season but a couple of things are so exciting that it’s been quite hard to bite my tongue. And programme notes for two great festivals: four heavyweight programmes for Salzburg – any chance to write about Mozart is always a pleasure – and a whole raft of really wonderful English music, including some real favourites of mine, for the Three Choirs (it’s in Gloucester this year, btw).

Those came courtesy of two great colleagues, Gavin Plumley (he’s got a Wigmore Hall debut coming up and knowing the care and expertise he brings to everything he does, it should be superb) and Clare Stevens, who’s currently blogging the story of her grandmother’s experiences in the Easter Rising of 1916: a really remarkable piece of family history. I’ve also written about a couple of fascinating programmes for the Wigmore Hall and the Barbican and an article on Verdi’s Falstaff for the CBSO’s in-house magazine Music Stand. And did you know that Arthur Bliss wrote a Fanfare for the National Fund for Crippling Diseases? Don’t ask…

And that’s not to mention my most exciting project so far for Gramophone: a reassessment of Carlos Kleiber’s classic 1976 recording of Die Fledermaus, co-written (to my astonishment and awe) with one of the greatest living experts on operetta, Andrew Lamb. A huge privilege and actually enormous fun; I think it’s being published in the July edition, though meanwhile Gramophone has been keeping me busy with everything from Johann Strauss and Balfe to Cecil Armstrong Gibbs. Full list here. They know me too well already…

Anyway, tonight it’s Mark Simpson’s new opera Pleasure at Opera North (for The Spectator); the next few weeks of opera-going will take me to Guildford, Cardiff, Wolverhampton and Glasgow, so if I’m quiet again for a bit, my apologies.

Review: Handel’s Orlando

08 Tuesday Mar 2016

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Harry Bicket, Iestyn Davies, Reviews, The Birmingham Post, The English Consort, The Spectator, Welsh National Opera

WNO Figaro

Nicholas Lester in WNO’s The Barber of Seville. Robbie Rotten, I’m telling you.

The Birmingham Post isn’t always able to post online everything that I’ve written for its print edition, so – after a suitable time lag (you should really go out and buy the paper!) – I’ll be posting my recent reviews here. As per the print edition, they’re all fairly concise – just 250 words. This is of a performance at Birmingham Town Hall on Friday 26 February.

Other recent reviews include my takes on WNO’s Figaro Forever trilogy in The Birmingham Post and The Spectator.


Dr Johnson defined opera as “an exotic and irrational entertainment” – and for Exhibit A, he could have taken Handel’s Orlando. No opera can be judged fairly from a concert performance. But with the non-musical drama stripped out, Orlando’s high-voiced heroes, grandiose rhetoric and supernatural interventions veer dangerously towards Monty Python. By the umpteenth time that someone in this concert performance by Harry Bicket and The English Concert threatened to kill themself over love, honour or whatever, the Town Hall audience was openly laughing.

Why wouldn’t they? This was a terrifically entertaining evening, and the performances were uniformly superb. Bicket had assembled a dream cast. Countertenor Iestyn Davies blazed as the antihero Orlando, before delivering more reflective passages in tones so mellow that they almost seemed too lovely for a character who’s basically the ex-boyfriend from hell. In the trouser role of African prince (and dreamboat) Medoro the rich-voiced mezzo Sasha Cooke came across with a really masculine air of pride, while Kyle Ketelsen as Zoroastro looked every inch the magus in white tie and tails – and delivered majestic, ringing sound to match.

But at the centre of the drama are the oriental queen Angelica and the shepherdess Dorinda – and Erin Morley and Carolyn Sampson were ideal in every way. Morley’s light, brilliant soprano despatched Handel’s glittering coloratura with jewel-like clarity and poise, while Sampson’s vocal purity and grace made her the picture of pastoral innocence – until the moment in Act Three when, overcome by emotion, her voice deepened and darkened thrillingly and she brought the house down.

Bicket and his band responded exuberantly to Handel’s every detail, the continuo players swathing Angelica’s entrance in great flourishes of sound, and basses digging grittily in as Orlando descended into madness. The only way they could have served Handel better would have been with a fully-staged production.

 

Throwback Friday: A March Night

04 Friday Mar 2016

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Balakirev, Borodin, Rimsky-Korsakov, Royal Academy of Music, The Spectator, Wrexham Symphony Orchestra

May Night

I’ve never made any secret of my huge enthusiasm for the music of the Russian Nationalist school – the “Mighty Handful” and their successors – and I’m really looking forward to reviewing the Royal Academy of Music’s production of Rimsky-Korsakov’s A May Night on Monday. Along with its wintry, similarly Gogol-inspired sister-piece Christmas Eve,  it’s my favourite of Rimsky’s operas – its gorgeous little overture was a highlight of my father’s Melodiya LP collection when I was growing up – but UK productions are very few and far between. The Russian nationalist-romantic composers have suffered disproportionately in the great narrowing of the standard repertoire that’s taken place in recent years, to the point where even an unarguable masterpiece like Borodin’s Second Symphony is now an exotic rarity in the concert hall. And of course the situation’s far worse for opera, making this student production doubly welcome. This’ll be the first time I’ve actually seen it staged, and I’m chuffed that my father’s able to come along too, after all these years of knowing it only from vintage Russian recordings.

To get in the mood, I’ve been looking through my personal Rimsky archives. His My Musical Life is one of my all-time favourite musical memoirs, and I’ve been waiting for years for someone to commission me to write about Rimsky, Borodin or Balakirev – to little avail. Here, though, is a programme note I wrote back in 2001 (so forgive the slightly classroom-y style; I was finding my feet) for Rimsky-Korsakov’s Third Symphony. Inevitably, this wasn’t for a professional orchestra but for my beloved Wrexham Symphony Orchestra (I was playing in the cello section), with Mark Lansom conducting. I’m not aware of a single UK professional performance of this fine work in the 15 years since.


Nikolai Andreyevich Rimsky-Korsakov (1844-1908)
Symphony No.3 in C major, Op.32

Moderato assai – Allegro
Scherzo: Vivo
Andante
Allegro con spirito

Musicians in late 19th Century Russia divided into two camps. The composers of the Moscow school, led by Anton Rubinstein, were trained along western lines and wrote symphonies, sonatas and concertos on the model of Mendelssohn and Schumann. But from the early 1860s a very different group of composers gathered around Mily Balakirev in St. Petersburg. Devoted to the memory of Russia’s first great composer, Mikhail Glinka, they were motivated by ideals of national pride and sought to create a music that was distinctly Russian in character, preferring to avoid western models. They were also amateurs. Of the so-called “Mighty Handful” – Balakirev and his four closest followers, Cui, Borodin, Mussorgsky and Rimsky-Korsakov – none had received any significant formal training and only one, Rimsky-Korsakov, made a full time career out of music. They were fiercely defensive about their abilities and beliefs, and about their independence of Russia’s “westernised” musical establishment.

So when a member of the “Handful” set out to write a symphony, he was making a very public point about his technical skill and his ability to match western composers on their own terms. No composer was more aware of this than Rimsky-Korsakov. In the summer of 1871 he was offered an appointment as Professor of Practical Composition and Instrumentation at the St. Petersburg Conservatoire. Despite having two symphonies and numerous other major works to his credit, he wrote that “at the time I could not even harmonise a chorale; not only had I not written a single counterpoint in my life but I had hardly any notion of the structure of a fugue…my ideas of form were vague… even though I had orchestrated my own music so colourfully, I had no idea about string technique or the transpositions of horns, trumpets and trombones”.

Rimsky worked furiously to make up the deficiencies in his training, keeping just one step ahead of his pupils, and by the end of his 30-year Conservatoire career he was one of the most respected teachers in Russia. But in his early years he was intensely aware of his limitations. He’d written symphonies before, but the First had been a student exercise, dating from his time in the Russian navy, and the Second, “Antar” had effectively been a symphonic suite. Writing a new symphony, in the best classical manner, seemed an excellent way to develop the new skills he was so rapidly acquiring – and would give public proof of his professional competence.

He began composition in spring 1873. “Work was slow, however, and beset with difficulties. I strove to crowd in as much counterpoint as possible; but being unskilled in it and hard put to combine the themes and motives, I drained my immediate flow of imagination. The cause of this was, of course, my insufficient technique…” The symphony was completed on 18th February 1874, and, even with his own reservations, Rimsky-Korsakov must have been a little disappointed with the guarded reaction of his musical friends. Borodin called him “ a professor who has put on his spectacles and composed ‘Eine Sinfonie in C’ fitting such a title”. Mussorgsky’s reaction was less moderate: “The ‘Mighty Handful’ has hatched into a horde of soulless traitors!” Only in 1875, after the first Moscow performance, did the new symphony receive an enthusiastic review. The critic was Tchaikovsky, and Rimsky-Korsakov evidently had enough faith in his judgment to “compose the Symphony anew” in the summer of 1886. It is performed in this revised form today.

The Third Symphony is a far more “Russian” work than its early detractors allowed, and is anything but cold or academic. It bears a striking resemblance to Balakirev’s magnificent First Symphony (1898), with which it shares its key-signature and movement-plan, and it’s quite possible, since Balakirev spent an astonishing 32 years writing his work (and the “Handful” regularly shared their work-in-progress) that the two Symphonies influenced each other. Rimsky certainly heard Balakirev play many of his early symphonic sketches in the 1860s. In its own right, though, it is a hugely appealing and enjoyable romantic symphony. Although none of its main themes are actual folksongs, they have an unmistakably Russian cut, and the orchestration glows throughout with Rimsky’s colourful and very distinctive brass and wind writing.

The individual movements, too, are anything but formal academic exercises. The vigorous main theme of the first Allegro is a transformation of the flowing, chant-like “motto theme” which opens the symphony. The sweet second subject, introduced by a touchingly hesitant solo clarinet, strikes a note of real feeling, and goes on to provide the main material of the development section. This is anything but a conventional sonata-movement, however, and after a powerful recapitulation of the motto theme the movement proceeds, not to a grand C major coda but a quiet wind-down to a sombre C minor conclusion. The Scherzo is also highly original, not so much in form as in thematic material. It is in 5/4 time; as Mark Lansom has pointed out, possibly the first symphonic movement ever to be set in this time signature, predating comparable movements in Borodin’s Third and Tchaikovsky’s Sixth symphonies by well over a decade. Rimsky-Korsakov had sketched it in 1863; the sinuous Trio section had a rather more immediate personal association – he’d conceived it on an Italian lake steamer during his honeymoon in the summer of 1872.

Written in a warm E major, the Andante follows the formal pattern pioneered by Glinka in his Kamarinskaya, one of the musical touchstones of the “Mighty Handful”. Russian folk-melody doesn’t lend itself to development so Glinka simply repeated his themes in ever more varied orchestral colours, and this is exactly what Rimsky does with the very folksy principal subject of his slow movement. The tempo increases briefly in the centre of the movement and then relaxes again before accelerating into the Finale, which follows without a break. The processional melody for full orchestra that launches the movement soon acquires a more lively syncopated profile with a distinct whole-tone flavour, and this, together with a lyrical second theme in canon, provides the material for another spirited Rimskyan essay in sonata form. As the symphony approaches its close, Rimsky-Korsakov pays one more tribute to Glinka by quoting the descending whole-tone scale from his “Ruslan and Ludmilla” overture and ends with the triumphant C major peroration he denied us in the first movement, the “motto theme” with which the symphony opened pealing out in the brass amidst the general jubilation.

 

What I did in February (bits of it)

02 Wednesday Mar 2016

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Gramophone, Monocle, Programme Notes, Reviews, The Arts Desk, The Birmingham Post, The Spectator

Lichfield Snow

Since I posted at the end of January, I’ve written programme notes on the following works. I’ve also published reviews in Gramophone, The Spectator, The Arts Desk and a few times in The Birmingham Post. And – for reasons that still remain unclear to me – appeared on Monocle Radio. This is why I’ve been a bit remiss with the blog. I’ll try to be better…

Albeniz: Suite Espagnole

Bach: D minor Chaconne

Bartók: Violin Concerto No.1

Beethoven: Piano Concerto No.2

Beethoven: Piano Sonata in D minor (“Tempest”)

Beethoven: Piano Trio Op.70 No.2

Brett Dean: Wolf-Lieder

Bridge: Two Old English Songs

Britten: Frank Bridge Variations

Bruch: Eight Pieces Op.83

Debussy: Images

Delius: The Song of the High Hills

Falla: Fantasia Baetica

Glazunov: Grand Adagio from “Raymonda”

Haydn: Fantasia in C

Holst: Song of the Night

Honegger: Pacific 231

Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole

Mendelssohn: Violin Sonata in F (1838)

Oliver Knussen: Ophelia Dances

Rodgers and Hammerstein Gala

Rodrigo: Fantasia para un gentilhombre

Scarlatti: Five Sonatas

Schubert: Rosamunde incidental music

Schubert: Four Moments Musicaux

Schumann: Marchenerzahlungen

Sibelius: Symphony No.5

Sibelius: The Swan of Tuonela

Sibelius: Violin Sonatina

Stravinsky: Four Norwegian Moods

Symphonic Disco Spectacular

Vaughan Williams: A Pastoral Symphony

Vaughan Williams: Linden Lea

Vaughan Williams: Symphony No.4

Vaughan Williams: Tallis Fantasia

Walton: Richard III – Prelude

Waxman: Carmen Fantasy

 

So that was January…

31 Sunday Jan 2016

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CBSO, Grieg, Halle, Liverpool Philharmonic, The Arts Desk, The Spectator, Wigmore Hall

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Bit of a jolt to notice the date – and I realise I’ve been rather quiet on here this month. It’s not that I haven’t been up to anything; it’s that I’ve had my hands gratifyingly full – this is peak season for copywriting and some of my best clients have been launching some very exciting projects, which tends to keep me busy.

My pre-Christmas review of the Royal Opera’s Eugene Onegin appeared in The Spectator a couple of weeks back, and next week I’ll be reviewing Mozart revivals at Opera North and English National Opera. I wrote a piece for The Arts Desk on the CBSO’s thinly-veiled public audition of Mirga Grazinyte-Tyla; whether or not (as many audience members and all the critics in Birmingham are hoping) they offer her the vacant music-directorship (and the CBSO players have strong opinions of their own, often far-removed from what audiences and critics think), I’m in no doubt that she’s a hugely impressive and serious artist, with musicality just streaming out of her fingertips.

Omer Meir Wellber seems to be regarded as another front-runner: he’s a strikingly intelligent artist with something powerful to say (qualities not always valued in the UK), and would also be a fascinating appointment. At least that’s how it sounds from the stalls. The players may feel differently, and if we suddenly heard that either Nicholas Collon or Andrew Gourlay was the anointed one; well, that’d be no bad thing either. But a lot of the rumours that are floating around are transparently nonsense (when dealing with Birmingham, you can generally discount any speculation that originates in London): we’ll just have to wait and see.

Meanwhile, I’ve been delighted to acquire some new clients since the New Year: including the Halle, the Yehudi Menuhin International Violin Competition and Gramophone – hugely excited to be working for them.  I’ve also been working on sleeve notes for Warner Classics’ next Rattle / CBSO box set – an enjoyable pretext to catch up with my old colleague Peter Donohoe, who always has something thought-provoking to say. I popped up to Liverpool and saw the astonishing backstage transformation of my favourite concert hall in the world, the beautiful Philharmonic Hall. I wrote a concert script for Margherita Taylor – fun job. And there was a substantial programme note for a major concert at the Wigmore Hall – something to really get my teeth into.

And purely for pleasure, we took in the live New York Met cinema relays of The Pearl Fishers and Turandot (eye-popping) – the baristas at the Tamworth Odeon branch of Costa are starting to recognise us – and drove over to Sheffield for the last night of The Crucible’s production of Show Boat, a musical I’ve wanted to see on stage for a very long time.

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108

Seems a very long time since we were in Bergen for new year, clambering around Grieg’s house at Troldhaugen – closed and completely deserted, and somehow all the more magical for it – on a clear but icy Norwegian morning. By pure coincidence, I was writing about Grieg’s C minor Violin Sonata as soon as I returned. He’s a composer I can’t help loving, and the more I listen, the more fascinated – and moved – I am by his music. I’d like to have the chance to write more about him – anyone..?
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Reviews round-up

10 Thursday Dec 2015

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The Amati Magazine, The Spectator, The Ulster Orchestra

Just a couple of things I’ve written lately – my review for The Spectator of Opera North’s Jenufa and Glyndebourne’s touring Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail is here.  And here’s a little thing I wrote for The Amati Magazine on W H Reed’s Elgar as I Knew Him.

Meanwhile, this week I’ve been writing about Percy Grainger for the CBSO, Enescu for the Ulster Orchestra and Shakespeare-themed music by Richard Strauss, Vaughan Williams and Verdi. Next up: Korngold, Philip Glass and a Viennese evening.

books_small

My intern has been working overtime.

On the Road

23 Monday Nov 2015

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Amati Magazine, Birmingham Post, Glyndebourne, Opera North, The Arts Desk, The Spectator, Welsh National Opera

Milton Keynes

Oh b*gger, that’s Christmas and it’s coming straight at us.

November was looking quiet; then a couple of emails and suddenly I haven’t blogged for over a fortnight. In the last 9 days I’ve somehow found myself seeing four different operas in three different cities, playing Rachmaninoff’s The Isle of the Dead and squeezing in a bit of contemporary music too. Here’s what I’ve been up to when not at my desk:

– Visits to the Royal College of Music, Birmingham Conservatoire and Guildhall School of Music and Drama for my ongoing Amati Magazine survey of string departments at the UK’s music colleges. The RCM article is here.
– Glyndebourne on Tour‘s Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail at Milton Keynes (review forthcoming in The Spectator)
– Birmingham Contemporary Music Group for The Birmingham Post and The Arts Desk (plus the discovery that the composer Patrick Brennan is a really impressive new voice)
– Welsh National Opera’s I Puritani for The Birmingham Post
– Opera North’s Jenufa in Nottingham (also for The Spectator – watch this space!)
– Welsh National Opera’s Sweeney Todd for (I thought) the Birmingham Post, though it actually appeared in the Mail. And my feature-length preview of the same show popped up there too.
– and then playing the cello badly in a programme of Rachmaninoff, Prokofiev and Elgar with my old friends at the Wrexham Symphony Orchestra. At last my arm is complete again!

sweeney02

WNO’s Sweeney Todd: I could murder a pie

Plus I’ve been writing about James Bond for the CBSO, Ligeti for the Barber Institute, and some fun seasonal programmes for West End International and the RLPO; not to mention some exciting projects with the LPO, RPO and Ulster Orchestra, including an enjoyable chance to spend some quality time with Johan Wagenaar’s wonderful Cyrano de Bergerac overture (give it a try).

Anyway, that’s why I’ve been quiet.  Then I looked up and…it’s basically one month to Christmas. Oh, b*gger.

 

 

 

 

 

 

The Spectator

20 Thursday Aug 2015

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Edinburgh Festival, The Spectator

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Usher Hall, Edinburgh

I was hugely honoured to be asked to review two Edinburgh Festival operas for The Spectator. Hate to sound a bit like a groupie but I’ve dreamed of writing for the Speccie for as long as I’ve wanted to write – and so even if they never ask me again, thanks to Igor Toronyi-Lalic’s willingness to take a punt on me, I’ve now appeared in the column formerly occupied by the great Michael Tanner at least once in my life. A modest personal red-letter day.

Here’s what I wrote. The print edition is out today, and available for the next week.

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