At Home He Feels Like A Tourist

Category: Classical Music

• Classical Music Classics Culture Dance London Love Myths Opera

  Orpheus and Eurydice at the ENO review ***

  Orpheus and Eurydice English National Opera, 14th November 2019 The second part of my engagement with the ENO O&E odyssey. (See how easy it easy to be a librettist). Birtwistle’s The Mask of Orpheus first, simultaneously monumental and camp, Philip Glass’s homage to Cocteau’s Orphee to come in a couple…

  December 8, 2019
• Baroque Chamber Music Church Classical Music Concert Concerto Culture Italy London Naples Venice

  Pergolesi and Vivaldi: OAE at the Queen Elizabeth Hall review ****

  Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, Katherine Watson (soprano), Rowan Pierce (soprano), Zoe Brookshaw (soprano), Iestyn Davies (counter-tenor), Katharina Spreckelsen (oboe), Choir of the Age of Enlightenment  Queen Elizabeth Hall, 11th November 2019 Giovanni Battista Pergolesi (1710-1736) – Stabat Mater Tomaso Giovanni Albinoni (1671-1751) – Oboe Concerto in D minor, Op.9 No.2 Antonio Vivaldi…

  December 6, 2019
• Baroque Birds Classical Music Concert Culture Early Music London Piano

  Joanna MacGregor at the Wigmore Hall review ****

  Joanna MacGregor (piano) Wigmore Hall, 11th November 2019 Birds, Grounds, Chaconnes Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764) – Le rappel des oiseaux François Couperin (1668-1733) – Les fauvétes plaintives Olivier Messiaen (1908-1992) – Le merle noir Jean-Philippe Rameau – La poule Leoš Janáček (1854-1928) – On an Overgrown Path X. The barn owl…

  December 5, 2019
• Chamber Music Classical Music Concert Contemporary Classical Culture Electronics London Opera

  London Sinfonietta and Tansy Davies at Kings Place review ****

  London Sinfonietta, Richard Baker (conductor), Tansy Davies (electronics), Elaine Mitchener (mezzo soprano), Elizabeth Burley (piano), Sound Intermedia Kings Place, 9th November 2019 Tansy Davies – Salt box (2005) Tansy Davies – Loophole and Lynchpins (2002-3) Naomi Pinnock – everything does change (2012) Tansy Davies – The rule is love (2019) Tansy Davies – grind show (electric) (2007) Tansy Davies –…

  December 5, 2019
• Baroque Classical Music Concert Culture England London Myths Opera Restoration

  King Arthur by Henry Purcell at the Cadogan Hall review ***

  London Concert Choir, Counterpoint, Mark Forkgen (conductor), Rachel Elliott (soprano), Rebecca Outram (soprano), Bethany Partridge (soprano), William Towers (countertenor), James Way (tenor), Peter Willcock (baritone) Cadogan Hall, 7th November 2019 Henry Purcell – King Arthur Early afternoon spent in the company of Joaquin Phoenix in Todd Phillips’s Joker before an…

  December 4, 2019
• Classical Music Concert Concerto Culture London Piano Soviet Union Symphony

  Britten and Shostakovich: LSO at the Barbican review ****

  London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda (conductor), Denis Matsuev (piano) Barbican Hall, 31st October 2019 Britten – Four Sea Interludes and Passacaglia from ‘Peter Grimes’ Prokofiev – Piano Concerto No 2, Shostakovich – Symphony No 6 Right if I am ever to catch up I am going tp have to be…

  December 1, 2019
• Classical Music Concert Culture London Minimalism New York

  The Philip Glass Ensemble at the Barbican Hall review ****

  The Philip Glass Ensemble Barbican Hall, 30th October 2019 Philip Glass – Music With Changing Parts Of course it was a disappointment that PG himself wasn’t up to appearing but the old boy is coming up to 83 years old and was poorly. Hopefully he is better now. Anyway this…

  November 29, 2019
• Classical Music Contemporary Classical Culture London Myths Opera

  The Mask of Orpheus at the ENO review ****

  The Mask of Orpheus English National Opera, 25th October 2019 No idea where we were in the story for much of the getting on for four hours with with the two intervals. Not helped by Peter Zinovieff’s impenetrable libretto, sung and spoken, the bloated rock star gets lost in early…

  November 27, 2019
• Classical Music Contemporary Classical Culture Finland London Piano

  Thomas Ades and the LPO at the Royal Festival Hall review *****

  London Philharmonic Orchestra, Thomas Adès (conductor), Kirill Gerstein (piano), Ladies of the London Philharmonic Choir Royal Festival Hall, 23rd October 2019 Sibelius – Nightride and Sunrise, Op 55 Thomas Adès – Concerto for piano & orchestra Holst – The Planets, Op 32 An opportunity to break MS into the world of modern/contemporary…

  November 26, 2019
• Classical Music Culture Enlightenment London Opera

  Seraglio at the Hackney Empire review ****

  Seraglio Hackney Empire, 4th October 2019 Or to give it its full name Die Entfuhrung aus dem Serail or The Abduction from the Seraglio. Here though Seraglio, not just to reflect the fact that this English Touring Opera production is sung, (and spoken), in English following a colloquial translation by…

  November 15, 2019
• Baroque Classical Music Concert Culture Suite

  Prom 71 The Dunedin Consort at the Royal Albert Hall review ****

  Prom 71 – Dunedin Consort, John Butt (conductor) Royal Albert Hall, 11th September 2019 JS Bach – Orchestral Suites 1-4 Nico Muhly – Tambourin Stevie Wishart – The Last Dance? Ailie Robertson – Chaconne Stuart MacRae – Courante No need to delay too long on the JSB. Last seen and…

  October 15, 2019
• Baroque Classical Music Concert Contemporary Classical Culture Electronics London

  Prom 70 Jonny Greenwood at the Royal Albert Hall review *****

  Prom 70 – BBC National Orchestra of Wales, BBC Proms Youth Ensemble, Hugh Brunt (conductor), Daniel Pioro violin), Katherine Tinker (piano), Jonny Greenwood (bass guitar, tanpura), Nicolas Magriel (tanpura) Royal Albert Hall, 10th September 2019 Biber – Mystery Sonata no 16, Passacaglia in G minor Penderecki – Sinfonietta for strings,…

  October 14, 2019