Some 30 years ago, a 14-year-old schoolboy called Ian Bostridge was sitting in his first German lesson, when his teacher Richard Stokes had a brilliant idea: he would introduce the class to the glory of the language and the culture it inspired by playing a recording of Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau singing Schubert’s setting of Goethe’s […]
Classical
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George Petrou has full measure of the music’s dramatic qualities, says Geoffrey Norris Continues HERE
Documentary maker Christopher Nupen remembers his first encounter with Daniel Barenboim, and tells the story of their collaboration that led to the legendary 1969 film, The Trout. Continues HERE
Mike Ashman writes: 1876 was a melting-point for music, a watershed year in both concert hall and opera house. With the premiere of Wagner’s four-evening Ring cycle, and the composition of Bruckner’s 65‑minute Fifth Symphony, it saw great peaks of Romantic operatic and symphonic writing. The appearance of Mahler’s first significant score, a Piano Quartet, […]
The past eight decades have seen many recordings of this tenor-led operatic masterpiece. Trawling through them all, Richard Lawrence finds at least three very special Otellos, and some electric conducting Continues HERE
John Hind writes: The tenor on the joys of family food and how he stays in tune by eating pasta every day – but only with olive oil and no sauces or butter Mamma said that when I was little I refused to eat. I suppose I didn’t want to waste time. I was very […]
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Among the highlights of Abbado Week are two different guides his finest recordings, a comprehensive overview of Abbado’s career and heartfelt tribute from Gramophone’s Editor-in-Chief James Jolly, and a classic interview with Abbado drawn from the Gramophone archive, which was undertaken at the Don Carlos recording sessions. Discover more below… Continues HERE
Patrick Latimer writes: Vivid account of Bizet’s beautiful music Get Bizet I picked this disc as a (relatively) recent performance of some of Bizet’s greatest show tunes. You get the orchestral music from Carmen without the singing and the plot which is a bit like going straight to dessert. And just like going straight […]
Previously published here and elsewhere As Teodora Gheorghiu prepares to sing in Der Rosenkavalier at Glyndebourne, she tells Rupert Christiansen how she overcame an illness that threatened her career. It may only be something they put in the water, but over the last century or so Romania has produced an extraordinary succession of velvety lyric […]
A beginner’s guide to some of the finest Rubinstein recordings currently available Continues HERE
Tell a false fact or a mistruth enough times and people will believe it to be accurate. I wonder if the same thing applies to music and its reproduction. Could it be that with enough repetition the hyper-compressed music of acts like Kanye West and Diddy is how music is supposed to sound? What happens when enough […]
There is a very funny scene in The Sopranos when the family get into an argument over whether Herman Melville’s Billy Budd is a gay novel. Carmela, who has seen the 1962 movie version with Terence Stamp, claims it’s “the story of an innocent sailor being picked on by a cruel boss”. But her daughter […]
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The composer’s pacifism seems an irrelevant curiosity now, his homosexuality of even less concern. Benjamin Britten’s coronation opera Gloriana had its early performances in the gilded splendour of the Royal Opera House. The new monarch herself attended the premiere on June 8 1953. Two months later, the work had its next outing, in Bulawayo, second […]
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David Vickers speaks to Andrew Parrott on the 40th anniversary of the Taverner Consort and Players. You’ve conducted a lot of opera around the world, but you haven’t recorded many. The Taverner Consort and Players made two different recordings of Dido and Aeneas, and then there’s a famous recording of the Florentine intermedi performed at a […]
Iestyn Davies is in demand as a recitalist, opera singer and West End star. But, says Lindsay Kemp, now with a Bach disc to add to his name, this countertenor still has his feet firmly on the ground Please click HERE to continue
The energy the São Paulo orchestra has at its disposal contributes to interpretations that radiate a genuine Prokofiev spirit, says Geoffrey Norris. Continue HERE
From the archives: An abridged version of this interview was released by Gramophone to celebrate Dame Janet’s 80th birthday on Wednesday (August 21). This fascinating full 30-minute version of the interview covers all aspects of Dame Janet’s career, including what it was like to work with Benjamin Britten and what it feels like to disagree […]
The enthusiasm of singers who perform pop-up opera is great – but is there any point to it, asks Rupert Christiansen. Opera’s resilience is nowhere more evident that in its current habit of popping up in pub theatres, abandoned warehouses and back gardens, staged and performed by people doing it for love rather than the […]
Davis’s new Fidelio The New Year brings a sea-change to the London Symphony Orchestra as workaholic Valery Gergiev takes over from Sir Colin Davis as principal conductor, his senior colleague becoming its president. (The Philharmonia and London Philharmonic Orchestras have also announced new appointments: Esa-Pekka Salonen and Vladimir Jurowski.) Happily, Sir Colin is to make […]
Ivan Hewitt writes: It’s apt that Wagner and Verdi were born in the same year. They are romantic opera’s two great antipodes, united in stature, but divided in almost everything else. They embody two completely different outlooks on life and art, which are rooted in the cultures of their respective nations. That’s why every German […]
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2018/jun/08/tansy-davies-emily-howard-naama-zisser-opera-modern-makeover