Author Archives: John

Schoenberg, String Quartet No 1 in D minor op. 7; Beethoven, String Quartet No. 14 in C-sharp minor op. 131. Belcea Quartet  It’s been raining for most of the day and I still have two whole days after this one for touristy stuff before evening performances. So I wandered around and went only to theContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Schoenberg, Beethoven – Stiftung Mozarteum – Grosser Saal; 19/8/24”

Oleg Ptashnikov, replacing Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla Conductor; Krzysztof Warlikowski Director; Małgorzata Szczęśniak Sets and Costumes; Felice Ross Lighting; Kamil Polak Video; Claude Bardouil Choreography. Bogdan Volkov, Prince Lev Nikolayevich Myshkin; Ausrine Stundyte, Nastasya Filippovna Barashkova ; Vladislav Sulimsky,  Parfyon Semyonovich Rogozhin; Iurii Samoilov, Lukyan Timofeyevich Lebedev; Clive Bayley, Ivan Fyodorovich Yepanchin, general; Margarita Nekrasova.  Yelizaveta ProkofyevnaContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Weinberg: The Idiot – Felsenreitschule; 18/8/24”

Mozart: Six German Dances K. 509; Sinfonia concertante in E-flat major K. 364; Divertimento for strings in F major K. 138; Symphony in D major, ’Paris’ K. 297. Clara-Jumi Kang, violin; Timothy Ridout, viola. Mozarteum Orchestra Salzburg, Andrew Manze Conductor This was a nicely balanced programme with several work of Mozart’s earlier years (one aContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Mozart: Stiftung Mozarteum – Grosser Saal; 18/8/24”

Schubert: Piano Sonata in G major D. 894; Die schöne Müllerin – Song cycle, D. 795. Julian Prégardien Tenor, András Schiff Pianoforte …..and so, on to Salzburg, neither the Festival nor indeed the city of which I have ever visited before, after the sadly usual rail chaos (train arriving late in Munich so missed myContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Schubert: Stiftung Mozarteum Grosser Saal; 17/8/24    “

Conductor, Nathalie Stutzmann; Director, Tobias Kratzer; Stage design, Rainer Sellmaier; Costumes, Rainer Sellmaier; Lighting, Reinhard Traub; Video, Manuel Braun. Landgraf Hermann, Günther Groissböck; Tannhäuser, Klaus Florian Vogt; Wolfram von Eschenbach, Markus Eiche; Walther von der Vogelweide, Siyabonga Maqungo; Elisabeth, Elisabeth Teige; Venus. Irene Roberts This is one of those Bayreuth productions that has gone fromContinue reading “Bayreuth Festival – Wagner, Tannhäuser. 16/8/24”

Conductor, Semyon Bychkov; Director, Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson; Stage design, Vytautas Narbutas; Costumes, Sibylle Wallum; Lighting, Sascha Zauner. Tristan, Andreas Schager; Marke, Günther Groissböck; Isolde, Camilla Nylund; Kurwenal, Olafur Sigurdarson; Melot, Birger Radde. Brangäne, Christa Mayer  Tristan is the Wagner work I have seen least in the last 7 years or so. I saw the last butContinue reading “Bayreuth Festival – Wagner, Tristan und Isolde. 15/8/24”

Conductor, Pablo Heras-Casado; Director, Jay Scheib; Stage design, Mimi Lien; Costumes, Meentje Nielsen; Lighting, Rainer Casper; Video, Joshua Higgason. Amfortas, Derek Welton; Titurel, Tobias Kehre; Gurnemanz, Georg Zeppenfeld; Parsifal, Andreas Schager; Klingsor, Jordan Shanahan; Kundry, Ekaterina Gubanova After a, by now almost normal, rather chaotic performance by DB I arrived in Bayreuth last night onlyContinue reading “Bayreuth Festival – Wagner, Parsifal. 14/8/24”

G. Williams Concert Overture; Sir Karl Jenkins Stravaganza  (BBC commission); Farrenc Overture No. 1; Beethoven Symphony No. 7 in A major. Jess Gillam soprano saxophone, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Nil Venditti conductor  This is a concert I went to because I had to be in London in the evening in order to be readyContinue reading “BBC Proms: Prom 32  – Beethoven , Jenkins, Farrenc, Williams. RAH, 12/8/24”

Erkki-Sven Tüür, Aditus; Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 in E flat major, ‘Emperor’; Bruckner Symphony No. 1 in C minor (1877 Linz version, ed. Nowak) Yunchan Lim piano, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Paavo Järvi conductor I am trying, in my intensive July and August live concert listening, to pay particular attention to works I have scarcelyContinue reading “BBC Proms: Prom 14 – Beethoven, Bruckner and Tüür. RAH, 29/7/24”

Schoenberg Pelleas and Melisande; Zemlinsky The Mermaid. BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Ryan Bancroft conductor This was a concert I was looking forward to – two massive late Romantic pieces with a huge orchestra. The Zemlinsky piece I have a recording of but the Schoenberg work I have only heard once over the radio, IContinue reading “BBC Proms: Prom 5 – Schoenberg and Zemlinsky. RAH, 22/7/24”