Author Archives: John

 Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major op. 35; Shostakovich, Symphony No. 5 in D minor op. 47. Lisa Batiashvili Violin; Oslo Philharmonic; Klaus Mäkelä Conductor …..So, the last concert of my 10 day trip to Bayreuth and Salzburg……….And here was Klaus with his ‘old’ orchestra, from the time when he only had one to dealContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Oslo Philharmonic, Makela – Felsenreitschule; 21/8/24”

Timur Zangiev Conductor; Peter Sellars, Director; George Tsypin, Sets; Camille Assaf, Costumes; James F. Ingalls Lighting. Peixin Chen, The General; Asmik Grigorian, Polina; Sean Panikkar, Alexey Ivanovich; Violeta Urmana, the ‘Babulenka’ ; Juan Francisco Gatell, The Marquis ; Michael Arivony, Mr Astley; Nicole Chirka, Blanche; Zhengyi Bai, Prince Nilsky; Ilia Kazakov, Baron Wurmerhelm. Concert AssociationContinue reading “Salzburg Festival – Prokofiev: The Gambler – Felsenreitschule; 20/8/24”

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”