Totally last minute! I got word from Fran (@Crosseyedpiano) about 7 Star Arts’s concert taking place not too far from me. It was their Sweet Harmony concert which focused on the genius of Shakespeare through music, words and art. The event took place at Chiswick’s quaint St Michael’s Church with a small and intimate audience, yet the performers and artists were far from amateur. This was an special occasion to get up close with accomplished, talented and professional artists who had graced the stages of The National Theatre, performed with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and released classical music albums.

The evening was a feast for the senses. Shakespeare’s writings, from his diverse plays, and romantic sonnets were confidently and passionately narrated by Susan Porrett. After each reading, it was an immediate escape for the eyes and the ears.

Continue reading

Last week, Londoners weren’t expecting the terrifying events which took place at Westminster, leaving five dead and forty injured. Although devastating, the terrorist attack brought thousand of Londoners together, coining the hashtag #wearenotafraid as a positive stance against Islamic terrorist groups.

A year ago, the London Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) had pre-programmed a concert with French contralto singer and conductor Natalie Stutzmann, including two pieces associated with confronting death – Mozart’s Requiem and Richard Strauss’s Tod und Verklärung – and given the close proximity to such aftermath, Stutzmann introduced the concert with a speech, dedicating the concert to those who lost their lives at Westminster and their families. She said, ‘May their souls find solace and appeasement in this offering.’

Continue reading

The mighty Jonas Kaufmann and leading lieder pianist Helmut Deutsch performed at The Barbican this weekend for the first in three concerts of their Kaufmann Residency programme. The concert was a long-awaited return for Kaufmann who had spent months away from the stage due to a vocal illness – seeing him last night just proved how healthy the man was, and how prepared he was to perform again.

This is not the first time that Kaufmann and Deutsch have performed together. In fact, they have recorded CDs (including works by Richard Strauss and Schubert) and performed at international concert halls; New York’s Carnegie Hall and the Wigmore Hall, to name a few. Their musical partnership and long-term friendship was visible last night, including their remarkable synergy working and performing together.

Continue reading

Friday was a special occasion for many who had waited for the live orchestra event to the Oscar-winning film, Amadeus (1984).

The Royal Albert Hall was full to the brim of spectators seeking a Friday night thrill with Mozart’s grand music, taking them back to 17th century Vienna through the ears and eyes of maestro Ludwig Wicki, pianist extraordinaire Patricia Ulrich and the fascinating orchestra who recorded the soundtrack of the film, the Academy of St. Martin in the Field.

The screenplay, originally written for the stage, by Peter Shaffer, saw success on London’s West End and New York’s Broadway during the height of the 80s. It was here that the production caught the attention of producers Saul Zaentz and director Milos Forman as casual audience members who decided to reinvent the show into a film.

Continue reading

First, I must admit that I am more familiar with Schubert’s Wintereisse through the voice of Ian Bostridge, but sung ‘straight’ with nothing else but a piano to accompany the tenor. Last year, I was completely absorbed by Bostridge and international pianist, Thomas Adès’s intimate concert at the Barbican (click here for review), when it was performed to coincide with Bostridge’s book, Schubert’s Winter Journey: Anatomy of an Obsession. Bostridge’s take on this landmark piece encapsulates the literary movement, Romanticism, which also inspired many cultural icons including Samuel Beckett.

Wintereisse is regarded as one of the greatest song-cycles ever written. The emotional impact, the sense of longing and loss, which also influenced German poet, Wilhelm Müller who was known by his contemporaries as the ‘German Bryon.’ Schubert’s music and German poetry stirs and captivates audiences, and gets them to ask, ‘who is this young man in despair? Why does he depart and wander into the cold? And why does he lament lost love? Schubert – who died at the young age of 32 – has written a work that hones in on the darker reflections of man, the meaning of existence and the human condition.

Continue reading

Last night’s event at the Senate House sparked great conversation and debate on writing about classical music.  Frances Wilson, pianist, classical music reviewer and blogger, chaired the event whilst making an invaluable contribution to the Q & A session at the end. (She also made sure the event ran smoothly.) I spoke as a panellist alongside Simon Brackenborough (founder and editor of Corymbus.co.uk), Jessica Duchen (music journalist at the Independent) and classical music blogger) and Imogen Tilden (commissioning music editor at the Guardian).
Continue reading

[January 23rd, 2016] Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs (Vier letzte lieder) was performed by Finnish lyric Soprano and leider singer, Soile Isokoski and the London

Philharmonic Orchestra (LPO) and, indeed, it was beautiful but that’s not surprising considering Isokoski is no stranger to the work of Strauss. This was even more evident during her performance as she sang with her eyes closed (to some sections of the piece), calmly and passionately to the German seasons. Each song had its own heartfelt temperament with the music embedded with a diverse range of emotions felt by the composer himself when he wrote it. For Isokoski though, some moments seemed louder than others, but she was still in her comfort zone and gave a performance that did not disappoint.

The LPO didn’t fail either as they offered a refreshing performance to the Royal Festival Hall audience. Continue reading

Paul Weitz, director of teenage sex education film American Pie, has just witnessed the unveiling of his Amazon Prime series Mozart in the Jungle, but let’s get one thing straight. It has nothing to do with the great composer.

The inspiration behind the series comes from Blair Tindall’s 2005 memoir of life as a professional oboist.

In Weitz’s production, viewers watch girl next-door amateur musician Hailey (Lola Kirke) and her amusing journey playing for phantom orchestra, the New York Symphony after impressing new, young and eclectic maestro Roderigo (Gael García Bernal) with his bohemian hair and unconventional charm.

Rodrigo, the supposed rebel conductor is animated, passionate, and South American, which sounds like exotic heartthrob qualities, but, honesty, there is nothing fiery or magical about him besides his outlandishness. 

Continue reading

I had no intention of reviewing Prom 75, the penultimate night before the BBC Proms ended but how could I stop myself? It was Beethoven’s Symphony No. 9: the Choral, which as much as it has been over played at international halls since the 1824, hasn’t become stale… ever. To put it bluntly, it’s just a bloody good symphony. Last year, I saw the Philharmonic orchestra perform with the London Symphony Chorus (who also performed this evening) at the Barbican Centre as part of the Raymond Gubbay tradition, and I still recall fond memories.

All attempts to buy return tickets were out-of-bounds and stall seats were still unaffordable. Alas, at such short notice, I ran to the Royal Albert Hall and stood in the proms arena queue just after 2 o’ clock. When it came to 7 o’ clock, revellers were dusting themselves off from the September sun filing up the spaces of the 6000-seater auditorium. Prommers were slowly edging into the stage and there sat above the orchestral stage were the multiple choir members (or as I’d like to call them, ‘the angelic voices’) of the Leipzig Opera Chorus, Leipzig Gewandhaus Choir, Leipzig Gewandhaus Childrens Choir and London Symphony Chorus – phew, that’s quite a mouthful.

View as a ‘prommer’

The Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra graciously entered the stage shortly followed by the half Japanese, half American conductor Alan Gilbert. Gilbert, originally a violinist, is currently the musical director of the New York Philharmonic who stepped in last moment as Italian conductor Riccardo Chailly, who has conducted the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra numerous times, had to ‘withdraw’ due to medical reasons.

Continue reading

Proms 49 welcomed the Finnish husband-and-wife team, Chief conductor Sakari Oramo and Anu Komsi with the BBC Symphony Orchestra for a family event filled with fantasy, imagination and Russian Fairy Tales.

Tonight was the UK’s premier of Jukka Tiensuu’s (a well-known Finnish composer) Voice Verser (2012) which is a humorous piece composed for the power of voice. Two trios were located in the arena with prommers either side of the orchestra consisting of wood wind and brass instruments.

The first of the three movements was called Desparia and it depicted no other but an air of despair, eeriness and dreariness through highly chromatic scales and gibberish notes from Komsi.

Notes of sadness and tensions were created by the shrilling of violins, repetitive glissandos and unsettling sounds of what one could interpret as mischievous rats. In slight confusion, Desparia ending with Komsi emulated loud cries of moaning which left the audience possibly dumbfounded, yet amused at the same time by its riveting versatility.

Continue reading