Reviews

Britten, Billy Budd, Glyndebourne Festival Opera (Rated 5/ 5 )

Britten’s gripping masterpiece begins in fateful indecision oscillating in the violins between major and minor key centres as the old and broken Captain Vere looks into his soul for answers as to why he put duty before reason to condemn the one man who seemed to reinforce his faith in human nature.

Inside Reviews

Album: Ivan Fedele, Mosaïque (Stradivarius) (Rated 2/ 5 )

Friday, 21 May 2010

There's a sense, in these four works by the Italian modernist Ivan Fedele, of music being tested to destruction, as the new is pursued beyond the bounds of beauty.

Album: Mr McFall's chamber, Birds & Beasts (Delphian) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 21 May 2010

Fast developing a reputation as one of Scotland's most innovative classical ensembles, Mr McFall's Chamber here focus on the work of the late piper Martyn Bennett.

Album: New York Polyphony, Tudor City (Avie) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 21 May 2010

This American vocal quartet specialises in renaissance polyphony, here proving equally adept at classic English and Latin devotional pieces by such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, and newer works in the style, written for the quartet by Andrew Smith.

Tosca, English National Opera, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

It comes as no surprise at all that Catherine Malfitano, a once notable Tosca herself, has fashioned a staging of the opera which frees the singers in ways she herself would have welcomed.

La Filled du Regiment, Royal Opera House, London (Rated 5/ 5 )

Wednesday, 19 May 2010

Opera is rarely laugh-out-loud funny; nor is it as consistently witty, as stylish, as quirkily captivating as Laurent Pelly’s staging of Donizetti’s Tyrolean romp, first seen in 2007 and now revived with pretty much its entire original cast once again firing on all cylinders.

Heritage of Russian Pianism, Oriental Club, London (Rated 3/ 5 )

Monday, 17 May 2010

London being the classical-music capital of the world, success there is the goal of every aspiring soloist, but the going has never been so tough. The British Music Yearbook lists 663 pianists vying for attention, of whom only a small minority make a living from their performances.

Repin/Gergiev/LSO, Barbican Hall, London
Julian Warburton and Friends, Sounds New, Canterbury
Aronowitz Ensemble, The Forge, London

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Runaway concerto leaves audience and soloist panting behind

Album: Wagner, G�tterdämmerung (Halle)

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Recorded live over two evenings at the Bridgewater Hall, Mark Elder's G�tterdämmerung ideally combines dramatic urgency and exquisitely metered orchestral timbre.

Album: Froberger, Harpsichord Suites/Rousset (Ambrosie)

Sunday, 16 May 2010

Christophe Rousset makes a welcome return to the keyboard in this poignant selection of Froberger's suites, played on a 1652 Couchet harpsichord that was extended in 1701 to include a four-foot stop.