Category: Music
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Review: Karin Miura at St. James’s Piccadilly
Braving the incessant drizzle that seemed a dreary premonition of what’s to come in the UK in less than a month, I dodged all the Saturday Piccadilly promenaders and stepped into St. James’s Church for Karin Miura’s lunchtime recital. Nestled amongst Hatchard’s, Fortnum and Mason and other landmark British establishments along Piccadilly, St. James’s Church…
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Review: Steven Isserlis, Charles Owen and Irène Duval at Fidelio Café
The trio brought a diverse programme that fitted the cosy and intimate setting of Fidelio Café in Clerkenwell to a tee yesterday. The small café looking out on the bustling Farringdon Road was packed with diners yesterday as they eagerly awaited the trio. At Fidelio you get the unique experience of exquisite piano music juxtaposed…
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Proms 27 Review: Saariaho, Seong Jin Cho and Strauss
Yesterday was my first time back at the BBC Proms this year, the annual summer classical music festival hosted by the UK’s official radio station at the Royal Albert Hall. It’s always nice to see classical music being performed in less formal settings, and the BBC have done well in their programming, introducing new music…
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Standing ovation for Angela Hewitt’s Goldberg Variations
I have long adored Angela Hewitt’s Hyperion recording of Bach’s Goldberg Variations but have never been able to see her perform it live, so when Gerald Finley cancelled their Wigmore lieder recital and Angela pulled out the Goldberg Variations as a substitute, I considered it a happy misfortune. Once again, a completely packed Wigmore Hall…
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The Yuja Wang Phenomenon at Royal Festival Hall
Programme: Barber: Piano Sonata in E flat minor, Op.26 Shostakovich: Prelude and Fugue in A minor, Op.87 No.2; Prelude in G sharp minor, Op.34 No.12; Prelude in C sharp minor, Op.34 No.10; Prelude and Fugue in F sharp minor, Op.87 No.8; Prelude in D minor, Op.34 No.24; Prelude in D, Op.34 No.5; Prelude in B flat minor, Op.34 No.16; Prelude and Fugue in D…
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A creative programme of flute music by Karen Wong and Lance Mok
Programme: Lili Boulanger “D’un matin de printemps” (1917) Claude Arrieu Sonatine for Flute and Piano (1943) Philippe Gaubert Fantasie for Flute and Piano (1912) Maurice Ravel, arr. Alain Craens “Ma Mer l’Oye” Suite for Flute and Piano (1908, 2018) Francis Poulenc Sonata for Flute and Piano (1957) Hong Kong flautist Karen Wong and her duo…
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Aurélien Pontier: “Joyful Apocalypse” and the Power of Nostalgia
Ahead of his album release for Warner Classics, I had the pleasure of speaking to French pianist Aurélien Pontier about his new album “Joyful Apocalypse”. “The title is taken from an exhibition put on by the Musée d’Orsay which I visited some years ago,” Aurélien told me. “Artworks from fin-de-siècle Vienna were displayed,” he said,…
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Brahms and Messiaen presented by Anthony McGill and the Kaleidoscope Collective
Anthony McGill and the Kaleidoscope Collective presented a fantastic concert last night at Milton Court Concert Hall centring on two major works that incorporates the clarinet into a traditional ensemble structure: Brahms’ Clarinet Quintet and Messiaen’s “End of Time Quartet”. The Brahms adds the clarinet to a conventional string quartet formation while the Messiaen substitutes…
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Full house for Angela Hewitt at Wigmore Hall
It was a full house last night welcoming Angela Hewitt back to the Wigmore Hall for yet another triumphant recital. You really feel the capacity of this venue when it takes you the entire interval just to queue to the toilet! At an age where many would pare down their repertoire to a few gems,…
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A marriage of words and music: “Rachmaninov Songs” at Wigmore Hall
What a wonderful marriage of words and music, of intellect and expression, of ideas and feelings in the third of four concerts as part of the Wigmore Hall “Rachmaninov Song Series” co-curated by pianist and accompanist Iain Burnside and Oxford University Professor of Russian Literature and Music Philip Ross Bullock! The concert was presented alongside…
Literally Left-handed 