Things have moved as fast as ever this month at Bachtrack, with a record number of reviews and as much detailed music information as ever. Take a look below to find out what's been going on of late, with some information on our special festivals feature and some highlights picked out from among our reviews.
Our monthly feature for April is on the summer festival season, which is fast approaching. No matter what your tastes, there will be something here for you, whether you're after contemporary music in Kent, historically-informed bagpipe music in Ireland, or early music in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania. There are also four Handel festivals to read about and enough opera to keep the biggest diva happy. Take a browse for a great guide to all the summer's musical festivities!
bachtrack.com/visit-a-festival-summer-2012
March was a record month for us: we published an amazing total of 119 reviews. Here are some selected highlights of this busy month.
We've covered some spectacular concerts this month, with Baroque recitals from L'Arpeggiata in New York to Bach Collegium of Japan in Scotland, and contemporary from the Amsterdam Sinfonietta to Bang on a Can in London.
There has been some fascinating orchestral programming around the world as well: Dallas Symphony Orchestra offered some striking juxtapositions and Northern Sinfonia presented a concert of American music evoking both 'town and country'. There was also a hundred-year-old piece's world première in Durham and a virtuosic display from a young piano prodigy in Sydney.
String quartets have also had a good month, with Quatuor Ebène ranging from Beethoven to Disney at Carnegie Hall and the Belcea Quartet playing beautiful Beethoven at the Sage, Gateshead. And we've covered solo piano recitals from Jeffrey Kahane's celebration of 15 years with the LA Chamber Orchestra to Murray Perahia's journey through history at the Lincoln Center.
bachtrack.com/reviews/list/concert
Opera reviewing seems to have recovered well from a tricky February and we've been lucky to catch some stunning productions all around the world. We've seen The Barber of Seville in London and Boston, and Così fan tutte in New York and Sydney. There has also been La Bohème in a pub, Justin Timberlake and Britney Spears in a club, and a fight in a kebab shop. Truly, it is an exciting time for opera.
bachtrack.com/reviews/list/opera
We're thrilled to be covering more and more ballet, and published thirteen ballet reviews this month. We were at English National Ballet's Ballets Russes tributes numbers 1 and 2, as well as the Eifman Ballet of St. Petersburg's Rodin in New York. We even caught a dance about social media at The Place in London.
bachtrack.com/reviews/list/ballet
Our special feature on passions last month has gone hand-in-hand with a number of reviews: there have been two St. John Passion reviews, in Gateshead and New York, and three reviews of the St. Matthew Passion, in Manchester (with the Leipzig Gewandhaus), New York again, and Dallas. We’ve also covered a rare performance of Beethoven’s passion piece Christus am Ölberge with the Vienna Philharmonic. And it’s not even Easter yet...
bachtrack.com/bach-passions-introduction
Don't forget that you can join us on Twitter @bachtrack and on Facebook at facebook.com/bachtrackpage. And One Stop Arts is @onestoparts and facebook.com/onestoparts as well. We keep all of these updated with our latest news and reviews. Join the debate!
So take a look at our festival highlights, and plan a summer holiday – or browse through our reviews for a taste of the enormous range of classical music going on around the world.
Happy concert-going!
Paul Kilbey, David Karlin and Alison Karlin
