| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 12-Apr-2013 Huddersfield Town Hall | Wagner, Verdi and sorrowful Stanford with the Huddersfield Choral Society | Andrew H. King |
 The bicentenary of Richard Wagner’s birth is inescapable, and it comes as no surprise that, however brief their offering, an institution as august as the Huddersfield Choral Society (HCS) could not allow the moment to pass without taking advantage of the opportunity to perform one of Wagner’s most impressive choral outbursts – “Wacht auf! Es nahet gen den Tag” (Awake! the dawn of day draws near) from Act III of Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg.Read full review... | ||
| 21-Mar-2013 Bridgewater Hall | A 4th and a 104th symphony with the Hallé and Sir Mark Elder | Rohan Shotton |
 Sir Mark Elder conducted the Hallé in fine performances of Haydn’s final symphony, no. 104, and Mahler’s most humble, no. 4.
Read full review... | ||
| 19-Jul-2012 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Jette Parker Young Artists Tenth Anniversary celebrated at ROH: Il Viaggio a Reims | Katy S Austin |
 BARDA.jpg) The Tenth Anniversary of the Royal Opera House’s Jette Parker Young Artists Scheme is a landmark of no small size. This summer performance brought back some of the best singers it has produced for a semi-staged rendition of Rossini’s one-act 1825 opera Il Viaggio a Reims. It was a celebratory display of virtuoso held together with a generous dose of self-indulgence.
Read full review... | ||
| 19-Apr-2012 Colston Hall | BSO Brave Burana: The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra at The Colston Hall | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 If ever a concert could be described as a firework, this was it. The stage was ignited with music and we waited for the best bit - that crucial, beautiful explosion of colour. As part of the Colston Hall’s International Classical Season, The Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra performed the iconic choral work Carmina Burana by Carl Orff (1895-1982). Joining them on stage were the Bournemouth Symphony Chorus. Known chiefly now in Britain as the opening music for the TV programme 'The X Factor', Carmina Burana is full of impact and oomph especially when it is heard live.Read full review... | ||
| 12-Apr-2012 Sage: Hall One | Beginning with a Sneeze: The National Youth Orchestra Folk Explosion | Jane Shuttleworth |
 Composers have a long tradition of incorporating folk tunes into their music, and this evening’s concert by the National Youth Orchestra, with support from members of the folk group Bellowhead, really proved the point that musical genres are not separate boxes, but just points on a continuum, with no fixed boundaries.
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| 4-Feb-2012 Theatre Royal | A Traditional Hänsel and Gretel from Scottish Opera | David Smythe |
 with The Witch (Leah-Marian Jones), (c) Richard Campbell.jpg) It has become customary to give recent productions of Hänsel and Gretel a modern and often murkier twist, perhaps mirroring the current surge in popularity of darker stories, and the appetite for Nordic noir in particular. Humperdinck’s sister Adelheid Wette adapted the tale from the original Grimm brothers, lightening it considerably in the process, for her own children to perform with some songs composed by her brother. The opera eventually followed.Read full review... | ||
| 24-Sep-2011 Bridgewater Hall | BBC Philharmonic and Juanjo Mena: Mahler 2 | Rohan Shotton |
 The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and newly elected Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena began their season with a storming Mahler 2 which thoroughly deserved its lengthy standing ovation.
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| 10-Aug-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony on top form | Nahoko Gotoh |
 Each year, BBC Proms provides a great opportunity for the UK regional orchestras (in particular for the non-BBC orchestras such as the Bournemouth Symphony, the Halle and the Liverpool Philharmonic) to showcase themselves. This year, I decided to sample Kirill Karabits and the Bournemouth Symphony as I have been hearing good things about this partnership for a while. Judging from Wednesday’s performance, they are definitely on top form and the recent announcement that Karabits has extended his contract with the orchestra until 2015/16 season is indication of their relationship.
Read full review... | ||
| 29-Dec-2010 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | Hurrah! The Witch is Dead! | Hilary Fisher |
 This reviewer fully expected not to enjoy today’s matinee, having read the recent Guardian review and heard mixed reports from friends who saw it when it first came out. Apart from a couple of minor quibbles – why doesn’t the mother knock the milk jug over as indicated in the score? And why when Hansel is stuck under the Witch’s kitchen unit does his foot appears in one drawer unbelievably far away from his finger which appears in another drawer – was this supposed to be funny?Read full review... | ||
| 7-Oct-2010 The London Coliseum | ENO scores another winner in Radamisto | Nahoko Gotoh |
 Handel’s opera Radamisto received a welcome staging at the English National Opera last Thursday, following on from their successful productions of Agrippina and Partenope in recent years. First performed at the King’s Theatre Haymarket in 1720, Radamisto was the work with which Handel launched his new opera company Royal Academy of Music (nothing to do with the college of the same name) and it was immediately revived in subsequent seasons. (This production is based on the revised version).Read full review... | ||
