Vladimir Jurowski's Berlin portrait of Michael Jarrell →
Michael Jarrell is a Swiss composer with a considerable reputation in mainland Europe – he was appointed Chevalier to the French Ordre des Arts et des Lettres in 2004. This week, he was the subject of a composer portrait given by the Ensemble United Berlin under their Artistic Advisor and long-time conductor Vladimir Jurowski. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MorePhonopticon – ausland Berlin, 28th June 2016 →
Hidden in a small bunker under a quiet apartment block in Berlin, ausland has acted as an incubator for the city’s experimental and improvised music scene for over ten years. For this performance, local echzeitmusik (literally: real-time music) artists joined touring Portuguese musicians for a performance with their sonic installation project, the Phonopticon. Published on The Cusp.
Read MoreSusanna Mälkki's “Akademie Modern” in Berlin →
The Berliner Philharmoniker’s Academy is the future of this city’s most famous orchestra. Established 40 years ago by Herbert von Karajan, a third of current Berliner Philharmoniker members are Academy graduates. Their final project this season was an “Akademie Modern” with Susanna Mälkki. Published on Bachtrack.
Read MoreWho is... Terry Riley?
One of 20th century music’s most influential and popular artists, Terry Riley created the purest and most enduring expression of minimalist style in In C, which arguably changed the course of contemporary classical music.
Read MoreOedipus Rex – Sir John Eliot Gardiner/Berlin Philharmonic, 2nd June 2016
It has been 14 years since John Eliot Gardiner last conducted the Berlin Philharmonic. He marked his return visit with a remarkable performance of one of Stravinsky’s most forbidding works.
Read MorePaul McGuire – Sleep Spindles
Paul McGuire’s debut full-length album showcases the sonic possibilities of acoustic instruments. Released on experimental label Slip Discs, the record consists of three tracks offering a snapshot of McGuire’s experiments with strings and percussion.
Read MoreKeith Jarrett – Barber, Bartók, Jarrett
To mark Keith Jarrett’s 70th Birthday, ECM have raided his extensive back catalogue for two historic releases. Whilst Creation explores the heart of Jarrett’s oeuvre with a compilation of his free improvisation, this disc shows the breadth of his repertoire with two recordings of classical concerti
Read MoreQueen of Spades – ENO, 23rd June 2015
Tchaikovsky’s penultimate opera spins out Pushkin’s short story on the dangers of gambling into a human tragedy centred on fate, a leitmotif permeating his dramatic work. At ENO it provided the backdrop to David Alden’s solipsistic psycho-drama focused on Hermann’s madness. It also provided Edward Gardner, the company’s Music Director since 2007, with his swansong.
Read MoreMichael Price – Entanglement
Already a successful composer for film and TV, Emmy Award-winning Michael Price joins artists such as Nils Frahm on independent label Erased Tapes for the release of his debut album. Entanglement is an evocative and cinematic blend of acoustics and electronics, neatly displaying the intersection between neoclassical music and screen composition.
Read MoreDardust – 7
Dardust is the moniker of Italian composer Dario Faini. Trained as a classical pianist, Faini is also a pop songwriter – a true ‘crossover’ artist. 7 is Dardust’s debut album, full of tuneful and catchy piano melodies, and drawing heavily on the neoclassical style of artists such as Nils Frahm and Ólafur Arnalds.
Read MoreBetween Worlds – Barbican Theatre, 15th April 2015
In the programme for Between Worlds, Tansy Davies’ debut opera written with librettist Nick Drake, based on the events of 9/11, the composer writes that she was ‘driven by the desire to transform or transcend’ and that ‘our work must aim to match the power of the darkness, with light’. However, little about the work was redemptive or transcendent.
Read MoreSt Luke Passion, MacMillan/Britten Sinfonia – King’s College Cambridge, 3rd April 2015
At the climax of James MacMillan’s St Luke Passion, after Christ has breathed his last on the cross, the composer summons up a cacophonous orchestral fury. But amidst thunderous, discordant brass blooms an ethereal chorale – a direct quotation of Bach’s chorale, O Haupt Voll Blut und Wunden. This is an audacious gesture handled with maturity and woven into a highly distinctive musical language.
Read MoreZhang Zuo – Wigmore Hall, 30th March 2015
BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist Zhang Zuo made her Wigmore Hall debut last Monday with a programme pairing late Schubert to early Schumann. Two pieces close in history (written just over 10 years from each other) but miles apart in temperament. However, under Zuo’s fingers, all seemed youthful and attacked with significant energy – almost to the point of seeming nervy, even though she has become a distinguished performer in both China and Europe.
Read MoreThe Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny – Royal Opera House, 24th March 2015
The culmination of Brecht and Weill’s tumultuous three-year collaboration, Mahagonny is a bizarre and difficult work. Expanded from their 1927 songspiel, the opera tells of the foundation of the city of Mahagonny by the outlaw Widow Begbick, and encompasses everything from economic collapse and impending ecological apocalypse, to the defeat of God himself.
Read MoreJoe Snape – Brittle Love
Brittle Love is the latest offering from a label establishing itself as a key player in a nascent scene that intertwines elements of electronic music and the avant-garde.
Read MoreTaku Sugimoto & Angharad Davies – Café OTO, 16th March 2015
Experimental guitarist Taku Sugimoto has become known for a contemplative style of playing that aims for a kind of true ‘minimalism’, in the sense of playing as little and as quietly as possible. Now finding modest international fame on the merits of his compositions and free improvisations, Sugimoto is often associated with onkyō, practiced by Japanese performers at the (now closed) Off-Site club in Tokyo.
Read MoreDuke Bluebeard’s Castle, Kirill Karabits/BBC Symphony Orchestra – Barbican Centre, 13th March 2015
Bartók described Duke Bluebeard’s Castle as a “mystery of the soul”. In his masterpiece of symbolist music drama, he takes us, the audience, with Judith, the curious and naïve young bride, on a revelatory journey into the soul of the mythical Duke Bluebeard.
Read MoreSeven Last Words From the Cross, Clare College Choir/Dmitri Ensemble – Clare College Chapel, 8th March 2015
Seven Last Words from the Cross is James MacMillan’s eccentric yet highly dramatic presentation of the last seven sentences uttered by Jesus before his crucifixion. It is a challenging piece, handled well by the young singers and reduced forces of Clare College Choir and the Dmitri Ensemble, under the direction of Graham Ross, the conductor of both groups.
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