Music reviews
Schubert: Die Schone Mullerin by David Greco & Erin Helyard
Arcangelo Corelli (1653–1713) was an influential composer, and the earliest famed solely for his instrumental works. His contemporaries were (and remain) known for their vocal compositions as much as…
Sunday (The Gospel According To Iso) by Vika & Linda
‘You’re going to give it a good review, aren’t you, Daddy?’ It was more of a command than a question from my twelve-year-old daughter as we sat at home one day during home-schooling, listening to the…
Corelli: Concerti Grossi, Op. 6 by Genesis Baroque, Sophie Gent & Lucinda Moon
An optimistic young wanderer happens upon a brook, which leads him to a mill, and in turn to the beautiful millers daughter – ‘die schöne mullerin’. He falls in love, but the girl’s heart belongs to…
Please Leave Your Light On by Paul Kelly & Paul Grabowsky
In these extremely strange and challenging times, it’s nice sometimes to be able to fall back on some old favourites to help us through. And they don’t come any more familiar than the Pauls: Kelly & …
Mozart y Mambo by Sarah Willis
Sometimes grand adventures start with a throwaway comment. Sarah Willis, French Horn in the Berlin Philharmonic, was amazed in 2017 to discover there is a statue of Mozart in Havana, Cuba. Nonplussed…
Verdi: Otello by Jonas Kaufmann
Nowadays, it’s rare for a record company to produce a full-length studio recording of opera, but, for star tenor Jonas Kaufmann, Sony Classical makes an exception. And what a wonderful gift for opera…
Vaughan Williams: Symphony No. 5 & Finzi: Clarinet Concerto by Michael Collins
He hath given me rest by His sorrow and life by His death. – Bunyan
Written above the third movement of Vaughan Williams’s Fifth Symphony, Romanza, these words are deceptively multilayered. Not just…
Rough and Rowdy Ways by Bob Dylan
Bob Dylan, always sitting pretty at the top of the songwriter tree, has delivered us an album definitely of its time. Not one to deliver us random old tunes and musings during this time of social dis…
Aspects of America: Pulitzer Edition by Oregon Symphony & Carlos Kalmar
As many people would be aware, classical repertoire can take a long time to work its way into the hearts of listeners (J.S. Bach being an obvious one, only becoming popular eighty years after his dea…
Purcell: The Fairy Queen, 1692 by Gabrieli Consort & Paul McCreesh
Purcell’s semi-opera The Fairy Queen is loosely based on Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream: there are fairies and drunken poets; there is lust, passion, and confusion. Lovers are parted and reu…
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