Category: Review
-
Inside Classical (BBC Four) and Nicola Benedetti & Friends (Sky arts)
A close look at two classical music broadcasts this Christmas — from the BBC and Sky Arts — examining audience behaviour, broadcast risk, and why linear TV is often misunderstood.
-
Film Review – Sondheim’s Merrily We Roll Along starring Daniel Radcliffe
Radcliffe is a revelation, embodying a televised breakdown with precision — clipped gestures, barely-contained rage, and a vulnerability the camera doesn’t soften. Friedman’s close-cropped direction turns the musical’s reverse-chronology into something unexpectedly lucid, restoring the emotional edge Hollywood so often sands away.
-
REVIEW – Isla Ratcliffe’s Scottish four seasons
Isla Ratcliff’s Scottish Four Seasons reimagines Vivaldi through Scottish landscape and tradition.
-
Ulster orchestra’s new chief conductor announced
Ulster Orchestra names Anna Handler as Chief Conductor. A strategic appointment — and a moment for the orchestra to assert its identity more boldly.
-
Listening for What Comes Next at Britten Sinfonia’s Composer Showcase
If you want to know where British composition is heading, schemes like Britten Sinfonia’s Opus 1 and Magnum Opus offer a compelling snapshot.
-
Review – Ethel Smyth’s The Forest & Respighi’s Lucrezia / GSMD
A performance of two halves: early moralistic Smyth followed by Respighi’s theatrical setting of a brutal tragedy.
-
Review – Britten Weekend at Snape Maltings
Britten Weekend 2025 traced music refusal to be destroyed. What emerged wasn’t nostalgia or indulgence but a promise to remember. Not everything was executed as perfectly as it might have been, but maybe perfection isn’t the goal.
-
Review – The Rolling Year – Hannah French
In a culture hooked on doom narratives about classical music’s decline, French reminds us that attention itself is the radical act.
-
Review – Tim Horton plays Chopin at Wigmore Hall
Tim Horton at Wigmore Hall: precision, warmth and wit in a programme that moves from Bach’s architecture to Chopin’s abandon.
-
Review – London Philharmonic Orchestra play Stravinsky’s Rite
L Boulanger D’un matin de printemps L Boulanger Faust et Hélène Stravinsky The Rite of Spring Karina Canellakis conductorVéronique Gens soprano Andrew Staples tenor Jean-Sébastien Bou baritone Lili Boulanger’s D’un matin de printemps is a taut evocative excursion. Her writing works hard, pedalling furiously from scene to scene, transitions marked by Canellakis with elegant hesitations realised by a responsive woodwind section.…