Musical Opinion back issues from September 2004:
In the Spotlight: Vanessa-Mae
Sep 01, 2004; ... "What is Crossover?" asked my Editor when I told him I'd arranged to meet up with violinist Vanessa-Mae at Sony headquarters in London's Great Marlborough Street. After much Wimbledon-like batting back and forth of suggestion and counter suggestion we agreed to abide by whatever definition ...
HIGHNOTES
Sep 01, 2004; ... Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra's Principal Sponsor, Portman Building Society has launched a brand new savings account designed to offer customers an excellent rate of interest - and in a musical twist, the new BSO Premier Account will guarantee that 0.10% of the average daily balance of the ...
JULIAN LLOYD WEBBER
Sep 01, 2004; ... in Conversation with Judith Monk To meet someone whose name in an Internet search engine churns out 44,800 options was quite daunting! Julian Lloyd Webber is one of the better known cellists on the planet and I was curious to learn about him first hand but couldn't first resist checking ...
CHRISTOPHER MARWOOD
Sep 01, 2004; ... Christy Morgan went to Cork to meet him As Cellist with the RTÉ Vanbrugh Quartet, Christopher Marwood has much to smile about. One of Irelands most popular musical groups and the force behind an acclaimed Festival and a musical scholarship fund, in addition to their crucial role as ...
CATRIONA HETHERINGTON
Sep 01, 2004; ... We asked the Scottish-based cellist to write to us about her career I was born with a severe to profound neuro-sensory hearing loss. By the rime I was due to start school, aged 5, I was still barely able to speak due to the fact that I didn't receive my first hearing-aid until I was ...
Philip Brown Violins of Newbury
Sep 01, 2004; ... At the tender age of 16 Philip Brown violin dealer/maker turned down an apprenticeship offer from the organ builders Hill, Norman and Beard already knowing that his future lay in making stringed instruments. Gaining a distinction in instrument making at the London College of Furniture in 1983 he ...
EILEEN CROXFORD
Sep 01, 2004; ... Colin Anderson visited the veteran, vital and active cellist Cellist Eileen Croxford turned 80 this March. Her looks and energy belie her years. Her inviting London home contains signed photos of Sir John Barbirolli and Gerald Moore, and nothing less than Moore's grand piano. "He was ...
RAPHAEL WALLFISCH
Sep 01, 2004; ... Discusses with Judith Monk how cellists throughout the years connect and link London born Raphael Wallfisch belongs to a family of distinguished musicians; his mother is cellist Anita Lasker-Wallfisch, and his father pianist Peter Wallfisch. Even so, he was eight before he discovered ...
DVDs: Recent Cello
Sep 01, 2004; ... Recent Cello Denby Richards on Christopher Nupen's film Jacqueline du Pré on DVD Jacqueline Du Pré literally burst on to the music scene when she was 17, with a stunning performance of Elgar's Cello Concerto in the Royal Festival Hall. By sheer good fortune I was there ...
ROBERT COHEN
Sep 01, 2004; ... Cellist Robert Cohen talks from the heart. His passion for music and the cello is unbridled and unlimited. Robert's own passage to his undoubted position as a great cellist is strongly shaped by his background and by his teachers. This shaping has dictated the methods he uses with his own ...
America: Scene and Heard
Sep 01, 2004; ... Four Premiers in the Disney Concert Hall's Inaugural Season It is a daunting prospect for any busy chief conductor of an orchestra to face the mountain of new works pressed upon him by composers and their publishers, all of whom feel entitled to a fair perusal of their compositions by ...
Meyerbeer revivals in France
Sep 01, 2004; ... Meyerbeer revivals in France If in a quiz you were asked which 19th-century composer had the most glorious career everywhere in Europe you would no doubt be surprised by the answer. No, not Rossini, nor Verdi, nor Wagner, but Giacomo Meyerbeer. He broke box office records everywhere. His ...
Il Corsaro at Parma's Teatro Regio
Sep 01, 2004; ... Parma has many associations with Verdi. He was born in Roncole just up the road within what was then the Duchy of Parma, and Arturo Toscanini, perhaps Verdi's greatest interpreter, was born in the town itself. So the annual Verdi Festival at the Teatro Regio is part of local custom, 2004's ...
Vilar Young Artists at the Royal Opera House
Sep 01, 2004; ... Vilar Young Artists at the Royal Opera House The Vilar Young Artists presentation at the Royal Opera House on 15 July proved to be very much an evening of two halves. The first was given over to a semistaged performance of Der Kaiser von Atlantis, a one-act opera written in the Terezin ...
Tchaikovsky and Rossini at Garsington
Sep 01, 2004; ... Tchaikovsky and Rossini at Garsington It has been a good year at Garsington even if the wind has been somewhat stronger than of late. The search for rare works continues apace and came up with two gems by Tchaikovsky and Rossini. I caught Tchaikovsky's Cherevichki on 19 June, a day when ...
Opera North's Little Greats at the Wells
Sep 01, 2004; ... Opera North's Little Greats at the Wells The notion of producing six one-act operas in pairs as a major part of a company's Season was a brilliant one, and many will have been placed very much in Opera North's debt by their achievement in this field, especially Londoners, who had the ...
Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House
Sep 01, 2004; ... Peter Grimes at the Royal Opera House It has taken 10 years for Willy Decker's production of Britten's Peter Grimes to move from La Monnaie in Brussels to the Royal Opera House, and perhaps that is fortunate. When seen on 6 July, the London staging, revived by François de ...
The Cunning Little Vixen at Cardiff's Sherman Theatre
Sep 01, 2004; ... The Cunning Little Vixen at Cardiff's Sherman Theatre The choice of Janácek's bewitching Cunning Little Vixen for the Royal Welsh College of Music and Drama's annual opera performance was bold and the choice of Jonathan Dove's arrangement even bolder. So, first as last, it must be said ...
Our Man in Havana in Greenwich
Sep 01, 2004; ... Our Man in Havana in Greenwich Following the death last year of Malcolm Williamson, the late Master of the Queen's Music, it was an inspired choice on the part of the Trinity College of Music Opera Company to mount a production of Our Man in Havana at the Greenwich Theatre between 8 and ...
Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto from the Classical Opera Company
Sep 01, 2004; ... Mozart's Mitridate, re di Ponto from the Classical Opera Company Mozart's very early operas, as also his early symphonies and string quartets, tend to be ignored in comparison with the later and undoubtedly greater masterpieces, but they all contain some superb music, and in the case of ...
Falstaff at Iford Manor
Sep 01, 2004; ... Falstaff at Iford Manor There was something perversely clever about the Opera Project filling one of the smallest operatic spaces, the tiny Italianate cloister in the heart of the Peto-designed garden at Iford, near Bradford-on-Avon, with the largest possible operatic character, Sir John ...
American Ballet Theatre's Don Quixote at New York's Met
Sep 01, 2004; ... American Ballet Theatre's Don Quixote at New York's Met From time to time a performance is genuinely memorable and remains as a source of pleasure for some time after. The opening night of Don Quixote, as performed by American Ballet Theatre at the Metropolitan Opera House in New York on ...
Acosta's Tocororo at the Wells
Sep 01, 2004; ... Acosta's Tocororo at the Wells It is a year since Carlos Acosta's Cuban tale, loosely based on his own life, was first seen in London: it returned to Sadler's Wells for a Season where I saw it on 30 June. In the intervening period there have been some additions to the choreography ...
Singin' in the Rain at Sadler's Wells - 2
Sep 01, 2004; ... Singin' in the Rain at Sadler's Wells - 2 Torrential rain, lightning, thunder and flooded gutters in the West End of London were endured to get to Sadler's Wells on 3 August for the opening of Singin in the Rain featuring Adam Cooper. I wondered if Adam Cooper had contact with the ...
The Polish Radio Orchestra in Dublin
Sep 01, 2004; ... The Polish Radio Orchestra in Dublin There is something to be said for that certain wistful polish Eastern Europ ean orchestras - the great but not especially well-known ones in particular - seem to give to their performances. The Polish Radio Orchestra, which appeared at Dublin's ...
The refurbished Royal Albert Hall Organ
Sep 01, 2004; ... The refurbished Royal Albert Hall Organ The refurbishment of the Organ in the Royal Albert Hall was always an essential part of the full renovation of the building and now £1.7 million later here we are, thanks to Mander Organs' complete rebuild. That the event was less than eventful was ...
Live Music Now! at LSO St Luke's
Sep 01, 2004; ... Live Music Now! at LSO St Luke's The Showcase Concert presented by Live Music Now at LSO St Lukes on 5 July marked an astonishing achievement. This movement, aimed at bringing live music to those members of society unable to hear it in normal circumstances, including patients, the ...
Handel's Maggot in Hastings
Sep 01, 2004; ... Handel's Maggot in Hastings "Why was the Unitarian Church in W Hastings chosen as the venue for an illustrated talk about Handel on 5 July? Brian Hick, Editor of The Organ, hastened to explain that there lives a single-manual Snetzler, built in 1785. With the 1878 Father Willis ...
Bernard Roberts at St John's
Sep 01, 2004; ... Bernard Roberts at St John's The indefatigable Bernard Roberts presented a magnificent recital at St John's, Smith Square on 8 July. The first half was all Beethoven, played with that rare combination of interpretative qualities and flawless technique for which this sterling artist has ...
Alison Smart on the South Bank
Sep 01, 2004; ... Alison Smart on the South Bank How often do you get twenty British premieres in one concert in one evening? Probably very rarely, if ever. Congratulations then to soprano Alison Smart and pianist Katherine Durran for devising such a fascinating programme under the title New French Song ....
Dillington Guitar Festival Ensembles at the Purcell Room
Sep 01, 2004; ... Dillington Guitar Festival Ensembles at the Purcell Room 2004 marks the tenth anniversary of the Dillington Guitar Summer School and Festival, and to celebrate, the director, Peter Rueffer, brought together a selection of past contributors for a concert in the Purcell Room on 14 July ....
LSCO Concerto Festival
Sep 01, 2004; ... LSCO Concerto Festival The Concerto Festival given by the London Soloists Chamber Orchestra, under its conductor David Josefowitz, continued on 15 April at St Martin-in-the-Fields with Panos Karan as soloist in a finely-honed performance of Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto. The ...
Lower Machen Festival
Sep 01, 2004; ... Lower Machen Festival The Lower Machen Festival's opening concert, given at St Michael's Church on 23 June, was one which will surely store up potent memories for the young string players who were privileged to share the platform with the Bingham Quartet. Violinists Stephen Bingham and ...
Operas at the Buxton Festival
Sep 01, 2004; ... Operas at the Buxton Festival With a year that has set record levels of ticket sales, the days when Buxton Festival teetered on the brink of closure seem far distant, the niche market created for operas that are just a little off the beaten track bringing visitors flocking to the small ...
THE GIRL IN ROSE: HAYDN'S LAST LOVE
Sep 01, 2004; ... THE GIRL IN ROSE: HAYDN'S LAST LOVE By Peter Hobday Weidenfeld and Nicolson 228pp Hardback ISBN 0 297 84747 3 £18.99 Authors are rarely responsible for their publisher's choice of a Front cover, so perhaps Peter Hobday only gave tacit approval to using Nathaniel Hone's Portrait of a ...
RACHMANINOV: Third Piano Concerto
Sep 01, 2004; ... RACHMANINOV: Third Piano Concerto Peter Bradley-Fulgoni: Piano Sinfonia of Leeds David Greed: Conductor FOX 089cd 45' 11" I have long admired Peter Bradley-Fulgoni's pianism and this CD more than confirmed his musicianship and technical confidence in one ...
BACH: Miscellaneous keyboard works
Sep 01, 2004; ... BACH: Miscellaneous keyboard works. Angela Hewitt: Piano. Hyperion CDA 67499 67'41" On this excellently produced disc Angela Hewitt captures some choice specimens which eluded her multidisc set issued by Hyperion a while ago. There is a splendid A minor Fantasia ...
MUSIC IN EDUCATION
Sep 01, 2004; ... Royal Academy of Music Marylebone Road London NW1 5HT Tel: 020 7873 7373 www.ram.ac.uk The highlight of the coming term at the Royal Academy of Music is undoubtedly Royal Academy Opera's production of Magic Flute with conductor Sir Colin Davis, ...
On-Line Music Library Naxos
Sep 01, 2004; ... Robert Matthew-Walker explores this new initiative Since Naxos arrived, rather than burst, upon the classical recording scene 17 years ago with the simple but enormously successful philosophy of providing excellent new recordings at around a half to a third of the price of established ...
Karl Jenkins & the Wales Millennium Centre
Sep 01, 2004; ... Composer Karl Jenkins has recently completed a new choral and orchestral work commissioned for the long-awaited opening of the Wales Millennium Centre at the end of November. As the focus of his text, Jenkins has used the words by Gwyneth Lewis which are embodied in the windows of the Millennium ...
Yo-Yo Ma's Silk Road Project
Sep 01, 2004; ... Robert Matthew-Walker outlines this fascinating development from the master cellist For thousand of years, the Silk Road has been the conduit for travel and trade from Europe to the Far East, stretching from Venice in northern Italy to Kyoto in southern Japan. It is not a single 'road', ...
SELMA GOKCEN
Sep 01, 2004; ... Christy Morgan has being talking about the Casals Trubute It was probably the hottest day of Dublin's summer when I had the pleasure of chatting to cellist Selma Gokcen, something which she couldn't have appreciated in California where the sun perpetually shines. She had just flown to ...
LEONID GOROKHOV
Sep 01, 2004; ... The great Russian cellist talks to Judith Monk The name Leonid Gorokhov first came to my attention when Musical Opinion's veteran reviewer Geoffrey Crankshaw attended a concert featuring him and Nikolai Demidenko at the Wigmore Hall in 2001. Geoffrey wrote: " Opening with Schubert's ...
Frederick Phelps (Violins) Ltd
Sep 01, 2004; ... Dealers, Makers, Restorers of Fine Violins, Violas, Cellos, D Basses and their Bows Judith Monk asked owner Mila Strnad to describe his company. Founded in 1895 by Mr Frederick Phelps, this company initially manufactured and sold pianos in Kentish Town, then a flourishing centre ...
CDs: Recent Cello
Sep 01, 2004; ... Recent Cello Denby Richards has been listening ... I was very happy to welcome the relaunch of the Biddulph label, who have just issued an interesting selection of works played by Leonard Rose, the US-born son of Russian emigrants who was regarded as America's leading solo cellist ...
Hear cello classics on CD
Sep 01, 2004; ... What on earth does a small independent label have to do to survive in the cut-throat world of the recording industry? In the case of Cello Classics the answer would seem to be fairly simple: specialise! Founded by British cellist Sebastian Comberti in 2001 the cello-dedicated label has ...
ROSS POPLE
Sep 01, 2004; ... Robert Matthew-Walker on the Cellist who conducts his London Festival Orchestra Any musician worth his salt will tell you that it is always a distinct advantage for a conductor to have played an orchestral instrument; not least for the practical experience gained in this way. Having seen ...
Neil Chaffey Concert Promotions Comes of Age
Sep 01, 2004; ... The Editor Congratulates Neil Chaffey Concert Promotions Comes of Age The Editor Congratulates On 21 September at 7.30pm in the Purcell Room there is a very special celebration, when Neil Chaffey hosts the 21st Anniversary of his Concert Promotions with a Showcase, played ...
NEW SEASONS
Sep 01, 2004; ... Acclaimed by music critics as one of the finest period instrument orchestras in the world, The Hanover Band has established an enviable reputation for the excellence of its performances and recordings of 18th and 19th-century music. Resident at The Old Market, a Grade II listed building ...
Haydn's L'Infedelta delusa at Bridgnorth
Sep 01, 2004; ... Haydn's L'Infedelta delusa at Bridgnorth Bampton Classical Opera's triumphant forays into rare repertoire in an Oxfordshire Garden have yielded witty revivals of Stephen Storace, Antonio Salieri and Giuseppe Gazzaniga. For the English Haydn Festival, on 5 June, at St Leonard's Church in ...
Royal Opera retires Zeffirelli's Tosca
Sep 01, 2004; ... Royal Opera retires Zeffirelli's Tosca Those among us who will never forget the first staging of Franco Zeffirelli's production of Tosca at Covent Garden on 21 January 1964 will be both saddened and relieved that the Royal Opera has decided that 242 airings over 40 years are enough ....
Marianne Dreams at the Wells
Sep 01, 2004; ... Marianne Dreams at the Wells The Lilian Baylis Theatre at Sadler's Wells was the venue on 16 June for the premiere performance of a new opera by Andrew Lowe-Watson, Mananne Dreams, from the original novel by Catherine Storr, who also fashioned the libretto. The story is relatively ...
Royal Opera's Ariadne auf Naxos
Sep 01, 2004; ... Royal Opera's Ariadne auf Naxos The Royal Opera's revival of Christof Loy's 2002 production of Richard Strauss' Ariadne auf Naxos under Sir Colin Davis on 28 June was as impressive as it was welcome. In the Programme Book David Nice made an excellent case for preferring the 1916 version, ...
Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante
Sep 01, 2004; ... Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante I returned on 1 July for Rossini's L'equivoco stravagante written when he was only 19. It is a work of remarkable confidence and it is surely only because later works are even more brilliant that this exciting piece has been overlooked. Perhaps, until ...
Death in Venice in the QEH
Sep 01, 2004; ... Death in Venice in the QEH Death in Venice in aid of The Venice in Peril Fund. A splendid idea and more than justified with a magnificent performance at the Queen Elizabeth Hall on 30 June. Richard Hickox has been working his way through the English repertoire for some time now so it was ...
Don Giovanni in Stuttgart
Sep 01, 2004; ... Don Giovanni in Stuttgart Some spectators on 19 July in Stuttgart may have been confused by Hans Neuenfels' new production of Don Giovanni, setting Mozart's dramma giocoso in a bullring, but there was logic in his madness and not a hint of Carmen. This is a fight to the death between man ...
Tristan und Isolde in Stuttgart
Sep 01, 2004; ... Tristan und Isolde in Stuttgart A s corresponds to the best opera theatre Europe, Stuttgart also has arguably the best dramaturgy. Work for their new Tristan und Isolde started more than five years ago and once the dramatic ideas for this new production had been finalised Belgium theatre ...
Birds, Barks and Bones: A Trojan Trilogy at the Linbury
Sep 01, 2004; ... Birds, Barks and Bones: A Trojan Trilogy at the Linbury The new opera trilogy Birds, Barks, Bones by Julian Rushton and librettist Dagny Gioulami, staged at the Linbury Studio in the Royal Opera House on 27 July, was a remarkable success. At times intensely dramatic, at times wickedly ...
English National Ballet's Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall
Sep 01, 2004; ... English National Ballet's Swan Lake at the Royal Albert Hall Some years ago when English National Ballet were looking for a London venue other than the Royal Festival Hall, Derek Deane, the then Artistic Director, was offered a season at the Royal Albert Hall. In order to use this arena ...
Stowe Opera's Carmen
Sep 01, 2004; ... Stowe Opera's Carmen When the inventive Stowe Opera announced its opera this summer was to be Bizet's Carmen, I must admit to a slight sinking feeling. David McVicar's Glyndebourne revival has set the standard; and from the Royal Albert Hall to a glut of Moldovian, Russian and Polish ...
Alexei Grynyuk at the Purcell Room
Sep 01, 2004; ... Alexei Grynyuk at the Purcell Room The eclectic programme offered by the Ukrainian pianist Alex Grynyuk at the Purcell Room on 7 June, as part of the Kirckman Series, displayed his mastery over a wide range of musical styles. He opened with dementi's F sharp minor Sonata Opus 25 No 5, ...
Singin' in the Rain at the Wells - 1
Sep 01, 2004; ... Singin' in the Rain at the Wells - 1 Adam Cooper has shown yet again that his talents go way beyond his ability as a ballet dancer. For Singin' in the Rain, which was premiered on 3 August at Sadler's Wells, he is choreographer and male lead, and has put together a very workmanlike piece ...
Mitsuko Uchida and Mark Steinberg at Snape Maltings
Sep 01, 2004; ... Mitsuko Uchida and Mark Steinberg at Snape Maltings Any opportunity to hear Mitsuko Uchida playing Mozart is one to savour and the programme of five Sonatas for Piano and Violin in her Aldeburgh Festival recital with Mark Steinberg on 25 June promised a real treat. Uchida ...
John Lill at Wyastone Leys
Sep 01, 2004; ... John Lill at Wyastone Leys John Lill's season of birthday concerts may mean that he will have had to consume more cakes than is good for him but, were he somehow putting himself through a three-score years' musical endurance test, he could hardly have chosen a more challenging feat than ...
Lukasz Kuropaczewski on the South Bank
Sep 01, 2004; ... Lukasz Kuropaczewski on the South Bank The Polish guitarist Lukasz Kuropaczewski appeared at the Purcell Room on 29 June under the auspices of the LACCS organisation, and at once proved himself to be a true master of his instrument. He began with a beguiling Suite of eight little pieces ...