: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Wednesday , March 10, 2010 Mahler 10 from the Salomon Orchestra To St John's Smith Square last night for the Salomon Orchestra's performance of Mahler's 10th Symphony in the completion by Deryck Cooke . The orchestra were directed by Nicholas . Collon I must confess that Mahler isn't central to my listening and going to hear Mahler symphonies live is quite a rare occurrence . But I find the 10th symphony a fascinating work . To a certain extent this represents interest in Cooke's restoration as much as the music itself . But there is a great deal of Mahler in the symphony far more Mahler than Cooke thankfully and it is also interesting to hear the way Mahler is pushing himself in other , harder directions . The symphony seems rather tauter than some of the earlier rather sprawling full evening works and you can't help but wonder where Mahler's genius would have taken him had he . lived St . John's Smith Squareskip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Saturday , March 06, 2010 On Wednesday we were privileged to hear a preview of Kathleen Broderick and Sergey Rybin's recital which they will be giving at St . John's Smith Square , on Tuesday 23rd March . The imaginative programme pairs Grieg's opus 48 songs setting German texts with a group of Tchaikovsky songs including the well known In the midst of the ball' and Mussorgsky's Songs and Dances of Death with Debussy's Proses Lyriques Whilst Grieg and Tchaikovsky were friends and admired each other's music , the link between Debussy and Mussorgsky is less obvious . But Debussy was employed by Tchaikovsky's patron , Madame von Meck , to teach her daughters and whilst Debussy and Tchaikovsky never met at the time , it is now thought that Debussy was introduced to Russian music and the music of Mussorgsky and knew the Songs and Dances of Death Broderick is an ex-Kathleen Ferrier Award winner and made a strong: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Friday , March 05, 2010 MacMillan Passion again On Sunday we went to the Barbican to hear James MacMillan's St . John Passion which we first heard at its première 2 years ago . It was performed by the same forces Christopher Maltman and the LSO conducted by Sir Colin . Davis On second hearing the piece remains as powerful and as astonishing as on first hearing . What came over was the variety of textures that MacMillan uses in the piece . This variety arises partly because of the decisions MacMillan has taken about the allocation of the text . The Evangelist's part is sung by a semi-chorus , the Narrator choir , which sings unaccompanied or only lightly accompanied , in a generally homophonic style which is highly inflected by Gregorian chant . It is a style which you find in some of MacMillan's sacred music , one both very personal and highly evocative . Christus is sung by the baritone solo , Christopher: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Friday , March 05, 2010 Recent CD Reviews My review of Anne Schwanewilms recording of Messiaen's Peomes pour Mi is here Ideally placed to enable people to experiment and try the repertoire And that of Carol Farley singing Milhaud songs is here This disc is worth a try but you may long for a different type of performance And my review of Rebel and Francouer's opera-ballet Zelindor is here all reviews on MusicWeb . International Successfully evokes the charm and shallowness of Louis XV's Versailles Posted by Robert H at 7:16 AM Labels : cd review 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knows Premiere June 13th Subscribe To Posts Atom Posts Comments Atom Comments Labels ballet review 7 book review 17 cd news 13 cd review 229 Competition 1 concert review 83 diary 172 feature article 34 music news 18 opera 57 opera magazine 34 opera review: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Monday , March 01, 2010 London Handel Festival On Friday we were at St . George's Hanover Square again for another concert with the London Handel Festival . This time it was Southbank Sinfonia Baroque . The Southbank Sinfonia are a training ensemble of young UK music graduates . The Sinfonia provides an intensive 32 week orchestral apprenticeship . They are based at St . John's Church , Waterloo and do regular rush-hour concerts there . The ensemble is a modern instrument one but the concert on Friday was the result of a week of workshops with Adrian Butterfield the strings played using gut strings and with baroque bows . The results were creditable and rather stylish . The first half included Corelli's Concerto Grosso Opus 6, No . 11 and a suite from Rameau's Pygmalion plus an overture by Arne and Vivaldi's Concerto con molti stromenti RV577 which gave many of the string and wind players chance to . shine In the: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Saturday , February 27, 2010 A Different Drummer I have recently finished reading Jann Parry's A Different Drummer her biography of the choreographer Kenneth Macmillan . It is a mammoth book , perhaps too long , which goes into his career and life in full detail , with descriptions of all the ballets . I felt that in the life parts , Parry included rather too much detail , biography is after all the art of selection . But having summaries of all his ballets was useful as they are not all common currency nowadays and a reader cannot easily re-capture them in the way that you can find recordings of music or reproductions of pictures . Choreography is a fragile and dangerously transient . art I first saw Macmillan's Romeo and Juliet around 1973, with Natalia Makarova making her debut as Juliet shortly after her defection and the late David Blair as Romeo . I went on to see Anastasia with Lynn Seymour , Manon with: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Friday , February 26, 2010 Orpheus Down Under Unexpected Opera are back with their production of Orpheus Down Under an adaptation of Offenbach's Orpheus in the Underworld which debuted at Weatherspoon's The Opera House Pub at Tunbridge Wells last month . Lynn Binstock's production involves a couple on the verge of divorce who become entangled with the gods and goddesses of Greek mythology , who are themselves embroiled in competition as Team Olympus” . You can see it on tour from March 6th , full dates here Posted by Robert H at 2:39 PM Labels : preview 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knows Premiere June 13th Subscribe To Posts Atom Posts Comments Atom Comments Labels ballet review 7 book review 17 cd news 13 cd review 229 Competition 1 concert review 83 diary 172 feature article 34 music news 18 opera 57 opera magazine 34 opera: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Friday , February 26, 2010 Recent CD Reviews My review of a re-issue of Pro Cantione Antiqua's recording of Palestrina including the Missa Papae Marcelli is here The performers wear their learning lightly and never has musical archaeology been produced with such intelligence And another re-issue , the Harnoncourt Dieskau recording of Handel's Saul is reviewed here For Harnoncourt and Fischer-Dieskau admirers only Finally first recording of Carl Rutti's Requiem is reviewed here All three reviews on MusicWeb . International Approachable , beautiful contemporary sacred music Posted by Robert H at 7:14 AM Labels : cd review 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knows Premiere June 13th Subscribe To Posts Atom Posts Comments Atom Comments Labels ballet review 7 book review 17 cd news 13 cd review 229 Competition 1 concert review 83 diaryskip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Thursday , February 25, 2010 To St . George's Church , Hanover Square on Tuesday for the opening concert of this year's London Handel Festival . We were treated to Belshazzar with Andrew Kennedy in the title role . As usual sitting on the hard pews for the length of an entire oratorio was a strain , even though we had a brilliant view perched in front of the organ . Length considerations meant that we were given a version of the oratorio based on what Handel planned to perform in 1745. It struck me that it was a shame that the festival doesn't seem to perform these big works at weekends . Then we could hear oratorios in a more leisurely fashion without either having to cut them or to worry about getting to the start of the concert straight after work . Festival conditions should surely be the ideal time to experiment with performing everything that Handel wrote for the première of Belshazzar Posted by Robert H atMy review of Prokofiev's The Gambler at the Royal Opera House is here, on Music and Vision.
My review of La Traviata from Chelsea Opera Group, with Nelly Miriocioiu in the title role is here, on Music and Vision.
My review of ENO's American Mid-West production of Donizetti's L'Elisir d'Amore is here, on Music and Vision. (Note the site is now a subscription one).Miller and Bywater seem to have been so keen on ensuring the verity of their 1950s American vision that they succeeded in removing something of the charm of Donizetti's original.
: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Saturday , February 13, 2010 Robin Blaze in Bach To the Wigmore Hall , again , on Wednesday to see the Retrospect Ensemble , again , but this time in Bach . The programme consisted of two cantatas for alto solo with Robin Blaze , plus orchestral movements from other cantatas . Given that Bach only wrote 3 cantatas for alto solo alone , it was a shame that we could not hear all . three The ensemble consisted of 5 strings , 3 oboists playing a variety of oboi and bassoon . The continuo was played on a large chamber organ by director Matthew Halls . A big feature of the alto cantatas and the other instrumental movements played was that they featured a major organ part rather than just continuo . Matthew Halls , in his spoken introduction in part 2, pointed out that the organ was all wrong . Bach wrote his cantatas for his church in Leipzig and he would have played the bravura organ part on the large organ there . In: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Thursday , February 11, 2010 Recent CD Reviews My review of the Mendelssohn and Bach Magnificats from Yale is here Buy it if you are interested in early Mendelssohn . His Magnificat is strongly performed And my review of Handel operatic arias with oboe obbligato is here Successfully mixes familiar and unfamiliar and performed with style , charm and a nice poignancy . What more could you want And here is the review of Racines Sacrees a fascinating modern take on Middle-eastern . music Imaginatively mixes modern and ancient in a stylish synthesis Finally my review of Bernstein's Mass is here All the reviews are at MusicWeb . International You can’t help but admire the commitment and intensity a diverse but cohesive whole . terrific value Posted by Robert H at 10:10 PM Labels : cd review 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knowsI've had two separate emails informing me that the Kings Consort is alive and well. Their website gives full details. Forthcoming are performances of the Matthew Passion in Lucerne, Spain and the Netherlands. Their current diary page lists October as their next London gig, when they are bringing Bach's Lutheran Masses to the Wigmore Hall.
: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Tuesday , February 09, 2010 Toby Spence sings Jacques Brel On Sunday we went to the Wigmore Hall to see Toby Spence and the Scottish Ensemble , director Jonathan Morton . The Scottish Ensemble is a small string group , numbering some dozen or so players and is currently celebrating their 40th . anniversary The theme of this concert developed over casual discussions after Toby Spence last sang with the group . Discovering that Spence had a wish to sing the songs of Jacques Brel , Jonathan Morton put together a programmes centring on these . The first half consisted of two of Satie's Gnossienes beautifully played on solo piano by Andy Massey . The strings played Morton's own arrangement of four movements from Debussy's Children's Corne The results worked surprisingly well on strings , crisply played by the Scottish Ensemble . Then the group were joined by accordionist Ian Watson for Kurt Schwertsik . This was a: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Thursday , February 04, 2010 Recent CD Reviews My review of volume 1 of Veracini's Overtures and Concertos from L'Arte dell'Arco is here This disc makes a strong case for Veracini's music . And my review of a recital of Baroque violin concertos from Concerto Italiano is here Both reviews are at MusicWeb . International Four 18th century Italians whose music is dazzling buy it Posted by Robert H at 7:23 AM Labels : cd review 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knows Premiere June 13th Subscribe To Posts Atom Posts Comments Atom Comments Labels ballet review 7 book review 17 cd news 13 cd review 229 Competition 1 concert review 83 diary 172 feature article 34 music news 18 opera 57 opera magazine 34 opera review 143 performance 30 play review 2 preview 103 recording 5 tv programme review 2 writing music 23 Latest CD The Testament of DrThe 2010 SoundSCAPE festival takes place at Lake Maggiore in the Italian lakes from 14th to 24th July. The festival mixes young performers with up and coming composers to provide a rich mix of coaching and performance. They run courses for both composers and for performers, involving residences from established performers and composers. All taking place in beautiful surroundings, sounds the perfect mix.
: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Saturday , January 30, 2010 Next year Booking has opened already for both the Barbican's Great Performers Season 2010 11 and the LSO's 2010 11 season at the Barbican . For the Great Performers the Barbican give up to 20 discount to members if you book early , so there is great incentive to plan your life away . Besides there are some fabulous . concerts Handel's Alcina with Anja Harteros Vessalina Kassarova , Veronica Cangemi , Caitlin Hulcup and Les Musiciens du Louvre under Mark Minkowski , and Ariodante with Joyce DiDonato , Karina Gauvin and Il Complesso Barocco under Alan Curtis . Cecilia Bartoli is doing a programme based on Handel and his Rivals with Il Giardino Harmonico . and the Sixteen are doing Messiah Andreas Scholl and Philippe Jaroussky are giving a joint recital with Ensemble Artaserse which should have many music lovers salivating at he combination . As it is Pergolesi's anniversary year the: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Saturday , January 30, 2010 When a Man knows Plans are now well advanced for the first performance of my new opera When a man knows The opera is based on a one-act play by Alan Richardson which has been extensively performed all over the world , including a run at the King's Head in Islington . With just 2 characters , a man and a woman baritone and soprano the opera expands the cast to 4 by adding two chorus alto and tenor with an instrumental ensemble of piano , violin , clarinet and . cello We are doing a concert performance at St . John's Waterloo as a try out , and plan to do a short run of more studied semi-staged performances of the revised work late this year , early next . As it last around 75 minutes , we'll be providing drinks afterwards in the hope that people will stay and discuss the new . piece Here's the full : blurb When a man knows An opera in one act by Robert Hugill Based on the play by AlanMy review of Moniuszko's final opera Paria is here, on MusicWeb International.For interested parties only. You may wonder what all the fuss is about. …
: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Thursday , January 28, 2010 Opera goes to Prison From Feb 26th to March 6th Pimlico Opera are going back to prison to present another of their inestimable theatrical presentations using prisoners . This time it is Carmen the musical , performed in Wandsworth Prison . This year's programme was put in jeopardy late last year , but luckily the Prison Service saw the light and understood how valuable this sort of programme can be in rehabilitation . In fact last year's Grange Park Opera included an ex-prisoner in the chorus , a past participant in one of Pimlico Opera's prison projects . Usually they present a musical , so this year's Carmen is a bit more of a stretch , but its certainly a fascinating prospect . Posted by Robert H at 8:09 AM Labels : opera preview 0 comments : Post a Comment Newer Post Older Post Home Subscribe to : Post Comments Atom When a Man knows When a man knows Premiere June 13th Subscribe To: , skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Thursday , January 28, 2010 Coming to a PC near you , Opera Live Opera Houses are slowly waking up to the possibilities of modern technology , in a piecemeal and varied sort of way . You only have to look at the way internet booking was taking up quickly by some and very slowly by others to understand how live hook-ups and video-streaming are being implemented quite patchily . Besides the high profile , high definition Cinema showings from the Metropolitan Opera and the Royal Opera , there are a number of sites offering live opera . streaming Now the Royal Opera Liege has joined the throng and the big advantage is that its free . So from the 2nd February for 5 days you can watch Bellini's Capuletti e Montecchi with Patrizia Ciofi and Laura Polveri directed by Claudia Muti conductor Riccardo Muti's wife With Rigoletto following in March . Posted by Robert H at 8:03 AM Labels : opera preview 1 comments :: skip to main skip to sidebar Planet Hugill Classical Music blog from Robert Hugill Classical Music Blog from London based singer and classical music composer , Robert Hugill News , Views and opera reviews , CD reviews musings on contemporary music and writing new . music Monday , January 25, 2010 Buxton Festival 2010 Besides the three main works in the Buxton programme see this post Luisa Miller Verdi The Barber of Baghdad Cornelius and Idomeneo Mozart R . Strauss they will as usual be playing host to visiting opera . companies The Opera Group will be reviving their production of George Benjamin's Into the Little Hill which also comes to Covent Garden again . Psaphha will be doing Bernstein's magical little opera Trouble in Tahiti and the Opera Theatre Company will be bringing their production of Alcina The Classical Opera Company will be performing Mozart's incomplete Singspiel Zaide though plans for them to bring Arne's Artaxerxes seen at Covent Garden's Linbury Theatre seem to have foundered . Posted by Robert H at 6:09 PM Labels : diary opera 1 comments : Anonymous said . Dear Mr . Hugill , we can't seem to find a web address for the Buxton Festival to inform them of a
Audiophile wank has spewed from the mouths of reviewers for many years (I’d love to see just how far back this goes — did the press ever talk about the luscious high-end on the first wax cylinders?). For my first exhibit I present this review of the first Sony CD player, from 1983. IN DIGITAL!
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