Christopher Morley's essential guide - with contributions from his team of specialist reviewers
CBSO Prom
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
-
Apologies to all
In my excitement over the piece my fingers ran away with me, and I forgot to credit Ethyl Smyth as composer of the Concerto for Violin, Horn and Orchestra.
Christopher Morley
Get link
Facebook
X
Pinterest
Email
Other Apps
Popular posts from this blog
-
A triumphant night for the CBSO’s ‘King Kazuki’ CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★★ I doubt if the forthcoming coronation of King Charles III will be greeted with such spontaneous joy or the wholehearted embrace which greeted Kazuki Yamada as he was crowned as the CBSO’s new Chief Conductor and Artistic Advisor. The packed Symphony Hall audience overflowed with warmth towards the vibrant, bouncing good humoured man whom they have held in great affection since he became Principal Guest Conductor in 2018. At the end of an exhilarating concert we were engulfed in hundreds of black and white “CBSO” embossed balloons released from the ceiling – general genial mayhem ensued. The madcap bacchanalian atmosphere was entirely fitting following a dynamic performance of Carl Orff’s choral blockbuster ‘Carmina Burana’. This was a triumph for the talented choirs and their Chorus Master Julian Wilkins. Just as a sight they were impressive – I gave up counting at around the 200 mark – with the CBSO Chor...
CBSO at Symphony Hall ★★★★ Did the CBSO’s chief executive Emma Stenning attend this concert? One hopes so because she would have been able to see the early fruits of the silliest of her new innovations. The orchestra and soloist Ian Bostridge were about a quarter of the way through Britten’s ‘Les Illuminations’ when the tenor motioned to conductor Gergely Madaras, raised his hand and halted the performance. He addressed a small group in the audience who had been filming him on their mobile phones. “Their lights are shining directly in my eyes – it’s very distracting," he said. "Would you please put your phones down.” A performance by one of the finest British singers of the last fifty years, and a world-renowned interpreter of Britten, was interrupted by a handful of intellectually challenged mobile-obsessed dimwits. Their antics are positively encouraged by the orchestra’s administrators who print this in the concert programme: “We are very happy for you to take photograph...
MY FAIR LADY CHANDOS CHSA 5358(2) This, the latest in John Wilson’s exhilarating sequence of totally complete musicals with the Sinfonia of London, is another absolute joy, though with one minor caveat. We have here every scrap of material created by Lerner and Loewe, My Fair Lady’s creators, and that provides the only tiny problem. Shows in public presentation often cut segues and links, sometimes just for reasons of timing. These of course don’t apply in CD recordings, but s...