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REVIEWS OF LIVE EVENTS - 2008

Link to LIVE EVENTS 2007

Link to LIVE EVENTS 2006

Link to Earlier reviews 1999-2005

December 2008

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE etc

Vanbrugh City Wives (Greenwich Playhouse)

Mahler and Wagner (Tristan & Isolde Act 2 and Mahler X - Jurowski)

Humperdinck Hansel & Gretel (Royal Opera House)

Donizetti - Parisina (Opera Rara)

Mozart – La finta giardiniera (Royal College of Music)

CONCERTS

PLG Young Artists January 2009

Schubert, Janácek & Bartók Violin Sonatas (Leonidas Kavakos & Péter Nagy)

Messiaen Centenary Concert – Boulez and Aimard

Berlioz & Schumann (OAE/Rattle)

Haydn & Schumann Piano Trios (Trio Jean Paul)

Isserlis and Ades at Wigmore Hall

London Sinfonietta at 40 (Birtwistle, Adams etc)

October/November 2008

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE

Debussy/McNeff Pelleas et Mélisande (Independent Opera)

Humperdinck Hansel & Gretel (Royal Academy Opera)

Cashian – The Cumnor Affair (Tete a Tete at Riverside Studios)

Janacek Jenufa (WNO)

Verdi Otello (WNO)

Hong Sungyop "Ah-Q" (Korean Dance Theatre ON) and Baramgot

Mozart - Don Giovanni “a fashion opera …” (Goodenough College)

Vaughan Williams The Poisoned Kiss (New Sussex Opera)

Strauss Elektra (Royal Opera revival)

Gluck – La rencontre imprevue (Guildhall School, London)

Seamus Heaney The Burial at Thebes

Opera at Kings Place (Royal Acaademy Opera & Classical Opera Company)

CONCERTS

Dumitrescu & Avram at Conway Hall

Grisey ‘Quatre Chants Pour Franchir le Seuil

Elision at Kings Place (Ricordi bicentenary)

BMIC, The Cutting Edge, 2008 Asamisamasa Duo

BMIC, The Cutting Edge, 2008 Libra Duo

Britten, Cage, Ginastera, Laura & Maderna (Arturo Tallini, guitar at Kings Place)

Atrium Quartet & Cuarteto Casals (London String Quartet Foundation)

Bridge, Dvorak & Franck (Conway Hall Sunday Concerts)

Piano Trios (Sundays at Blackheath & Kings Place)

Bach Musical Offering and trio sonatas (Florilegium)

Messiaen's Music in and for Church

Gérard Grisey Les espaces acoustiques (ukp)

Xenakis, Benjamin, Ligeti, Messiaen

Michael Haydn, Hoffmeister, Bruni, Kenneth Harding (Guy's Hospital lunchtime recital)

Colin Currie & Nicolas Hodges (percussion and piano)

Beethoven String Quartets (Orion String Quartet at Kings Place)

Opening Festival (Kings Place, new venue nr. Kings Cross)

Chamber music at Wigmore Hall (Aviv Quartet & Kovavechich residency)

Veronique Gens / Jeff Cohen (BBC Lunchtime Concert at Wigmore Hall)

Michael van der AA (Music of Today, Philharmonia Orchestra)

Messiaen La Transiguration (Nagano, Aimard, Philharmonia etc)

Ligeti, Schoenberg, York Bowen & Thomas Dunhill (Endymion Ensemble)

Marc-André Hamelin at Wigmore Hall

 

 

AUGUST & SEPTEMBER 2008

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE

 

Five:15 (Scottish Opera at Riverside Studio)

Cavalli La Calisto (Royal Opera)

CONCERTS

 

 

Larcher & Takemitzu (London Sinfonietta)

Vaughan Williams, Howells & Finzi songs (Joan Rodgers, Christopher Maltman, Julius Drake)

The Flautadors at Handel House Museum

Copland Dickinson songs etc (Joyce DiDonato & David Zobel)

Brahms & Shostakovich; Rattle & BPO (Prom 65)

Boulez & Stravinsky; Barenboim & Chéreau (Prom 39)

Jonathan Harvey etc (Prom 45)

Dudamel & Gottenburg S O at The Proms

Stockhausen & Berlin Phil/Rattle at The Proms

Carla Rees (flutes recital)

Bach Goldberg Variations (Andras Schiff)

 

JUNE & JULY 2008

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE

Monteverdi Poppea (Glyndebourne at the Proms)

Tchaikovsky - Iolanta (Opera Holland Park)

Stravinsky Pulcinella (OHP)

Donizetti – L’elisir d’amore (Anghiari Festival)

Ponchielli – La Gioconda  (Opera Holland Park)

Daugherty – Jackie O (Bologna)

Stravinsky The Rake's Progress (Lepage version at Royal Opera House, London)

Kyriakides An Ocean of Rain (Almeida Theatre)

Puccini – Tosca (Opera Holland Park)

Mozart – The Magic Flute (Opera Holland Park)

Stravinsky The Rake's Progress (Trinity College Opera Company, London)

Gounod – La colombe & Rossini – L’occasione fa il ladro

Donizetti La Fille du regiment (Opera Holland Park)

VERDI – Il trovatore (Opera Holland Park)

Handel - Orlando (Independent Opera)

CONCERTS

Li-Chun Su (pianist and fortepianist)

PROMS 2008:
First Night
Messiaen – Le Transfiguration
Stockhausen
Monteverdi Poppea
Ravel – Hillborg - Berlioz  Ravel (Gottenburg Symphony Orchestra / Gustavo Dudamel)
Brahms - Shostakovich Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle

New Irish Music (Fidelio Trio)

Arriaga, Reicha, Spohr etc (Kreutzer Quartet & Stephanie Beck, harp)

Anna Leese (Wigmore Hall recital)

Cello recitals at Goldsmiths College (Alexander Ivashkin & Anzél Gerber - both with Alekzander Szram)

EXAUDI – From Taverner to Ferneyhough at Spitalfields Festival 2008

Brahms/Nex, Ligeti & Reger/Schönberg (Aurora Orchestra/Conlon/Rolf Hind)

Greig & Finnissy (Kreutzers at Wiltons)

APRIL & MAY 2008

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE

Puccini La bohème (Budapest)

Szirmai Mágnás Miska (Budapest)

Handel – Rodrigo (Lufthanza Baroque Festival)

Birtwistle Punch and Judy (ENO At The Young Vic)

Birtwistle The Minotaur (Royal Opera House)

Lehar The Merry Widow (ENO)

Cavalli Il Calisto (Royal Academy Opera)

CONCERTS

 

Denisov, Gubaidulina & Schnittke (Goldsmiths College PureGold Festival)

Beethoven, Clement & Mozart (Beethoven Explored at Wiltons)

Nono Prometeo

Flute recital at St John's Smith Square (Boustany & Szram)

Beethoven String Quartets cycle (Wihan Quartet at Blackheath)

Schubert Impromptus & Moments Musicaux (András Schiff)

Fauré, Chopin & Prokofiev ( Philharmonia Orchestra/Sokhiev)

Bartók, Pintscher & Schönberg (LSO/Boulez)

Ives, Bartok, Steptoe etc (The Kreutzers at Wilton's)

Alinka Kozári (recital in Kaposvár)

Bax, Bridge & York Bowen (The Bridge Duo; lunchtime recital)

Bach, Beethoven, Mozart & Chopin (Jill Crossland piano)

Clark, Dennehy, Parker, Reich, Stockhausen, Xenakis (New Noise - Cross Talk)

Ferrier Competition finals [Ben Johnson, Alexander Robin Baker, Ida Falk Winland, Ida Falk Winland, Derek Welton, Adrian Ward (Elizabeth Donovan)]

PLG Monday Platform (Rautio Piano Trio; Katie Stillman & Simon Lane)

Ronald Stevenson at 80

German and English contemporary composers (Uroboros Ensemble)
Standing room only at the Warehouse - -

Handel - Messiah (Solomon Choir & Orchestra)

Brazil 1 & 2 (Lontano & Clelia Iruzun)

Chopin & Enescu (Luiza Borac)

 

 

FEBRUARY & MARCH

OPERA & MUSIC THEATRE

 

Offenbach La Vie Parisienne (Guildhall School of Music and Drama)

Shostakovich – Paradise Moscow (Royal Academy Opera)

Henri Oguike Dance Company with Orquestra do Algarve

Grabu, Blow & Purcell (Linden Baroque)

Britten Peter Grimes & Dove Pinocchio (Opera North at Sadlers Wells)

Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor (ENO at The Coliseum)

Puccini – La Boheme (Garden Opera at Blackheath Halls)

Dowland IN DARKNESS LET ME DWELL (Transition Opera)

 

CONCERTS

Gruberova at Wigmore Hall

Messiaen at Wilton's

Beethoven Explored Vols. 3 & 4

Wagner Wesendonck-Lieder & Orchestral Music (Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra)

Emerson Quartet with Gilbert Kalish

Mozart Piano Concertos (Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/Robert Levin)

Barenboim Beethoven Sonatas (2)

Barenboim Beethoven Sonata Cycle

Richard Goode piano recital

Arman Trio 10th Anniversary Concert (Castelnuovo-Tedesco etc)

Trpceski & Montero to Ferneyhough

Fujikura, Anderson, Taylor & Montague (Trinity College of Music Contemporary Music Group)

 

JANUARY 2008

CONCERTS

Eva Podles with Garrick Ohlsson (Wigmore Hall recital)

David Matthews (Kreutzer Quartet at Wilton's Music Hall)

Haydn, Bartok & Schumann (Zehetmair Quartet)

A Sunday of Chamber Music and Song in London (Blackheath Halls and Wigmore Hall)

Royal Academy students in song and opera

Poulenc, Britten and Shostakovich Songs (Christopher Maltman)

Royal Academy students in song and opera

Judith Weir - The Vanishing Bridegroom and Woman.Life.Song (BBC at The Barbican and on Radio3)

Schubert Lieder (Röschmann / Bostridge / Quastoff Trio)

Haydn & Joseph, Bedford & Mozart (St Paul’s Sinfonia)

Purcell & Blow (Early Opera Company)

Schumann & Prokofiev (Mikhail Shilyaev, piano)

Mahler : Symphony No 4 (LSO/Gergiev)

Schumann, Butterworth & Poulenc (Simon Keenlyside)

PARK LANE GROUP YOUNG ARTISTS SERIES 2008:-

Arnold & Lachenmann Quartets (Harpham String Quartet, PLGYA)
Berio, Cutler & Maconchy (Barbirolli String Quartet, PLGYA)
PLGYA (Jan 7, 9 & 10)