Skip to content

Michael Church's blog

Michael Church's blog

  • Home
  • Features
  • Reviews
  • About
  • The Other Classical Musics

Author: Michael Church

Savall at the Wigmore

Posted on October 30, 2017November 4, 2017 by Michael Church
Jordi Savall and Hesperion Ensemble, Wigmore Hall, 29.10.17   Who said the Wigmore Hall, the world’s temple of chamber music, was stuffy? Disregard for a moment the devoted crowd who routinely ... Read More

En passant: the OAE’s triumphant Semele… And a patchy ENO Rodelinda

Posted on October 19, 2017October 30, 2017 by Michael Church
Semele, Royal Festival Hall, 18.10.17 I’ve seen quite a few stage productions of Handel’s Semele, but I can’t remember one as dramatic as the one I’ve just heard by the Orchestra of the Age of... Read More

En passant: a woeful ENO Aida, but a triumphant Barber… Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s first recital… Faust and Melnikov play Mozart…and Covent Garden revives its Vepres siciliennes…

Posted on October 16, 2017October 17, 2017 by Michael Church
Aida, Coliseum An opera house needs a story to launch the season, and ENO had three. First, their chief executive had suddenly announced her premature departure. Second, Aida would be the first chance... Read More

En passant: Tom Cairns’s Traviata… Andras Schiff’s majestic Bach…

Posted on August 16, 2017September 8, 2017 by Michael Church
La traviata, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, 2017   La traviata may be one of that small handful of operas which everyone loves, but since the revival of Tom Cairns’s production is turning out to ... Read More

A profile of Ekaterina Semenchuk

Posted on August 6, 2017August 7, 2017 by Michael Church
  ‘If I were a gambler,’ I wrote in The Independent seventeen years ago, ‘I’d put serious money on a 23-year-old Russian mezzo who will make her discreet solo UK debut in a Suffolk church... Read More

Evgeny Kissin, a child of history

Posted on July 6, 2017July 26, 2017 by Michael Church
Emerging from a rare sabbatical, Evgeny Kissin – the world’s most acclaimed classical pianist – has just published his autobiography. He has also just married a childhood friend, and he’s ... Read More

En passant: Graham Vick’s ‘Mitridate’ – still original after 26 years… and the evergreen Turandot… and an interesting Proms experiment

Posted on June 27, 2017September 26, 2017 by Michael Church
Mitridate, re di Ponto, Royal Opera house, London   Nobody ever talks about Graham Vick’s 26-year-old production of Mitridate, re di Ponto – it seemed to have sunk without trace – but Coven... Read More

Netia Jones at Aldeburgh

Posted on June 3, 2017July 19, 2017 by Michael Church
‘If there’s no blood, there’s no entertainment,’ shouts Netia Jones, as her Puck catapults himself high into the air, and lands with a sickening thump on the rehearsal room floor. ‘Gosh – ... Read More

En passant: ROH Don Carlo…Two Glyndebourne hits…David Helfgott returns…A perfect Figaro at Garsington…

Posted on May 13, 2017June 5, 2017 by Michael Church
Don Carlo, Covent Garden, 12.5.17 With its God-given melodies, ravishing orchestration, and intricate but whizzing plot, Verdi’s Don Carlo ticks all the boxes, including that of topicality 150 years... Read More

En passant: Yuja Wang… Jean-Guihen Queyras… La nuova musica…War of the Granges…Yardbird

Posted on April 26, 2017July 19, 2017 by Michael Church
Yuja Wang, Royal Festival Hall The elfin Yuja Wang has now reached thirty, so must be judged by grown-up standards. A shame that she ducked out of the ‘Hammerklavier’ Sonata originally billed for ... Read More
  • 13 of 17
  • « Previous
  • 1
  • …
  • 11
  • 12
  • 13
  • 14
  • 15
  • …
  • 17
  • Next »

Recent Posts

  • Classical events under Covid
  • How not to present a Live Prom
  • Rule Britannia: a storm in a teacup, capitalised on by Johnson and the Mail
  • John Gilhooly’s Wigmore leads the charge
  • Prom No 1 – good in parts

Recent Comments

  • D irvine on Phage medicine – at last the BBC and the press wake up
  • Richard Seymour Roques on Phage medicine – at last the BBC and the press wake up
  • Adam on Anderszewski celebrates his fiftieth at the Wigmore in typically unorthodox style
  • Nicholas on Anderszewski celebrates his fiftieth at the Wigmore in typically unorthodox style
  • Anna Basaldua on Anderszewski celebrates his fiftieth at the Wigmore in typically unorthodox style

Archives

  • October 2020
  • August 2020
  • July 2020
  • June 2020
  • March 2020
  • February 2020
  • December 2019
  • November 2019
  • October 2019
  • September 2019
  • August 2019
  • July 2019
  • June 2019
  • May 2019
  • April 2019
  • March 2019
  • February 2019
  • January 2019
  • December 2018
  • November 2018
  • October 2018
  • September 2018
  • July 2018
  • June 2018
  • May 2018
  • April 2018
  • March 2018
  • February 2018
  • December 2017
  • November 2017
  • October 2017
  • August 2017
  • July 2017
  • June 2017
  • May 2017
  • April 2017
  • March 2017
  • January 2017
  • November 2016
  • October 2016
  • September 2016
  • August 2016
  • May 2016
  • January 2016
  • November 2015

Categories

  • Features
  • Reviews
  • Uncategorized

Meta

  • Log in
  • Entries RSS
  • Comments RSS
  • WordPress.org
© 2021 Michael Church's blog. All Rights Reserved. Coller Theme by Rohit.
  • Home
  • Michael Church