Musicians are at a precipice – but does the government care? Given a fanatical Brexiteer cabinet fixated on impossible dreams, and some stunningly inadequate ministers in charge of important a...Read More
LSO/Simon Rattle, Barbican As a deity whose acolytes believed he had pulled down the palace of traditional tonality, Arnold Schoenberg invited iconoclasm; the only surprise is that the response took ...Read More
Orchestra and Choir of the Age of Enlightenment/Rattle, Royal Festival Hall Should Bach’s Passions be staged? They increasingly are, and there are good supporting arguments, particularly in the ca...Read More
Trifonov/LSO/Rattle, Barbican The Barbican is building a series of concerts round the young Russian pianist Daniil Trifonov, and his talent deserves the accolade. For his first outing he chose to pla...Read More
Genesis Suite, Barbican, 13.1.18 In 1943, as news of the Holocaust and the mass flight of refugees was coming through, a Jewish New York musician named Nat Shilkret had an idea for a musical re...Read More
Simon O’Neill/Christian Gerhaher/London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle: Barbican, 13.12.17 The last major work composed by Richard Strauss, and also by a mile the most beautiful, Metamorphos...Read More
(The first in an irregular series of musical blogs.) From now on, every time Simon Rattle raises his baton at the Barbican he will offer a hostage to fortune: the more musically successful the concert...Read More