Ragged Music Festival, Copperfield Road, East London Beating a path through the back streets of Tower Hamlets, I find myself at a stunningly good chamber concert. It begins with Tamsin Waley-Cohen an...Read More
Last Prom, Royal Albert Hall In the ancient past, four years ago, people going to the Last Prom had a fairly settled sense of how to deal with it. Left-wingers could laugh at the programme’s jingois...Read More
Latvia may occupy a large territory, but its population of 1.7 million would fit into a small corner of London, and its road to independence has been long and hard. It endured centuries of Swedish, Po...Read More
Rinaldo, Glyndebourne It’s a great pity that this year’s Glyndebourne offering at the Proms should be its new Magic Flute, because that uneven show’s raison d’etre is sight gag...Read More
Die Zauberflöte, Glyndebourne Festival Opera, Lewes In his pre-show sales pitch the French-Canadian director-choreographer Renaud Doucet has announced, with a foot-stamping petulance one more usuall...Read More
The three-string shamisen lute is a brashly assertive instrument, but Japanese composers and performers are now exploring its hitherto unsuspected sonic potential. Honjoh Hidejiro, the leader in this ...Read More
This year’s programme is full of nods to current fads, with the non-classical quota – at least ten of the 83 concerts – creeping steadily up. ‘Multi-genre’ is how the BBC describes this poli...Read More
Boris Godunov, Royal Opera House When the curtain rises on Boris Godunov, the gaudily-painted spinning-top which adorns it turns out to be a giant version of the toy with which a small boy in a white...Read More
Sergei Babayan, Wigmore hall Hot on the heels of Daniil Trifonov’s triumphant residency at the Barbican came the man responsible for channelling the young Russian’s talent – Sergei Babayan. And ...Read More
The Diary of One Who Disappeared, Linbury Theatre, London Janacek’s unrequited 11-year infatuation with Kamila Stösslova – 37 years younger and happily married – gave rise to two of his greates...Read More