Royal Lyceum Theatre, 28/12/2015

C.S. Lewis : The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe (dramatised by Theresa Heskins)

Directed by Andrew Panton
Music by Claire McKenzie

SCO, 18/12/2015

C.P.E. Bach : Symphony in E flat, Wq 183/2
Mozart : Violin Concerto No. 1, K. 207 (Alexander Janiczek, violin)
Mozart : Rondo Concertante in B flat, K. 269 (Alexander Janiczek, violin)
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 3 (Llyr Williams, piano)

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

NT Live (HD broadcast), 08/12/2015

Charlotte Brontë : Jane Eyre

Bristol Old Vic
National Theatre
Music by Benji Bower
Directed by Sally Cookson

Bolshoi Ballet (HD broadcast), 06/12/2015

The Lady of the Camellias (chor. John Neumeier, mus. Chopin)

Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet
Pyotr Chuknov, piano
Alexei Melentyev, piano
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Pavel Sorokin

RSNO, 03/12/2015

Tchaikovsky : Violin Concerto (Baiba Skride, violin)
Strauss : Don Juan
Falla : The Three-Cornered Hat - Suites 1 & 2

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Jaime Martín

RSNO, 21/11/2015

Liszt : Les Préludes
Poulenc : Organ Concerto (Thierry Escaich, organ)
Saint-Saëns : Symphony No. 3 "Organ"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Jun Märkl

What was THAT...?

What it was supposed to be was a production of The Nutcracker by one of those itinerant Eastern European companies that roam around the UK two or three times a year.  Now, I'm not daft.  I don't expect miracles, especially when they come to this city and use a venue very little suited to the performance of ballet (and that escapes me too - surely there are some proscenium arch auditoriums in town that could take these companies for a couple of nights, at no greater expense than the Concert Hall?).  They schlepp around the country, the dancers underpaid and overworked, with their shoestring budget productions, (usually) badly recorded soundtracks, and minimal and often old-fashioned staging values, but that's the world of dance for you.  A dancer - a good dancer, particularly - is a wondrous thing, an athlete swathed in beauty, driven by a vocation as all-consuming as holy orders, so that even under the patchiest of circumstances, they can still communicate their own passion for their art, and their devotion to their craft.  I was merely expecting an honest evening's entertainment; it's the only Nutcracker I'm going to see live on stage this season.  What I got was the most charmless and graceless performance I've ever seen! So, that's as much of a review as I'm going to give, and the company concerned deserves no recognition, not even a name.

[Next : 21st November]

Royal Ballet (HD broadcast), 12/11/2015

Viscera (chor. Liam Scarlett, mus. Lowell Liebermann)
Afternoon of a Faun (chor. Jerome Robbins, mus. Debussy)
Tchaikovsky Pas de Deux (chor. Balanchine, mus. Tchaikovsky)
Carmen (chor. Carlos Acosta, mus. Bizet, arr. Yates)

Robert Clark, piano
Fiona Kimm, mezzo-soprano
Royal Opera Extra Chorus
Artists of the Royal Ballet
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Emmanuel Plasson
Martin Yates (Carmen)

Maki Namekawa, 07/11/2015

Philip Glass : The Etudes

Maki Namekawa, piano

SCO, 06/11/2015

Brahms : Variations on a Theme of Joseph Haydn
Wagner : Wesendonck-Lieder (Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano)
Wagner : Siegfried Idyll
Schubert : Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Emmanuel Krivine

Kneehigh, 03/11/2015

Daphne du Maurier : Rebecca

Adapted and directed by Emma Rice

RNZB, 29/10/2015

Adam : Giselle

Artists of the Royal New Zealand Ballet
Orchestra Wellington
Michael Lloyd (pre-recorded soundtrack)

RSNO, 24/10/2015

Dejan Lazic : Overture from Piano Concerto in Istrian Style (Dejan Lazio, piano)
Chopin : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Dejan Lazic, piano)
Mussorgsky : Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel)

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård

RCS, 23/10/2015

Franck : Prelude, Chorale and Fugue
Franck : Piano Quintet

Sinae Lee, piano
Andrea Gajic, violin
Justine Watts, violin
Andrew Berridge, viola
Alison Wells, cello

The Trocks, 20/10/2015

Tchaikovsky : Swan Lake (Act 2)
Drigo : Le Corsaire - Pas de Deux
J.S. Bach : Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Saint-Saëns : The Swan
Minkus : Don Quixote (extracts)

Les Ballets Trockadero de Monte-Carlo

Metropolitan Opera (HD broadcast), 17/10/15

Verdi : Otello

Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Yannick Nézet-Séguin

Scottish Opera, 13/10/2015

Bizet : Carmen

The Chorus of Carmen
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
David Parry

Bolshoi Ballet (HD Broadcast), 11/10/2015

Adam : Giselle

Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Pavel Klinichev

"Marguerite", 03/10/2015

I understand there's a film biopic of the inimitable Florence Foster Jenkins in the works, with none other than Meryl Streep in the title role.  In the meantime, French director Xavier Giannoli has snuck in there with a film loosely inspired by the would-be diva, which opened last week and which I found the time to see before returning to the UK.  Set in 1920, the unfortunate tone-deaf prima donna is a wealthy French philanthropist, Marguerite Dumont, and in the course of the film she "graduates" from a (thankfully) brief appearance at a private benefit concert to preparing for and appearing at a full-scale public recital, formal concert hall and the works.

There are, as you might expect, a few laugh-out loud moments.  The singing of Dumont (of which, thankfully, there's not actually a great deal) is suitably atrocious, and the moment when a formerly distinguished tenor, approached to coach the lady for her public debut, first hears her, is absolutely priceless. But there's much less blatant comedy than might be supposed, instead it's mostly a study of characters - most of whom leave something to be desired.  

Giannoli's film also takes a turn for the melodramatic at the end, which I thought a pity, but it has left me with one persistant thought.  Is it truly possible to appreciate something without understanding it in the least?  And, vice versa, is it possible to completely understand something without learning to appreciate it?  I don't want to use the term "love" in this context, one wanders too easily into stalker territory there - they think they both understand and appreciate the subject of their obsession, when in fact they do neither - and I can't equate Marguerite's devotion to her "art" with that degree of delusion, because she does, in fact, appear to have some understanding of music.  If that is so, however, how is it possible she cannot hear her own vocal defects?  Perhaps Stephen Frears's study of the original FFJ will provide some answers that Giannoli did not.

[Next : No change, 11th October]

Paris Opera Ballet (HD Broadcast), 01/10/2015

Clear, Loud, Bright, Forward (Benjamin Millepied, chor.; Nico Muhly, mus.)
Opus19/The Dreamer (Jerome Robbins, chor.; Prokofiev, mus.)
Theme and Variations (George Balanchine, chor.; Tchaikovsky, mus.)

Artists of the Ballet of the Opéra National de Paris
Frédéric Laroque, violin
Orchestra of the Opéra National de Paris
Maxime Pascal

Piano aux Jacobins, 19/09/2015

J.S. Bach : Italian Concerto, BWV 971
Debussy : Estampes
Chopin : Ballades Nos. 1-4
Ravel : La Valse

François Dumont, piano

Piano aux Jacobins, 15/09/2015

Beethoven : Piano Sonata No. 11, Op. 22
Beethoven : Piano Sonata No. 28, Op. 101
Albéniz : Evocación (Iberia, Book I)
Albéniz : Rondeña (Iberia, Book II)
Mussorgsky : Pictures at an Exhibition

Llyr Williams, piano

Anaïs Constans & Lucile Verbizier, 09/09/2015

Cosma - Fauré - Debussy - Poulenc - Rossini - Duparc - Schumann - Offenbach - Massenet - Rachmaninoff - Tchaikovsky - Guastavino - Bizet - Delibes - Lecoq

Anaïs Constans, soprano
Lucile Verbizier, mezzo-soprano
Benjamin Carré, piano

Festival du Comminges, 19/08/2015

Poulenc : Clarinet Sonata
Brahms : Cello Sonata No. 2
Brahms : Clarinet Trio

Raphaël Sévère, clarinet
Victor Julien-Laferrière, cello
Adam Laloum, piano

Festival du Comminges, 06/08/2015

Gershwin : Rhapsody in Blue
Bernstein : Symphonic Dances from West Side Story (trans. John Musto)
Colin McPhee : Balinese Ceremonial Music
Percy Grainger : Porgy and Bess Fantasy

David Lively, piano
Jay Gottlieb, piano

Chorégies d'Orange, 11/07/2015

Bizet : Carmen

Choeurs d'Anger-Nantes Opéra
Choeur de l'Opéra Grand-Avignon
Choeur de l'Opéra de Nice
Maîtrise des Bouches-du-Rhône
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Mikko Franck

Chorégies d'Orange, 10/07/2015

Berlioz : Carnaval romain
Poulenc : Concerto for 2 Pianos and Orchestra
Saint-Saëns : Symphony No. 3 "Organ"

Martha Argerich, piano
Nicholas Angelich, piano
Christophe Henry, organ
Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France
Myung-Whun Chung

Chorégies d'Orange, 07/07/2015

Bellini - Cilea - Donizetti - Gounod - Puccini - Verdi

Ekaterina Siurina (soprano)
Joseph Calleja (tenor)
Orchestre National de Lyon
Enrique Mazzola

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Final II, 21/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Main Prize Final - 21st June 2015

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Søndergård (TS)
Martyn Brabbins (MB)

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Final I, 19/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Song Prize Final

Accompanists:
Simon Lepper (SL)
Llyr Williams (LW)

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Day Four, 18/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Concert Four - 18th June 2015

Orchestra of Welsh National Orchestra
Martyn Brabbins

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Day Three, 17/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Concert Three - 17th June 2015

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Søndergård

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Day Two, 16/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Concert Two - 16th June 2015

Orchestra of Welsh National Opera
Martyn Brabbins

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World - Day One, 15/06/2015

BBC Cardiff Singer of the World 2015
Concert One - 15th June 2015

BBC National Orchestra of Wales
Thomas Søndergård

Royal Opera (HD broadcast), 10/06/2015

Puccini : La bohème

Royal Opera Chorus

Orchestra of the Royal Opera House

Dan Ettinger

RSNO, 30/05/2015

Elgar : The Dream of Gerontius

Toby Spence (tenor)
Sarah Connolly (mezzo-soprano)
Alan Opie (baritone)
RSNO Chorus
Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

RSNO, 23/05/2015

Berlioz : Roman Carnival Overture
Lalo : Symphonie espagnole (Ray Chen, violin)
Brahms : Symphony No. 2

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Peter Oundjian

King Roger streamcast

I've known Szymanowski's King Roger in audio form for many years, and I'd have given my eye-teeth to be in London for the Royal Opera's first-ever staging of this marvellous work.  Not possible, alas, and for some reason, the company saw fit not to add this to its cinema broadcast roster, but they did stream it live over the internet.  It was available from a couple of sources, but I watched via the newly launched Opera Platform (www.theoperaplatform.eu), which also promises more and similar goodies to come, from opera houses all over Europe.

However, the problem is that it is a streamed broadcast.  Unless you have a state-of-the-art home theatre, with smart TV, integrated sound system, etc., etc., then you're faced with a small screen, and tinny sound.  The thing that really gets my goat is that it's apparently not possible to synchronise analogue and digital broadcasts.  I have a perfectly good stereo system, and the ideal would have been to turn the sound off on my computer, and listen to the broadcast live via BBC Radio 3.  Yet there's a ten second delay between the sound you get via FM, and the sound you get over the internet, which is just plain frustrating.

I'm not going to deprive myself of the pleasure of watching this sort of thing, I'm too much of an opera nut for that.  But no matter how interesting King Roger was, it's going to remain a private indulgence, as the kind of reproduction quality you get in the cinema simply isn't available to me.

[Next : 23rd May]

BBCSSO, 14/05/2015

Berio : Quattro versioni originali della "Ritirata notturna di Madrid" di Luigi Boccherini
Mozart : Piano Concerto No. 21, K.467 (Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano)
Mendelssohn : A Midsummer Night's Dream (complete incidental music)

Katherine Broderick, soprano
Clara Mouriz, mezzo-soprano
Actors from the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Les Sirènes
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Markus Stenz

Scottish Opera, 12/05/2015

Verdi : Il Trovatore

Chorus of Il Trovatore
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Tobias Ringborg

RCS, 11/05/2015

Vaughan Williams : Sir John in Love

Chorus and Orchestra
Royal Conservatoire of Scotland
Timothy Dean

BBCSSO, 08/05/2015

Janacek : Sinfonietta
Shostakovich : Piano Concerto No. 1 (Garrick Ohlsson, piano; Mark O'Keeffe, trumpet)
Shostakovich : Symphony No. 15

BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Alpesh Chauhan

RSNO, 02/05/2015

Sibelius : Night Ride and Sunrise
Grieg : Piano Concert (Christian Ihle Hadland, piano)
Nielsen : Symphony No. 4 "The Inextinguishable"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
John Storgårds

RSNO, 26/04/2015

Sibelius : Karelia Suite
Nielsen : Violin Concerto (James Ehnes, violin)
Beethoven : Symphony No. 3, "Eroica"

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Thomas Søndergård

Scottish Ballet, 24/04/2015

Exalt (Marc Brew, choreography; Nils Frahm, music)
5 Tangos (Hans van Manen, choreography; Astor Piazzolla, music)

Artists of Scottish Ballet
Indepen-dance 4
(pre-recorded soundtracks)

Pascal Rogé, 17/04/2015

Poulenc : 3 Mouvements perpétuels
Poulenc : 3 Improvisations (12, 14, 15)
Poulenc : 3 Novelettes
Ravel : Sonatine
Poulenc : Soirées de Nazelles

Pascal Rogé, piano

RSNO/RCS, 15/04/2015

RCS Concerto Soloists

Rodrigo : Concierto de Aranjuez (Sasha Savaloni, guitar)
Villa-Lobos : Ciranda das sete notas (Ryan Sullivan, bassoon)
Ravel : Piano Concerto for the Left Hand (Donata Vaitkute, piano)
Ravel : Boléro

Royal Scottish National Orchestra
Jean-Claude Picard

Scottish Opera, 11/04/2015

 Janácek : Jenufa

The Chorus of Jenufa
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Stuart Stratford

Capitole de Toulouse, 03/04/2015

Amour, Amor
Rameau / Fähndrich : Les liaisons dangereuses
Falla : El amor brujo

Artists of the Ballet du Capitole
(Pre-recorded soundtracks - no credits given)

Royal Opera (HD broadcast), 01/04/2015

Weill : Aufstieg und Fall der Stadt Mahagonny

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Mark Wigglesworth

Royal Opera (HD broadcast), 24/02/2015

Wagner : Der fliegende Holländer

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Andris Nelsons

Scottish Opera, 19/02/2015

Gluck : Orfeo ed Euridice

The Chorus of Orfeo ed Euridice
The Orchestra of Scottish Opera
Kenneth Montgomery

Metropolitan Opera (HD broadcast), 14/02/2015

Tchaikovsky : Iolanta
Bartók : Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Metropolitan Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Valery Gergiev

SCO, 06/02/2015

Fauré :  Pelléas et Mélisande - Suite
Ravel : Piano Concert in G major (Mitsuko Uchida, piano)
Boulez : Mémoriale
Haydn : Symphony No. 101 "The Clock"

Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Robin Ticciati

BRB, 05/02/2015

Delibes : Coppélia

Birmingham Royal Ballet
Royal Ballet Sinfonia
Paul Murphy

Metropolitan Opera (HD broadcast). 31/01/2015

Offenbach : Les Contes d'Hoffmann

Chorus and Orchestra of the Metropolitan Opera, New York
Yves Abel

SCO, 30/01/2015

Haydn : Symphony No. 70
Mahler (arr. Cortese) : Das Lied von der Erde

Karen Cargill, mezzo-soprano
Simon O'Neill, tenor
Scottish Chamber Orchestra
Robin Ticciati

Royal Opera (HD broadcast), 29/01/2015

Giordano : Andrea Chénier

Royal Opera Chorus
Orchestra of the Royal Opera House, Covent Garden
Sir Antonio Pappano

Bolshoi Ballet (HD broadcast), 25/01/2015

Tchaikovsky : Swan Lake

Artists of the Bolshoi Ballet
Orchestra of the Bolshoi Theatre
Pavel Sorokin

Scottish Opera, 22/01/2015

MacMillan : Inés de Castro

Chorus of Inés de Castro
Orchestra of Scottish Opera
James MacMillan

SCO, 16/01/2015

Stravinsky : Concerto in D
Mozart : Sinfonia Concertante, K. 364 (Alexander Janiczek, violin; Jane Atkins, viola)
Beethoven : Piano Concerto No. 2 (Llyr Williams, piano)
Mozart : Symphony No. 31 "Paris"

Scottish Chamber Orchestra

Scottish Ballet, 08/01/2015

Tchaikovsky : The Nutcracker

Scottish Ballet
Scottish Ballet Orchestra
Richard Honner