Review: St Nicholas, Belladonna – Sue Mileham Soprano, Jane Plessner Clarinet, Nicola Grunberg Piano
With clarinet piano and soprano, a gloriously rich vocal recital
Genre: Music
Review: Tamzin Barnett and Nancy Cooley Soprano and Piano Recital
Tamzin Barnett’s already a remarkably versatile and mature artist. Where most was asked for she was at her most thrilling. Watch out for her.
Review: Bach and Stern Violin and Piano Recital
Altogether, we need players like Bach who understand what’s there to be discovered. Stern proves ideal.
Review: Olive Murray, Christopher Foreman, Soprano and Piano Recital
A delighted, delightful recital, exploratory and really worth hearing again.
Review: Mike Hatchard Piano Recital
Mozart would have been delighted wit what Mike Hatchard does with his Turkish March.
Review: BBC Prom 66 Dukas, Prokofiev, Schmidt Requiem Berlin Philharmonic, Petrenko.
BBC Prom 66 was - with the Berlin Philharmonic under Kirill Petrenko – at least as adventurous as anything Simon Rattle brought across with this band. Schmidt’s Symphony 4 though is the revelation.
Review: Belly of a Drunken Piano
masterful evening of drama, riveting music, beautiful storytelling, pulsating beats, all woven with music of the boomer generation.
Review: Hamish Henderson: On the Radical Road
A selection of the political songs and writings of the great Scottish folklorist
Review: The Beatbox Collective: What’s Your Sound?
The vocal talent of this crew is nothing short of extraordinary
Review: Anthony Pleeth and Tatty Theo Baroque Cello Duo
It takes integrity to stick to such deeply reflective music and project it so well. More than worth spending an hour with.
Review: Jon Rattenbury and Brian Ashworth Guitar Duo
Jon Rattenbury and Brian Ashworth one of the best-known guitar duos on the south coast enjoy a particular way with the classical guitar.
Review: Letters For Peace
Haunting, poignant music from one of Scotland’s leading guitarist and composers
Review: Bowjangles: Excalibow
Outstanding music, vocals, comedy, movement, and innovation combine to create a remarkable performance.
Review: Mugenkyo Taiko Drummers Tribe
Thrilling Taiko drumming with stunning visual effects and choreography
Review: Lucia di Lammermoor
This is a stunning pocket-sized opera-house quality Lucia. You won’t find a better-sung, more affecting Donizetti this year.
Review: Sussex Flutes, All Saints
Beautifully consummate, with memorable repertoire, they’re a unique group who should be selling discs.
Review: Harmonia Trio Cara Barseghian, Daphne Elston, Elizabeth Shepley
Bracing, innovatively chosen repertoire makes the Harmonia Trio an essential part of music-making in the south.
Review: BBC Prom 33 Musgrave and Brahms Requiem BBC SO & Chorus, Richard Farnes RAH August 7th 2018
A superb reading of the Brahms Requiem. In Phoenix Rising, never before programmed, we find another Thea Musgrave classic.
Review: Chapel Royal, Paul Gregory and Peter Shulski, Bach and Schubert, August 7th 2018
Gregory and Shulski make both works seamless and I the Bach, powerfully truthful. And Gregory’s proved his point with this arrangement too: you see it in a new, summer-laden light.
Review: BBC Prom 28 Mussorgsky, Benjamin, Ravel Ligeti and Debussy NYO, George Benjamin RAH August 4th 2018
An outstanding concert. We need George Benjamin to inspire young players to fall in love with modern works not least his own.
Review: Janice Fehlauer Piano Recital
On the strength of this astonishing recital Janice Fehlauer should be at the Wigmore Hall and with a number of CDs to her credit.
Review: BBC Prom 22 Haydn Symphony 104 in D; Vaughan Williams Symphony No. 2
The Haydn was excellent and we need more. The Vaughan Williams a revelatory cleansing and asserting its stature - which should be international.
Review: Victoria Puttock and Mark Dancer, Saxophone and Piano
An exhilarating recital, from a duo who plan to return in January. Look out for them when you need winter blues blown away by the summer ones.
Review: The Rape of Lucretia
Far from being just timely, this Grimeborn production reinvents how we might feel about this troubling, disturbed and absolutely contemporary piece in a time of #Me Too.
Review: Proms 17 Parry Vaughan Williams Holst Royal Albert Hall July 27th 2018
A revelatory programme, and fresh, flowing performances that pick up the keen lyricism and blow the fustian. A couple more masterpieces we can count on the strength of this one.
Review: Jon Rattenbury and Brian Ashworth Guitar Duo
Jon Rattenbury and Brian Ashworth one of the best-known guitar duos on the south coast enjoy a particular way with the classical guitar.
Review: Phillip Dyson 60th Birthday Piano Tour
Dyson proves how supreme he is in conjuring orchestral sonorities in this stand-out recital bringing so-called lighter classics home where they belong.
Review: Hammig String Quartet with Pianist Clare Wibberley Brahms Piano Quartet No. 2 A major, Op 26
The ensemble’s absolutely inside the music, and they all fit each other with unanimity and panache.
Review: Ellie Blackshaw, Yoko Ono, Paul Gregory Piano Trios
If you care about chamber music, and want to be surprised, this is the place to be.
Review: Hannah Peel, BBC Music Stage, Latitude
Dreamy swirls of quirky electronica to lose yourself in.
Review: Liam Gallagher, BBC Music Stage, Latitude
I'm as surprised as you are, but this actually was my gig of the festival!
Review: And You Will Know Us By The Trail Of Dead at the BBC Music Stage, Latitude
Silly name, stupendous show.
Review: Joseph Spooner and Glen Capra Russian Cello and Piano Recital
This is first rank cello and piano playing and we’re incredibly lucky these artists live amongst us.
Review: This Is Elvis
Inevitably this stands or falls by Steve Michaels, but it could only be outstanding if the whole production revs around it, and this one fires into life, never letting up. This Is Elvis. Elvis lives. End of.
Review: Imogen Hancock and Jennifer Hughes
Trumpeter Imogen Hancock and pianist Jennifer Hughes gave an outstandingly vital recital at All Saints.
Review: Christina McMaster Recital
Christina McMaster confirms we hardly need the Wigmore if such artists travel to Brighton for the Chapel Royal and a few other venues.
Review: Eliette Harris and Joshua Urben, Violin and Piano Recital
A tremendous burgeoning; I hope this duo continue.
Review: Maeve Jenkinson, Sarah Davison, Rachel Fryer Schubert Piano Trio No. 1 in Bb, D898
This is first-class music-making, the kind that persuades you you don’t need to travel up to the Wigmore Hall or wait for the Festival and fringe to enjoy all round music-making of this calibre.
Review: Johan de Cock Piano Recital
Revelatory pianism from a composer pianist who proves classic and film music adaptations belong in the same repertoire.
Review: Patrick Avery Guitar Recital
Exquisitely performed. It takes nerve and artistry to perform so consistently slowly till near the end: a fascinating career to watch.
Review: Juliet Edwards and Yoko Ono Four Hand Piano, Ravel and Rachmaninov
From Yoko Ono’s sweeping glissandi in the Ravel through to Edwards taking her treble line in the Rachmaninov, the unanimity of their performance is really distinguished playing.
Review: LIPS Wind Quintet
LIPS are a superb ensemble, and typical of the Chapel Royal team to have discovered them.
Review: Of Heart and Homeland
A hugely enjoyable, accomplished and accessible recital for violin and piano
Review: Organ Recital, All Saints
A superb double-recital to celebrate the return of the Hill organ.
Review: Michele Roszak and Lynda Spinney: Music in May
Michele Roszak’s as ever a richly engaging singer pushing her range through the soprano register. Always pushing new repertoire too she ranges widely here. Lynda Spinney’s acute understanding maximises their impact.
Review: The String Quartet’s Guide to Sex and Anxiety
A melange of music, spoken word and performance, musing on mental health.
Review: Meera Maharaj (flute) and Dominic Degavino (piano)
One of the most exciting flute recitals I’ve attended. Maharaj is back on September 20th at All Saints.
Review: Lana Trotovsek and Yoko Misumi
Lana Trotovsek and Yoko Misumi are a compelling duo, and I’ve not heard violin playing of that force and character for a long time.
Review: Shostakovich 24 Preludes and Fugues
Powell makes more of the interconnectedness of this music perhaps than anyone since Tatiana Nikolayeva, and more lucidly than anybody ever. Acclimatising himself to the St Michael’s acoustics he delivered something extraordinary.
Review: The Boy, the Piano and the Beach
A good experiment that the Slot Machine Theatre hasn't quite managed to pull off… yet.
Review: Border Tales
Brilliant - creatively devised, provocative, well performed, poignant and moving!
Review: Amanda Brown & the Common Ears
In which I attempt to explain that which I do not truly understand
Review: Esben & the Witch
A devastating storm of raw emotion that somehow failed to find the audience it richly deserved
Review: Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer: The Chap-Hop Decade
Returning to his roots, festival fave and Brighton’s own Mr. B The Gentleman Rhymer celebrated 10 years of the musical genre he founded, Chap Hop.
Review: Souvenir
Uproarious “kamikaze cabaret” history of Brighton Theatre Royal told through song and amusing anecdotes.
Review: When Love Grows Old
Could this be the pilot to a melancholically-observed sitcom like Vicious? One audience member suggested it. Whilst The Romance of the Century is beautifully observed and deftly revivifies a much-fictioned historical turning-point, The Weatherman is outstanding comedy, as are the performances.
Review: Million Dollar Quartet
This is outstanding for is peerless characterising of the four legends with their unexpected female singer, the acting of Duncan and above al for the way the structure allows such extraordinary musicianship its head.
Review: The White Devil
The gender-slashing part of Vittoria demands venom and defiance as well as passion in verse. Joseph Timms and Kate Stanley-Brennan as Vittoria shine delivering Webster’s verse, pointing up with defiant splendor or self-delighting braggadocio tinged with Trainspotting. Ryan’s pacey revival is timely, thrusting us to Webster’s sadly timeless themes. But misogyny’s purged of its merely temporal strut with the force of such verse inhabited, which lays its living sinew bare.
Review: One Night in Miami…
This work’s even more urgent now human rights in the US and elsewhere are temporarily at the least regrouping. Kwei-Armah’s pace and dance made this beautiful to hear and behold, but even more to absorb. An all-black cast has been a long time coming.
Review: Carla Lippis – Baby Carla’s Bad Girl Rumble
Baby Carla's Edinburgh debut - "Serge Gainsbourg in sequins brandishing a flick-knife; Duane Eddy brawling on with the Shangri-Las"
