Author Archives: Mark Pullinger

Top ten operas 2022

This was the year that opera houses got back to something approaching “normality” post-pandemic. It’s easy to forget that at the start of 2022, Covid restrictions were still very much in place: visiting Vienna in January, one needed proof of … Continue reading

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Zinging strings: Janine Jansen leads an all-Stradivarius octet at Cadogan Hall

Janine Jansen and friends Cadogan Hall, 19th December 2022 When the biographies for the instruments take up as much space in the programme as the biographies for the performers, something different is about to occur. A multi-million pound Stradivarius ensemble … Continue reading

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Ettore Bastianini: Icon

The great baritone Ettore Bastianini was born 100 years ago (24th September 1922). To mark the centenary of the great baritone’s birth, here is the “Icons” piece I wrote about his career on disc from Gramophone magazine (April 2019): Every … Continue reading

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Perceptions and perspectives: Alice Sara Ott’s Echoes of Life

Alice Sara Ott Queen Elizabeth Hall, 7th November 2021 The concept of the “album as playlist” has become increasingly popular with pianists. Víkingur Ólafsson’s DG disc juxtaposing music by Debussy and Rameau, for example, was an inspired way of highlighting … Continue reading

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Vivaldi Peaches

Following my lockdown listening to all of Vivaldi’s concertos, I was delighted to turn my attention to his operas for a piece in the February 2021 issue of Opera magazine. To complement that feature, here is a brief playlist of … Continue reading

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