Tag Archives: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Zinging Haydn and Mozart from Ádám Fischer and the OAE

Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/ Ádám Fischer **** Royal Festival Hall, 27th February 2018 Two years ago, when I told Ádám Fischer that I owned his recorded cycle of the complete Haydn symphonies, he chuckled and apologised, explaining that he didn’t like … Continue reading

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Rebellious Beethoven from Nicola Benedetti, Marin Alsop and the OAE

Beethoven: Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment/ Alsop **** Royal Festival Hall, 4th February 2018 It was Robert Schumann who called Beethoven’s Fourth Symphony “a slender Greek maiden between two Norse giants”. Nestling between the revolutionary Eroica and the Fifth’s hammer blows … Continue reading

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One for sorrow: Claus Guth directs a taut, dark Clemenza di Tito at Glyndebourne

Mozart: La clemenza di Tito *** Glyndebourne, 26th July 2017 A single magpie settles on a branch beside a lake. Two boys stalk through the long reeds. The older one hands the younger, fair-haired lad a slingshot and watches as … Continue reading

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Blank canvas: Pallid Berlioz from the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Berlioz/Mendelssohn: OAE ** Royal Festival Hall, 20th February 2017 Period instruments and historically informed practice have revolutionised the way much classical music has been performed for decades. “The Berlioz Experience”, a weekend masterminded by Roger Norrington here at the Southbank … Continue reading

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A tale of two tenors as Méhul is celebrated by the OAE

Méhul et al: OAE/Cohen **** St John’s Smith Square, 10th February 2017 Étienne-Nicolas Méhul’s music isn’t familiar to most concert-goers. The only work which I know is his First Symphony, the finale of which contains a motif so similar to … Continue reading

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