Hail to the Tallis Scholars, the world’s finest choir of Renaissance music who were in London last night for their first concert in the magnificent St-Martin-in-the-Fields. It was a glorious programme of Antoine Brumel’s 12-part Earthquake Mass, interweaved with sun-centered by American composer David Lang. Lang is one of America’s most-performed composers and his formidable…
Fidelio Orchestra Café: a noteworthy musical salon in Clerkenwell
Last updated on September 25th, 2024Oh happy, happy me. I’m sitting in a buzzy Clerkenwell outpost by the name of Fidelio Orchestra Café, listening to my first round of classical music since the L-word rocked into town and threw café owners and musicians alike into creative and financial disarray. So, it particularly warms the heart…
NW Live at the Bloomsbury Festival 2020
Last updated on October 28th, 2020With further restrictions looming in the London air like a thick Dickensian fog, I spent last week dashing around town trying to tick as many cultural boxes as possible. On Friday, I managed to catch up with some music – and not just any ordinary music. This was the Music…
Oxford Lieder 2020 Review: Song in the Age of Corona
Covid-19 and its pesky restrictions threw a spanner in the Oxford Lieder Festival 2020 works this year, but it didn’t dampen the spirits or the music. The UK’s biggest song festival went online instead, streaming over 40 magnificent recital concerts and events, most of them live and all set in historical surroundings across the city….
A Tour of Handel’s London – Visit 16 Handel Locations
Last updated on September 25th, 2024George Frideric Handel was born in Germany, but he spent a whopping 47 years in London, arriving here when he was just 26. He went on to write some of the world’s most famous operas and oratorios in the capital and became the toast of London town. His patrons included…
Northern Chords Ensemble at King’s Place
Last updated on May 1st, 2020The Steinway piano was happily purring away on the King’s Place stage on Sunday night, with virtuoso Daniel Lebhardt on keys. He was in the musical company of his other Northern Chords Ensemble bedfellows, Benjamin Baker on violin and Jonathan Bloxham on cello. BBC New Generation Artist Timothy Ridout and…
Porgy and Bess at the ENO | Review
Last updated on March 16th, 2019London, why on earth did it take your opera houses so long to stage Porgy and Bess? Thank goodness the English National Opera has corrected this cultural misdemeanour by staging the opera’s first major outing since the 1980s. It’s a sensory feast all round, perfect for opera lovers and novices…
Wallace Collection – A National Treasure
Last updated on December 28th, 2023Tucked behind the Selfridges department store in Marylebone is the Wallace Collection, one of my favourite London haunts. It’s an eighteenth-century city pile with a jaw-dropping art collection and a 500-strong furniture depository which would make Marie Antoinette feel perfectly at home. It’s a sea of crimson red, rococo gold,…