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…a sideways glance at London's classical, jazz and world music scenes
Browsing All Posts filed under »Classical«
Preview: Shostakovich – Orango (prologue) / Philharmonia Orchestra
Tweet this. By Rob Edgar “Shostakovich wrote this prologue, probably played it through but then somebody somewhere said ‘we don’t think so’, and on that it stopped,” Gerard McBurney, a leading expert on the enigmatic Soviet composer, tells me. “There’s no scholarly proof as to why this happened but my guess is that a moment […]
Preview: Pioneers Of Electronic Music Festival
February 14, 2013 by Culture Capital
Tweet this. This on Londonist today… Composer Gabriel Prokofiev, founder of the classical club series Nonclassical, is presenting an ambitious electronic music festival in East London in March. Running from 6 to 17 March, the event wraps together performances, film screenings, talks and workshops at venues including The Macbeth in Hoxton, the Hackney Picturehouse, Rio […]
Review: Carlos Núñez, Philip Pickett & Musicians of the Globe @ QEH
February 2, 2013 by Culture Capital
“Here we have two monsters,” said Carlos Núñez, introducing a pair of bagpipes (including his signature Galician gaita) towards the end of the first set with new collaborator Philip Pickett last night. But until the three rounds of encores, when proceedings erupted into foot-stamping delirium, Núñez played his monsters only briefly and at a volume […]
Review: Platform 33 first anniversary @ the Nursery
Platform 33 (so called because each artist gets 33 minutes to perform) is a musical and cultural movement started by Chloe Booker. The idea is to bring a wide variety of contemporary ensembles to audiences who are likely to shun the pomp and ceremony of the concert hall. Saturday saw a collaboration with like-minded collective/music […]
Preview: The Rest Is Noise Festival @ Southbank Centre
January 16, 2013 by Culture Capital
One of the most ambitious ever feats of arts programming in London launches this Saturday. The Rest Is Noise festival (TRIN), inspired by New Yorker writer Alex Ross’s seminal book, will chart the music of the 20th century. Starting with Richard Strauss (the book opens with the premiere of Salome) and finishing somewhere around John […]
News: Two sparkling classical trailers for 2013
January 15, 2013 by Culture Capital
Two savvy London arts organisations, the Royal Opera House and Aurora Orchestra, have trailers out promoting their wares in 2013. Both will have taken chunks out their marketing budgets to produce this level of video content, but in a crowded market, orchestras and opera houses need to stand out from the crowd. 1. Covent Garden’s […]
Review: LSO / Gergiev @ the Barbican
London Symphony Orchestra / Valery Gergiev (conductor) Szymanowski – Symphony No.4 (‘Symphonie Concertante’) & Violin Concerto No.2 Brahms – Symphony No.4 Wednesday 19th December 2012 One question everybody in London’s classical music world has been asking lately: what on earth convinced Valery Gergiev to programme Szymanowski and Brahms together? It’s a difficult question to answer. On […]
Review: Yellow Lounge at Old Vic Tunnels
Monday 10 December 2012 It’s a troubling question and one that exercises the minds and the wallets of record companies: how do you sell classical music to a younger audience? Universal Records have attempted to solve the problem with a London edition of the Yellow Lounge (a popular club night in Berlin where it has been running since […]
Preview: Top London Christmas Concerts 2012
December 4, 2012 by Culture Capital
This post was written for Londonist.com. Forget the Oxford Street lights and nauseating John Lewis ad, the Christmas season really starts when churches and venues start filling up for carol concerts and Christmas gigs. Arts venues pitch in with Advent events, creating Christmas music programmes from the traditions of classical, jazz and folk music. Here are 10 […]
Preview: Brodsky Quartet – Wheel of 4 Tunes @ Kings Place
Kings Place Hall One, Saturday 8th December, 7.30pm The Brodsky Quartet has something very different up its sleeve for the final concert of next weekend’s three-concert series. It may even be a genuine first: a spinning wheel will be allotted the role of deciding the whole concert programme. “It’s our 40th birthday party,” violist Paul Cassidy told me when […]
Review: BBC Concert Orchestra – Exstatica @ Queen Elizabeth Hall
Monday’s concert at the Queen Elizabeth Hall by the BBC Concert Orchestra under principal conductor Keith Lockhart presented varied pieces based around the feeling of ecstasy, through synesthesia, eroticism and/or movement. Michael Torke’s arresting piece Ecstatic Orange deals with associations between sound and colour; built on a hexachord. Torke maintains variety and a sense of motion by keeping rhythmic devices circling […]
News: Royal Opera House to host Montreux Jazz Festival
October 25, 2012 by Culture Capital
Yes, you read the headline right, and no, I don’t know what it really means. The Covent Garden website just made a skeleton announcement that the historic Swiss jazz festival will be coming to the opera house in July 2013. The title ‘Two worlds meet’ implies crossover but I’d bet that this will be jazz […]
May 6, 2013 by Culture Capital
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