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A Remarkable, Bittersweet Return to Live Music at London’s Wigmore Hall
Wigmore Hall BBC Radio 3 Special Broadcasts SeriesStephen Hough: JS Bach & Schumann Rarely has a live concert series been so eagerly anticipated. Twenty lunchtime recitals at London’s pre-eminent chamber music venue featuring such luminaries of the classical music world
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The Place Where God Resides: Danielpour’s The Passion of Yeshua
The problem with Passion oratorios is that so many of them were written not from a sense of awe, but a sense of getting back at the bad guys. Many of the usual Passion texts have an anti-Semitic flavour that
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Review on Berlin Phil’s Online Concert
Due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, the Philharmonie Berlin has been closed down till April to curb the spread of virus; yet the orchestra decided to give the concert conducted by Sir Simon Rattle as planned without real audience, with
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Die Ägyptische Helena
Richard Strauss (1864 –1949) was the major German opera composer of the late 19th to the mid-20th century. His life and music were controversial during his lifetime and remained so after his death. One can argue about his music, his
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Rafał Blechacz Saves His Forte for Last
Polish pianist Rafał Blechacz, laureate of all the five first prizes in Chopin piano competition in 2005 at the age of 20, gave a compelling recital in Taipei with a programme of Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Chopin. Blechacz’s Mozart Rondo
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András Schiff – More of a Pianist Than a Conductor
Sir András Schiff returned to Hong Kong after 11 years, this time with his “family”, Cappella Andrea Barca, and performed Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 2 and Mozart’s Symphony No.39 for the first half of the programme, and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto
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Jules Massenet’s Werther at the Royal Opera House
French director Benoît Jacquot’s production (Revival Director Andrew Sinclair) dates back to 2004, and has had at least two revivals at the Royal Opera House. It remains as insipid and drab as at its first showing and it is hard
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Médée in Salzburg: When Visuals Devour Their Musical Children
Luigi Cherubini’s Medea is nothing if not firmly and consistently associated with Maria Callas. The Greek American soprano revived this masterpiece from relative obscurity, and committed it to stage, disc, film, but most importantly to legend. Any Medea needs to
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