Tag Archives: Sibelius

Bath Festival 2023

I didn’t get to anything in this year’s Bath Festival – there are fewer classical concerts these days and it came at a busy time for me. However I have eye(?ear)witness reports on a couple of the concerts held in … Continue reading

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dodging the demo

Straight back from holiday, and hot-footing it from a church awayday deep in the Mendips, I dashed over to Bristol to sing in the first concert I’ve done with Bristol Choral Society since summer 2019. This event defied many potential … Continue reading

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Three Choirs: the summing up

So now looking back at the whole enterprise – was it worth while?  Definitely.  From what I’ve heard it sounded like I picked a particularly vintage year in which to be involved.   The BBC really missed something by not … Continue reading

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The Kinshasa band

The Kinshasa Symphony Orchestra, founded 20 years ago, visited the UK for a four-concert tour. We were invited to join them for the final concert in Bristol, in the finale of Beethoven 9. They brought their own strong choir with … Continue reading

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in which the rest of the family listens to Piazzolla

Actually I think it was just my husband who did so – he went to a recital at the Wigmore Hall by Bernanda Fink and her brother Marcos (accompanied by Anthony Spiri), singing a polyglot selection of songs. The novelty … Continue reading

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LPs batch 21: Sibelius and Haydn

By this stage I felt like doing some blocks rather than odd single discs. I finished off the Sibelius symphonies, which are mostly conducted by Karajan or Ashkenazy but we have Kamu doing no. 2. Then it was onto a … Continue reading

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LPs batch 20: displaying umlauts

Our Sibelius LPs are a nice tidy batch comprising six discs containing the symphonies and a few other well-known pieces. This batch included the ones conducted by Karajan. I’m now beginning to finish certain categories and the last of Mozart’s … Continue reading

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Alex Ross, The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Cross-posted from my other public blog, Egg and Dart. I’m not going to attempt a systematic review, as those can be found elsewhere and in any case I’m unfamiliar with some of the territory Ross covers in his survey of … Continue reading

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Jingling Johnny at Prom 62

I took my daughter to the Proms to hear Mariss Jansons conduct the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in two symphonies: Haydn’s no. 100, the ‘Military’ and Shostakovich’s 10th. Both of these works have an in-your-face quality, with an occasional need for … Continue reading

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Bristol Temple Meads to the Royal Albert Hall in under 2 hours

We proved that this could be done (just!) on our way to Prom 62; the train we should have been on was cancelled and the next one left very little margin as we sprinted across Hyde Park. However we arrived … Continue reading

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Proms 60 and 66

My husband and daughter went to both of these. Prom 60 was the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra playing Also sprach Zarathustra and Sibelius 2. The verdict was that the Strauss was rather rambling but the Sibelius went down well. Prom … Continue reading

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