News Edinburgh International Festival

Australian World Orchestra Debuts in the UK 

  The Australian World Orchestra (AWO) was created in 2011 by artistic director and chief conductor Alexander Briger AO — bringing together Australia’s finest classical musicians nationally or abroad to collaborate. On August 19, 2022, AWO will present their first UK performance at the 75th Edinburgh International Festival (EIF) at The Usher Hall — conducted […] The post appeared first on The World's Leading Classical Music News Source. Est 2009..

Rivales - Monsigny, Edelmann, JC Bach, Gluck, Loiseau de Persuis, Gretry, Cherubini, Sacchini, Dalayrac; Veronique Gens, Sandrine Piau, Le Concert de la Loge, Julien Chauvin; Alpha ClassicsReviewed 20 April 2022, (★★★★½)The idea of the rivalry between two late 18th century French sopranos is a lovely excuse for this thrilling examination of French opera superbly sung by two modern day contemporaries This disc celebrates two eminent personalities of French opera from the late 18th century. Born within a year of each other, each forged an important career, Madame Dugazon (1755-1821) as a member of the Comedie Italienne, and Madame Saint-Huberty (1756-1812) as a member of the Academy Royale de Musique (the Paris Opera). And whilst it is not known that they ever appeared on stage together, that they were probably rivals is likely. So, on Rivales, on Alpha Classics, we hear arias and duets by Pierre-Alexandre Monsigny, Jean-Frederic Edelmann, Johann Christian Bach, Christoph […]

Fretwork & SANSARA at St John's Smith Square's Easter Festival (Photo Nick Rutter) Pärt: Fratres, Solfeggio, Summa, Stabat Mater, Da pacem Domine, White: Lamentations à 5; SANSARA, Fretwork, dir. Tom Herring; St John’s Smith SquareReviewed 14 April 2022, by John Hutchings  The viols of Fretwork and voices of SANSARA make an unforgettable pairing in music by Arvo Pärt and Robert White Fretwork, arguably the world’s leading viol consort, opened this Maundy Thursday concert (14 April 2022) at St John's Smith Square's Easter Festival with one of three arrangements by viol player Richard Boothby of Pärt’s works, Fratres (1977), which created a intimate, resonant sonority within the performance space, and displayed a synergy between performers which other ensembles can only envy. This was echoed by the five voices of SANSARA in the rear gallery with Pärt’s Solfeggio (1963), performed with clarity and fullness of tone without individual voices breaking through […]

Jonathan Radford and Ashley Fripp at Champs Hill Music Room (Photo Patrick Allen) The Saxophone Craze: Homage to Rudy Wiedoeft - Wiedoeft, Schulhoff, Weill; Jonathan Radford, Ashley Fripp; Royal Over-Seas League, London19 April 2022, (★★★★)An homage to a seminal, yet near-forgotten figure and a celebration of how the saxophone went mainstream in the 1920s Saxophonist Jonathan Radford and pianist Ashley Fripp's disc, The Saxophone Craze was issued on Champs Hill Records earlier this month. Radford's debut recording, the disc is a sort of homage to a near forgotten figure, 1920s saxophonist Rudy Wiedoeft whose combination of technical virtuosity, salesmanship and sheer joie de vivre (along with his 300 recordings) helped to fuel the saxophone craze that swept America during the 1920s. The decade might have roared but it did so to the sound of the saxophone, thanks to Wiedoeft who effectively transformed it from a novelty instrument to something to be taken seriously. […]