Claude Debussy RSS feed

John Adams's screen test triumph

Fri, 12 Mar 2010 12:38:57 GMT

If a composer writes a piece paying tribute to cinema, will the results inevitably sound like a film score? John Adams's City Noir suggests the answer is �Yes�.

Musical storms from Maazel

Wed, 03 Mar 2010 14:52:27 GMT

Lorin Maazel�s�s 80th birthday falls next Saturday. For the last month he�s been touring with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra.

Tree of dreams blossoms with Gergiev

Sun, 20 Sep 2009 23:00:00 GMT

No promoter feels safe until Valery Gergiev's actually on the rostrum but once there, his absorption and charisma are all-encompassing.

Herbie Hancock to the rescue

Sun, 12 Jul 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang's strange concert, a thing of fits and starts, took the form of a mystery tour.

Derek Paravicini, the 'human ipod', is truly gifted.

Mon, 08 Jun 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Derek Paravicini has been called a musical savant, an autistic genius and, less flatteringly, the human iPod.

Rainbow View has still got the class to shine through

Thu, 04 Jun 2009 09:48:19 GMT

Horse racing: There was no pot of gold for her backers at the end of the 1,000 Guineas, which left plenty finding flaws in Rainbow View

Crowded House Derby challenge is still not certain

Mon, 01 Jun 2009 14:56:55 GMT

Horse racing: Crowded House is a surprise inclusion among 13 entries unveiled at the six-day stage for the Derby at Epsom

Maazel shows his magic touch

Thu, 02 Apr 2009 23:00:00 GMT

If a little dramatic character went missing, the closing funeral march had a real feeling of grief barely choked back in Maazel's show.

Julietta brought alive by staging

Sun, 29 Mar 2009 23:00:00 GMT

Belohl�vek kept things moving, making smooth transitions between speech and song, and reaching a powerful conclusion in Julietta.

A brutalism borne in the Resistance

Mon, 09 Mar 2009 00:00:00 GMT

For many years the BBC mounted an annual celebration of a contemporary composer that left few stones unturned. One emerged from those weekends battered, exhilarated and infinitely better informed

Tokyo Sonata does credit crunch, Japanese style

Thu, 29 Jan 2009 00:00:00 GMT

Japanese director Kiyoshi Kurosawa won a Jury Prize at Cannes for Tokyo Sonata, a drama about Ryuhei Sasaki.

Debussy's elusive masterpiece

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Debussy's Pell�as et M�lisande, premiered in 1902, may be the first great opera of the 20th century yet it remains marginal repertoire.

Barbirolli Quartet are timbre merchants

Thu, 18 Sep 2008 23:00:00 GMT

In terms of quantity and quality, Schubert's string quartets constitute a major body of work. A shame, then, that the Barbirolli Quartet could find room for just one.

Violins thrill at E�tv�s premiere

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

E�tv�s's two-movement elegy launches straight in on high, with stratospheric violin textures offset by ensemble sounds.

Stock exchanges at the Proms

Sun, 03 Aug 2008 23:00:00 GMT

Barely scratching the surface of Stockhausen's career, the Proms' tribute nevertheless demonstrated what makes him so fascinating.

Twice as impressive

Mon, 19 May 2008 23:00:00 GMT

The stimulating double bill of Hiromi and Mina Agossi offers an unusually wide spectrum of feminine wiles, says Jack Massarik.

Mehler shows more rhythm

Tue, 15 Jan 2008 00:00:00 GMT

Young New Yorker Elan Mehler plays jazz as Debussy, Ravel or Chopin might have done if teleported into a Manhattan basement jam session.

A full-frontal attack

Wed, 21 Nov 2007 00:00:00 GMT

Rafael Fruhbeck de Burgos gave the players and singers of the Philharmonia their heads in an uncompromising performance.

Pianist with a big appetite

Thu, 27 Sep 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Czech pianist Ivan Moravec showed that even at nearly 77, he has not lost his appetite for strenuous programmes.

Youths rise to Wagner challenge

Wed, 26 Sep 2007 09:34:06 GMT

The London Schools Symphony Orchestra was magnificent in this weighty programme, whispering sympathetically and soaring confidently.

Rich sounds of the Concertgebouw

Mon, 27 Aug 2007 23:00:00 GMT

The sounds that the Royal Concertgebouw, led by Bernard Haitink, made at the Proms were as remarkable as ever.

A jittery and fast late-night Prom

Tue, 31 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Ivan Volkov enjoyed an enterprising programme with the BBC Singers, while the late night Prom from London Sinfonietta was a dazzling affair.

Sex and death in Italy

Sun, 29 Jul 2007 23:00:00 GMT

A breathless eroticism pounds through Montemezzi's L'Amore dei tre Re as violently and noisily as a stampede of horses over cobbles, says Fiona Maddocks.

The thrill of Prokofiev

Thu, 14 Jun 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Valery Gergiev conducted a thrilling performance of Prokofiev's rarely heard Cantata for the 20th Anniversary of the October Revolution.

That's your Lott

Tue, 15 May 2007 11:21:02 GMT

Internationally acclaimed soprano Dame Felicity Lott sings a selection of French melodies at the Queen Elizabeth Hall.

Passion boxed in

Sun, 13 May 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Musical standards ruled, even if the tedium of the Pell�as and M�lisande production did its devilish and level best to hijack minds and flatten imagination.

Short on thrills

Thu, 29 Mar 2007 23:00:00 GMT

Valery Gergiev might be a regular visitor to the London concert scene, but Barry Millington warns against prejudging his music. The Russian conductor is not as predictable as he makes out.

A faune in combat with the present

Mon, 16 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

D'un soir un jour opens with a silent re-enactment of L'Apres-midi d'un faune, only with a woman rather than a man.

Hammering the ivories

Mon, 02 Oct 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Young Russian pianist Eduard Kunz runs the gamut from sensitive introspection to fullblooded, muscularity, says Barry Millington.

Rattle brings new fire to Philharmonic

Sun, 03 Sep 2006 23:00:00 GMT

Rumblings of discontent in the German media concerning Simon Rattle's stewardship of the Berlin Philharmonic can safely be discounted.