Reviews of Prog Rock, Classical Music, Art Rock and Jazz
Friday 24 May 2024 Waterside Arts Centre, Sale, Greater Manchester ***** A delightful evening of gorgeous a cappella singing The Apex Singers are a Manchester-based chamber choir of eight voices, founded and directed by Ollie Lambert. Unfortunately, one of the tenors was ill at short notice so last Friday's stunning a cappella performance at Waterside …
Thursday 16 May 2024 Royal Festival Hall, London ***** A premiere by Roderick Williams explores the humanity of Elgar's choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius David Hill conducting the Philharmonia. Image credit Andy Paradise Edward Elgar’s choral masterpiece The Dream of Gerontius, with words by Cardinal John Henry Newman, describes the journey of a soul …
Continue reading "The Bach Choir and Philharmonia Orchestra – Live Review"
Friday 10 May 2024 Bridgewater Hall Manchester ***** A musical art installation brings 'a stillness that moves' to Manchester Manchester Collective first appeared on this Blog in December 2019, a review of a concert at The White Hotel in Salford, a small and (on the evening of the performance) very cold venue. Since then, this …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective: Rothko Chapel – Live Review"
Friday 29 March 2024 Bridgewater Hall Manchester A moving and dramatic interpretation 300 years after the first performance ***** Bach's St John Passion was first performed 300 years ago, on 7 April 1724 at St Nicholas' Church in Leipzig. Bach had moved to Leipzig the year before to take up a post at the Thomaskirche …
Continue reading "BBC Philharmonic : Bach’s St John Passion (1724) – Live Review"
***** A dangerous journey through a magical forest Recreation is released on 4 September 2020 on the Bedroom Community label Manchester Collective were last heard playing in public on 14 March (see review here) the final date of their Cries and Whispers tour. It may be a little while before we are able to enjoy …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective: Recreation – EP Review"
Nicky Spence as Manolios with the Chorus of Opera North, The Greek Passion © Tristram Kenton Opera North The Lowry, Salford Saturday 16 November 2019 A visually striking production of a topical drama **** ‘The poor are always with us’. So are refugees, and Martinů’s message in his opera the Greek Passion is both topical and timeless. The …
The White Hotel, Salford Saturday 14 March 2020 Everything they touch turns to musical gold ***** Dmitri Shostakovich This was a concert for troubled times. Manchester Collective's Managing Director, Adam Szabo thanked us for braving the weather and the virus. He said that this performance, the end of a short tour, would be the end …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective: Cries and Whispers – Live Review"
Opera North The Lowry, Salford Wednesday 11 March 2020 A superbly creepy staging of Britten's masterpiece ***** Sarah Tynan as the Governess and Nicholas Watts as Peter Quint ©Tristram Kenton The small scale of the forces involved in Benjamin Britten's 1954 opera was evident when the whole cast came on stage at the end to take …
Continue reading "Britten The Turn of the Screw – Opera Review"
RNCM soloists, chorus and orchestra RNCM Manchester Saturday 14 December 2019 A stunning staging of Poulenc's emotional opera **** This was the final performance of the RNCM's staging of Poulenc's opera, Dialogues des Carmélites, set in a Carmelite monastery during the Reign of Terror in the French Revolution. It's a deeply religious work appearing towards …
Continue reading "Poulenc Dialogues des Carmélites – Opera Review"
Manchester Collective The White Hotel, Salford Saturday 30 November 2019 A stunning concert of metamorphosis and a curious incident of a dog in the night time ***** The White Hotel in Salford is neither a hotel nor is it white (more like a little off-white). It’s a former car repair garage, now a night club. …
Continue reading "Manchester Collective: The Centre is Everywhere – Live Review"