Germany Wagner, Siegfried: Soloists and Movement Chorus of Saarländisches Staatstheater, Saarländisches Staatsorchester / Stefan Neubert (conductor), Saarbrücken, Germany, 18.4.2025. (DM-D)
Spellbinding Siegfried in Wotan’s Saarbrücken laboratory
Month: April 2025
Holistic approach enables attention to detail in fine Bremen Otello
Germany Verdi, Otello: Soloists, Chorus and Extras of Theater Bremen, Bremer Philharmoniker / Sasha Yankevych (conductor). Theater Bremen, 16.4.2025. (DM-D)
The Jerusalem Quartet plunges into the Shostakovich Cycle in Cleveland
United States Shostakovich Cycle [I]: Jerusalem Quartet (Alexander Pavlosky, Sergei Bresler [violins], Ori Kam [(viola], Kyril Zlotnikov [cello]). Gartner Auditorium, Cleveland Museum of Art, Cleveland, 21.4.2025. (MSJ)
Nekvasil’s staging of Nino Rota’s comic farce earns a triumphant reception at Prague’s Estates Theatre
Czech Republic Nino Rota, The Florentine Straw Hat (Il cappello di paglia di Firenze): Soloists, Chorus, Ballet and Orchestra of the National Moravian-Silesian Theatre / Marek Šedivý (conductor). Estates Theatre, Prague, 14.4.2025. (GT)
A century of tradition: Stainer’s The Crucifixion at The Brick Church
United States Stainer, The Crucifixion: Sean Fallen (tenor), Nathaniel Sullivan (baritone), Alistair Reid (organist), Chancel Choir / Raymond Nagem (conductor). The Brick Presbyterian Church, New York, 18.4.2025. (RP)
The London Philharmonic Orchestra in 2025-26
The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2025/26 London season
Key highlights:
The LPO’s 2025/26 season theme, Harmony with Nature, explores humanity’s bond with the natural world and issues a call to protect it – through the power of music that confronts, celebrates and inspires.
Contemporary voices throughout the season such as Gabriela Lena Franks’s Contested Eden (responding to wildfires), Gustavo Díaz-Jerez’s Tajogaite (volcanoes) and Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s CATAMORPHOSIS (a sense of urgency driven by shifting polar forces) offer a contrasting reflection to the idyllic scenes of oceans, forests and mountains of Beethoven, Mendelssohn and Sibelius.
The season also features seven-time Grammy Award-winning composer and trumpeter Terence Blanchard, who, alongside his own jazz quintet, will perform the UK premiere of A Tale of God’s Will (A Requiem for Katrina) with the Orchestra.
An array of star guests includes legendary violinist Anne-Sophie Mutter, cellist Sheku Kanneh-Mason, pianists Yefim Bronfman and Alexandre Kantorow, soprano Jennifer France and baritone Stéphane Degout.
More guest soloists this season include pianists Paul Lewis, Anna Vinnitskaya and Pavel Kolesnikov, as well as violinists James Ehnes, Alina Ibragimova and Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider.
The LPO’s performing and community activity in its Brighton, Eastbourne and Saffron Walden residencies is also announced today. Highlights include an evening of song with Danielle de Niese in Brighton, and Edward Gardner conducting a selection of Elgar works in Eastbourne.
The LPO will perform 9 premieres across the season including (in London and Birmingham) Tan Dun’s Nine – an ‘ode to peace’ commissioned by the Royal Philharmonic Society as a companion piece to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony in its 200th anniversary year.
LPO Principal Conductor Edward Gardner presents ‘Phoenix Lands’, a two-concert focus exploring his fascination of twentieth-century composers from Central Europe.
Intriguing Mahler performance and rare Weill from Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra
United Kingdom Howell, Weill, and Mahler: Anu Komsi (soprano), BBC Symphony Orchestra / Sakari Oramo (conductor, violin). Barbican Hall, London, 16.4.2025. (MB)
Excellent account of James MacMillan’s St John Passion marks Good Friday in Dublin
Ireland Sir James MacMillan’s St John Passion: Seán Boylan (Christus), National Symphony Chorus (choral director: David Young), Chamber Choir Ireland, National Symphony Orchestra / David Hill (conductor). National Concert Hall, Dublin, 18.4.2025. (RB)
