Jim Pritchard

Riccardo Chailly’s Lucerne Mahler 7 is one of the very best

by

SwitzerlandSwitzerland Lucerne Summer Festival 2024 – Mahler’s Seventh Symphony: Lucerne Festival Orchestra / Riccardo Chailly (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Ute Feudel) from the Konzertsaal des KKL Luzern, 16.8.2024 and available on ARTE Concert until 19.8.2025. (JPr)

Riccardo Chailly conducts the Lucerne Festival Orchestra

Read more

A micro-managed Salzburg Mahler Ninth from Andris Nelsons and the VPO was fine, how could it not be?

by

AustriaAustria Salzburg Festival [5] – Mahler, Symphony No.9: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra / Andris Nelsons (conductor). Broadcast live (directed by Leopold Knötzl) from the Grosses Festspielhaus, Salzburg, 11.8.2024 and available on STAGE+. (JPr)

Andris Nelsons conducts the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in Salzburg

Read more

What a delight it was to see and hear the talented young NYO musicians in stormy Wagner and epic Mahler

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom PROM 30 – Wagner, Mazzoli, Howard, Mahler: Musicians from NYO Inspire, The National Youth Orchestra / Alexandre Bloch (conductor), Tess Jackson (conductor, Howard). Recorded (directed by Rhodri Huw) at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 10.8.2024 and available for a limited time on BBC iPlayer. (JPr)

Alexandre Bloch conducts the National Youth Orchestra © BBC/Chris Christodoulou

Read more

The storytelling impresses in Amy Lane’s (mostly) straightforward new Longborough Die Walküre

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Longborough Festival Opera [3] – Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Long borough Festival Orchestra / Anthony Negus (conductor). Recorded at Loughborough (directed by Matthew Dilley) on 26.6.2024 and available on OperaVision and YouTube until 9.2.2025. (JPr)

Paul Carey Jones (Wotan) and Madeleine Shaw (Fricka) © Matthew Williams-Ellis

Read more

Thorleifur Örn Arnarsson’s new Bayreuth Tristan lacks coherence, dramatic cogency and better singing

by

GermanyGermany Bayreuth Festival 2024 [1] – Wagner, Tristan und Isolde: Soloists, Bayreuth Festival Chorus and Orchestra / Semyon Bychkov (conductor). Recorded live (directed by Michael Beyer) at the Bayreuth Festspielhaus, 25.7.2024. (JPr)

Bayreuther Festspiele 2024 – Tristan und Isolde Act III © Enrico Nawrath

Read more

A Verdi Requiem at the BBC Proms potent with operatic theatricality

by

United KingdomUnited Kingdom PROM 6 – Verdi, Requiem: Latonia Moore (soprano), Karen Cargill (mezzo-soprano), SeokJong Baek (tenor), Solomon Howard (bass), Crouch End Festival Chorus (chorus master: David Temple), BBC National Chorus of Wales (chorus master: Adrian Partington), BBC National Orchestra of Wales / Ryan Bancroft (conductor). Recorded live (directed by Alison Bartrop) at the Royal Albert Hall, London, 23.7.2024. (JPr)

Latonia Moore © BBC/Chris Christodoulou

Read more