The Musical Museum (MM) at Kew Bridge has to be one of the most fun places that any lover of music can visit. It is not only a romp into the depths of nostalgia – some of it unexplored -but also a detailed adventure as to how we arrived at where we are now as listeners.
Jack Buckley
The Pianist Feels His Way
United Kingdom Beethoven, Liszt, Toru Takemitsu, Scriabin: Tomoki Sakata (piano) Keyboard Charitable Trust at Steinway Hall, London, 25.4.2018. (JB)
Adventures in Understanding Music
United Kingdom Mendelssohn, Mozart, Bach: Whitgift Chamber Choir, Whitgift Chamber Orchestra, Whitgift Symphony Orchestra, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, Cadogan Hall, London. 28.3.2018. (JB)
Finding a Pianistic Voice
United Kingdom Scarlatti, Haydn, Bacewicz, Chopin: Filip Michalak (piano), The Keyboard Charitable Trust at Steinway Hall, London. 21.3.2018 (JB)
Having Your Midsummer Night’s Dream and Eating It
United Kingdom Britten, A Midsummer Night’s Dream: Soloists, Trinity Boys Choir, Royal College of Music Opera Orchestra / Michael Rosewell (conductor). Britten Theatre, Royal College of Music London. 5.3.2018. (JB)
Mark Viner at the Wigmore Hall Elicits Musings on Virtuosity
United Kingdom Liszt, Alkan, Thalberg, Chopin: Mark Viner (piano), Wigmore Hall, London, 2/3/2018. (JB)
Ann Murray’s Masterclass at the V&A Part of Opera: Passion, Power and Politics
A Great Tradition Lives: Ann Murray’s Masterclass at the V&A (Royal College of Music)
Like all the world’s greatest teachers, Gioacchino Rossini was much more focused on what he could get out of a pupil than what he could put in. But the maestro was also a composer, in my spare time, he used to quip. So it was not unknown for him to to put something into the pupil too.
The Generosity of Gwyneth Jones: Her Masterclass at the Royal College of Music
The Gwyneth Jones Masterclass at the Royal College of Music
Anyone lucky enough to have heard Dame Gwyneth Jones will be familiar with her give-all approach to her work; generosity is the word, but it is a particular species of generosity, one which sounds unstoppable, forever reaching for greater heights, and above all, is informed by a formidable intellect, which has a command of German, Italian and English, not just as languages, but as musical nuances and worlds of expression which can continually surprise through the joys of exploration.
All these qualities were to the fore in Dame Gwyneth’s Masterclass in the packed Britten Theatre of the Royal College of Music on Wednesday 18th October 2017. The audience was predominantly students of singing and their teachers, with a few internal and external critics.