Klaus Mäkelä leads the Chicago Symphony in a vivid Mahler’s Third Symphony

United StatesUnited States Mahler, Symphony No.3 in D minor: Wiebke Lehmkuhl (contralto), Uniting Voices of Chicago, Chicago Symphony Chorus, Chicago Symphony Orchestra / Klaus Mäkelä (conductor). Symphony Center, Chicago, 25.4.2025. (JLZ)

Klaus Mäkelä conducting Wiebke Lehmkuhl (contralto) and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra © Todd Rosenberg Photography

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An excellent revival of Salieri’s Il mondo alla rovescia in Salzburg

AustriaAustria Salieri, Il mondo alla rovescia: Soloists, Chorus and Supplementary Chorus of the Salzburg Landestheater, Salzburg Mozarteum Orchestra / Carlo Benedetto Cimento (conductor). Salzburg Landestheater, 30.4.2025. (MB)

Daniele Macciantelli (La Generala) and George Humphreys (Il Conte) © Tobias Witzgall

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LPO’s Ravel packs a punch and says hello to the circus

United KingdomUnited Kingdom Ravel: Circa (Yaron Lifschitz [artistic director, stage and lighting designer], Libby McDonnell [costume designer]), BBC Singers, London Philharmonic Orchestra / Edward Gardner (conductor). Royal Festival Hall, London. 23.4.2025. (CSa)

Acrobats of Circa performing with the London Philharmonic Orchestra © Pete Woodhead

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Brief invitation to long farewell: a journey of transformation with The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble

United StatesUnited States Chabrier, Adès, Mahler: Susanna Phillips (soprano), Michelle DeYoung (mezzo-soprano), Ben Bliss (tenor), The Met Orchestra Chamber Ensemble / Yannick Nézet-Séguin (conductor). Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie Hall, New York, 28.4.2025. (ES-S)

Pianist Bryan Wagorn, soprano Susanna Phillips and bassoonist William Short © Jennifer Taylor

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Raffaello Morales, Farringdon’s Renaissance man talks to Christopher Sallon

Fidelio Café’s Raffaello Morales in conversation with Christopher Sallon

Fidelio Café

‘It’s an amazing coincidence!’ exclaims Raffaello Morales, the 37- year-old, Italian-born owner, manager, conductor, and musical entrepreneur behind the Fidelio Café. From the small first floor office of his Farringdon premises, he points towards a small house located just across the road dedicated to the nineteenth-century Italian patriot, exile and father of the Risorgimento Giuseppe Mazzini. Morales regards Mazzini as an inspirational figure. Although these two men are separated by more than a century (Mazzini died in 1872 and Morales was born in 1987), there are uncanny coincidences which link them, beyond mere nationality and their connection to ‘Little Italy’, as this area of Clerkenwell is still known.

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