Brahms and Schoenberg: Jerusalem Quartet and friends (Alexander Pavolovsky, Sergei Bresler (violins) Ori Kam, Yuri Zhislin (violas) Kyril Zlotnikov, Adrian Brendel (violoncelli)). Wigmore Hall, London, 7.5.2011 (MB)
Mark Berry
Berlioz Was Never Given a Chance: La Damnation de Faust by the ENO
Berlioz, La Damnation de Faust: Soloists, Chorus, Additional Chorus, and Orchestra of the English National Opera (chorus master: Martin Merry), Edward Gardner (conductor). Coliseum, London, 6.5.2011 (MB)
An Outstanding Traversal Of ‘The Art of Fugue’
Bach, The Art of Fugue: Konstantin Lifschitz (piano). Wigmore Hall, London, 28.4.2011 (MB)
Leipzig Opera’s Parsifal on Good Friday
Wagner, Parsifal: Soloists, Chorus, Children’s Chorus, and Supplementary Chorus of the Leipzig Opera, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Ulf Schirmer (conductor). Leipzig Opera House, 22.4.2011 (MB)
Bach’s St John Passion in Leipzig
Bach, St John Passion (1749 version): Sibylla Rubens (soprano),Marie-Claude Chappuis (contralto), Johannes Chum (Evangelist and tenor arias), Stephan Loges (Christ), Hans-Christoph Begemann (bass arias), Choir of St Thomas’s, Leipzig, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Gotthold Schwarz (conductor). St Thomas’s Church, Leipzig, 21.4.2011 (MB)
Birtwistle and Dowland with Klangforum Wien
Birtwistle and Dowland – ‘Sterben werd’ ich, um zu leben’: Marisol Montalvo (soprano), Klangforum Wien, Peter Rundel (conductor). Werner-Otto-Saal, Konzerthaus, Berlin, 18.4.2011 (MB)
Barenboim’s Die Walküre in Berlin
Wagner, Die Walküre: Soloists, Staatskapelle Berlin, Daniel Barenboim (conductor). Schillertheater, Berlin, 17.4.2011 (MB)
Salome at the Komische Oper, Berlin
Strauss, Salome: Soloists, Orchestra of the Komische Oper, Berlin, Alexander Vedernikov (conductor). Komische Oper, Berlin, 15.4.2011 (MB)