Christopher Sallon

Breaking the code: Collon and his Aurora Orchestra unlock the secrets at the heart of Shostakovich’s Fifth 

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [16] – Shostakovich’s Fifth by Heart: A musical and dramatic exploration of Shostakovich’s Symphony No.5: Max Revell (actor/dancer), Polly Frame, Craig Stein, Sarah Twomey (actors), Samuel West (Voice of Stalin), Petroc Trelawny (Voice of Telephone Operator). Aurora Orchestra / Nicholas Collon (conductor). Royal Albert Hall, London. 16.8.2025. (CSa)

Shostakovich’s Fifth by Heart with the Aurora Orchestra conducted by Nicholas Collon © BBC/Andy Paradise

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Yamada’s CBSO contrasts different strands of twentieth-century music in a courageous and compelling Prom

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom BBC Proms 2025 [8] – Adams, Rachmaninov and Berio: Yunchan Lim (piano), BBC Singers, City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada (conductor). Royal Albert Hall. London, 1.8.2025. (CSa)

The City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra conducted by Kazuki Yamada © BBC/Mark Allan

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The Barbican performance of Handel’s Jephtha took time to live up to its promise

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United KingdomUnited Kingdom Handel, Jephtha (concert performance): Soloists, Chorus and Orchestra of Il Pomo d’Oro / Francesco Corti (conductor). Barbican Centre, London, 7.5.2025. (CSa)

Joyce DiDonato (Storgé) with conductor Francesco Corti and Il Pomo d’Oro (chorus and orchestra) © Mark Allan

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

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

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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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