The Guardian

A guide to Galina Ustvolskaya’s music

The Russian composer’s brutally uncompromising work has an elementality that’s both horrifying and thrilling.

The Telegraph

The Firework-Maker’s Daughter, The Opera Group & Opera North 7 ROH2, Linbury Studio Theatre

The Firework-Maker’s Daughter is a smartly gift-wrapped musical entertainment which won’t put a child off opera for life, says Rupert Christiansen.

BBC News

Margaret Thatcher: An inspiration to artists?

Classic FM

From The Back Desk – Gavin Edwards, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

Gramophone

Graham Johnson awarded Wigmore Hall Medal

Pianist and lieder accompanist honoured for ‘unstinting championing of So

ng’.

The Gazette (via Arts Journal)

OSM officials deny Nagano leaving in 2016

OSM officials are denying that Kent Nagano will be on his way in 2016 – without quite affirming that the Californian conductor is planning to stay.

(Written on April 9, 2013 )

The Guardian

The fantastic Dr Dee: angels, magic and the birth of modern science

As Damon Albarn’s opera opens in London, Carole Jahme wonders why Dee has been written out of the history of science.

The Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra with Gustavo Dudamel – live stream

Venezuela’s Simon Bolivar Symphony Orchestra performed at London’s Royal Festival Hall with conductor Gustavo Dudamel on 23 and 26 June.

The Times

Delius takes Hassan on the Golden Road

On July 7 Frederick Delius’s Hassan is staged in Cheltenham.

MUSO

Edward Gardner among artists given Queen’s birthday honours

English National Opera director Edward Gardner has been named among the Queen’s Birthday Honours list, being awarded an OBE for services to music.

BBC Music Magazine

Arts Council awards Catalyst Endowment funds

The Arts Council has awarded ‘Catalyst’ awards to a host of music organisations including the Hallé and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment (OAE).

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

Bayreuth’s American Siegfried has died

Jean Cox was not the first American to sing at the Wagner shrine but he was surely the first to fly a bombing mission before he took to the stage.

Gramophone

Performing musical saw in a potato barn

The SCO’s principal cellist prepares for the East Neuk Festival.

New Music 20×12 issues three more releases

Hear excerpts from works by David Bruce, Emily Howard and Michael Wolters.

Jamie Philips appointed assistant conductor of the Hallé

21-year-old succeeds Andrew Gourlay in September.

(Written on June 27, 2012 )

The Guardian

A guide to Helmut Lachenmann’s music

Ever wondered what a beetle on its back sounds like? Try opening your ears to the virtuosity of Lachenmann’s music.

Jessica Duchen

My first night shift

Full marks to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment not just for magnificent playing but also for creative thinking; and for their willingness to experiment with the new, as well as resuscitating the old.

LA Times

Andrew Lloyd Webber’s Diamond Jubilee royal tribute top charts

Andrew Lloyd Webber has another hit single — this time fit for a queen.

Arts Journal – Slipped Disc

Tel Aviv Wagner concert is cancelled again as hotel pulls down shutters

The ice-break Wagner concert that Tel Aviv University turned down after protests from Holocaust survivors has now been shut out by its substitute venue, the Tel Aviv Hilton Hotel.

Famous US orchestra may go part time

It was founded in 1959 as an economic alternative to the Big Beast Five and has flourished ever since as America’s only full-time chamber orchestra. But hard times have hit St Paul, Minnesota, and the orchestra needs to trim $1.5 million off next year’s budget.

Orchestra arrested at London Gatwick Airport

The opening concert of this year’s Spitalfields Festival almost had to be cancelled last night because of the over-zealous Border Agency officials at Gatwick, and possibly lax ones in Holland.

Gramophone

Jason Vieaux launches online Classical Guitar School

Guitarist Jason Vieaux launches an online Classical Guitar School on June 14, the first of its kind for the instrument.

The Times

A burst of opera takes library users by surprise

Standing on top of a carousel of large-print books, a lovestruck librarian is singing her heart out to her suitor, a gawky young fellow who for years has admired her from afar.

Musical suicide? The opera about a London bomb plot

By presenting Edward Rushton’s Babur in London the company seems determined to be not just provocative but incendiary.

(Written on June 12, 2012 )

The Telegraph

Just how English is English National Opera meant to be?

The English National Opera’s 2012-13 season is exciting and fresh but Rupert Christiansen questions how much actually showcases the best of home music.

Can the English National Opera justify the claims it’s making for this new production of a Pilgrim’s Progress?

When is a full, professional staging not a full, professional staging?

Stephen Hough in St. Louis

Playing ‘artificial and gushing tunes’.

Gramophone

Louis Langrée named Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra music director

Four-year term begins from 2013-14 season.

Leonidas Kavakos signs to Decca

First Decca disc to be complete set of the Beethoven sonatas.

The Tokyo Quartet is to disband after next season

Slipped Disc

Kurt Masur falls off podium

Conductor unable to resume concert.

Guardian 

4 star review for Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment

One work was pre-eminent in this rewarding programme of Bach arias and orchestral pieces spiritedly performed by the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment directed by Steven Devine.

Tenor Toby Spence recovering from thyroid cancer

The singer hopes to return to the stage in June.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2012/apr/26/tenor-toby-spence-recovering-from-cancer

(Written on April 27, 2012 )

WildKat PR are very excited to announce a new collaboration with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. We will be working with the orchestra as they launch their latest innovative marketing campaign featuring unlikely classical music fans.

Check out the orchestra’s blog for teasers of the campaign, which will be unveiled with their new season brochure soon. You can also view the trailer for the launch of the campaign here:

Other 2012 highlights for the OAE include a European tour with Sir Simon Rattle and Pierre-Laurant Aimard in June and their series exploring women in music: ‘Queens, Heroines and Ladykillers’.

For more information, visit the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment’s website.

(Written on April 23, 2012 )

Arts Journal: Slipped Disc

Early Music Giant Calls It Quits.

Gustav Leonhardt has told the Paris journal Le Nouvel Observateur that he has given the last concert of his life.

BBC Music Magazine

Sir Mark Elder Becomes Principal Artist With The Orchestra Of The Age Of Enlightenment.

Conductor to join Sir Simon Rattle and others in the prestigious role.

The Times

Girls Aloud In The Cathedral Choir Stalls.

Alexandra Coghlan on the appointment of Caroline Trevor to the St. Paul’s Cathedral Choir and the role of women in church choirs.

http://www.thetimes.co.uk/tto/arts/music/classical/article3256946.ece

(Written on December 14, 2011 )

On November 4th at Southbank Centre’s Royal Festival Hall, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment will perform Beethoven’s iconic Missa Solemnis. This video on Southbank Centre’s blog shows some of the orchestra members offering their opinions of the work, but what do you think – is it boring, or simply amazing?

The concert, conducted by Gianandrea Noseda with the Philharmonia Chorus is being given in memory of Sir Charles Mackerras.

(Written on October 25, 2011 )