I’m about to take on what feels like the impossible: cram Wagner’s 16-hour Ring Cycle into a single, high-energy hour and not leaving feeling that the only way to achieve closure is invade Poland. It’s called “Wagner’s Ring for people who can’t be bothered to sit...
In case you missed it, one of the hottest tickets at this year’s BBC Promenade concerts was the Aurora Orchestra performing Beethoven’s Choral Symphony from memory. Yes, you read that right, folks – a whole symphony orchestra, 128-piece choir, four soloist and...
It rained so hard in Paris for the Olympic Opening Ceremony, I felt wet just watching it. A flamboyant fashion catwalk in the rain, dancers reenacting the French Revolution in the rain, a steel horse sprinting over the Seine in the rain. Rain. Rain. Rain. Don’t...
So, the Rainer Hersch Orkestra are finally taking over the Last Night of the Proms. Okay, this may not be the Albert Hall Last Night, but who needs that vast barn better given over to lion taming than classical concerts? Not us. Instead, my Orkestra and I are...
If you are reading this and didn’t know, you are one of the last people on the planet to hear that, a couple of weeks ago, I PASSED MY GRADE 8 VIOLA. I think I have told everyone else: Facebook, Twitter, random people in the street. I have even been half expecting...
