His committed performances and expressive voice have made him one of today’s most admired singers. As he prepares for Jephtha at Covent Garden, Allan Clayton ponders creativity, pigeonholes and facial hair
While there’s no doubt about the year’s villain, before November’s funding cuts there were plenty of heroes to celebrate. We look back on a year that saw many musical highs and an all-time low
Mr. Haitink, who was closely identified with the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, drew direct, unaffected interpretations of symphonic works and opera.
Promises
Five years in the making,
Promises is a stunning fusion of classical, jazz and ambient electronica, involving a remarkable set of collaborators, said Ludovic Hunter-Tilney in the FT. Floating Points is the recording name of the acclaimed British composer and producer Sam Shepherd. Pharoah Sanders is the American saxophonist who, with John Coltrane, pioneered “spiritual jazz”. The third component is a 29-strong string section from the London Symphony Orchestra.
Over nine seamless movements lasting 46 minutes in total, they have created an immersive and richly detailed work, said Kitty Empire in The Observer.
Promises combines “highly sophisticated” cosmic psychedelia with jazz saxophone interventions, weird drones and rustles, and electronic birdsong, as “the mood swings from succour to awe and back again many times”. Halfway through, the LSO strings arrive “adding depth and weight”.
Last modified on Mon 15 Feb 2021 07.14 EST
The galumphing comedy of Siegfried leaves me cold
The list of operas I’d happily never sit through again grows longer by the year, but Siegfried has been very near the top of it for a long time. I’m not a perfect Wagnerite by any means (another of his greatest works would also be on my blacklist), but nor am I a Wagner-phobe: I find Die Walküre and Götterdämmerung totally compelling parts of The Ring. Yet the galumphing comedy of Siegfried leaves me utterly cold, and even the glorious scene between Erda and The Wanderer that opens the third act can’t begin to redeem the whole work.