Lowe, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall - an education, not quite a triumph

★ LOWE, THE MOZARTISTS, PAGE, WIGMORE HALL An education, not quite a triumph

Curate’s-egg focus on the year 1773 finds first-rate performers sometimes in trouble

Ian Page’s “journey of a lifetime” with his Mozartists, taking the greatest genius year by year, lands us in 1773 with the adolescent Mozart's first durable crowdpleaser, the pretty-brilliant motet for soprano and orchestra Exsultate, jubilate (last night was its 250th anniversary). The boy wonder still needs annual support from his elders, though, and as usual we got more than just a sampler of what else was going on musically in that year.

Faust, Tamestit, EBS, Gardiner, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - countless shades of brilliant

★★★★★ FAUST, TAMESTIT, EBS, GARDINER, ST-MARTIN-IN-THE-FIELDS Two great communicative soloists up the joy factor of an already dazzling evening

Two great communicative soloists up the joy factor of an already dazzling evening

Haydn and Mozart symphonies from John Eliot Gardiner and his English Baroque Soloists are bound, at the very least, to be high, lucid and bright. Last night the X-factor was there too, and trebled in a surely unsurpassable account of Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante for violin, viola and orchestra by two of the world’s most communicative soloists, Isabelle Faust and Antoine Tamestit.

Die Zauberflöte, Royal Opera review - classic show but disappointing conductor

★★★ DIE ZAUBERFLÖTE, ROYAL OPERA Sublety and depth from Anna Prohaska and Gyula Orendt

Anna Prohaska and Gyula Orendt give performances of great subtlety and depth

“The great thing about this production,” Colin Davis observed in 2003, during rehearsals for its very first run, “is that the director [David McVicar] hasn’t attempted to shock anybody. He has tried to tell the story of The Magic Flute. And thank God for that.”

Classical CDs: Civil service, bassoon laments and a historic keyboard

CLASSICAL CDS Classical & late-romantic piano, 20th century symphonies, a sprightly nonagenarian

Classical and late-romantic piano music, plus 20th century symphonies and a sprightly nonagenarian

 

Mozart LevinMozart: The Piano Sonatas (Robert Levin, playing Mozart’s fortepiano) (ECM New Series)

Dunedin Consort, Butt, Lammermuir Festival review - majestic Mozart at St Mary’s Haddington

★★★★ DUNEDIN CONSORT, BUTT, LAMMERMUIR Majestic Mozart at St Mary’s Haddington

Star sopranos steal the show in a C Minor Mass of magisterial power

The Dunedin Consort are most readily associated with the music of the Baroque, but this concert showed that they’re every bit as good at playing the music of the next generation. At times, in fact, I was taken aback by the magisterial scale of the orchestral sound as they played Mozart’s great C Minor Mass.

Così fan tutte, Royal Opera review - vibrant youth and vocal beauty

★★★★ COSI FAN TUTTE, ROYAL OPERA Vibrant youth and vocal beauty

Lithe cast and conducting unfazed by over-egged production, at least until the bitter end

Irish soprano Jennifer Davis, a stunning Elsa in this Royal Opera season's revival of Wagner’s Lohengrin, was the lure to sit through Jan Philipp Gloger's Mozart Così again (the title, by the way – "All Women Do It" – belies the complexity applied to a schematic plot). As it turned out, the mixed-up couples were all love’s young dream, which made it all the more of a shame that this production remains determined to squash their hopes and even their new matches.

Così fan tutte, Garsington Opera review - gambling with the highest stakes

★★★★ COSÌ FAN TUTTE, GARSINGTON OPERA A shrewd staging of this 'School for Lovers'

Serious fun in a shrewd staging of this 'School for Lovers'

The scene is Monte-Carlo, around the beginning of the last century: a carefully observed world of cloudless skies, glittering seas, high society and careless privilege shared with Death in Venice. John Cox’s staging works in cool harmony with the timeless, dangerous comedy of sexual politics devised by Mozart and da Ponte – and with the specifically English culture of country-house opera.

Le nozze di Figaro, Glyndebourne review - fabulous singing and a classy production

★★★★ LE NOZZE DI FIGARO, GLYNDEBOURNE Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

Superb music making against the backdrop of a sumptuous Sevillian set

After two years of Covid-affected performances – even though there was a full season last year – Glyndebourne's annual festival is finally back in full glory. Following the big blaze of Saturday's The Wreckers, Sunday welcomed back Michael Grandage's durable production of a signature treasure, Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro.

Classical CDs: Double reeds, double pianos and double string orchestras

CLASSICAL CDS Poetry from a great bassoonist, Slavic jazz, and two fizzing collections of music for string orchestra

Poetry from a great bassoonist, Slavic jazz, and two fizzing collections of music for string orchestra

 

Sophie DervauxMozart, Hummel and Vanhal – Bassoon Concertos Sophie Dervaux (bassoon/conductor), Mozarteumorchester Salzburg (Berlin Classics)