b. 1971 Russian pianist A child prodigy, he gave his first solo recital at the age of 10 and as a teenager worked with Karajan, later collaborating with Solti, Giulini, Abbado, Maazel and Ashkenazy among conductors, and with Martha Argerich, Isaac Stern and Joshua Bell in chamber music. But it is for solo performances ...
Bell took up the violin at the age of four, and at 14 made his concerto debut with the Philadelphia Orchestra. A regular chamber musician (working with Isserlis and Kissin, among others), he has recorded concerto repertory as well as film soundtracks, including the Oscar-winning score for The Red Violin (1999). In 2011 he was appointed music director ...
, John Tavener, of whose work The Protecting Veil he gave the 1989 Proms premiere and later made a bestselling recording. Introduction | Contemporary | Classical Personalities | Evgeny Kissin | Contemporary | Classical ...
Verdi’s last opera, Falstaff was the third taken from William Shakespeare, this time from his Merry Wives of Windsor and Henry IV, Parts 1 and 2. Verdi wrote the opera when he was 79, but it was not his only comic opera, as is often supposed. There was another, Un giorno di Regno, which ...
Composed: 1984–87 Premiered: 1987, Houston Libretto by Alice Goodman Act I On 21 February 1972, representatives of the Chinese armed forces are waiting at an airfield outside Beijing in order to greet President Richard Nixon on his arrival. The presidential Boeing, The Spirit of ’76, taxies to a halt. Nixon disembarks with his wife, Pat, ...
Verdi’s late masterpiece, Otello, completed when he was 74, was the second of his three operas taken from the plays of Shakespeare. The libretto by Arrigo Boito dispensed with the Shakespeare’s opening scene, set in Venice and concentrated the action on Cyprus, giving it an almost claustrophobic intensity. Long considered Verdi’s greatest opera and his most ...
(Vocal/instrumental group, 1982–86, 1998–99) The larger-than-life George O’Dowd is better known as Boy George. His smooth pop tenor, his outlandish get-up and the band’s catchy tunes made them unmissable. Roy Hay (guitar), Mikey Craig (bass) and Jon Moss (drums) provided the music for the lilting ‘Do You Really Want To Hurt Me’ which topped the UK chart in ...
January Saville Theatre Concerts With a new record label (Lambert and Stamp’s Track Records) and the lure of America ahead, the year started well. The Who appeared at the Saville Theatre in Shaftesbury Avenue for one of Brian Epstein’s Sunday Soundarama shows. Playing two performances on 29 January, the supporting bill included Track stablemates The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ...
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