Manon at the Theatre Royal, Glasgow ****

Published in The Times May 25th 2009

André Barbe’s gold-drenched set is the centre-piece in a production that implies sordidness without showing its knickers. Continue reading ››




SCO/Swensen at Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh ***

Published in The Times April 7th 2009

Joseph Swensen, sometime violin virtuoso, conductor and composer, directs his new symphony, The Fire and the Rose. Continue reading ››




Stephen Hough: In Recital ****

Published in The Times April 4th 2009

These two mini-recitals are typical of the pianist’s imaginative programming. Mendelssohn’s very unfrivolous Variations Sérieuses are complemented subtly by Beethoven’s magisterial Sonata Op 111. Continue reading ››




I Puritani at Glasgow City Halls ****

Published in The Times April 1st 2009

Scottish Opera fills in the gaps in its rather sparse repertoire this season - it has been three months since the last staged mainscale opera - with a concert performance of Bellini’s blockbuster I Puritani, a rather silly tale of love and madness ‘twixt Roundhead and Cavalier set in Plymouth. Continue reading ››




Royal Scottish National Orchestra/Deneve, Royal Concert Hall, Glasgow ***

Published in The Times March 31st 2009

A few years ago the Royal Scottish National Orchestra, under its new music director Stéphane Denève, made its debut in Paris with a world premiere by the young Parisian composer Guillaume Connesson. In the cut-throat, passionate world of Parisian new music, it was rumoured, rather thrillingly, that some people had come along that evening just to boo. Continue reading ››