Mark Pullinger

London

Music Critic and Editor at Bachtrack

Critic, Bachtrack editor, programme note writer. Best when caffeinated.

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Articles

Mussorgsky: Khovanshchina at Salzburg Easter Festival | Live Review

1 week ago | gramophone.co.uk | Mark Pullinger

⭐⭐⭐ (Daniel Okulitch (Schaklowityi) Credit: Tom Visser Design)'The past in the present – this is my task.' Modest Mussorgsky’s Khovanshchina, subtitled a ‘national music drama’, is no sweeping historical epic, but a sombre meditation on Russian history. It’s a world of conflict, both political (the title means ‘The Khovansky Affair’) and religious, distilling violent uprisings, unrest and gloom in late 17th-century Russia.
Britten: Peter Grimes at Welsh National Opera | Live Review

2 weeks ago | gramophone.co.uk | Mark Pullinger

⭐⭐⭐⭐Nicky Spence in Peter Grimes at Welsh National Opera (Photo: Dafydd Owen) There are many ways to play Peter Grimes and there are many types of tenor who can sing the role, from the light lyric Peter Pears, its creator, to the rough-hewn Heldentenor of Jon Vickers, whose interpretation Britten reportedly hated. The range has stayed wide: Philip Langridge and Alan Oke at the lighter end to Wagnerians Ben Heppner and Stuart Skelton.
Percussive Prokofiev and titanic Shostakovich from Igor Levit and Lukas Sternath

2 weeks ago | bachtrack.com | Mark Pullinger

This Wigmore Hall recital could well have been subtitled “Igor Levit presents”. Young Viennese pianist Lukas Sternath has been mentored by Levit since 2022, the year he swept the board at the ARD Competition in Munich. On the evidence here, he’s clearly a remarkable talent and Levit is clearly proud of his protégé, sharing a programme where each performed a Prokofiev piano sonata before joining forces for Shostakovich’s own transcription of his Tenth Symphony.
White hot intensity in Jurowski’s Lyatoshynsky

3 weeks ago | bachtrack.com | Mark Pullinger

In November, as part of its “Moments Remembered” series, the London Philharmonic Orchestra performed Shostakovich’s powerful Thirteenth Symphony. It sets poems by Yevgeny Yevtushenko, including the haunting Babi Yar, commemorating the 1941 massacre of Jews by the Nazis at Babi Yar, a ravine near Kyiv.
Prokofiev: Betrothal in a Monastery at MusikTheater an der Wien | Live Review

4 weeks ago | gramophone.co.uk | Mark Pullinger

⭐⭐⭐⭐Valery Gilmanov as Mendoza and Stacey Alleaume as Luisa in Betrothal in a Monastery at MusikTheater an der Wien (Photo: Werner Kmetitsch)If a giant animatronic fish, zombie chefs wielding knives and boozy monks in high heels and suspenders tick your boxes, then get thee not to a nunnery, but to a monastery instead.
Tchaikovsky: Iolanta in Wiener Staatsoper | Live Review

1 month ago | gramophone.co.uk | Mark Pullinger

⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐Sonya Yoncheva as Iolanta and Ensemble in Tchaikovsky's Iolanta at Wiener Staatsoper (Photo: Michael Pöhn)The last time a new production of Tchaikovsky’s Iolanta appeared at the Wiener Staatsoper it was conducted by Gustav Mahler! It was way back in 1900 – just eight years after the opera’s premiere in St Petersburg – and the house was then called the Hofoper (Vienna Court Opera).
Bachtrack top ten: Georges Bizet

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Von Mark Pullinger |Mark Pullinger

If Georges Bizet had composed only Carmen, he would still have earned his place in classical music’s Hall of Fame. Alas, he died at the tender age of 36 – believing that his recently premiered Carmen was a flop – leaving only a slender body of work, much of which quickly fell into obscurity. Even his teenage Symphony in C, now a mainstay of the orchestral repertoire, was only rediscovered in 1933.
Der nächste furchtlose Sprung: Sonya Yoncheva

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Mark Pullinger

„Ich hatte völlig vergessen zu schauen, wohin ich springen musste. Ich hab nur ein großes weißes Kreuz gesehen und bin einfach drauf zugesprungen!“ Die Oper muss einfach Tosca sein. Die Sopranistin, um die es geht, ist Sonya Yoncheva. Wir treffen uns an der Wiener Staatsoper zwei Tage nach ihrer 44. Vorstellung als Puccinis Diva, aber das ist nichts im Vergleich zur Inszenierung selbst.
Taking another fearless leap: Sonya Yoncheva

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Mark Pullinger

“I totally forgot to look where I had to jump. All I could see was a big white cross and I just leapt for it!” The opera just has to be Tosca. The soprano in question is Sonya Yoncheva. We meet at the Wiener Staatsoper two days after her 44th performance as Puccini’s diva, but that’s nothing compared to the production itself. Margarethe Wallmann’s staging opened in 1958 – starring Renata Tebaldi, no less – and had clocked up its 658th performance.
Dodging the executioner’s axe: Andrei Șerban’s Turandot returns to The Royal Opera

1 month ago | bachtrack.com | Mark Pullinger

Andrei Șerban’s 1984 staging of Turandot is the oldest production left in The Royal Opera’s stable. Despite repeated rumours that it was facing the chop, it has successfully dodged the executioner’s axe once again. And with good reason, for Șerban treats Puccini’s final opera as the macabre fairy tale that it is, true to Carlo Gozzi’s original commedia dell'arte play.