Gramophone

Gramophone is a monthly magazine based in London that focuses on classical music, especially reviews of music recordings. It was established in 1923 by Scottish writer Compton Mackenzie. In 1999, the magazine was purchased by Haymarket. Then, in 2013, the Mark Allen Group took over as its publisher.

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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.
John Nelson, conductor who won Recording of the Year for Les Troyens, dies aged 83

2 weeks ago | gramophone.co.uk | Martin Cullingford

John Nelson, the conductor acclaimed for his interpretations – including on Award-winning recordings – of the epic works of Berlioz, as well as other large-scale works by Bach and Beethoven, has died aged 83.
London Catholic church hosts concert commemorating martyrs of the gay community

3 weeks ago | gramophone.co.uk | Hattie Butterworth

Farm Street Church, a Catholic Jesuit church in Mayfair, is hosting a choral concert on Saturday commemorating those in the LGBTQ+ community who have lost their lives for being in same-sex and queer relationships, this Saturday 5 April. Entitled 'A Requiem for Those Who Had None', the concert will interweave music and stories, performed by LGBTQ ensemble The Fourth Choir.
Strauss: Salome at the Theater Magdeburg | Live Review

3 weeks ago | gramophone.co.uk | Hugo Shirley

⭐⭐⭐⭐Salome at the Theater Magdeburg (Photo: Edyata Dufaj)When Theater Magdeburg staged the first German performance of Gerald Barry’s Alice’s Adventures Underground in 2022, it somewhat unexpectedly staked a claim as a major venue for performances of veteran Irish composer’s works.
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).
Venables: We Are The Lucky Ones at Dutch National Opera | Live Review

1 month ago | gramophone.co.uk | Hattie Butterworth

The cast of We Are The Lucky Ones | Credit: De Nationale Opera, Koen BroosPhilip Venables and Ted Huffman know how to pack a punch. These concept kings of opera have wowed the world with chamber opera Denis and Katya back in 2019, then The Faggots And Their Friends Between Revolutions which began in Aix in 2023. This project for Amsterdam’s Opera Forward Festival is their largest yet, their first ‘orchestral opera’ with a score that witnesses Venables at his grandest and most dense.
Raphaël Pichon on Bach’s Mass in B minor: ‘It’s one of the only moments in Bach’s output where he opens a door of his intimacy that he ordinarily does not open’

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

Mark Seow ‘After death, if there is something, I hope for the possibility to visit any moment of humanity for eternity.’ I didn’t expect my conversation with French conductor Raphaël Pichon to touch on the eschatological, but if any piece of music in the Western canon was going to make us ponder the afterlife, of course it was going to be Bach’s B Minor Mass.
Puccini: Turandot at Royal Opera House | Live Review

1 month ago | gramophone.co.uk | Alexandra Coghlan

⭐⭐⭐Andrei Serban's production of Puccini's Turandot, The Royal Opera (Photo: Tristram Kenton)None shall sleep! Princess Turandot has proclaimed. And who could, with Andrei Serban’s production (which has racked up well over 40 years and 100 performances since its 1984 premiere) throwing everything and the kitchen wok at its audience. Golden thrones descend on golden clouds; acrobats tumble; red silk streamers cascade; masked choruses process; giant death-masks snarl and gush ribbon-blood.