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September 18, 2019 Susan Elkin

Prom 69 (Susan Elkin reviews)

Few things are musically more uplifting than hearing a fine foreign orchestra playing its own national heritage. The Czech Philharmonic plays with...

September 15, 2019 Susan Elkin

Reviewing Proms and other theatre

Concerts are just another form of theatre – especially classical ones which, however hard promoters and co try to de-formalise them, do...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

Prom 60 (Susan Elkin reviews)

Royal Albert Hall, 3 September 2019 Bernard Haitink’s final London concert was characterised by warmth, dignity and charisma. Many years ago I...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

Prom 51 (Susan Elkin reviews)

This production of Mozart’s last opera Die Zauberflote is characterised by fine orchestral work, much impeccable singing –  and a great deal of directorial...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

Prom 40 (Susan Elkin reviews)

Well, it’s a very pretty piano: a fine example of high Victorian bling. It’s just a pity that Queen Victoria’s piano, on...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

Prom 34 (Susan Elkin reviews)

Unexpectedly, the high spot in this initially populist concert was the Lutoslawski concerto for orchestra (1954) with which it ended. Full of...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

Cilea: L’arlesiana (Susan Elkin reviews)

Opera Holland Park Education is a progressive realisation of our own ignorance, as Einstein said. The same applies to classical music and...

September 7, 2019 Susan Elkin

A Fool’s Paradise and The Happy Princess

Garsington Opera at Wormsley The Happy Princess by Paul Fincham and Jessica Duchen, loosely based on an Oscar Wilde story, is a mini-masterpiece....