So impressive. Janine Jansen essentially strips these pieces of all the years of what one might call ‘performance adornment’ and takes them back to their elemental roots. From Mäkelä and the Oslo Philharmonic the shimmer at the start of the Sibelius is a frosty haze that you can see rather than hear and from the … [Read More ..read more

There is liberation in the timelessness of these songs and settings, be they old or brand new. And timelessness is what makes this quirky and haunting collection – a tapestry, if you like, of protest – memorable. Even the singer, the striking Nicholas Phan, is possessed of a voice which apparently makes no distinction between … [Read More ..read more

For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Melissa Errico, celebrated purveyor of the songs of Stephen Sondheim and Michel Legrand and a cabaret artist of extraordinary magnetism. Her theatre career on Broadway and beyond has embraced some classics like My Fair Lady, The Sound of Music and Camelot with excursions into Kurt Weill and Ogden Nash’s One Touch of Venus and Michael Legrand and Jeremy Sam’s Amour for which she was nominated for a Tony Award. But she thrives on the intimacy of the cabaret room and on disc she has garnered la ..read more

Elfman’s Concerto for Orchestra Wunderkammer was written for the National Youth Orchestra and clearly designed to stretch and stimulate young imaginations – to say nothing of techniques. It’s a kind of Rubik Cube of orchestral possibilities. The title may suggest a ‘room of wonders’ but the fun part comes with the way in which magic casements open on to worlds beyond it. Percussion – some of it tuned – is the engine room of the first movement propelling us forward until in one glorious moment a whole vista opens before us – a kind of Bluebeard’s Castle fifth door chord sequence – only to vanis ..read more

Edward Seckerson meets the prolific Frank Wildhorn during the West End opening of Your Lie in April, his latest venture (after Death Note) into the realms of Japanese Manga. From one huge Whitney Houston hit – ‘Where Do Broken Hearts Go’ – to well over a thousand songs and countless musicals, his is quite a story. At one time in the late ’90s he had three musicals running simultaneously on Broadway. One of them, Jekyll & Hyde, has become one of the most performed and most revered all over the globe, while ‘This is the Moment’ can lay claim to being the most sung competi ..read more

For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Christine Allado, fresh from lending her shining soprano to the Old Friends celebrating Stephen Sondheim at London’s Gielgud Theatre. Some may remember her opposite Rob Houchen in the TV documentary The Making of a Classic, chronicling the genesis of West Side Story, but onstage the Filipino actress is best known as Peggy Schuyler and Maria Reynolds – and sometimes Eliza – in Hamilton, and Tzipporah in Prince of Egypt. She’s about to give her Julie Jordan in a concert staging of one of the greatest musicals ever written – Carousel.&nbs ..read more

A near perfect combo of works spanning the length and breadth of Carl Nielsen’s life’s work. The tone poem Pan and Syrinx should rightly come between the two big works but it makes for an impressionable curtain raiser in this dramatic and atmospheric performance from Edward Gardner and his marvellous Bergen Philharmonic. The sound of Bergen’s Grieg Hall adds to the impression of a piece punching above its weight. There is huge range between the ethereal, the playful, and the anarchically dramatic. In so many ways it foreshadows the Sixth Symphony. The Flute Concerto is a clever and imaginative ..read more

I’ve always admired the modesty and truthfulness of James Ehnes as a player – and you can hear that modesty at work in Phaedrus’ opening address from the Bernstein Serenade. There’s an unfussy directness about it that looks you straight in the eye and immediately draws you in. Only Bernstein, of course, could have fashioned a violin concerto from Greek mythology – namely Plato’s Symposium – and then drawn such innate theatricality from a group of great thinkers holding court in praise of love. But then again he loved words almost as much as he loved notes. Pitching strings against percussion w ..read more

Bartok was never fully content with The Wooden Prince and this final revision marks an end to his tinkering. It is significant, I think, that all his trimming has to do with music explicitly related to stage business suggesting that he saw its future as a concert piece as opposed to a ballet. For sure, this is yet another extraordinary essay in orchestral black magic – the folksy made fantastical – but the pathos at its heart (as with Miraculous Mandarin) fuels a deeper drama. A recent recording from the WDR Symphony Orchestra under Christian Macelaru seduced my ear afresh but the Onyx enginee ..read more

For this Musicals Magazine Podcast, Edward Seckerson meets Jack Godfrey, one of the brightest and most engaging talents in the exciting renaissance of new writing, enlivening the West End and beyond. With 42 Balloons – for which he wrote book, music and lyrics – fresh from its inaugural production at the Lowry Manchester and Babies opening at The Other Palace, Godfrey’s insidiously memorable hooks are ear-worming their way into all Musical Theatre enthusiasts’ consciousness. Godfrey writes pop songs with heart, soul, and zing. Can anyone wait for what comes next?  Babies The Mus ..read more