It’s strange, but after decades of neglect the music of Florence Price seems uncannily familiar. The soulful themes with their American Deep South tinta, the trumpet-led brass chorales, the jazzy jubas – this is Price’s musical milieu and somehow or other I feel like I’ve known it – or perhaps more accurately the language of it – all my life. I’ve been waiting for Chineke! to join the party and celebrate what we have uncovered to date and they do so with vigour and a deep and abiding affection. Better yet, they bring us Jeneba Kanneh-Mason whose championing of the Price Piano Concerto has alre ..read more

What a shrewd coupling: seemingly unlikely bedfellows united not just by dint of having both been written in Italy (the Walton, of course, at his retreat in Ischia) but by a certain something in the water…the Mediterranean, that is. You hear it immediately in the colour and cast of the opening idea in both pieces – a kind of luxuriance which comes from heat and light and the songful nature of a land steeped in Opera. It stifled the Englishness and brought out the exotic in Walton and the response of this young Bulgarian violinist Liya Petrova is testament to the way in which Sir William’s beau ..read more

It is refreshing to encounter a singer – Robyn Allegra Parton – whose gifts of curation are it would seem fully equal to her musicianship. You might argue that the album’s artwork is a sprinkling of gold-leaf too far – Klimt mock-ups invariably look like cheap parodies – but as a convenient metaphor for the sea-change in creativity marked by the look and feel of the Succession artist’s visuals, they at least give notice of the aural titillation to follow. New horizons come into focus through the dreamy and decorative impressionism of these composers – three of which rarely grace live or record ..read more

Vanska’s Mahler 9 arrives in the wake of Rattle’s recent Bayrischen Rundfunk recording – his third of the piece – and perhaps the quality most found wanting by comparison with Rattle is warmth. It’s true that this is a piece full of night terrors and deathly confrontation but Rattle gives us more of the humanity, of Mahler the man, than Vanska’s more objective reading does. Which is not to say that Vanska lacks passion – not a bit if it – just that he is perhaps more focused on all that is innovative and radical about the score. There is a steely resolve about Vanska’s first movement emerging ..read more

In collaboration with Crazy Coqs, London’s most prestigious cabaret venue, writer and broadcaster EDWARD SECKERSON is delighted to announce a brand new strand of exclusive conversation events featuring some of the biggest names from the world of music and theatre. His objective as ever will be to explore their careers and chat informally about their journey, their process, their aspirations. It’s the perfect setting for fans to share an intimate audience with their favourite performers and gain insight into their motivations and method. Edward’s first guest in this new series will be belo ..read more

Jamie Muscato – the original Jason “J.D.” Dean in the now cult hit Heathers and currently the lovelorn Christian in Moulin Rouge – sits down with Edward Seckerson to talk Once, Bend It Like Beckham, and being Kelsey Grammer’s younger self in Big Fish. Recorded backstage at London’s Piccadilly Theatre in August 2023. The opening and closing musical excerpts featured in this podcast are from the Overture to Gypsy (film version), taken from Jule Styne’s ‘Overtures Vol 2’, courtesy of JAY Records. For more details on Musicals magazine, please visit MusicalsMagazi ..read more

Kerson Leong’s splendid account of the Bruch comes hot on the heals of Ryan Goosby’s no less committed reading with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. But there are notable differences in tone which might loosely be summed up by saying that Leong’s take on the piece is more outgoing in expression. Leong’s generosity of phrase and tone, for instance, comes unashamedly from the chest in the songful reaches of the slow movement and in the finale where the big tune bears down on the G string he really tugs at our emotions. Goosby is perhaps more restrained, more patrician, for su ..read more

Sunday 17 September 2023, 3.00pm Crazy Coqs, Brasserie Zédel Comparing Notes brings stars of the West End and Broadway to Crazy Coqs, Live at Zedel. In a lively and informal mix of performance and conversation host Edward Seckerson will be getting up close and personal with these musical theatre luminaries and emerging stars, exploring the stories behind the songs and the personalities behind the artistry. For this show, Edward will be joined by Robert Tripolino, star of the Olivier Award-winning production of Jesus Christ Superstar at the Barbican Centre and currently playing Marius in L ..read more

The curtain-raiser somewhat eclipses the main event in this instance. Why we don’t hear more of Bartok’s Four Orchestral Pieces I cannot imagine – their relative compactness belies a breadth and depth and drama that calls to mind Berg’s contemporaneous Three Orchestra Pieces. But we are in the shadows of Bartok’s operatic masterpiece Duke Bluebeard’s Castle here and as the first of the pieces – Prelude – begins to unfold we might be discovering what lies behind the eighth door of Bluebeard’s forever home. This is a lush, fantastical, heart-achingly beautiful landscape shot through with ineffab ..read more

You can absolutely hear why Randall Goosby has been turning heads with his open-hearted and generous ‘school of Perlman’ delivery. There’s an honesty – and modesty – about his playing that stands him apart. It’s so refreshing to note an absence of excess in either sound or feeling. This playing isn’t dressed to impress but to express. The European influence and amplitude of the ever-popular Bruch concerto is our way here to the world of Florence Price and in these live recordings from Philadelphia Goosby has another of her champions – Yannick Nézet-Séguin – acting like a second skin in their s ..read more