Leeds International Piano Competition – The Final and a tour of the Cobbe Collection
A great Leeds tradition develops in new and exciting ways, and continues to excel at what first made it great. You may have noticed a few pianos around Leeds—in the Corn Exchange, the train station, the Merrion and Trinity Centres, the University of Leeds’ Parkinson Building. These were supplied (by the wonderful Besbrode Pianos) as […]
A Classic Summer’s Evening with the Orchestra of Opera North, Millennium Square,
A light-hearted evening with a no-surprises programme becomes—by way of faux pas and churlish security—a bit more interesting than intended. I was running—well, a fast walk—to Millennium Square, to rendezvous with my plus-one when I noticed that our July heat seemed decisively to have ended abruptly for this outdoor concert. Although my shorts- and-short sleeves-garbed […]
Berlin To Broadway with Kurt Weill – At City Varieties
This look at the life and works of Kurt Weill is fascinating, toe-tapping and truly enriching. This evening’s proceeding is a co-production between Opera North, West Yorkshire Playhouse, and the City Varieties—an omnivorous combination of theatrical types which I am sure would have met with Weill’s approbation—and is directed by the esteemed Giles Havergal, now […]
Lars Vogt Piano Recital at Howard Assembly Room
A night which begins a little cool soon warms up and proves a real, surprising delight. Lars Vogt is a pianist clearly comfortable with embracing the new. Strolling onstage in a suit under which he wears, not a shirt and tie, but a black t-shirt, he takes his seat at the Howard Assembly Steinway and […]
Sunwook Kim: Piano Recital at Howard Assembly Room
A not perfect but deeply impressive concert pleases and shocks in equal measure. S. Bach, Toccata, Adagio, and Fugue (arr. for piano by Ferruccio Busoni) The packed house was a very positive sign. Kim walked out and immediately struck the audience as confident and charismatic. As he launches into the organ-like left-hand octaves of the […]
