Mark Humphreys, Author at North West End UK

Opera North’s The Magic Flute – Leeds Grand Theatre

28Sep

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

Yorkshire & Humber

Opera North’s The Magic Flute – Leeds Grand Theatre

Opera North’s Magic Flute, reviving James Brining’s 2019 production of Mozart’s final opera, comes with literally all of the bells and whistles. (Well, magic bells and the eponymous magic flute, together with an ever-so-slightly-irritatingly out-of-tune set of pipes.) And, being sung in English in Jeremy Sams’s excellent translation, it’s also an ideal introduction to opera for newbies, as well as a season-opening treat for those notsos. A pre-show message from company Music Director Garry Walker proudly reminded us that Opera North delivers learning and engagement to no fewer than 3,000 school children per week, and has a full time chorus, orchestra and technical crew. A not so subtle message for the CEO of Arts Council England, in tonight’s audience, perhaps. The ...

Nielsen’s Violin Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

12Apr

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Nielsen’s Violin Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

Let me let you into a little secret. When soloists embark on their concerto cadenza (an extended, elaborate virtuosic solo segment where the orchestra stops playing and the soloist takes centre stage) I stop watching what they are doing and ‘people-watch’ the orchestra and conductor. For there are few things better than watching professionals acknowledge professionals – putting their own instruments down, enrapt, leaning forward for a better look at the action, smiling and even nodding in appreciation at the skill of their fellow performer. So, it was last night with Swedish-Norwegian violinist Johan Dalene, the RLPO Young Artist in Residence who was last seen here performing the Korngold Violin Concerto. The Neilsen Violin Concerto affords not one but two opportuniti...

Nobuyuki Tsujii – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

9Apr

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Nobuyuki Tsujii – Philharmonic Hall, Liverpool

What amazed me about pianist Nobuyuki Tsujii’s concert at the Philharmonic Hall was not the virtuosic playing, the passion he brought out in the music, the meticulous attention to detail or even the width and depth of emotion wrung out of every last piece. In these days of music on demand, with Spotify, Apple Music, or BBC Radio 3 through BBC Sounds, it is easy to take for granted our ease of access to world class performances. And to think we can all access them via mobile devices which fit into the palm of our hand, even if the wireless headphones much in vogue these days make us look more like we’re in the US Secret Service on Presidential protection duty. Or perhaps that’s just my son. No, I was entranced by understanding the process by which Tsujii learns the repe...

Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Weinberg – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

6Apr

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Sheku Kanneh-Mason performs Weinberg – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

I don’t know how many people my age will remember what they were doing on their 25th birthday. I certainly don’t – probably some real ale bar in Oxford with sticky floors and beer at £2 per pint. But Shekhu Kanneh-Mason, superstar cellist and the third of seven ridiculously talented musician siblings, may well remember the rapturous reception (and impromptu rendition of ‘Happy Birthday’) he received from the audience at Liverpool’s Philharmonic Hall last night on the occasion of his reaching a quarter-century. The curtain-raiser was Samuel Coleridge-Taylor’s Ballade for Orchestra. Born in London in 1875 to an English mother and Sierra Leonean medical student father, Samuel was named after the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge. When the Three Choirs Festival wished to ...

Domingo Hindoyan’s Bruckner – Liverpool Philharmonic

1Mar

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Domingo Hindoyan’s Bruckner – Liverpool Philharmonic

This week, Liverpool’s famous youthful talent took to a prestigious stage and celebrated great success with a charismatic grey-haired leader. No, not Carabao Cup-winning Liverpool FC with their academy starlets under Jurgen Klopp, but the Liverpool Philharmonic Youth Orchestra under former percussionist and ‘the scouser in our team’ Sir Simon Rattle. But on Thursday night it was the seasoned pros of the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra who celebrated the music of two composers who showed that talent can materialise at either end of the age spectrum. On the one hand, the Violin Concerto by prodigious child prodigy-turned-Hollywood-star-composer Erich Korngold, and on the other the monumental Seventh Symphony by Anton Bruckner, who was in his late 50s by the time he bega...

Grieg’s Piano Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

23Feb

By Mark HumphreysNo Comments

North West

Grieg’s Piano Concerto – Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra

“Easy on the banjos!” warned Eric Morecambe when André Previn (or Andrew Preview) famously attempted to conduct the Grieg Piano Concerto in the classic 1971 Morecambe and Wise Christmas Special. The one time I ever saw a banjo on stage with the RLPO my Facebook post quoting this zinging one-liner garnered precisely zero likes. It must be a generation thing. For this 2024 performance, Liverpool welcomed back its prodigal son and former Chief Conductor, Vasily Petrenko. Turning from the podium, orchestra poised to start, to acknowledge an errant mobile phone ringtone with a wry raise of the eyebrow, he held the audience in the palm of his hand - comic timing worthy of the much-missed double act themselves. First on the programme was Bohuslav Martinů’s La Bagarre, composed w...