UK Critics' Circle Music

My review for @bachtrack.com of Thursday's Barbican concert

Kudos to Yuja Wang for championing the rarely heard Rautavaara First Piano Concerto. Then she offered three encores, including Brahms piano four-hands with conductor Tarmo Peltokoski… @londonsymphony.bsky.social

Pleased to see this impressive release of Martin's chamber music picked as an Editor's Choice in Gramophone this month. My review is currently free to read online: www.gramophone.co.uk/reviews/mart...

RPO/Edusei/Masabane Cecilia Rangwanasha review – the makings of a classic Strauss South African soprano Rangwanasha proved she is the real deal in a performance of Strauss’s Four Last Songs that’s let down by the RPO’s oddly pinched, poorly tuned backing

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Add to playlist: the cliche-correcting medieval music of Idrîsî Ensemble and the week’s best new tracks The group reimagines Corsica’s ancient music for modern female voices with fresh spiky arrangements that remain heavy with the pain of the past

Wrote about the marvellous idrisi endemble for the guardian

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Gianandrea Noseda thanking the LSO's percussion section after performing Rachmaninoff 1 at the Barbican last night. Marvellously energetic and impassioned playing from the orchestra in this excellent concert.

Mozartian masterclass: Marianne Crebassa wears the trousers at @wigmore-hall.org.uk with @themozartists.bsky.social
Review 👇
bachtrack.com/review-creba...

John Adams' new piano concerto arrives in the UK - and it's magical Vikingur Ólafsson and the Philharmonia Orchestra under Esa-Pekka Salonen cast a spell with the new work and a dazzling performance of Daphnis et Chloé

Great evening chez @philharmonialondon.bsky.social yesterday. Impressive new Adams concerto, fabulous playing all round, and a Daphnis & Chloe to die for from Salonen. inews.co.uk/culture/arts...

Welcome to Twangle Second day, second post (should have been first)

Second Substack post, should really have been the first. A bit about how I got here.
open.substack.com/pub/jessicad...

Tamara Stefanovich review – inspired and insightful programme celebrates Kurtág at 100 The pianist’s recital was a masterful essay in sound where the Hungarian composer’s short piano works were woven into and out of Debussy, Liszt and Bach

A brilliantly-programmed birthday homage to Kurtag from Tamara Stefanovich: theguardian.com/music/2026/f... review @theguardian.com

A classic revived: Opera North's Peter Grimes | The Critics' Circle A review of Opera North's 2026 revival of Phyllida Lloyd's classic 2006 staging of Benjamin Britten's opera Peter Grimes.

Phyllida Lloyd's Grimes is still serving the chills for Opera North, with an impressive central turn from John Findon: criticscircle.org.uk/a-classic-re... review @ccmusicuk.bsky.social

Heartlessness, Hedonism, and a Tap-dancing Hurricane as Mahagonny breezes into town | The Critics' Circle Kenneth Kellogg, Rosie Aldridge, Mark Le Brocq, ENO’s Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny © Tristram Kenton 2026 Weill: The Rise and Fall of the City of Mahagonny ENO / André de Ridder The Coliseum...

My review of ENO’s Mahagonny: criticscircle.org.uk/heartlessnes...

Magical sounds, stained glass wonders and the genius of Small Prophets Trying to brighten up February…

open.substack.com/pub/wordsonm...

Weill the music lasts This is my first post here - and it's all about Kurt Weill, who to me is the composer of the moment. Here is a longer version of my article that appeared in the Sunday Times on 15 February.

I cracked and started a Substack. Welcome to TWANGLE: MUSIC AND WORDS. The first post is about Kurt Weill.
jessicaduchen.substack.com/p/weill-the-...

LSO / Chan / Stankiewicz review – Matthews’s oboe concerto is dense and dynamic The London Symphony Orchestra’s Olivier Stankiewicz was the soloist for the premiere of Colin Matthews’s oboe concerto; Rachmaninov and Bartók followed, with Chan compelling and clear

Incisive clarity from Elim Chan, and a meaty new oboe concerto from Colin Matthews for the LSO: www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

Così Fan Tutte – ENO’s clever Coney Island take on Mozart’s opera Read our review of Così Fan Tutte, English National Opera's candy-striped staging of Mozart's anarchic opera, starring Lucy Crowe

Some classy singing and a staging with lots to say (under the clutter) but this revival didn't really gel for me: www.thestage.co.uk/reviews/cosi... @thestage.co.uk

Verdi: Luisa Miller at Wiener Staatsoper | Live Review - Opera Now Mariotti is a master in this repertoire and conducted with great affection for Verdi’s score, highlighting the Tyrolean colouring and driving climaxes with spirit

Bogdan Roščić loves to put a cat among the pigeons... my review of a controversial new Luisa Miller at the Wiener Staatsoper (although featuring some spectacular singing...)
www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

It's always a pleasure to see a recording I've reviewed get picked as a Gramophone Editor's Choice. Very impressive performances here, including a phenomenally intense and moving account of Webern's Five Pieces Op 5.

Rhiannon Giddens and Francesco Turrisi review – big, generous, provocative music-making on a small stage Grammy-winning Giddens fused folk, opera, jazz, pop and classical elements in a recital ‘honouring composers who don’t often get called composers’

www.theguardian.com/music/2026/f...

“I was shocked at the reaction... it was like I’d pissed on the Mona Lisa!” I had the most entertaining time interviewing Barrie Kosky for the new issue of Opera Now
www.opera-now.com/content/feat...

Tchaikovsky: Eugene Onegin at Paris Opera | Live Review - Opera Now A stylish, faithful Onegin marks Ralph Fiennes’ opera directing debut

Eugene Onegin at the Opéra de Paris: my review of Ralph Fiennes’ directorial debut is already online 👇

www.opera-now.com/content/revi...

The long goodbye - Jurowski returns to the LPO for Mahler's Tenth in Rudolf Barshai's completion. My ★★★★ review @bachtrack.com 📸Mark Allan
bachtrack.com/review-mahle...

Such a stylish Rossini recital by @annabonitatibus.bsky.social and Adele D'Aronzo at @wigmore-hall.org.uk

CBSO/Yamada review – Moore’s trombone adventures into Fujikura’s sonic oceans Dai Fujikura’s elusive trombone concerto was given its UK premiere by Peter Moore, who made its colours and textures sing; a persuasive but perhaps too sunny reading of Mahler’s first symphony followe...

Gosh Peter Moore is good... A new trombone concerto and a sunny Mahler 1 from Yamada & the CBSO: www.theguardian.com/music/2026/j...

Simon Rattle, the LSO and the cast of Janáček's Věc Makropulos at the Barbican this evening. A tremendous performance, intensely moving at the end.

The Makropulos Affair review — Simon Rattle adds glamour and panache Rattle conducted this bracing performance of Janacek’s opera at the Barbican, 100 years after its premiere

The Makropulos Affair is a tricky piece to bring off in stand-and-deliver format, but Marlis Petersen was consistently riveting as Emilia Marty. On we march with Simon Rattle's excellent @londonsymphony.bsky.social Janacek series.

www.thetimes.com/article/97af...

Had the pleasure of reviewing Kirill Petrenko's recording of Brahms 1 for the January issue of Gramophone. Not a performance that combusts in the manner of Abendroth or even Abbado, but one that's wonderfully played by the Berlin Phil.

Anna Lapwood review — the TikTok star unleashes Bristol’s Britton Organ Bristol’s mighty instrument has been silent since 2018. Now after a £1million restoration it has been relaunched by the organist who is a hit on social media

www.thetimes.com/article/8997...

Washington National Opera Is Leaving the Kennedy Center

Washington National Opera is leaving the Kennedy Center: www.nytimes.com/2026/01/09/a...

I was moved as seldom before. A prodigious revival of RBO's La traviata that's anything but routine.

★★★★★ from me at @bachtrack.com