For those into the high resolution classical music files, Spirit of Turtle is offering their 20% off sale for Christmas now, so all the wonderful Northstar Recording albums are at discount. The Outcast album by Matangi is particularly wonderful, in my opinion.
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I’ve been watching this video again, from Christmas 2016. Francesca Hayward had just been made a Principal of The Royal Ballet at age 24 and was dancing Sugar Plum Fairy for the first time with Alexander Campbell. She had already been dancing Principal roles for 2 years, as she was the new mega-star.
We saw them dance those roles in Tuesday, but the other reason for going was to see Joseph Sissons (a future star) as the Nutcracker and Sae Maeda as Clara. Maeda is still in the Corps de Ballet, but the tradition is to sometimes give that role to a young upcoming dancer who no one has ever heard of. She was a Prix de Lausanne prizewinner (the most prestigious dance competition in the world) at age 15 and is now showing star potential.
It’s a massive production. 28 shows, multiple casts (no one dances more than 5 times), 80 kids from the dance school, 3,000 costumes and lots of glitter.
It was a fun evening and the music was glorious. We sat at the back of the stalls to take it all in and found ourselves sitting next to royalty (Nick Jones, founder of Soho House, and Kirsty Young, TV goddess and host of Desert Island Discs).
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She is a remarkable artist.
Her strength is her acting and a very beautiful dancer to watch. She is not the most athletic or daring of dancers at The Royal Ballet. Magnificent in Romeo & Juliet, Manon and Giselle, but her opening night in Swan Lake earlier this year was as close to a disaster as you can get without breaking a leg and she went into a depression for 3 months.
We saw her in Mayerling about a month ago. The final act includes some of the highest tariff dancing in the repertoire, and she did it brilliantly. One of those special moments. We were up front for that one.
Hayward is probably the audience favourite, not least because of her backstory and that she’s home grown. Afficiandos probably still prefer Marianela Nunez, who is a global star. We’ve only seen her a couple of times this season (since September), one of which was at La Scala with Roberto Bolle. She was invited to open their season. There are stronger dancers - Natalia Osipova, Mayara Magri and Yasmine Naghdi, and Fumi Kaneko who has come on dramatically the last two years. It is a golden era that has never been bettered.
Of course one reason everyone loves Frankie is because she’s drop dead gorgeous.
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Enjoy this one:
Oropesa in what looks like the English National Opera set in Madrid in 2018. Saw her perform it in the Royal Opera version in 2017 and she got the longest ovation I’ve ever seen for an opera. The finest solo female operatic performance I’ve ever seen.
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An appropriately introspective approach to this piece, written in 1950, when formalism (art for art’s sake) was being repressed by the Zhdanov Doctrine and the likelihood of performance was uncertain.
I remember Peter Donohoe for crashing through Prokofiev and Rachmaninov piano concertos at the Proms in the early 1980s, usually with the CBSO under the baton of Simon Rattle. They (PD/Rattle/CBSO) did a remarkable performance of Messiaen’s Turangalîla-Symphonie, a huge work, after which someone shouted on “rubbish!”, possibly sarcastically. It certainly wasn’t. After that, even having just shared the Tchaikovsky Prize, PD sort of disappeared.
Shouting out at the Proms was not uncommon. I remember Haitink and the Concertgebouw playing Bruckner’s massive 9th Symphony, after which someone enthusiastically shouted out “play it again!”. They didn’t, but everyone laughed, including the great man himself.
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It also appears that it is a “Hi-Fi Spectacular!”
There are a couple things I don’t like about classical labels these days: 1) not enough vinyl 2) not enough hype like “Hi-Fi Spectacular!”
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@AllenP Just ordered myself a copy! Chers.
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These are incredible IMO. These pics are the Qobuz versions. They can also be had on two hybrid SACD sets. After listening on Qobuz I will be ordering the SACDs. The SACD’s are available on Amazon.
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Great performance and the sound at 88.2/24 is spectacular. SACD would be even better. Thanks for sharing!
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Indeed, was Gramophone recording of the month when released in 2/22 and a close runner up in orchestral recording of the year.
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What a wonderful soloist, chamber musician and accompanist he was. Sorry he died so young recently (won’t say untimely, because death can happen at any time). Always loved him and will continue to do so.
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Listening to this new release right now. Nearly on repeat play this week. Sound quality is fantastic.
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Downloaded the cello sonatas from the Hyperion website. Very enjoyable. Thanks for the recommendation!
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