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Edward Seckerson
Writer and broadcaster Edward Seckerson is chief classical music and opera critic for The Independent. He wrote and presented the long-running BBC Radio 3 series Stage & Screen, in which he interviewed many of the most prominent writers and stars of musical theatre. He appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4. On television, he has commentated a number of times at the Cardiff Singer of the World competition. He has published books on Mahler and the conductor Michael Tilson Thomas, and has been on Gramophone Magazine's review panel for many years. Edward presented the 2007 series of the Radio 4 music quiz Counterpoint. He has interviewed everyone from Leonard Bernstein to Liza Minelli; from Paul McCartney to Pavarotti: from Julie Andrews to Jessye Norman.
There's almost too much music going on in this great city of ours. As a professional critic, difficult choices have to be made; it just isn't possible to cover everything. But sometimes the biggest surprises come when one is off-duty - like last night at the Royal Festival Hall when the London Philharmonic under its principal guest conductor - Yannick Nezet-Seguin - gave us a truly uplifting account of Bruckner's 7th Symphony. It's been many years since I heard a conductor (a young one at that) so completely in sync and sympathy with the pulse of this music. Too often in Bruckner performances only half the picture emerges. Bruckner, the devout spiritualist, the visionary, is wholeheartedly embraced but Bruckner, the hale and hearty outdoor man, is downplayed. In other words Bruckner performances are invariably too reverent. One mood, one tempo. Not so this Nezet-Seguin performance. The young French-Canadian truly created a gripping odyssey, as surprising as it was inevitable. It was beautiful, passionate, raw, incandescent. The silence of the audience spoke volumes for the atmosphere he created. Even the Wagner tubas were in tune. I would have given it *****.
Check out my interview with Yannick Nezet-Seguin:
http://www.lpo.co.uk/about/nezet_se
Check out my interview with Yannick Nezet-Seguin:
http://www.lpo.co.uk/about/nezet_se
Allow me a shameless plug, friends, for my ongoing English National Opera and London Philharmonic Orchestra podcasts. You can reach them by way of the Indy Online, of course, or Itunes, or by simply visiting the websites in question. Essentially they are fully-fledged radio programmes designed to take you behind the scenes and explore the thinking behind the creativity. How did Fiona Shaw and her cast arrive at the beautiful and emotive staging of Vaughan Williams' Riders to the Sea (which opened last night - see my Indy review)?; what makes the extraordinarily eloquent Vladimir Jurowski, principal conductor of the LPO, tick? What exactly prompted his programming for one of the most adventurous LPO seasons ever? This is priviledged access to the people behind the performances. It sharpens the perceptions no end. Give it a try.
