David Fay

David studied Music and French at Bristol University and subsequently completed an MA in Musicology. His specialism is 20th-century British choral music but his musical passions range from Alkaline Trio to Zadok the Priest.
Wilde Headonism: Strauss’s Salome at the Royal Opera House

Few live events could offer a more intense, visceral, grotesque experience than a performance of Oscar Wilde’s play Salome, set to music by Richard Strauss. Wilde’s decadentist retelling of the biblical tale takes no prisoners. Similarly, Strauss’s score is relentless in its fin-de-siècle, over-ripe Romanticism; its raw, wriggling lasciviousness.

Tuesday 5th June 2012 Read more...
Good Morning, Marylebone! Chloë Hanslip and Charles Owen at Wigmore Hall

Another lazy Sunday morning means another quality chamber concert for the Wigmore Hall cognoscenti. This week, their complimentary sherry was served with a cocktail of violin and piano duets, mixing the contrasting flavours of Pärt, Schubert and Richard Strauss, courtesy of Chloë Hanslip and established pianist Charles Owen.

Tuesday 22nd May 2012 Read more...
Rite and Wrong: Gergiev's LSO Perform Stravinsky's Rite of Spring and Oedipus Rex

So much ink has been spilled over Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring since its riotous première 99 years ago that commenting on this seminal work, interpreted by the London Symphony Orchestra under Valery Gergiev, seemed no mean feat. Little did I know that I’d struggle far more with Stravinsky’s opera-oratorio Oedipus Rex.

Thursday 17th May 2012 Read more...
Fêtes Galantes: Musical Gallantry at Wigmore Hall

Singers Sophie Daneman and Ian Bostridge were joined by lutenist Elizabeth Kenny for the first half of this Wigmore Hall recital of French song. By contrast, the second saw Graham Johnson take to the piano to accompany in songs by Debussy and Fauré. A truly charmant evening.

Monday 14th May 2012 Read more...
The Agony and the Ecstasy: LSO Performs Bartók and Szymanowski

David Fay reviews the LSO, Peter Eötvös and Nikolaj Znaider in music by Bartók and Szymanowski at the Barbican.

Thursday 10th May 2012 Read more...
All’s Fair in Love and War: The Academy of Ancient Music at the Wigmore Hall

Monteverdi’s dramatic madrigal Il combattimento di Tancredi e Clorinda is an extraordinary, original and startling work, which drew a sold-out crowd at the Wigmore Hall when performed by the Academy of Ancient Music. Alongside a selection of other Baroque works, this was an excellent, energetic performance from the AAM.

Sunday 29th April 2012 Read more...
Musical Monument, Monumental Music: Britten’s War Requiem at the Royal Festival Hall

Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem is a monumental piece of music, and any performance of the War Requiem is a momentous occasion. This remarkable performance saw Lorin Maazel conduct the Philharmonia Orchestra, Voices and Chorus, the Tiffin Boys’ Choir, soprano Nancy Gustafson, tenor Mark Padmore, and baritone Matthias Goerne at the Royal Festival Hall.

Monday 26th March 2012 Read more...
Die schöne Müllerin with Florian Boesch and Malcolm Martineau

I was rather excited about attending a surprisingly rare performance of Schubert's remarkable song cycle Die schöne Müllerin at Wigmore Hall, with leading baritone Florian Boesch and Lieder specialist Malcolm Martineau at the piano. I wasn’t the only one: the hall was packed for this recital.

Saturday 24th March 2012 Read more...
Poise and Passion: Michael Collins joins the Belcea Quartet for Mozart and Brahms

The Belcea Quartet was joined by exceptional clarinettist Michael Collins for these two behemoths of the quintet repertoire. As they took their seats in front of a packed Wigmore Hall audience, and the first notes of the Mozart rang out with vibrant serenity, it struck me that this really was the perfect sunny Sunday morning experience.

Monday 19th March 2012 Read more...
A big hit: Shadowball at the Hackney Empire

Sometimes you’re presented with the opportunity to witness something wonderful that you wouldn’t have even known existed except by an uncanny twist of fate. So it was with Shadowball, Julian Joseph’s community jazz opera about baseball. I don’t know the first thing about baseball and little about jazz. But my apprehension at being an uninitiated reviewer was transformed by the air of excitement around the entrances.

Saturday 17th March 2012 Read more...
Americana: An original song recital at the King’s Head Theatre, Islington

Experimental doesn’t have to mean mental: it can simply refer to something original, something done differently. Open Door Opera’s staged song recital Americana was an excellent example of such an experimental production, where the experiment enhanced, rather than inhibited, the music.

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Read more...
A Garland for St. George: Vivamus sing Byrd in Bloomsbury

Vivamus’ concert ‘A Garland for the Queen’ featured music written for its intended venue, the Queen’s Chapel of the Savoy. But lacking the Queen’s Chapel, Vivamus proved that great music well performed in a wonderful venue is enough to make for a special evening, corresponding architecture or not.

Monday 27th February 2012 Read more...
Sofia’s Choice: Gubaidulina at 80 at the Royal Academy of Music

As I took my place in a more or less deserted Duke’s Hall for a concert of music by Sofia Gubaidulina, something strange happened. The rows of seats behind me appeared suddenly filled, by youngsters with the startled eyes of newfound freedom from the practice room. It was a beautiful, heart-warming sight, as was witnessing those performers engaging with, and truly feeling, Gubaidulina’s music.

Thursday 23rd February 2012 Read more...
A matter of Life and Death: Beethoven’s Fourth and Brahms’ Requiem

The second concert in the Philharmonia Orchestra’s ‘The Still Point of the Turning World’ series, which began last month, this programme consisted of a Beethoven symphony followed by a meaty, longer work: a formula aimed at producing an immensely stimulating musical and philosophical experience.

Sunday 19th February 2012 Read more...
Image in This: Sculpting Soundworlds with Alessandro Taverna

This young Venetian pianist certainly knew how to tame the Steinway and harness the remarkable acoustic of Wigmore Hall, so that Bach’s contrapuntal subtleties flourished rather than vanished in a potentially glorious but destructive mush of sound. Even the most die-hard of early music evangelists could not question the beauty of Taverna’s performance.

Saturday 11th February 2012 Read more...
Man, with two faces: Beethoven's Fifth and Dallapiccola's Prisoner

This was a concert contrasting two opposing faces of man. From the heights of genius, of life-affirming, triumphant joy, to the depths of cruelty, of hopeless, nihilistic despair, Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra presented two musical visions of humanity in this first concert in their new series.

Sunday 29th January 2012 Read more...
Of Rihm: A 60th birthday gift from the London Sinfonietta

It’s quite rare nowadays to rock up to a concert having absolutely no prior knowledge of the music you’re about to hear. And yet, there can be no truer place to discover a work or a composer’s voice than in front of a band of top musicians as they craft this unknown music out of nothing into something.

Thursday 26th January 2012 Read more...
Bach tracked: Bach's cantatas at the Royal Academy of Music

For a composer of such undeniable genius and popularity, it is strange that there aren’t many opportunities to hear Bach’s cantatas performed. Despite the fact that this was a secular performance, as the final chorale drew to a close I couldn’t help thinking I'd just experienced something beautiful and sacred.

Tuesday 24th January 2012 Read more...
Larking about: the Danish String Quartet play Haydn, Nielsen and Mendelssohn

This was an important political occasion: a concert given in honour of the beginning of the Danish presidency of the EU. Still, the lasting impression of the performance was not one of ‘radical difference’, but rather one of emotional diffidence. The musical talent and communicative potential are certainly there, and certainly make for a very good show; to become great, boys must become men – emotionally so.

Friday 13th January 2012 Read more...


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