Nahoko Gotoh

Nahoko is a UK-based Japanese music journalist with a background in musicology. She writes regularly for various Japanese media including Ongaku no tomo and Mostly Classic magazines.
Lufthansa Festival opens with a ravishing Handel masterpiece

The 2013 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music opened at St John's Smith Square with a performance of Handel's remarkable L'Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato with Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli Consort & Players. It's a sensitive work that gives us nothing but pure pleasure.

Monday 13th May 2013 Read more...
London Handel Festival opens with a tongue-in-cheek Imeneo at the RCM

Part of the London Handel Festival, this Royal College of Music production of Handel's Imeneo took a light-hearted approach towards this unusual opera. The musical performances were very fine, and the festival is off to a strong start.

Thursday 14th March 2013 Read more...
A finely-cast Radamisto from The English Concert

A concert performance of Handel's Radamisto came to the Barbican, from The English Concert and an impressive set of soloists including countertenor David Daniels. Despite three of the singers suffering from colds, there were strong performances to enjoy.

Wednesday 13th February 2013 Read more...
Classical Opera explore Mozart's music for castrati

Classical Opera's well-attended concert at the Wigmore Hall was intriguingly titled "Mozart’s Castrati". Overall, the programme was well researched, featuring different types of castrato arias from Mozart's operas, and resonant voices which blended beautifully.

Friday 25th January 2013 Read more...
Bampton Classical Opera revives little-known operas by Philidor and Grétry

Bampton Classical Opera is a company dedicated to performing rarely-performed 18th-century operas. This double-bill at St John's Smith Square saw them revive two little-known French opéras comiques by Philidor and Grétry, with Chroma providing the orchestral part.

Tuesday 25th September 2012 Read more...
Prom 67: Gewandhaus' all-Mendelssohn evening produces mixed results

The first of the two Proms by the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra featured an all-Mendelssohn programme. The orchestra has a long tradition of performing Mendelssohn’s music, and current Music Director Riccardo Chailly has been enthusiastically performing original versions of his orchestral works in recent years.

Friday 7th September 2012 Read more...
Prom 60: Glyndebourne's outstanding Figaro

Glyndebourne brought their hottest production of the summer, The Marriage of Figaro, and it was wonderful to see the Albert Hall packed to rafters. As well as some excellent singing from the soloists, there was an obvious trust between conductor Robin Ticciati and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment.

Friday 31st August 2012 Read more...
BBC Proms Saturday Matinee 2: Les 24 Violons du Roy

The second in the Proms Saturday Matinee series featured French Baroque music from the period of Louis XIV, performed by Les 24 Violons du Roy and conducted by Roger Norrington. The orchestra have recreated the string orchestra of the court of Louis XIV by commissioning copies of the instruments they would have used.

Wednesday 1st August 2012 Read more...
Prom 15: A Slavic feast from Bělohlávek and the BBC Symphony Orchestra

Jiří Bělohlávek, who was indisposed for his first scheduled Proms performance this year (in his final season as Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra), was back on the podium to conduct a Slavic-themed programme on Wednesday night, with Smetana, Prokofiev and Dvořák on the programme.

Friday 27th July 2012 Read more...
Prom 7: A late-night Handel extravaganza with Le Concert Spirituel

The first-ever free Late-Night Prom on Wednesday was a Handel extravaganza for the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee year. Flamboyant French conductor Hervé Niquet and his group Le Concert Spirituel brought Handel’s Water Music and Music for the Royal Fireworks to the Royal Albert Hall in spectacular fashion.

Sunday 22nd July 2012 Read more...
Rising stars Hakhnazaryan and Kozhukhin at the City of London Festival

Part of the City of London Festival, the Merchant Taylors’ Hall in Threadneedle Street hosted a joint recital by two recent winners of prestigious international competitions: Armenian cellist Narek Hakhnazaryan, winner of the 2011 Tchaikovsky International Competition, and Russian pianist Denis Kozhukhin, winner of the 2010 Queen Elizabeth Competition in Brussels.

Thursday 12th July 2012 Read more...
Evocative Singing from Christoph Prégardien at Wigmore Hall

Lieder recitals at the Wigmore Hall are usually very popular, so I was quite surprised at the number of empty seats at Monday’s BBC Lunchtime Concert by the distinguished tenor Christoph Prégardien and Christoph Schnackertz. But Prégardien provided an imaginative selection of songs by Wolf, Liszt and Mahler.

Thursday 3rd May 2012 Read more...
The Bach Players give moving tribute to Gustav Leonhardt

Gustav Leonhardt, who died in January this year, was a great pioneer in the early music movement – as harpsichordist, organist, conductor and teacher – and he influenced all subsequent musicians in the field whether directly or indirectly. Nicolette Moonen and the Bach Players here presented a moving tribute to Leonhardt and his work.

Monday 23rd April 2012 Read more...
Riccardo Primo at London Handel Festival: A Strong Case for a Rare Handel Opera

Handel's Riccardo Primo was premiered in the coronation year of King George II in 1727. Therefore, it made sense that this production should be set loosely in the Georgian period. The London Handel Festival production at the Britten Theatre was a stylish performance by all.

Thursday 29th March 2012 Read more...
Ukranian Mezzo wins Handel Singing Competition

The final of this year’s Handel Singing Competition, which opened the 2012 London Handel Festival, was a rare occasion when the winner of the First Prize matched the winner of the Audience Prize, giving satisfaction all round. This year’s winner, Ukrainian mezzo-soprano Anna Starushke, was the first mezzo-soprano ever to win the competition.

Monday 19th March 2012 Read more...
Dynamic Rachmaninov from Vasily Petrenko and the Philharmonia

Dynamic Russian conductor Vasily Petrenko was joined by last-minute violin soloist Henning Kraggerud for the Sibelius Concerto with the Philharmonia this Sunday afternoon. The Philharmonia also performed works by Hindemith and Rachmaninov, in a highly polished performance which improved over the course of the concert.

Wednesday 29th February 2012 Read more...


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