Sandra Oman

5 results

Dutch violinist Simone Lamsma received beautifully-judged support from the National Symphony Orchestra.
Communal virtuosity is abundant in NSO’s Strauss performance

Composers can be very disparaging about each other’s work, and also about their own. Mozart wrote about one of his late pieces for a mechanical organ (...)

Javier Abreu as Lindoro and Rachel Kelly as Isabella in Rossini’s ‘The Italian Girl in Algiers’. Photograph: Frances Marshall
Blackwater Valley Opera Festival review: In need of some firm quality control

It’s a while since I heard anyone talk about never wasting a good crisis, although the idea was frequently mentioned when Ireland was in the throes of(...)

Nicholas Ransley and Gavan Ring in Lismore Opera Festival’s Cosi fan tutte. Photograph: Frances Marshall
Classical music: A musical storm blows in from Brussels, and Mozart is reborn in a stable

The Brussels Philharmonic made its Irish debut in style at the National Concert Hall on May 31st. The orchestra, which was founded by the Belgian pub(...)

John Cage was happy to write in a letter of recommendation that Christian Wolff (above) ‘is not known as a student of mine for the reason that I learned more from him than he from me’
The unpredictable sounds of an American Wolff in Dundalk

Heineken may not be brewed in Dundalk, but one of its most famous advertising slogans – about refreshing the parts other beers cannot reach – has m(...)

Owen Gilhooly (Papageno) and Chloe Morgan (Papagena) in The Magic Flute
The Magic Flute in a circus makes for a frustrating experience in Lismore

Since its inception in 2010, the Lismore Music Festival has performed in the stable yard of Lismore Castle. A three-sided marquee has covered the audi(...)