Mark has been Bachtrack’s English editor since 2014. He is an experienced critic, writing over 500 reviews for the site, as well as contributing to Gramophone and Opera magazines. He is a member of the Music and Dance Sections of The Critics’ Circle. He also writes programme notes and is an occasional blogger at Beckmesser's Quill. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie.
Sir Simon Rattle conducts 80+ members of the LSO in the monumental Grande symphonie funèbre et triomphale in a site-specific performance inside – and outside – St Paul’s Cathedral.
Inspiration eludes the director as a new staging of Saint-Säens’ biblical epic falls flat but for some excellent musical performances led by outstanding mezzo Elīna Garanča.
The grand finale of the Oslo Philharmonic's Sibelius cycle at the Wiener Konzerthaus ends with a grand finale – the famous Swan Hymn of the Fifth Symphony.
An auspicious opening to the Oslo Philharmonic's Sibelius cycle in Vienna, closing with an especially fine Seventh where the music seems to grow organically.
Bulgarian soprano Sonya Yoncheva makes a superb Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra debut with Giuseppe Martucci's La canzone dei ricordi (The Song of Remembrance).
Philip Glass' Violin Concerto draws a big crowd to the Southbank Centre for an evening with the BBC Concerto Orchestra packed with music by contemporary composers.
Julia Fischer ends her London Philharmonic Orchestra spring residency with Elgar's Violin Concerto and a chamber encore which sees Jurowski turn to the piano.
Two concerts at Milton Court intersperse The Four Seasons with concertos from L'estro armonico and sacred cantatas featuring countertenor John Holiday.
Poulenc on primetime: Francis Poulenc's opera, based on Cocteau's play, comes to the small screen this Easter, filmed on location in Paris and starring soprano Danielle de Niese.
“A Soviet artist's creative response to justified criticism” and Shostakovich's orchestration of music by Mussorgsky were at the heart of this BBC SO programme at the Barbican.
There was a celebratory atmosphere to launch the 2022 festival, including royal fireworks and coronation anthems, but it was Ukrainian mezzo Anna Starushkevych who provided the evening's most moving moment.
