Kings Place
Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - five pianists, two pianos, too many piecesMonday, 11 October 2021
I’ve always loved the sound of two-piano music: the amazing range of available textures, the interplay of parts and the sense of collaboration between soloists. All were on display in Saturday’s Two-Piano Gala, part of the London Piano Festival at... Read more... |
Gabriela Montero, Kings Place review - improvising to a Chaplin classic is the icing on a zesty cakeSaturday, 09 October 2021
As the Statue of Liberty appears in Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant, our improvising pianist proclaims “The Star-Spangled Banner”, only for it to slide dangerously. The passengers on the ship taking them to a new life are brutally cordoned by the... Read more... |
Iestyn Davies, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - Elizabethans and extraterrestrialsMonday, 27 September 2021
Music in London has faced down plagues, puritans, philistines and planners over the four centuries spanned by the Aurora Orchestra’s season-opener at Kings Place on Saturday. This concert in the venue’s “London Unwrapped” strand filled its main hall... Read more... |
London Bulgarian Choir, Kings Place review - dark Slavic tales in waves of soundTuesday, 25 May 2021
So, blinking, after too much isolation, into a spring evening for a first live indoor gig for over a year was always going to be exciting, if just for novelty value. But for a gentle breaking-in to live music, the London Bulgarian Choir was an... Read more... |
Urioste, Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place online review - superb musicianship in compelling close-upSaturday, 27 February 2021
The clever programming of the “Unwrapped” series has been transformational for the reputation of Kings Place. Ever since the Bach series in 2013 these year-long sequences of concerts and other events have succeeded in silencing the crustier... Read more... |
Osborne, Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place review – live music that lives and breathesSunday, 13 December 2020
Like a hokey-cokey, we’re back to live music in London – but for how long? I overheard another audience member explaining it was her third time at Kings Place this week, as people cram in as many concerts as possible before a feared return to... Read more... |
Kanneh-Mason Trio/Cassadó Ensemble, Kings Place review - the fewer the players, the greater the musicSaturday, 12 December 2020
For the performers and the venue there can be nothing but praise. To be back in Kings Place’s Hall One after so long was to realise afresh that no other London venue gives such air to soaring strings – and these ones truly did soar and gleam. For... Read more... |
Cooper, Aurora Orchestra, Kings Place review - a heartwarming delightSunday, 18 October 2020
Rarely have I seen so many smiles on stage as at Kings Place on Saturday. The combination of the delight of the performers being back in their natural environment with the genial and generous-spirited music they were playing brought out the best in... Read more... |
Classical music/Opera direct to home 16 - putting freelancers firstFriday, 19 June 2020
The latest wave of musicians to make their voices heard comes from the freelancers who haven't been able to claim anything so far for their loss of income and of the ability to work together. As a group of top players putting out their plea observes... Read more... |
Angelich, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - warm embraces from good companionsMonday, 10 February 2020
"New Dawns" as a title smacked a bit of trying to shoehorn a fairly straightforward Aurora programme in to Kings Place's Nature Unwrapped series. Only Dobrinka Tabakova's short and sweet Dawn made the link, and that was old, not new (composed in... Read more... |
Bowers-Broadbent, Theatre of Voices, Kings Place - grit needed in the oysterMonday, 13 January 2020
Not everyone who flocked to Day Two's evening concert in Kings Place's year-long Nature Unwrapped: Sounds of Life celebrations will have realised that they were catching parts two and three of a trilogy. The masterpiece had come earlier, in a 5pm... Read more... |
Planting seeds for change: Helen Wallace on a year of seminal events at Kings PlaceWednesday, 08 January 2020
When I mention Nature Unwrapped, a year-long series at Kings Place subtitled "Sounds of Life", the responses are often tinged with cynicism: "Oh, very 2020", "So, what’s the carbon footprint with all those musicians flying in?" There’s an assumption... Read more... |
