Classical Reviews
Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review – cosmic perspectivesMonday, 16 April 2018
Space is big – that seems to be the message of Unsuk Chin’s new oratorio Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles. The work sets texts, ranging from the Baroque to the present day, concerned with space and scale. Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – music for the agesSaturday, 14 April 2018
Frederic Rzewski marked his 80th birthday with a visit to the Wigmore Hall, for the premiere of his aptly titled Ages. Read more... |
Dickson, SCO, Swensen, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - world premiere of a bold new workFriday, 13 April 2018
It’s as intricate as it is concise. The depth to the architecture of James MacMillan’s Saxophone Concerto – which was given its world premiere this week by saxophonist Amy Dickson and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – is quite astounding, and all the more so for being packed into three five-minute movements. Read more... |
Chineke!, Parnther, QEH review - a joyful re-building of the houseTuesday, 10 April 2018
Even after the venue’s 30-month refurbishment, you still would not choose the sprawling foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall as the prime site for a pre-concert speech. Read more... |
Gulyak, Orchestra of Opera North, Stasevska, Leeds Town Hall – uncommonly excitingMonday, 09 April 2018
Bach’s Art of Fugue, or maybe Mahler’s Ninth? Nah - in my book, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances is the greatest last work ever composed. This extraordinary piece gets everything right: a kaleidoscopic summing up of a long career which never lapses into dewy-eyed nostalgia. Read more... |
Bernstein's MASS, RFH review - polymorphousness in excelsisSaturday, 07 April 2018
Live exposure to centenary composer Leonard Bernstein's anything-goes monsterpiece of 1971, as with Britten's War Requiem of the previous decade, probably shouldn't happen more than once every ten years, if only because each performance has to be truly special. Read more... |
Gerhardt, RPO, Payare, RFH review - personality muted by faceless conductingWednesday, 28 March 2018
Former Royal Philharmonic Orchestra principal conductor Charles Dutoit has been exposed, to little surprise from musicians, as something of a roué whose apparent refusal to take "no" for an answer has rubbed up against the new #MeToo world. So his place in last night's concert was taken by Venezuelan Rafael Payare, not yet 40. Read more... |
Haveron, BBC Philharmonic, Wilson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - spirit of the 1940sMonday, 26 March 2018
John Wilson has built a reputation as a conductor which marks him out as a musicians’ musician. He doesn’t present himself with any pomposity, even wearing a neat black tie and lounge jacket on this occasion, while the male musicians around him were in white tie and tails. He doesn’t play to the gallery either: there’s a smile and a bow, but no flamboyance in his on-stage demeanour. Read more... |
Martín, SCO, Ticciati, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - farewell to the best of chief conductorsSaturday, 24 March 2018
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s final season concert conducted by Robin Ticciati, who leaves his post as chief conductor of the SCO for the Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin, was bound to be an emotional occasion. Spanning a decade, the relationship between orchestra and conductor has been a very special one indeed, and has seen an abundance of success over the past 10 years. Read more... |
Donohoe, LPO, Orozco-Estrada, RFH review – wit aplenty in rare StravinskyThursday, 22 March 2018
I left this concert a bit depressed, but not because of anything I heard: rather, by the conservatism of London concert-goers. As London orchestras focus on programming the usual wall-to-wall Brahms, Beethoven and Mahler, the LPO was rewarded for their excursion from the well-trodden path by the punters staying away in droves from this imaginative programme. Read more... |
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