Classical Reviews
Classical CDs Weekly: Krenek, Schumann, OsmosisSaturday, 23 April 2016
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Vavic, SCO, Bloch, Queen's Hall, EdinburghSunday, 17 April 2016
It’s not the first time that young French conductor Alexandre Bloch has been in front of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – he took them on a well-received short Scottish tour last summer. But it was his first main-season gig with the band, and he certainly had something to say. "A bit of French and Russian atmosphere," was how he modestly described his concert in the concert progamme’s intro: it was certainly that, but plenty more besides. Read more... |
Brahms: A German Requiem, ENO Chorus, Wigglesworth, St George's Hanover SquareSaturday, 16 April 2016
There aren’t many opera choruses I’d want to hear singing Brahms’ Requiem, and still fewer I’d rush to hear. But the Olivier Award-winning ENO chorus is a different beast altogether – as responsive and flexible of tone as it is skilled with an all-out musical punch – and more than capable of finding the interiority as well as the intensity in this choral classic. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bartók, Birkin, Berlin Piano QuartetSaturday, 16 April 2016
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Bruckner 8, LSO, Rattle, BarbicanFriday, 15 April 2016
Last and most imposing of Bruckner’s completed symphonies, the Eighth invites and frequently receives architectural comparisons. Read more... |
Bach Cantatas and Magnificat, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, Saffron HallTuesday, 12 April 2016
“The rests, the silences in Bach are never for nothing,” I once heard the Dutch cellist and baroque specialist Anner Bylsma telling a student in a masterclass. “You jump up from them, you reach higher.” Hearing the Bach Collegium Japan on Sunday night kept bringing those phrases to mind, because the listener in the acoustic of Saffron Hall really does get to hear this music, so delicately played, emerging again and again from silence. Read more... |
Bach Motets, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, St Giles CripplegateSunday, 10 April 2016
This second concert in the Barbican residency of Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan transported us across the water from the concert hall to St Giles Cripplegate, and from the greatest of masses to organ masterpieces and, among motets, a work of which Mozart allegedly said, "at last, something to learn from". All that cascading counterpoint in Singet dem Herrn in a bright church acoustic ideally suited to this music told us why. Read more... |
Osborne, RSNO, Denève, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 10 April 2016
“Bon soir, good evening! Nice to see you! To see you...” Four years after bidding an emotional farewell to the Usher Hall, the Gallic charmer is back, maybe slightly stouter, with a tinge of grey in a new beard, the great mop of curly red hair as unruly as ever. And that accent! As the anecdotes flow, stout middle-aged Edinburgers swoon as they imagine themselves drinking pastis on the Boulevard St Germain in the spring sunshine. Read more... |
Hoopes, National Youth Orchestra, Järvi, RFHSaturday, 09 April 2016
On the panel to judge a competition between 14 Dutch school orchestras in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw last month, I couldn't resist using my speech to compare their state-school provenance with our own divisive musical education. I was thinking of two figures I'd been given – that when the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain started, only five per cent of its young musicians were from private and public schools, whereas now it was 85 per cent. Read more... |
Bach B Minor Mass, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, BarbicanSaturday, 09 April 2016
Masaaki Suzuki’s reputation precedes him. His recordings of Bach’s choral works with Bach Collegium Japan, the group he founded in 1990, have been arguably the finest of recent decades. But visits to the West, and especially to London, are rare, so this evening’s concert offered a valuable opportunity to find out what the dynamics are within the ensemble, and how they achieve such impressive results on disc. Read more... |
Krenek: Piano Concertos 1-3 Mikhail Korzhev (piano), English Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Woods (Toccata Classics)
Bartók & Folk:Complete works for male choir, interspersed with folk music Saint Ephraim Male Choir/Tamás Bubnó, Balázs Szokolay Dongó (flute, bagpipe, tárogató), Márk Bubnó (gardon) (BMC)Pages
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