Classical Reviews

Berezovsky, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Järvi, Royal Festival Hall

David Nice Saturday, 25 May 2013

In 1980, an orchestra and conductor then hardly known in Britain came to the Royal Festival Hall. I went to hear Elisabeth Söderström in Strauss’s Four Last Songs; I left stunned by an unorthodox Sibelius Second Symphony and above all by one of the encores, Cantus to the Memory of Benjamin Britten by one Arvo Pärt.

Classical CDs Weekly: Frank Martin, Mei Yi Foo, Powerplant

graham Rickson Saturday, 25 May 2013

Frank Martin: Das Märchen vom Aschenbrödel Orchestre de la Haute École de Musique de Genève/Gábor Takács-Nagy (Claves)

L'Allegro, Il Penseroso ed il Moderato, St John's Smith Square

alexandra Coghlan Saturday, 11 May 2013

The return of the Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music to London each year always heralds the beginning of summer. Granted this beginning is usually damp and decidedly chilly, but there’s a hopefulness in the air that things might be about to change. And this sense of hopefulness doesn’t end with the weather. Under Lindsay Kemp the festival’s programming is reliably wide-ranging and joyful, a proper celebration of the landmarks and the paths-less-trodden of the baroque repertoire.

Comment

Classical CDs Weekly, Grainger, Mahler, Piazzolla

graham Rickson Saturday, 11 May 2013

Grainger: Works for Large Chorus and Orchestra Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/Sir Andrew Davis (Chandos)

Mahan Esfahani, Wigmore Hall/Joseph Reuben, Petersham House

alexandra Coghlan Monday, 06 May 2013

Old instruments have found young champions this week in two very different concerts and contexts. In the Wigmore Hall, Mahan Esfahani continued his persuasive rehabilitation of the harpsichord, showcasing not only the expressive range of the instrument itself but – more unusually – its repertoire, in music from Byrd to Ligeti.

Bostridge, Britten Sinfonia, Barbican Hall

Kimon Daltas Sunday, 05 May 2013

The Barbican Hall’s house lights faded to black, with just the soft glow of music stand lamps on stage as the Britten Sinfonia filed on and eased into the Adagietto from Mahler’s Fifth Symphony. Directed from leader’s desk by Jacqueline Shave, the orchestra gave an exquisite account of the piece, the chamber aesthetic and necessary communication between players somehow helping to draw the audience in.

Power, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Wilson, Barbican Hall

David Nice Saturday, 04 May 2013

Blether on MasterChef about love and passion for one’s craft has so devalued the currency that I hesitated in applying the terms to conductor John Wilson, last night moving from Hollywood and Broadway to another enthusiasm, tuneful British music. Yet who merits them better than he?

Uchida, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

stephen Walsh Friday, 03 May 2013

“Did he who made the Lamb make thee?” Blake asked the tiger. One might have asked the same question of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy, with Mozart’s G major Piano Concerto, K.453, as the lamb, in this hyper-diverse Birmingham concert.

The Rest is Noise: LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall

Edward Seckerson Sunday, 28 April 2013

Vladimir Jurowski deemed this the most challenging of any programme in the Southbank’s year-long The Rest is Noise festival and proceeded to tell us precisely why. That his little preamble lasted almost twice as long as the first piece - Webern’s Variations for Orchestra Op.30 - was an indicator of just how scientific the thinking behind his programme was. Jurowski instinctively understands how and why works impact on each other in the way they do.

Mangan, Royal Academy Opera Students, BBCSO, Denève, Barbican Hall

David Nice Saturday, 27 April 2013

Highly sexed cockerels and cats, a lovesick lion and a ballet of frogs might not seem like a recipe, or rather a menagerie, for profundity. Yet in two ravishing French man (or child)-meets-beast fables for the stage, Poulenc and Ravel are quite capable of tearing at our heartstrings. That they did so unremittingly last night was very largely due to the supernaturally beautiful sounds master conjuror Stéphane Denève drew from the BBC Symphony Orchestra.