Classical Reviews

Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies, BBC Four

David Benedict Friday, 13 September 2013

BBC Four’s new series Sound of Cinema: The Music that Made the Movies is shocking. The overwhelming majority of arts-based TV consists of programmes consigning specialist knowledge/presenters to the sidelines in favour of dumbed-down, easily digestible generalisations mouthed by all-purpose TV-friendly faces. But this three-part series is fronted by, gasp, a composer who uses insider knowledge to hook and hold the viewers.

Anne Schwanewilms, Roger Vignoles, Wigmore Hall

David Nice Tuesday, 10 September 2013

So we glide between seasons from one communicative diva giving her all in a vast space to another casting spells in intimate surroundings. While Joyce DiDonato, not perhaps one of the world’s great voices but certainly a great performer, was captivating the Proms multitudes on Saturday night, the Wigmore Hall’s concert year sidled in with Bryn Terfel and Simon Keenlyside, no low-key singers.

The Last Night of the Proms, Kennedy, DiDonato, BBCSO, Alsop

Edward Seckerson Sunday, 08 September 2013

As it came to pass, Marin Alsop’s nationality was rather more of a factor than her gender on this historic Last Night of the Proms – but her deft put-down of remarks made only the week before (pace Petrenko) suggested that it might take a little more time (it’s only 2013, for heaven’s sake) for that glass ceiling truly to come crashing down and for her and others like her to be regarded as simply “conductors”.

Comment

Prom 74: Sonnleitner, Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra, Maazel

Geoff Brown Saturday, 07 September 2013

Tradition used to decree that the last Friday Prom would be devoted to worshipping Beethoven’s Choral Symphony. Not so today. Anything deemed serious and big occupies the slot, and if Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony isn’t serious and big, what do you want? A 40-tonne truck?

Classical CDs Weekly: Debussy, Goldmark, Ravel, Martynas Levickis

graham Rickson Saturday, 07 September 2013

Goldmark: Rustic Wedding Symphony, Symphony No 2 Singapore Symphony Orchestra/Lan Shui (BIS)

Prom 73: Imogen Cooper, Paul Lewis

David Nice Friday, 06 September 2013

It’s not because I lament the annual end of a love-hate relationship with the Albert Hall that the last few days of Proms feel rather melancholy. A bittersweetness lies rather in the drawing-in of evenings, however hot it is, so late night Schubert for one and then two pianos seemed like an appropriately introspective way of saying farewell this year.

Prom 72: Calleja, Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi, Zhang

Edward Seckerson Friday, 06 September 2013

It was too little too late to redress the scant attention gives to Verdi’s bicentenary at this year’s Proms but the “Maltese Tenor” – Joseph Calleja – arrived with an eleventh hour offering of low-key Verdi arias and joining him was the Milanese orchestra bearing the composer’s name. Calleja’s growing legions of fans were much in evidence, of course, more Maltese than Italian flags, but what can they have made of the music stand which came between them and their hero?

Prom 70: BBC Singers, Temple Church Choir, Hill

Geoff Brown Wednesday, 04 September 2013

Purity and holiness filled the air. Boy choristers in red cassocks filed onto the platform. The BBC announcer, paraded soon after, promised “choral music to carry us into the after life”. Had I come to the right place? Was I attending my own funeral service?

Comment

Prom 69: Hadland, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Petrenko

David Nice Wednesday, 04 September 2013

May I be permitted a rude, opinionated intermezzo between reflections on Vasily Petrenko’s two Oslo Philharmonic Proms, and before Marin Alsop steps up to great expectations for the Last Night?

Comment

Prom 68: Skride, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, Petrenko

Edward Seckerson Tuesday, 03 September 2013

The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra made quite a splash with their Tchaikovsky symphony series under Mariss Jansons back in the 1980s. The watchwords then were freshness and articulation, a re-establishment of Tchaikovsky’s innate classicism - and so it was again as Vasily Petrenko stepped out as the orchestra’s new Chief Conductor.