Classical Reviews
Classical CDs Weekly: Bartók, Ligeti, Jocelyn Pook, TchaikovskySaturday, 12 January 2013
|
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Wilson, Leeds Town HallSunday, 06 January 2013
Holst? Yes. Britten? Maybe. But John Adams? Programming Adams’ Guide to Strange Places as the extended opener in this National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain concert made complete sense after a few minutes; conductor John Wilson’s strengths as an interpreter of Hollywood film scores and British light music made him ideally suited to unpick the thornier metrical complexities of the Adams work. Read more... |
Bach Unwrapped, Blaze, La Nuova Musica, Bates, Kings PlaceFriday, 04 January 2013
Faced with yet another world premiere from his friends in the Borodin Quartet, Shostakovich severely asked them whether they’d yet played all of Haydn’s quartets (they hadn’t). As a listener, I feel the same about Bach’s cantatas. Whether or not a lifetime will be enough to catch each of these varied and ever surprising little miracles in the flesh, Kings Place’s Bach Unwrapped series includes a chance to hear nearly 30 of the 200 from seven different ensembles in less than a year... Read more... |
London 2012 and Beyond: The Best of 2012Monday, 31 December 2012
The Mayan calendar recently suggested it was all over. It is now, almost. 2012 was, by anyone’s lights, an annus mirabilis for culture on these shores. The world came to the United Kingdom, and the kingdom was indeed more or less united by a genuine aura of inclusion. Clumps of funding were hurled in the general direction of the Cultural Olympiad, which became known as the London 2012 Festival, and all sorts leapt aboard. Read more... |
Messiah, Polyphony, OAE, Layton, St John's Smith SquareMonday, 24 December 2012
Messiahs of all kinds multiply at this time of year: the meek and the threadbare as well as the proud and polished. On the Sunday before Christmas, it was hard to choose between two potential archangels who could hardly fail given their respective pedigrees. It may have initially come down to a choice between single star soloists, soprano of the year Sophie Bevan at the Wigmore or flawless countertenor Iestyn Davies (pictured below by Marco Borggreve) at St John’s... Read more... |
Kavakos, Matsuev, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, BarbicanThursday, 20 December 2012
Valery Gergiev’s exploration of the music of Karol Szymanowski is one of the most vitalising series mounted at the Barbican in recent years - to compare, say, with Sir Colin Davis’s Sibelius and Berlioz, Michael Tilson Thomas’s tributes to Leonard Bernstein, or Gergiev’s own Shostakovich and (increasingly) Prokofiev. Read more... |
London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallWednesday, 19 December 2012
Valery Gergiev is a human dynamo. Read more... |
Philip Glass, Koyaanisqatsi, Barbican HallSaturday, 15 December 2012
Philip Glass is sufficiently famous that his 75th Birthday celebrations have been going on all year (he was actually 75 in January) and the year saw two of the absolute highlights of his career presented at the Barbican. His first opera Einstein On The Beach and last night, the soundtrack to his first film score Koyaanisqatsi, performed alongside the film itself, with Glass on keyboards. Read more... |
Belshazzar, Les Arts Florissants, Barbican HallFriday, 14 December 2012
If you’ve ever wondered what a bad day at the office looked like for Handel then look no further than Belshazzar – an oratorio that positively demands heavenly intervention and possibly a bit of smiting. Read more... |
Bell, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallThursday, 13 December 2012
Why so much of Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO on theartsdesk, you may ask, when other concerts pass unremarked? The answer is simple: quite apart from the immaculate preparation and the most elegant conducting style in the business, Jurowski programmes with an imagination matched by none of London’s other principal conductors – unless you like lots of Szymanowski served up by Gergiev with lumpy Brahms – and, more important, always finds connections. Read more... |
Bartók, Eötvös, Ligeti – Violin Concertos Patricia Kopatchinskaja (violin), Frankfurt Radio Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern/Peter Eötvös (Naïve)Pages
inside classical music
latest in today
Songs We Carry, Ana Silvera adnd Saied Silbak, Kings Place r...
As the Middle East continues to fragment in hate and horror, a tragic unfolding of events with roots reaching back to the middle of the last...
Music Reissues Weekly: The Devil Rides In - Spellbinding Sat...
Just over two weeks before Christmas 1967, The Rolling Stones issued Their Satanic Majesties Request. The album’s title appeared to serve...
Things Will Be Different review - lost in the past
Time-travel is a trap in debutante Michael Felker’s tender sf two-hander, whose title’s grim irony becomes gradually apparent.
There’s...
Joan, ITV1 review - the roller-coaster career of a 1980s jew...
If you’re looking for an advertisement for how crime doesn’t pay, Joan will do very nicely....
National Ballet of Canada, Sadler's Wells review - see...
What to expect of the National Ballet of Canada since its last...
Lear, Barbican Theatre review - a very stormy saga, Korean-s...
What do the cult TV show Squid Game and National Changgeuk Company of Korea’s Lear have in common? Oddly, a K-Pop...
Album: Goat - Goat
With the Pagan festival of Mabon and the Autumnal Equinox only just past us, it seems appropriate for Scandi psychedelic rockers, Goat to provide...
Monet and London, Courtauld Gallery review - utterly sublime...
In September 1899, Claude Monet booked into a room at the Savoy Hotel. From there he had a good view of Waterloo Bridge and the south bank beyond...
Joker: Folie à Deux review - supervillainy laid low
“Psychopaths sell like hotcakes,” William Holden observed in Sunset Boulevard in 1950, and those individuals have been doing...
A Tupperware of Ashes, National Theatre review - family and...
Queenie is in trouble. Bad trouble. For about a year now, this 68-year-old Indian woman has been forgetful. Losing her car keys; burning rice in...