Classical Reviews
BBC Proms: The English Concert and Choir, BicketFriday, 03 August 2012
What better work for Harry Bicket and The English Concert to perform at the Proms than Bach's joyous Mass in B Minor. Joyous firstly because of the music itself, with its vast stylistic and emotional range. Joyous secondly because, despite the intense scholarship to which Bach and his music have been subjected over the years, its genesis remains unusually shrouded in mystery for such a major work. Read more... |
BBC Proms: BBCSO, BBC Proms Youth Choir, RobertsonThursday, 02 August 2012
Another day at the Proms, another English choral masterpiece. Last night it came courtesy of the newly formed BBC Proms Youth Choir – a moveable feast of an ensemble that will bring together different youth choirs from across the UK over the next three years. I can’t imagine a more apt work to inaugurate the project than Tippett’s bravely painful meditation on human cruelty and capacity for endurance, A Child of Our Time. Read more... |
BBC Proms: BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, BBC Symphony Chorus, OtakaWednesday, 01 August 2012
Our athletes over at the Olympic Village might not yet have brought home a gold, but in an all-English programme at the Proms last night the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and combined BBC Symphony Chorus and BBC National Chorus of Wales under Tadaaki Otaka surely did just that. Read more... |
BBC Proms: Les 24 Violons du Roy/L'ArpeggiataTuesday, 31 July 2012
It’s not quite 76 trombones, but back in 1570 24 violins were the height of sophistication and innovation at the French court. While in England we still persisted with our viols and gambas, in France the new vogue for the violin had travelled from Italy and the King ordered a full string orchestra’s-worth for his entertainment. Read more... |
BBC Proms: Aldeburgh World Orchestra, ElderMonday, 30 July 2012
Formed especially for the London 2012 Festival, the Aldeburgh World Orchestra does what it says on the tin: bringing together talented young musicians from across the world in a single youth orchestra. Read more... |
BBC Proms: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim (Concert Five)/ Members of the West–Eastern Divan Orchestra, RothSaturday, 28 July 2012
And so we came to the Ninth. But wasn't it meant to be the only work on the programme? Why then was I hearing Boulez? A mishap: the final movement saw the quartet of soloists fall apart so comprehensively that, momentarily, it began to sound like they'd slipped into some unscheduled Modernism. We should be so lucky. Read more... |
BBC Proms: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim (Concert Four)/ Kronos QuartetWednesday, 25 July 2012
Much has been written about how old-fashioned Daniel Barenboim's Beethoven cycle feels. Yet what can seem backward-looking is in fact a perfect reflection of Barenboim's personality. Each and every symphony appears with a swagger in its step and a cigar in its mouth. Last night's instalment - taking us to the Seventh and Eighth Symphonies - was no different. Read more... |
BBC Proms: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim (Concert 3)Tuesday, 24 July 2012
We’ve had more than our fair share of Beethoven symphonies in London recently. But with the Proms’s monolithic Daniel Barenboim cycle now midway through, memories of Riccardo Chailly and John Eliot Gardiner are being steadily blotted out. Gone are the frisky tempos, the lightness of touch, and in their place we’re being reintroduced to Beethoven the heavyweight. Read more... |
BBC Proms: Les Troyens, Royal Opera House Orchestra, PappanoMonday, 23 July 2012
Last night's concert performance of Berlioz's Les Troyens was not a Prom for the fainthearted. After all, if sitting through a five-hour opera had been a daunting undertaking for the Covent Garden audiences last month - who could also enjoy David McVicar's eye-catching staging - then it was inevitable that anyone seated in the Royal Albert Hall for the visually pared-down version was expecting to feel very culturally virtuous by the end of the night. Read more... |
BBC Proms: West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim (Concert 1)Saturday, 21 July 2012
Last night was meant to be a celebration of Beethoven and Barenboim. But we had a gatecrasher. And at the opening concert of the first cycle of the Beethoven symphonies at the Proms for 60 years, the name on everyone's lips was neither Beethoven nor Daniel Barenboim, but that of Pierre Boulez. |
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