Classical Reviews
Viktoria Mullova, Misha Mullov-Abbado, Fidelio Orchestra Cafe review - a rainbow of brilliant artistryThursday, 01 October 2020
There should eventually be a plaque on the outside of the Fidelio Orchestra Café in Farringdon, to the effect that London’s musical life after lockdown re-ignited here. And how, in early July, with Steven Isserlis exuberantly stepping up to play Bach before a rapt small audience. Read more... |
Bach’s The Art of Fugue, Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall – the many voices of humanityTuesday, 29 September 2020
How do they do it? Read more... |
Academy of St Martin in the Fields review - from solo meditations to collective celebrationsMonday, 28 September 2020
Clearly it takes peculiar circumstances for some of us to hear the Academy of St Martin in the Fields within its eponymous church – that’s a first for me. The lure was considerable. Read more... |
Castalian Quartet/Elizabeth Llewellyn, Simon Lepper, Wigmore Hall review - out of this worldFriday, 25 September 2020
Songs of the beyond versus the profundity of the here and now struck very different depths in the Castalians’ evening concert at the Wigmore Hall and Elizabeth Llewellyn’s recital with equal partner Simon Lepper the following lunchtime. It was good to have the very human anchoring of Haydn’s “Emperor” Quartet, Op. 76 No... Read more... |
Finley, LPO, Gardner, Royal Festival Hall (p)review - special magic ready for streamingThursday, 24 September 2020
There was a rainbow over the Royal Festival Hall as I crossed one of the Hungerford foot bridges for the first time in six months. The lights and noises inside did not betray the augury. Was it the sheer hallucinatory pleasure of being within the auditorium with a handful of other spectators watching and hearing a full orchestra after what felt like a lifetime? Read more... |
Gillam, Miloš, Wigmore Hall review – charismatic performers, charming playingTuesday, 22 September 2020
My first time back in a concert hall since March was also, more significantly, the first time back for last night’s Wigmore Hall performers, guitarist Miloš Karadaglić and saxophonist Jess Gillam. Read more... |
A London Saturday with Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Pavel Kolesnikov, Samson Tsoy and friends - reviewMonday, 21 September 2020
Even bigger things have happened to Sheku Kanneh-Mason since I last saw him performing alongside his contemporaries in the Fantasia Orchestra – That Royal Wedding, for instance, and a Decca contract. Yet it looks like he will always have the wisdom to hurry slowly. Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall/Hill Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review – seamlessness inside and outThursday, 17 September 2020
An early hero of lockdown, livestreaming from his Berlin home in terrible sound at first, Igor Levit is a supreme example of how adaptable musicians can survive in times like these. Read more... |
Alban Gerhardt, Markus Becker, Wigmore Hall review - long shadows and rich soundsTuesday, 15 September 2020
It wouldn’t be true to say I’d forgotten what a solo cello in a fine concert hall sounds like; revelation of an admittedly sparse year will undoubtedly remain Sumera’s Cello Concerto played by young Estonian Theodor Sink at the Pärnu Music Festival in July. Read more... |
Maggini Quartet/Friend, Solem Quartet, Bandstand Chamber Festival review - in harmony with natureMonday, 14 September 2020
Music going back to nature, or rather the managed nature of a London park, can make you think and feel quite differently about great composers’ responses to the world around them. Read more... |
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