Classical Reviews
Hahn, Philharmonia, Chan, Royal Festival Hall review – nature's angels and demonsMonday, 08 November 2021
One benefit of the green tide in culture – music included – is that it should allow audiences to approach the arts inspired by the natural world in Britain, and elsewhere, a century ago with fresh ears and eyes. Weary over-familiarity can render a work such as Vaughan Williams’s The Lark Ascending virtually inaudible, just as much as neglect. Read more... |
Bluebeard’s Castle 2: Komlósi, Relyea, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - consolations of solitudeMonday, 08 November 2021
Where is the stage – outside or within? The question posed by the prologue of Bartók’s only opera addresses the fundamental privacy of our thoughts, as well as setting the scene for its drama within the theatre of our own minds. For many of us a year and a half of periodic lockdown has only turned up the volume on the echoing contents of our heads, lending an unlooked-for familiarity to Bluebeard’s forbidding castle. Read more... |
Bournemouth SO, Litton, Lighthouse, Poole review - a Coup de Ballet sans dancersSaturday, 06 November 2021
Welcome back Andrew Litton, Conductor Laureate of the Bournemouth Symphony, for the latest of many happy annual returns since his tenure as Principal Conductor between 1988 and 1994. Read more... |
Dmitri Alexeev and Friends, St John's Smith Square review - an almost breathless brioFriday, 05 November 2021
As part of a concert series devoted to the memory of a great pianist and teacher, Georgian-born Dmitri Bashkirov, Russian legends Dmitri Alexeev and Nikolai Demidenko were to have reunited in a two-piano spectacular (I well remember their Wigmore Hall recital when hands flew so fast over the keyboard that the poor page-turner went into panic mode). Read more... |
Baeva, Ulster Orchestra, Rustioni, Ulster Hall, Belfast review - magic from an Italian star conductorWednesday, 03 November 2021
At last! The eagerly awaited first opportunity in the new 2021-22 Belfast concert season to catch up with the Ulster Orchestra’s Chief Conductor, Daniele Rustioni has arrived. Read more... |
Dennis, SCO, Whelan, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - period touches and classical sparkleSaturday, 30 October 2021
Peter Whelan is best known to Scottish audiences from his years of service as principal bassoon in the Scottish Chamber Orchestra. Read more... |
Williams, City of London Sinfonia, Southwark Cathedral review - a British Isles cornucopiaFriday, 29 October 2021
A year ago, the City of London Sinfonia’s quietly different concerts in Southwark Cathedral were a lifeline in the twilight of semi-lockdown; I’ll never forget how we treasured the last, on 17 November, knowing that everything would be closed again the following day for at least a month (there was a brief intermission, then darkness again until this May). Read more... |
Monteverdi Vespers, La Nuova Musica, Bates, Wigmore Hall review - small venue, huge impactWednesday, 27 October 2021
I last heard Monteverdi’s Vespers of the Blessed Virgin, published in 1610, at Garsington Opera as the summer light of the Chilterns slowly dimmed across an airy auditorium dotted with singers who bathed us in scintillating meteor-showers of sound. Laden with spectacle, surprise and virtuosity, this piece was born in splendour. Read more... |
Delepelaire, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - festive and magicalMonday, 25 October 2021
“What a lovely sound that was!” declared Music Director Thomas Søndergård, bounding onto the podium of the Usher Hall. He was referring, of course, to the warm applause greeting the Royal Scottish National Orchestra on its first full outing in front of an Edinburgh audience in nigh on 18 months. Read more... |
CBSO Quartet, Hockley Social Club, Birmingham review - unveiling of innovative new partnershipSaturday, 23 October 2021
Kicking off a brand new partnership between the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Hockley Social Club, this first ever Symphonic Session saw a string quartet from the CBSO take centre stage at Birmingham’s latest street-food venue, Hockley Social Club, on Thursday evening. Read more... |
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