Classical Reviews
Ex Cathedra, Skidmore, Coventry Cathedral review - Christmas calm and contemplationTuesday, 17 December 2019
As they celebrate their 50th year, Ex Cathedra have brought their much loved Christmas music by candlelight concerts to churches all across England, before giving five concerts in the run up to Christmas at St Paul’s in the Jewellery Quarter, in their home town of Birmingham. Read more... |
Hewitt, Clein, Aurora Orchestra, Ward, Kings Place review – rise and shineMonday, 16 December 2019
Why does music suddenly disappear? It is all the more heartening when a work as excellent and enjoyable as Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No 3 takes wing once more, but you do have to wonder how in the world such a terrific orchestral piece was permitted to sink and vanish in its day under a morass of dubious opera. Read more... |
Cargill, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - high anxiety and visionary gleamsFriday, 13 December 2019
What a jolting coincidence that one of the 20th century's angriest symphonic beasts should have a rare unleashing on a night of high national anxiety. Read more... |
Bauer, CBSO, Koenig, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - Christoph pulls it offFriday, 13 December 2019
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla’s programmes in Birmingham are so personal – so utterly bespoke – that in the event of her being indisposed, they present something of a problem. That’s what happened this week. Read more... |
Charpentier Christmas settings, Solomon's Knot, St John's Smith Square review - pastoral shadesTuesday, 10 December 2019
There is no mention of Marc-Antoine Charpentier in David Cairns's comprehensive Berlioz biography. Read more... |
Les Arts Florissants, Christie, Agnew, Barbican review – splendid Baroque knees-upTuesday, 10 December 2019
“How many times have you heard the conductor sing?” asked William Christie after the final number, but before the two encores, of Sunday night’s 40th birthday celebration for his ensemble Les Arts Florissants. Well, lovers of old recordings know that you sometimes get plenty of impromptu vocalisation from the likes of Bernstein and Barbirolli. Read more... |
Requiem for Hieronymus Bosch, BBCSO, Bychkov, Barbican review – fire and brimstone on a flat canvasMonday, 09 December 2019
“Hieronymus!” bellowed David Wilson Johnson from the Barbican Hall’s circle on Saturday evening. “Hieronymus Bosch!” Commissioned by Dutch radio for a big piece to mark 500 years since the passing of the Dutch painter in 1516, the German composer Detlev Glanert wrote a Requiem. Read more... |
Choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Wickham, Kings Place review - fresh take on 'lessons and carols'Monday, 09 December 2019
At this time of year the musical world – and particularly the choral world – is full of festive concerts, and the challenge can be to find programmes venturing off the well-worn path of traditional favourites. Read more... |
Haas Hommage à Bridget Riley, London Sinfonietta, Lubman, QEH review - vibrant abstractionFriday, 06 December 2019
Music and visual art, at least at the highest level, should go their own separate ways; put them together, and one form will always be subordinate to the other. A composer being inspired by an artist's work, or vice versa, is something else altogether. Read more... |
Tynan, Clayton, Murray, Aurora Orchestra, Dean, Wigmore Hall review - Britten lives!Thursday, 05 December 2019
Benjamin Britten died on 4 December 1976. Last night’s Wigmore Hall concert, on the 43rd anniversary of his passing, proved that his real legacy lies not in inert acts of homage but a living engagement both with his work, and the unruly energies that drove it. Read more... |
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