Classical music
David Nice
A packed Albert Hall told an instructive story: programme Holst’s The Planets at the Proms and you can dare to do anything in the first half. Besides, though it will be a red letter day when we don’t have to put “women” in front of “conductors”, the Marin Alsop Last Night effect may have kindled interest in Susanna Mälkki, top of a still too-small list from the two concerts I’ve heard her give with the BBC Symphony Orchestra.Mälkki seems just as authoritative in mainstream romantic and 20th century scores as she is in thornier so-called contemporary music (she spent seven years with Ensemble Read more ...
David Nice
From now until 12 September, when Wigmore darling Iestyn Davies returns to open the new season, the biggest names in instrumental music are to be heard in the biggest venue, the Albert Hall. With all eyes and ears turned by maximum publicity towards the Proms, folk may have forgotten that the Wigmore Hall concerts were ongoing until last night. The finale was unexpectedly spectacular: while Leif Ove Andsnes was offering pure spring-water Beethoven over in South Kensington, young Israeli pianist Matan Porat served a hard-hitting cocktail of a programme, beginning and ending with fireworks but Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
After four years, 55 cities in 22 countries and an award-winning recording, Leif Ove Andsnes’s Beethoven journey came to an end last night in an emotionally charged evening at the Royal Albert Hall. And in a delightful light-hearted moment after all the serious music making was done, Andsnes finished the concert vigorously playing the tambourine in an orchestral encore.The highlight of the evening was, perhaps unexpectedly, the Second Piano Concerto, which ended the first half. Much revised and meddled with by Beethoven over nearly 15 years, this is the sunniest of the concertos. It was Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
So to the second leg of Leif Ove Andsnes's journey through the Beethoven concertos, and a distressingly underpopulated Royal Albert Hall. Perhaps the punters were put off by the wintry weather, or perhaps by the dread names of Schoenberg and Stravinsky on the bill. Either way, it is shocking that Andsnes’s wonderful playing should have been to anything other than a full house.Far from being frightening, the Stravinsky that opened the programme – the “Dumbarton Oaks” Concerto – is completely charming and was played with appropriate fleetness and élan. It is easier to listen to than to play, Read more ...
graham.rickson
William Lawes: The Royal Consort Phantasm (Linn)“This is one of the greatest sets of instrumental dance music ever composed... on a par with Rameau's orchestral dances, even the waltzes of Johann Strauss Jr.” Phantasm's Laurence Dreyfus claim is a bold one, but after gorging on 145 minutes of William Lawes' viol music I'm inclined to agree with him. However, Dreyfus's sleeve essay points out that actually dancing to these pieces would in many cases be impossible. Lawes's phrase lengths are often irregular, and the metre often changes without warning. The harmonies can sound Read more ...
David Nice
Beethoven’s piano concertos have been no strangers to any Proms season. Only five years ago our own Paul Lewis embarked on a cycle not so very far, in terms of elegance and stylishness, from that of the present pianist-in-residence, Leif Ove Andsnes. Where Lewis proved a phenomenal trill-master, Andsnes’ runs and flights make his own approach especially rich and rare. The difference is that the current Odysseus reaches the Ithaca of the Royal Albert Hall after four years touring with the Mahler Chamber Orchestra, a uniquely responsive and intuitive band which he’s directing/conducting from Read more ...
Michael Symmons Roberts
I am currently in the middle of a project called Messiaen 2015: Between Heaven and the Clouds, a year-long series of commissions and events around the UK, exploring Messiaen’s Vingt Regards sur l‘Enfant-Jésus, curated by pianist Cordelia Williams. So far, we’ve held a series of talks, performances and seminars with musicologists including Rowan Williams, Ben Quash (King’s College London Professor of Christianity and the Arts) and Birmingham Conservatoire Professor of Music Christopher Dingle. So far, the events have been fascinating – for us as participants and (I hope) for the audience Read more ...
Matthew Wright
How often do the streets of London throng with concert-goers demanding admission to a recital of Latin motets? Even for Sloane Square, the crowds hoping for a last-minute ticket to the sold-out Proms Chamber Music debut concert by The Cardinall’s Musick of Tallis and Cheryl Frances-Hoad’s world premiere were exceptional. For the most part, these music-lovers displayed excellent judgement, for this was an inspired programme and performance. Not, however, in the way most probably had in mind.Despite his popularity, four of the Tallis pieces were receiving their Proms debut, including, Read more ...
Adam Sweeting
Though perhaps not quite the "long strange trip" once hymned by the Grateful Dead, Leif Ove Andsnes's Beethoven Journey has been a marathon undertaking. It has spanned four years, during which the Norwegian pianist and the Mahler Chamber Orchestra have toured the world, performing all five of Beethoven's piano concertos with Andsnes conducting from the keyboard. This week, they bring their trek to a close by performing the concertos, plus Beethoven's Choral Fantasy, at the Proms, opening on Thursday (23 July) and continuing on Friday and Sunday. Along the way, pianist and orchestra have Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
This Prom was the final concert of Andris Nelsons's remarkable seven-year spell as principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Their Prom showed the astonishing level of responsiveness and flexibility which he and they have achieved together, over the course of more than 300 concerts.There had been more elaborate farewells and formalities last month at Symphony Hall in Birmingham, with performances of Mahler's Third Symphony, the speeches and all that. For this final coda, Nelsons took a supporting role. He accepted all the applause at the end of the concert from within Read more ...
Gavin Dixon
So it begins. Thousands of expectant audience members in a sweltering Albert Hall – heave ho! – riotous applause for the leader as he tunes the orchestra. A few more visits and all this will seem normal again, but it’s a culture shock to be thrown straight back in on the first night.The First Night of the Proms has to tick many boxes, as does the Last Night, and in both cases the result is usually a very long evening. The season’s themes were presented – anniversary celebrations for Nielsen and Sibelius, as well as a focus on Mozart piano concertos – and we were also treated to a new work and Read more ...
graham.rickson
Kit Downes: Tricko Kit Downes (piano, organ), Lucy Railton (cello) (Coup Perdu)No sleeve notes here; just a few oblique words from polymath pianist Kit Downes on the sleeve of this engaging release – which seem to say that the very act of recording meant that the pieces took on radical new shapes: “none of my initial ideas survived... mutability itself can be a creative force.” How much was improvised isn't made clear, though each of the works collected here feels and sounds properly developed and worked out. Downes's music has a brightness and openness which is disarming. The more extrovert Read more ...