Classical music
Gerhaher, Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Blomstedt, Royal Albert HallThursday, 02 September 2010
Yet again I leave a Herbert Blomstedt concert with a sense of wonderment and bemusement. Wonderment at the extraordinary music-making that this man is capable of. Bemusement as to why he is not better known, his talents not more widely recognised,... Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Presteigne Festival of Music and the ArtsWednesday, 01 September 2010
The Presteigne Festival, which has just ended after a packed long weekend of events of various shapes and sizes, is a music fest with a profile very much its own. Presteigne is one of those enchanting pocket county towns that proliferate along the... Read more... |
Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Cadogan HallWednesday, 01 September 2010
Australia has many fine exports – wine, women, gap year anecdotes – but increasingly it is her orchestras that are setting the standard. With a magnificent Proms performance from the Australian Youth Orchestra still fresh in the ears (as well as a... Read more... |
Vogt, Czech Philharmonic Orchestra, Gardiner, Royal Albert HallMonday, 30 August 2010
Short of rolling around the podium like a delirious pig in a mudbath, Sir John Eliot Gardiner couldn't have hidden his enjoyment of the warm, plush sounds and well-upholstered vibrato of this wonderfully old-fashioned orchestra, the Czech... Read more... |
Shaham, Minnesota Orchestra, Vänskä, Royal Albert HallSunday, 29 August 2010
A great deal of scepticism greeted the release of a new Beethoven symphony cycle from Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra in the mid-2000s. Would this lot really be able say anything that hadn't already been said by the hundred or so other... Read more... |
theartsdesk from Colombo: A Pianist of the WorldSunday, 29 August 2010
Since winning the Symphony Orchestra of Sri Lanka Concerto Competition at the tender (and record-setting) age of 16, Tanya Ekanayaka has become one of Sri Lanka’s pre-eminent concert pianists. Last month she was the first from her country ever to... Read more... |
Weilerstein, Minnesota Orchestra, Vänskä, Royal Albert HallSaturday, 28 August 2010
One usually has to wait until the fourth movement of a Bruckner symphony before one gets a decent, foot-tappin', knee-slappin' polka to dance to. But at last night's Prom Osmo Vänskä was jitterbugging - and, I think, even moonwalking - from the off... Read more... |
Scottish Chamber Orchestra, Ticciati, Usher Hall, EdinburghSaturday, 28 August 2010
Which of the following has the thorniest dissonance: an early 18th-century dance-drama by Rebel, a symphony by Bizet, a concerto by Poulenc or a new work by South African composer Kevin Volans? If you think it's a trick question, you'll guess the... Read more... |
Shaham, BBC Symphony Orchestra, Robertson, Royal Albert HallFriday, 27 August 2010
When Mark-Anthony Turnage presents a piece called Hammered Out, that’s pretty much what you expect to hear. Prior to starting work on this co-commission between BBC Radio 3 and the Los Angeles Philharmonic, Turnage was quoted as saying, “I don’t... Read more... |
Sydney Symphony, Ashkenazy, Grimaud, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 24 August 2010
To be interestingly disappointed isn’t bad - it’s being uninterestingly disappointed that is. This was an intriguing Prom with a full house, possibly because of Hélène Grimaud’s presence in the Ravel piano concerto, as well as Vladimir Ashkenazy on... Read more... |
Stemme, Swedish Chamber Orchestra, Dausgaard, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 24 August 2010
“The curse of Schumann,” remarked Prom director Roger Wright to me before Monday’s concert, bemoaning the fact that only (only!) 2,000 seats had been sold for the Swedish Chamber Orchestra’s concert under Thomas Dausgaard - whereas Dausgaard's... Read more... |
A Celebration of Rodgers and Hammerstein, Royal Albert HallMonday, 23 August 2010
It may have been the glossy, Labrador-like abandon of John Wilson and his fabulous orchestra, but barely two bars of the Oklahoma! overture had passed before I caught myself grinning and drifting into critical neutral. Richard Rodgers’ scores are... Read more... |
