Beethoven
theartsdesk at the Ravenna Festival 2025 - Cervantes, Beethoven and Byron transfiguredThursday, 10 July 2025
Anyone seeking local genius in an international festival should look no further than the annual Ravenna concerts from Riccardo Muti – Neapolitan by birth, Ravennate by adoption – with his Luigi Cherubini Youth Orchestra. Well, maybe a little further... Read more... |
Fidelio, Garsington Opera review - a battle of sunshine and shadowsMonday, 30 June 2025
Sometimes, as the first act of Beethoven’s Fidelio closes, the chorus of prisoners discreetly fade away backstage as their brief taste of liberty ends. At Garsington Opera, in Jamie Manton’s revival of a production by John Cox, they slowly descended... Read more... |
Naumov, SCO, Egarr, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - orchestral magic rescues some punishing musicSaturday, 22 March 2025
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has had to put up with its fair share of artist cancellations over the last month, and the ensuing games of musical chairs led to the somewhat implausible scenario of this concert, where Richard Egarr, a conductor more... Read more... |
Argerich, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Papadopoulos, Barbican review - the great pianist as life and soulTuesday, 25 February 2025
At the age of 83, Martha Argerich contains more personality in her little finger than many people do in their entire bodies.Her vigorous, technically dazzling delivery of Beethoven’s Second Piano Concerto began before she even touched the piano. As... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Elephants, bells and warm blanketsSaturday, 08 February 2025
Michael Tilson Thomas: The Complete Columbia, Sony and RCA Recordings (Sony)Big box sets continue to arrive. This one’s a whopper: 80 discs celebrating Michael Tilson Thomas’s 80th birthday. Artistic qualities aside, the production values here... Read more... |
Currie, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sparkle and intrigueTuesday, 03 December 2024
Kahchun Wong’s final concert of 2024 in the Hallé Manchester season was something of a surprise. At first sight, the sparkle in the programme seemed likely to come from James MacMillan’s Veni, Veni, Emmanuel – his percussion concerto, with the star... Read more... |
Album: Jon Batiste - Beethoven BluesFriday, 15 November 2024
Beethoven’s renown in his own day was not just as a composer but also as an improvising pianist. He wrote in a letter in July 1819 that “freedom, and to move forward is the purpose of the world of art, as it is of the whole of creation.’So it is a... Read more... |
Lewis, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - adding the Moon to The PlanetsTuesday, 24 September 2024
The first piece by Grace-Evangeline Mason I heard was six years ago, a simple song in a multi-composer “Manchester Peace Song Cycle” performed at the Royal Northern College of Music when she was studying there.It was striking because of its eloquent... Read more... |
Beethoven Sonata Cycle 1, Boris Giltburg, Wigmore Hall review - running the gamutMonday, 16 September 2024
A happy, lucid and bright pianist, a forbidding Everest among piano sonatas: would Boris Giltburg follow a bewitching, ceaselessly engaging first half by rising to the challenge of Beethoven’s “Hammerklavier” - a title he suggests, in his series of... Read more... |
Prom 54, Ma, Ax, Kavakos review - exquisite display of humility and communicationSunday, 01 September 2024
In their lyrical, often intensely moving afternoon concert at the Proms, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos demonstrated such seamless communication that at points it was tempting to imagine that even their heartbeats were in sync. It’s an... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Switzerland: Lucerne and Gstaad offer curious audiences fresh perspectives on much-loved worksTuesday, 27 August 2024
The summer festival circuit in Central Europe can be a bit of a merry-go-round. Notices in festival towns promise world-class orchestras and soloists, but they are usually the same performers, making festival appearances as part of broader touring... Read more... |
Prom 42, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Aurora Orchestra, Collon review - a dramatic coupThursday, 22 August 2024
Hugh Masekela used to give advice for concerts like this one: “If you haven’t got tickets, turn yourself into a cockroach.” Every seat for Aurora Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Ninth by Heart Prom had already sold out on the first morning when season... Read more... |
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