Beethoven
Kavakos, Ax, Wigmore HallThursday, 02 February 2012
The roar with which Leonidas Kavakos and Emanuel Ax dispatched Beethoven’s mighty Op. 30 C minor Violin Sonata – flinging off the writhing semiquaver coils of the Finale with desperate vigour – was enough to remind anyone in the Wigmore Hall last... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Beethoven, Cunningham, YoffeSaturday, 21 January 2012
Beethoven: Complete Works for Piano and Orchestra Howard Shelley (pianist and conductor), Orchestra of Opera North (Chandos)Lavish Beethoven box sets continue to appear. I’ve enjoyed Chailly’s symphony cycle, and another good one with... Read more... |
London Symphony Orchestra, Gardiner, Barbican HallFriday, 16 December 2011
Just a few weeks ago, John Eliot Gardiner and his Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique delivered what was unquestionably one of the year’s finest concerts – performing Beethoven’s Fourth and Seventh Symphonies with more wit, swagger and verve... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Beethoven, Simon KeenlysideSaturday, 26 November 2011
Bach: Complete Keyboard Works Ivo Janssen (Void Classics)This 20-disc box set has been entertaining me for several months. Dutch pianist Ivo Janssen set up his own record label to distribute his 1997 Goldberg Variations, recorded on the hoof... Read more... |
Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Gardiner, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 10 November 2011
We all know the question at issue last night at the Young Vic where Hamlet was opening, but down the road in the Queen Elizabeth Hall it was one of applause. Clapping between movements is a well-worn topic; we’ve had editorial, essays, even an RPS... Read more... |
Symphony, BBC FourFriday, 04 November 2011
Having blazed a trail through choral music, Simon Russell Beale now focuses his attentions on the symphony in this new four-part series. At last able to put aside the mind-games and chicanery of his role as Home Secretary William Towers in Spooks (... Read more... |
Beethoven Cycle, Concert 2: Leipzig Gewandhaus, Chailly, Barbican HallWednesday, 26 October 2011
Of all the Beethoven symphonies the Seventh is the one that can seem to whizz along under its own steam. At any rate, the impression Riccardo Chailly gave last night was of having fine-tuned his sleek Leipzig machine, turning on the engine and... Read more... |
Beethoven Cycle, Concert 1: Leipzig Gewandhaus, Chailly, Barbican HallTuesday, 25 October 2011
There are many ways of breathing new life into Beethoven. Carlos Kleiber used to do it through imagery. He once famously asked his Viennese double basses to play like monkeys during a rehearsal of Beethoven's Seventh. Riccardo Chailly's tactic for... Read more... |
Q&A Special: Pianist Barry DouglasTuesday, 13 September 2011
The Russians have always been particularly picky about the playing of the piano. Chief among the piano gods on the 20th century’s pantheon are Richter, Gilels, Horowitz - and even now names such as Ashkenazy, Kissin, Sokolov still elbow out many of... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Grimaud, Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra, HoneckMonday, 05 September 2011
In a week that sees Proms visits from two major American orchestras, it fell to Manfred Honeck and the Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra to raise the curtain for their blue-blooded “Big Five” colleagues the Philadelphia Orchestra. With Tchaikovsky... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Missa Solemnis, London Symphony Orchestra, DavisSunday, 04 September 2011
While revered and respected, Beethoven’s Missa Solemnis has never inspired audiences with the same affection as Bach’s B minor Mass, Haydn’s Nelson Mass, or even Mozart’s Coronation or C minor settings. Perhaps it’s the austerity, the monumentality... Read more... |
BBC Proms: Ma, BBCSO, RobertsonWednesday, 31 August 2011
Over the past six weeks of the Proms the BBC’s hard-working Symphony Orchestra has performed everything from Britten to Brahms, Verdi to Volans. Their Mahler with Ed Gardner was an operatic epic, their programme of English music for Mark... Read more... |
