Brahms
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Haydn, SibeliusSaturday, 06 April 2019
Brahms: The Cello Sonatas The Fischer Duo: Norman Fischer (cello), Jeanne Kierman (piano), with Abigail Fischer (mezzo-soprano) (Centaur Records)Comparing Brahms’s pair of cello sonatas is like looking at the two piano concertos. There’s the... Read more... |
Schiff, Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, RFH review – antique kit, modern soundsTuesday, 19 March 2019
Standing next to the warm brown beast of a piano built by Blüthner in Leipzig in 1867, Sir András Schiff advised his audience last night to clear their minds and ears of preconceptions. He told us that his rendering of Brahms’s first piano concerto... Read more... |
Janine Jansen, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Wigmore Hall review - a totally convincing recitalWednesday, 13 March 2019
Can it happen? That one comes away from a concert with the sense that all of the truth, the shape, the beauty and the urgency of some great works from the classical repertoire has been conveyed as well as is humanly possible? That the programme... Read more... |
Johnson, Carducci Quartet, Warwick Arts Centre review - new work with well-loved quintetsSaturday, 02 March 2019
There are those who say, somewhat cynically, that a way for new music to get an audience is to present it carefully packaged up with standard repertoire that will draw a larger crowd. How true that may be is open to debate, but composer Stephen... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Dvořák, Higginson, ZenderSaturday, 02 March 2019
Brahms: Symphony No 4, Dvořák: Symphony No 9 Bamberg Symphony Orchestra/Jakub Hrůša (Tudor)Brahms became a close friend and mentor to Dvořák, the two men first meeting in 1877 after Brahms had helped the younger composer win a scholarship.... Read more... |
Sarah Chang, Ashley Wass, Cadogan Hall review – a virtuoso's disturbing 'inner game'Thursday, 14 February 2019
“My first recital in about a gazillion years in London!” wrote Sarah Chang a week ago for her 140,000 Twitter followers. “I usually work with orchestras whenever I'm in town so what an absolute joy+pleasure to be playing a duo program with piano!”... Read more... |
Trpčeski, RLPO, Petrenko, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall review - one composer, many viewsMonday, 19 November 2018
It probably goes without saying that there will be "dream teams" in a football-mad city like Liverpool. What might be a little unusual is that this particular one has long been associated with the Liverpool Philharmonic and has turned into one of... Read more... |
CBSO, Leleux, Birmingham Town Hall review - oboe extraordinaireThursday, 18 October 2018
There’s always a special atmosphere when the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra returns to Birmingham Town Hall, and it’s not just because of the building’s Greek Revival beauty: the gilded sunburst on the ceiling, or the towering, intricately... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Ligeti, Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, Svend Erik TarpSaturday, 06 October 2018
Brahms & Ligeti: Horn Trios André Cazalet (horn), Guy Comentale (violin), Cyril Huvé (piano) (Calliope)This is a reissue from the last years of the early digital era (ie 1989), but it's a seriously good one. György Ligeti’s 1982 Horn Trio... Read more... |
Gerald Finley, Julius Drake, Middle Temple Hall review - sublimity in 18 serious songsWednesday, 03 October 2018
Earth stood hard as iron in parts of this awe-inspiring recital from a true song partnership, but theirs was an autumnal odyssey, not a winter journey. For all their preoccupation with death and occasionally desolation, neither Schubert at 31, in... Read more... |
Ax, Kavakos, Ma, Barbican review - all-star BrahmsMonday, 10 September 2018
Expectations ran high for this recital, Brahms from an all-star piano trio of Emanuel Ax, Leonidas Kavakos and Yo-Yo Ma. The group has recently recorded the three Brahms piano trios for Sony, and this concert was part of a promotional tour of the US... Read more... |
Prom 55, Lisztes, Lendvai, Lendvay, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer review - unity and strengthFriday, 24 August 2018
There seems no limit to the sheer creativity that fizzes from Iván Fischer and his Budapest Festival Orchestra. For their second night at the Proms, packed out this time, the theme was the meeting of classical and Gypsy musical traditions. And... Read more... |
