contemporary classical
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Bennett, Béla Fleck & Abigail WashburnSaturday, 20 January 2018
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos 1-6 Berliner Barock Solisten/Reinhard Goebel (Sony)This set’s arrival sent me scurrying back to listen again to Reinhard Goebel's 1985 DG set of Bach’s Brandenburgs with Musica Antiqua Koln: hyperactive, sharp-... Read more... |
Joseph Houston, St John's Smith Square review - masterful MC in the theatre of pianoThursday, 11 January 2018
Joseph Houston’s recital gave us the piano exposed, sent up, psychoanalysed; in short, piano as theatre. And whether silently depressing keys or creating chords with an elbow, the young Berlin-based pianist brought formidable focus and unshowy... Read more... |
Best of 2017: Classical concertsWednesday, 27 December 2017
Did Simon Rattle's return to the UK as Principal Conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra live up to the hype? Mostly, and when it did, the music-making was superbly alive. But it's vital to observe that another orchestra and chief conductor have... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Adams, Schubert, BBC LegendsSaturday, 23 December 2017
The John Adams Edition Berliner Philharmoniker, conducted by John Adams, Gustavo Dudamel, Alan Gilbert, Kirill Petrenko and Sir Simon Rattle (Berliner Philharmoniker)That the Berlin Philharmonic can release a lavish four-disc collection of music by... Read more... |
Batiashvili, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - electricity in Sibelius and HillborgThursday, 30 November 2017
Even given the peerless standards already set by Sakari Oramo and the BBC Symphony Orchestra in their Sibelius cycle, this instalment was always going to be the toughest, featuring the most elusive of the symphonies, the Sixth, and the sparest, the... Read more... |
Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival review - new generation throws down the gauntletTuesday, 28 November 2017
Reading the line-up for Huddersfield Contemporary Music Festival can be a bit of a //+DiGit<ijjjjjjjjjjjjj.ggiiigggggH1-RMXn4000// experience (and no, I haven’t invented those). There are flashing light warnings. Ear defenders are routinely... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Sofya Gulyak, The Prince Regent's Band, EsmerineSaturday, 25 November 2017
Chaconne - Sofya Gulyak (piano) (Champs Hill Records)Traditionally, a chaconne is an instrumental piece in triple time with a continually repeating bass line. Sofya Gulyak, winner of the 2009 Leeds Piano Competition, gives us seven. Best known... Read more... |
Singcircle, Barbican review - veteran ensemble bids farewell with StockhausenTuesday, 21 November 2017
STIMMUNG is always an event. Stockhausen’s score calls for a ritual as much as a performance, with six singers sitting around a spherical light on a low table, the audience voyeurs at some intimate but unexplained rite. Singcircle has been... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Howells, Karayev, LotichiusSaturday, 18 November 2017
Herbert Howells: Music for Clavichord Julian Perkins (Prima Facie)Herbert Howells was at a low ebb in the 1920s. His energies were sapped by ongoing health issues and resultant medical treatment. A severe creative crisis followed the disastrous... Read more... |
Hugo Ticciati, Manchester Camerata, Manchester Cathedral review - spirituality, no spooksThursday, 02 November 2017
Manchester Camerata chose All Hallows’ Eve for a concert of (in some part) "holy" minimalism. Arvo Pärt’s Silouan’s Song began it, and his Cantus in Memoriam Benjamin Britten ended it. They headlined it "Spiritualism and Minimalism", but I think... Read more... |
The Consul, Guildhall School review - blowsy melodrama rooted by committed studentsTuesday, 31 October 2017
Fancy that: the day after the last major Menotti staging I can remember in the UK, The Medium at the Edinburgh Festival, "splendid piece of post-Puccinian grand guignol" turned up in two different reviews (moral: don't discuss the performance with... Read more... |
Ensemble InterContemporain, Pintscher, RFH review - a visit from the gentle ghost of BoulezTuesday, 17 October 2017
The Royal Festival Hall rather belied its name for a visit to London on Saturday of France’s premier new-music ensemble. It can’t be helped that the more intimate space of the Queen Elizabeth Hall next door is presently closed for renovation, but... Read more... |
