Elgar
Prom 75: The Dream of Gerontius, VPO, RattleSaturday, 12 September 2015
And so it ends – with angels and archangels and “heart-subduing melody”. The Proms might not officially finish till tomorrow night, but this penultimate concert is always the true close of the season, and what better or more fitting an ending –... Read more... |
Prom 17: Hallé, ElderFriday, 31 July 2015
Roger Wright may be gone from the BBC Proms, replaced for now by a committee, but his legacy lives on. His zeal to recover areas of English musical culture that may be considered the festival’s birthright resulted last night in a first Proms... Read more... |
The Dream of Gerontius, RSNO, Oundjian, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 31 May 2015
To close its 2014-15 season the Royal Scottish National Orchestra chose the choral masterpiece that Elgar preferred not to call an oratorio, The Dream of Gerontius. Performances in Scotland are rare, whether this is because of Presbyterian unease... Read more... |
Ehnes, Armstrong, Wigmore HallWednesday, 27 May 2015
Violinists either fathom the elusive heart and soul of Elgar’s music or miss the mark completely. Canadian James Ehnes, one of the most cultured soloists on the scene today, is the only one I’ve heard since Nigel Kennedy to make the Violin Concerto... Read more... |
Batiashvili, Staatskapelle Berlin, Barenboim, RFHWednesday, 22 April 2015
Gasps of surprise were heard across the country last month, when Richard Morrison on BBC Radio 3's "Building a Library" announced Daniel Barenboim and the Staatskapelle Berlin as his library choice for Elgar’s Second Symphony. That... Read more... |
Lane, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Manze, RFHThursday, 12 March 2015
Andrew Manze chose an all-English programme for his debut with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Clarity of texture and disciplined, propulsive tempos are the hallmarks of his conducting, the results of many years as a violinist and ensemble leader... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Sakari OramoTuesday, 17 February 2015
Rattle and the Berliners went home at the beginning of the week with vine-leaves in their hair. There's now something else to celebrate. Exactly one week on from the second concert in their Sibelius cycle, the Barbican hosted even more of an all-out... Read more... |
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Wilson, Leeds Town HallSunday, 04 January 2015
Elgar. Hmm. Music for the home counties. Party conferences. Golf clubs, and chaps wearing tweed jackets. All wrong, of course; it’s easy to forget that this most misunderstood of composers was actually a bit of an outsider. A self-taught, working-... Read more... |
OAE, Tognetti, Queen Elizabeth HallWednesday, 26 November 2014
As I sat, engaged and occasionally charmed but not always as impressed as I’d been told I would be, through violinist-animateur Richard Tognetti’s lightish seven-course taster menu of string music with the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, it... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Elgar, Fuzzy, James RhodesSaturday, 13 September 2014
Elgar: Symphony no 1, Cockaigne Royal Stockholm Philharmonic Orchestra/Sakari Oramo (BIS)No one says there's anything unusual about an orchestra in Liverpool recording Shostakovich, or a Manchester band producing a new Sibelius cycle. So why... Read more... |
Prom 31: Coote, Hallé, ElderSunday, 10 August 2014
The levels of refinement now exhibited by the Hallé, the stylishness and elegance of the playing, define the special relationship that they and Mark Elder have cemented over the last decade and a half. The opening bars of Berlioz’s Le corsaire came... Read more... |
Prom 27: Trusler, BBCNOW, Wigglesworth/Inspire Workshop, Royal Albert HallThursday, 07 August 2014
A full day began and ended with Elgar the European, or rather the citizen of the world. After all, the Pomp and Circumstance March No. 1, played with panache by 180 young musicians in a morning meet-up, owes its swagger to the "Cortège de Bacchus"... Read more... |
