Kings Place
Classical music/Opera direct to home 16 - putting freelancers firstFriday, 19 June 2020
The latest wave of musicians to make their voices heard comes from the freelancers who haven't been able to claim anything so far for their loss of income and of the ability to work together. As a group of top players putting out their plea observes... Read more... |
Angelich, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - warm embraces from good companionsMonday, 10 February 2020
"New Dawns" as a title smacked a bit of trying to shoehorn a fairly straightforward Aurora programme in to Kings Place's Nature Unwrapped series. Only Dobrinka Tabakova's short and sweet Dawn made the link, and that was old, not new (composed in... Read more... |
Bowers-Broadbent, Theatre of Voices, Kings Place - grit needed in the oysterMonday, 13 January 2020
Not everyone who flocked to Day Two's evening concert in Kings Place's year-long Nature Unwrapped: Sounds of Life celebrations will have realised that they were catching parts two and three of a trilogy. The masterpiece had come earlier, in a 5pm... Read more... |
Planting seeds for change: Helen Wallace on a year of seminal events at Kings PlaceWednesday, 08 January 2020
When I mention Nature Unwrapped, a year-long series at Kings Place subtitled "Sounds of Life", the responses are often tinged with cynicism: "Oh, very 2020", "So, what’s the carbon footprint with all those musicians flying in?" There’s an assumption... Read more... |
Hewitt, Clein, Aurora Orchestra, Ward, Kings Place review – rise and shineMonday, 16 December 2019
Why does music suddenly disappear? It is all the more heartening when a work as excellent and enjoyable as Louise Farrenc’s Symphony No 3 takes wing once more, but you do have to wonder how in the world such a terrific orchestral piece was... Read more... |
Choirs of St Catharine's College, Cambridge, Wickham, Kings Place review - fresh take on 'lessons and carols'Monday, 09 December 2019
At this time of year the musical world – and particularly the choral world – is full of festive concerts, and the challenge can be to find programmes venturing off the well-worn path of traditional favourites. But at Kings Place on Saturday I found... Read more... |
Shaw, Attacca Quartet, Kings Place review - composer portrait shows strengths and limitationsThursday, 21 November 2019
There aren’t many musicians who could appear as composer, singer and violist on a single programme but that was Caroline Shaw’s lot last night. As part of Kings Place’s Venus Unwrapped season, the first half comprised entirely her music, played by... Read more... |
Poster, Cabeza, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review – shock of the newMonday, 04 November 2019
Mozart’s piano concertos often overflow with good humour, but you seldom expect to hear a hearty chuckle from the audience in the middle of a performance of one. Yet something close to a guffaw burst out around King’s Place when soloist Tom Poster,... Read more... |
Glennie, Lubbe, Ticciati, O/Modernt, Kings Place review - a Pergolesi-based dudSaturday, 19 October 2019
Some of the greatest pieces of the string orchestra repertoire are based on pre-existing pieces: the fantasias by Tippett and Vaughan Williams, on Corelli and Tallis respectively, treat their starting material with invention and sweep, creating... Read more... |
Elf Lyons, Komedia, Brighton review - bonkers, brilliant and a bit of bare bumFriday, 11 October 2019
Elf Lyons’ new show, Love Songs To Guinea Pigs, has moved away from her usual slapstick and absurdist mimicry into new realms of traditional stand up. She cites the reason as being unable to do mime on the radio, but there’s a more serious reason... Read more... |
Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva on the London Piano Festival: 'It's not just playing one concert and going home'Tuesday, 01 October 2019
We’ve been friends for many years, since the mid-1990s when we were both studying at the Royal College of Music with the same inspirational piano teacher, Irina Zaritskaya. Our first duo performance was in 2001 at the Homecoming Festival in Moscow,... Read more... |
Dickson, Brautigam, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - disappointing Mozart concertoMonday, 30 September 2019
Kings Place Hall One is a slightly strange venue, its small stage size seeming out of proportion for the dimensions of the room. It means only a chamber orchestra can fit on stage – and even then they often look uncomfortably squashed, especially... Read more... |
