LSO
Gergiev's Prokofiev Romeo and Juliet: a worthy winner?Wednesday, 13 April 2011
It's just been crowned the BBC Music Magazine Awards' CD of the Year. But is Valery Gergiev's second complete recording of the 20th century's greatest ballet score, captured live at the Barbican for the LSO's own label, right at the top? In my... Read more... |
Kavakos, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallWednesday, 23 March 2011
Heavy-goods vehicles stacked with lamentations have been thundering through the Barbican Hall. Saturday's lugubrious Rachmaninov found a mid-20th-century counterpart last night in the tough elegies of Shostakovich's First Violin Concerto - apt for a... Read more... |
Biss, London Symphony Orchestra, Davis, BarbicanSunday, 13 March 2011
Sir Colin Davis's year has not been a happy one. There've been heart problems, cancellations and, during a performance of The Magic Flute at Covent Garden last month, a major fall. Last night at the Barbican Hall he faced a strenuous Beethoven... Read more... |
London Symphony Orchestra, Rattle, Barbican HallTuesday, 08 March 2011
Sir Simon Rattle's intriguing return to the London Symphony Orchestra podium after years away threw up a curious thought: what happens after Berlin? The fate of six of his eight predecessors at the Berlin Phil has been death on the job. Was... Read more... |
theartsdesk Guide to Valentine's DayMonday, 14 February 2011
Whether it’s consolation, stimulation, or just some old-fashioned romance you’re after this Valentine’s Day, theartsdesk’s team of writers (with a little help from a certain Bard from Stratford) have got it covered. Exhibitions to stir the heart,... Read more... |
The Kingdom, London Symphony Orchestra, Elder, Barbican HallSunday, 30 January 2011
So Starbucks-like is its reach, so tarnished its modern legacy, it's easy to overlook just how brilliant the ideology of Christianity is. How seductively counterintuitive the idea of a God who was not just a man but a bum of a man must have seemed.... Read more... |
Khachatryan, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallTuesday, 18 January 2011
Valery Gergiev’s survey of the Tchaikovsky symphonies began here on a chilly January night with youthfully idealistic Winter Daydreams thrown into the sharpest relief against a disillusioned and angry Shostakovich whose own journey into the bleak... Read more... |
Mustonen, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallSaturday, 20 November 2010
Because it was the capricious Finn who got us going and provided us with the evening's only chunks of nourishment. His performance of Rodion Shchedrin's Fourth Piano Concerto was joyous and thrilling. I wasn't expecting a great deal from Shchedrin... Read more... |
Mullova, London Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons, Barbican HallFriday, 01 October 2010
This season's LSO artist-in-focus, violinist Viktoria Mullova, is an incorrigible off-roader. The rougher the terrain the better. Early, modern, rock, folk: she'll absorb their shocks, vault their bumps, relish their pitfalls and come out without so... Read more... |
Matsuev, London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Barbican HallSunday, 26 September 2010
Shchedrin's best works, in my experience - and his output has been prolific of late - colour and treat the themes of others: chastushki or Russian street songs in the brilliant Naughty Limericks Concerto (to be heard in the second programme of the... Read more... |
The song remains the same?Friday, 11 June 2010The wind instrument in everyone's ears at the moment is the vuvuzela (pictured) a South African horn which comes in various lengths and pitches but is of unvarying volume: very loud. You'll be hearing a lot more of it during the World Cup, as it is... Read more... |
Thomas Adès, London Symphony Orchestra, Barbican HallSunday, 06 June 2010
If the second half of the 20th century saw opera throttled by existential crises, and left composers wondering whether the only future for the art form was for it to be hung out to dry, or to become an arcane intellectualised annex for the musical... Read more... |
