piano
Hough, BBC Philharmonic, Wellber, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Beethoven for todayTuesday, 08 March 2022
There was something extraordinarily powerful and moving about Saturday’s Beethoven commemoration concert by the BBC Philharmonic and its chief conductor, Omer Meir Wellber.Originally planned for 2020 but of course postponed, its second part... Read more... |
Cooper, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth, Lighthouse, Poole review – musical sunburstsMonday, 07 March 2022
With reference to smiles beginning to emerge from behind our masks, Mark Wigglesworth, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor, wrote the most hopeful and optimistic note of welcome in the programme for this concert... Read more... |
Rachlin, Oslo PO, Mäkelä, Oslo Konserthus/Perianes, LPO, Berman, RFH review - the best-laid plans…Thursday, 24 February 2022
The headline was never going to be snappy, but “Klaus Mäkelä conducts…” as a start would have pulled it all together. A trip to Oslo last week was not wasted: he did indeed take charge of one of his two main orchestras, in a typically offbeat... Read more... |
Colli, Bournemouth SO, Scaglione, Lighthouse, Poole review - drama and romanceSaturday, 12 February 2022
The Drama and Romance of the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s promotional hook for this concert signalled a heady musical mix. Appropriate for the stark contrasts of mood central to Wagner’s Tannhäuser Overture and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 4,... Read more... |
Grosvenor, SCO, Emelyanychev / Osborne, RSNO, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - two orchestras in pursuit of innovationTuesday, 08 February 2022
Two pianists; two concertos; two orchestras. It is not often that Edinburgh’s most venerable concert hall plays host, on consecutive nights, to two of our national orchestras offering strikingly similar programmes.While the Scottish Chamber... Read more... |
Kantorow, Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review – a new brilliance on the London concert sceneMonday, 07 February 2022
Boléro and Scheherazade may be popular Sunday afternoon fare, but both are masterpieces and need the most sophisticated handling. High hopes that the new principal conductor the Philharmonia players seem to love so much, Santtu-Matias Rouvali, would... Read more... |
Tchetuev, LPO, Larsen-Maguire, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne review - sunshine by the seaTuesday, 30 November 2021
Even with a chill wind blowing from the Sussex Downs, this copper-bottomed Overture-Concerto-Symphony Sunday matinée was guaranteed to entice concert-goers to Eastbourne’s Sunshine Coast, which duly dazzled both outside and inside the hall.Beethoven... Read more... |
Imogen Cooper, Wigmore Hall review - calm waters run deepMonday, 29 November 2021
On a night when any brooks running past the Wigmore Hall might have frozen almost solid, Imogen Cooper’s recital travelled on sparkling waters of the highest purity across almost a century of pianistic innovation.As well as the streams and fountains... Read more... |
Kim, RSNO, Stockhammer, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - bold programming survives a replacementMonday, 29 November 2021
What happens in an orchestra when your designated conductor for three gigs at the end of the week phones in with Covid on Monday morning? By Monday afternoon, when he was writing his introduction to the programme notes for this concert, Alistair... Read more... |
Kolesnikov, Sinfonia of London, Wilson, Snape Maltings review – volcanic Britten and Vaughan WilliamsMonday, 22 November 2021
They’re singing songs of praise in Aldeburgh today – namely Britten’s magical unaccompanied choral setting of Auden’s Hymn to St Cecilia on the composer’s birthday and the annual celebration of music’s martyred patron. And what a right to... Read more... |
Dmitri Alexeev and Friends, St John's Smith Square review - an almost breathless brioFriday, 05 November 2021
As part of a concert series devoted to the memory of a great pianist and teacher, Georgian-born Dmitri Bashkirov, Russian legends Dmitri Alexeev and Nikolai Demidenko were to have reunited in a two-piano spectacular (I well remember their Wigmore... Read more... |
Album: Tori Amos - Ocean to Ocean, reviewWednesday, 27 October 2021
A “sonic photograph” is how Tori Amos describes her sixteenth album, recorded at her home in Cornwall during the spring and summer of Britain’s third lockdown, when, travel, her usual mode of coping with “troubling things”, was not an option. Living... Read more... |
