Rachmaninov
Prom 23, Grosvenor, LPO, Gardner review - strange meetingsWednesday, 07 August 2024
Not everyone knew what to expect from this fascinating programme. Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, last of his orchestral masterpieces, is nothing like the more familiar aspects of his piano concertos. Nor is Busoni’s nominal attempt at the form,... Read more... |
Ashton Celebrated, Royal Ballet review - peerless delights from the master step-smithMonday, 17 June 2024
Launching a four-year global project to proclaim the genius of Frederick Ashton might seem unnecessary. His work is the bedrock of what’s widely known as The English Style and rarely absent from any British ballet season, whether at the Royal Ballet... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Coffee, peppercorns and puppetsSaturday, 11 May 2024
Sir Neville Marriner: The Complete Warner Classics Recordings (Warner)Assembling Sir Neville Marriner’s complete discography would probably require a crate; this weighty but compact box (80 CDs), released to celebrate his centenary, collects... Read more... |
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Philharmonia Chorus, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - poetic cello, blazing chorusFriday, 12 April 2024
Purple patches flourished in the first half of this admirable programme: it could hardly have been otherwise given Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s devotion to a new work in his repertoire, and the current strength of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra under... Read more... |
Cavalleria Rusticana/Aleko, Opera North review - a new foil for MascagniFriday, 16 February 2024
Opera North have a new pairing for Mascagni’s popular but clichéd Cavalleria Rusticana in this double bill: an early Rachmaninov one-acter, written when he was 19. The production of the former is a revival of the one seen in 2017 in their Little... Read more... |
Lugansky, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Letonja, Cadogan Hall review - Russian soul, French flairWednesday, 14 February 2024
To judge by the post-interval empty seats near me, some of the Cadogan Hall audience had turned up last night solely to hear Nikolai Lugansky play Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto. Well, the more fool them. For sure they would have enjoyed their... Read more... |
Alder, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - strings and soprano sing their hearts outFriday, 09 February 2024
Had it taken place a week later, this concert might have gone under the dubious banner of "Valentine's Day Love Classics". But not of the bitty, Raymond Gubbay variety: Vasily Petrenko was absolute master of three late romantic scores which happened... Read more... |
Lugansky, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - so sure in all their waysMonday, 30 October 2023
It’s a given that no finer Rachmaninov interpreter exists than Nikolai Lugansky – a few others may see the works differently, not better – and that Vasily Petrenko has an uncanny affinity with both the swagger and the introspection of Elgar. But... Read more... |
Kopatchinskaja, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - dancing on the volcanoMonday, 09 October 2023
Poetry came an honourable second to sharp rhythms and lurid definition in this choreographic poem of a concert. You don’t get more tumultuous applause after an opener than with Ravel’s La Valse played like this. Vienna may have nearly collapsed... Read more... |
Prom 60: Gerstein, Berlin RSO, Jurowski review - a master conductor returns with his German bandFriday, 01 September 2023
During his transformational time at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski conducted the complete Threepenny Opera in concert and two performances of Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony which changed my mind about its being good... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Microphones, Massachusetts and mountainsSaturday, 19 August 2023
Antal Doráti: The Mercury Masters – The Mono Recordings (Decca Eloquence)The great Hungarian conductor Antal Doráti (1906-1988) enjoyed a long and prolific recording career, stretching from the mid-1940s to the early 1980s. This beautifully... Read more... |
Prom 16: Hallé, Elder review - a mighty Russian journeyThursday, 27 July 2023
Perhaps music and politics should always stay at a decent arm’s length; in the modern world, they seldom can. The Hallé’s annual visit to the Proms presented an all-Russian bill and closed with Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony: his much-disputed “... Read more... |
- 1 of 10
- ››
