mon 14/10/2024

Royal Albert Hall

Prom 71, Seong-Jin Cho review - refined Romantic journeys

Out of emergencies may come revelations. Sir András Schiff has broken his leg, and we wish him a super-speedy recovery. At the Proms, his promised Art of Fugue will have to wait. Korean pianist Seong-Jin Cho, a past winner of the Chopin Prize,...

Read more...

Proms 63-65, Choral Day review - from Harris to Handel/Mozart via Alabama, with love

The Proms’ Indian summer of big visiting orchestras is over – and what a parade it’s been – but renewal hit on the last Saturday before the Last Night with a rainbow of choral concerts, from the 26 voices of The Sixteen (yes, counter-intuitive, I...

Read more...

Prom 62, Mahler's Sixth Symphony, Bavarian RSO, Rattle review - sound over momentum

Mahler’s Sixth is one of those apocalyptic megaliths that shouldn’t be approached too often by audiences or conductors. It’s been a constant in Simon Rattle’s treasury since 1989, when he first recorded it with his City of Birmingham Symphony...

Read more...

Prom 61, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, Rattle review - Bruckner without tears

Hot on the glittering heels of the Berlin Philharmonic and Kirill Petrenko, Sir Simon Rattle brought another stellar German outfit to the Proms, bearing the gift of a Bruckner symphony in the composer’s 200th birthday year. With his (relatively) new...

Read more...

Prom 58, Orchestre de Paris, Mäkelä review - risky reinvention pays off in part

Never mind the Last Night, it’s always the preceding Proms weeks which lead us through different rooms of a dream palace as visiting orchestras succeed one another. This year has taken on an almost hallucinatory quality as three great conductors –...

Read more...

Prom 55, Ólafsson, Berlin Philharmonic, Petrenko review - stealth and sweep from the greatest

Is it because the British are wary of national sentiment from a genius that this performance of Má vlast (My Homeland) is the only major London offering in Smetana’s 200th anniversary year? Supple movement, emotional range and unerring climaxes from...

Read more...

Prom 54, Ma, Ax, Kavakos review - exquisite display of humility and communication

In their lyrical, often intensely moving afternoon concert at the Proms, Yo-Yo Ma, Emanuel Ax and Leonidas Kavakos demonstrated such seamless communication that at points it was tempting to imagine that even their heartbeats were in sync. It’s an...

Read more...

Prom 52, Carmen, Glyndebourne Festival review - fine-tuning a masterpiece

If you ever doubted that Bizet’s Carmen, 150 years young next year, is one of the greatest operas of all time, this performance would have changed your mind. Among the four principals only Rihab Chaieb’s utterly convincing, consistent protagonist...

Read more...

Prom 50, Fujita, Czech Philharmonic, Hrůša review - revelations where least expected

Namedrop first: it was Charles Mackerras who introduced me to the music of Vítězslava Kaprálová, lending me a CD with her Military Sinfonietta leading the way. It piqued interest, but more as a sense of promise cut short: this abundantly gifted...

Read more...

Prom 49, Kobekina, Czech Philharmonic, Hrůša review - what an orchestra

How easy it is to fall instantly in love with the Dvořák Cello Concerto. And particularly when it is played by an orchestra as fine as the Czech Philharmonic.Everything’s there in the opening minute. We get our first, wonderful. ear-wormish...

Read more...

Prom 44, Shani, Rotterdam Philharmonic review - impressive multi-tasking by conductor-pianist

Conducting a piano concerto and playing a piano concerto are normally two separate jobs. Not at last night’s Prom, where Lahav Shani did both – and not just in a breezy Mozart concerto, but the beast that is Prokofiev’s Third. It was quite the feat...

Read more...

Prom 40, St John Passion, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki review - finesse and feeling

Bach’s St John Passion came into the world just three centuries ago, in Leipzig at Easter 1724. This year’s Proms shower of manna from musical heaven continued with a consummately polished, sensitive and – ultimately – very moving birthday...

Read more...
Subscribe to Royal Albert Hall