Royal Albert Hall
George Ezra, Royal Albert Hall review - a thumping good timeWednesday, 25 September 2019
"The reason why it's so special to be here," says Ezra halfway through the show, "is because this is where I saw so many of my heroes". Tonight is the 26-year-old's debut at the Royal Albert Hall and the look on Ezra's face says he can't quite... Read more... |
Prom 72/3: Aurora Orchestra, Collon review – Berlioz not quite lost in showbizFriday, 13 September 2019
For a few seconds last night, the Royal Albert Hall turned into London’s biggest – and cheesiest – disco. At the end of the Ball movement in the Aurora Orchestra’s dramatised version of the Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz’s tipsily lurching waltz... Read more... |
Prom 71: Dunedin Consort, Butt review – Bach to the drawing-board pleaseThursday, 12 September 2019
Blame it on the box set. The four Bach Orchestral Suites fit neatly together as a recording project. They used to fill out the four sides of a double LP back in the early stages of the baroque revival. Completists and collectors could rejoice then,... Read more... |
Prom 69: Stikhina, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov – dark textures and powerful passionsWednesday, 11 September 2019
Semyon Bychkov was a surprising choice to take over the Czech Philharmonic last year, a conductor with few obvious connections to Czech music. But on the strength of this visit to the Proms, they make a good team. Bychkov communicates fluently with... Read more... |
Prom 66: In the Name of the Earth review - John Luther Adams's ambitious choral spectacularMonday, 09 September 2019
This is the kind of thing that the Proms does well – indeed, where else would it get an outing? A "big event" piece of massive scale in terms of size and duration, in many ways a modern Spem in Alium, but where Tallis’s 1570 piece demands 40 singers... Read more... |
Prom 63: Wang, Staatskapelle Dresden, Chung review – private passionsFriday, 06 September 2019
Weirdly enough, it was “Tea for Two” that definitively proved her class for me. As a second encore to Rachmaninov’s Third Piano Concerto, after a mesmeric transcription of that composer’s Vocalise, Yuja Wang’s goodbye treat channelled the mighty Art... Read more... |
Prom 60: Ax, Vienna Philharmonic, Haitink review - moving mountains at 90Wednesday, 04 September 2019
His movements are minimal (perhaps they always were). A more intense flick of the baton, a sudden wider sweep of the expressive left hand, can help quicken a tempo, draw extra firepower from the players, but Bernard Haitink's conducting is still the... Read more... |
Prom 59: Benvenuto Cellini, Monteverdi Choir, ORR, Gardiner review - don't stop the carnivalTuesday, 03 September 2019
So we never got the ultimate Proms spectacular, the four brass bands at the points of the Albert Hall compass for Berlioz's Grande Messe des Morts, in the composer's 150th anniversary year. Yet Sir John Eliot Gardiner has learnt how to work the... Read more... |
Prom 55: Jephtha, SCO & Chorus, Egarr review - shock of the new in sacrificial oratorioSaturday, 31 August 2019
Human sacrifice has a disconcerting and wonderful effect upon great composers, above all when it involves the supremely queasy issue of a father vowing to offer up his child: think of Britten with Abraham and Isaac, Mozart with Idomeneo and Idamante... Read more... |
Prom 53: Connolly, Gregory, Tappan, BBCSO & Chorus, Davis review - citizens of the world uniteFriday, 30 August 2019
Let's be clear: this was a Prom of world-class works by English composers, not a conservative concert of English music. Politically speaking, Elgar was one of the few on the right, but how different inwardly, speaking through the poet Arthur O’... Read more... |
Prom 47: Schönheit, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Nelsons review - Bruckner doesn’t quite take flightSaturday, 24 August 2019
After Thursday night’s concert I celebrated the Proms’ exploration of unfamiliar repertoire via the CBSO. The following evening saw the festival diving back into mainstream repertoire – as it must also do – conducted by the CBSO’s previous music... Read more... |
Prom 46: Kanneh-Mason, CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla review - brilliant programme, brilliant playingFriday, 23 August 2019
Let us never tire of singing the praises of the Proms, nor ever take them for granted. For two months concerts, many of which would be the highlight of any ‘normal’ week, keep coming night after night. And for all that it is a critic’s job to... Read more... |
