Schoenberg
Edinburgh International Festival Opening Concert, RSNO, Knussen, Usher HallSaturday, 09 August 2014
On paper this was an interesting programme. The Edinburgh Festival traditionally opens with a major choral work, but while the international audience would probably be happy with endlessly recycled requiems and masses, festival directors have often... Read more... |
Moses und Aron, Welsh National OperaSunday, 25 May 2014
Schoenberg’s last, unfinished, opera, seldom staged, might almost have been written for the Welsh. At its heart is some of the most refined and intricate choral writing since Bach, but linked to stage directions so complicated that one wonders... Read more... |
It's All About Piano!, Institut FrançaisSaturday, 05 April 2014
With tickets only a couple of pounds more than screenings in the Ciné Lumière, back-to-back – sometimes overlapping - concerts by world-class pianists of all ages, and a lively roster of weekend events around the recitals, what more could you ask... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Timo Andres, Berlioz, SchoenbergSaturday, 03 August 2013
Timo Andres: Home Stretch Timo Andres (piano), Metropolis Ensemble/Andrew Cyr (Nonesuch)Begin with Timo Andres’s realisation of Mozart’s Coronation piano concerto. Mozart omitted to write down the soloist’s left hand part, so Andres provides... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Bruckner, Schoenberg, SchubertSaturday, 29 June 2013
Bach: Double and Triple Concertos Rachel Podger (violin), Brecon Baroque (Channel Classics)This is the most effervescent, zingy Bach Double Concerto I’ve heard. Close your eyes, don a pair of headphones, and listen to Rachel Podger and Bojan... Read more... |
Mitsuko Uchida, Royal Festival HallThursday, 07 March 2013
The magic usually descends quickly in a Mitsuko Uchida recital but the opening Bach of this rescheduled Festival Hall concert - a pair of Preludes and Fugues from Book 2 of The Well-Tempered Klavier - took a while to draw attention from the farthest... Read more... |
Worden, BBC Concert Orchestra, de Ridder, Queen Elizabeth HallMonday, 04 March 2013
Who’d have guessed a full house for the third of The Rest is Noise festival’s Berlin nights? This time there were no obvious superstars, unless you follow singer-songwriter Shara Worden of My Brightest Diamond and you know the impeccable track-... Read more... |
Upshaw, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tognetti, Cadogan HallSunday, 02 September 2012
“Well that was bloody fantastic,” a broad Aussie accent declared from somewhere behind me at the end of Ravel’s String Quartet in F major. And that’s the thing with the Australian Chamber Orchestra – it’s just that simple. Their concert... Read more... |
WNO Orchestra, Koenigs, St David's Hall, CardiffSaturday, 29 October 2011
“Blessed are the dead”, sings Brahms in the final movement of his German Requiem. And as far as the rest of this concert was concerned it was perhaps just as well. In Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder, the children are all dead; and in Schoenberg’s... Read more... |
Holland Panorama, Hoddinott Hall, CardiffThursday, 27 October 2011
Isn’t it strange how national talent goes by subject? Put on a blockbuster exhibition of Dutch painting and the queue will stretch to the Embankment. But can you imagine a festival of Dutch music? Sweelinck (d 1652) and Andriessen (b 1939) more or... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Stephen Hough, Joby Talbot, SchoenbergSaturday, 13 August 2011
This week we've a glittering, shimmering ballet score with an aquatic theme, and a brilliant British pianist shows off his compositional skills. Plus, in a week where we all need cheering up, 20th-century music's scariest genius shows that he... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Górecki, Haydn, Shostakovich, Second Viennese SchoolFriday, 29 April 2011
It’s string-quartet Saturday – a young German group tackle Soviet classics and a rejuvenated Russian quartet smile with Haydn. There’s music from a contemporary Polish master and exquisitely uncomfortable fin-de-siècle music from Vienna.... Read more... |
