Schumann
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Kletzki, Schumann, Szymanowski, Ji LiuSaturday, 05 April 2014
Brahms and Schumann: Piano Quintets Alexander String Quartet, Joyce Yang (piano) (Foghorn Classics)Schumann was the first major composer to pair solo piano with string quartet. His 1842 quintet remains one of the best examples of the genre,... Read more... |
BBC Symphony Orchestra, Oramo, BarbicanThursday, 09 January 2014
Now this is what I call an orchestra showing off: you unleash four of your horns on the most insanely difficult yet joyous of sinfoniettas for accompanied horn quartet, Schumann’s Konzertstück, and later let the other four light the brightest of... Read more... |
Annette Dasch, Julius Drake, Middle Temple HallTuesday, 24 September 2013
This was the first of the ten concerts in the Temple Music Society's autumn/winter season. The Society uses two venues right in the heart of London, Temple Church and, as last night, Middle Temple Hall, most famous as the site of the first... Read more... |
Anne Schwanewilms, Roger Vignoles, Wigmore HallTuesday, 10 September 2013
So we glide between seasons from one communicative diva giving her all in a vast space to another casting spells in intimate surroundings. While Joyce DiDonato, not perhaps one of the world’s great voices but certainly a great performer, was... Read more... |
Britten and Poulenc at the Cheltenham Music FestivalThursday, 11 July 2013
"Britten or Poulenc?" The question may seem a fatuous one, geared to the 100th anniversary of the Englishman's birth and 50 years since the Frenchman's death. Yet it certainly livens up what would otherwise be the usual dreary artists' biographies,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Schumann, Sibelius, Maria SchneiderSaturday, 18 May 2013
Schumann and his Daughters Florian Uhlig (piano) (Hänssler Classic)Hearing this fifth volume in the young German pianist Florian Uhlig’s ongoing Schumann series made me want to investigate the earlier issues. Rather than plough through the... 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... |
Q&A Special: Conductor Wolfgang Sawallisch on Strauss and WagnerSunday, 03 March 2013
In many ways the most well-tempered of conductors, Wolfgang Sawallisch (1923-2013) brought a peerless orchestral transparency and beauty of line to the great German classics. Even the most overloaded Richard Strauss scores under his watchful eye and... Read more... |
Piemontesi, Karnéus, Reiss, Guildhall Symphony Chorus, BBCSO, Bělohlávek, Barbican HallSunday, 02 December 2012
Now the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s second Conductor Laureate, Jiří Bělohlávek was always going to deserve a hero’s welcome for taking his players to the finishing line of their six-year cycle through Mahler’s symphonies. As more superficially... Read more... |
Northern Sinfonia, Zehetmair, The Sage GatesheadSunday, 30 September 2012
Sting, Debbie Harry, the Pet Shop Boys, Brahms, Mozart, Schumann. This is the kind of thing an average year throws up for the Gateshead-based Northern Sinfonia. Their visits to London are mostly to provide a backing track for the top pop acts. Which... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Gál, Schumann, Shostakovich, TiomkinSaturday, 01 September 2012
Hans Gál: Symphony No 4, Schumann: Symphony No 2 Orchestra of the Swan/Kenneth Woods (Avie)Hans Gál’s four symphonies are being slowly rehabilitated, thanks in part to Avie’s ongoing series. An Austrian Jew who eventually settled in Edinburgh... Read more... |
Vienna Philharmonic, Rattle, Barbican HallMonday, 18 June 2012
Just as the most impeccably aristocratic families have the shabbiest homes, so the oldest and most prestigious orchestras frequently deliver the most scrappy performances. Trying too hard is so arriviste. King of this insouciant shabby chic are the... Read more... |
