Sibelius
Pogostkina, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - human emotions in Sibelius's heavenThursday, 28 September 2017
It was on the strength of a single concert including a startling Sibelius Luonnotar and Third Symphony, thankfully reported here, that Sakari Oramo was appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We had to wait a while for more major... Read more... |
Last Night of the Proms review: Stemme, BBCSO, Oramo - international array, abundant blue and goldSunday, 10 September 2017
The Last Night of the Proms is always a beautifully choreographed event, and this year’s was no exception. The format changes little, but each year a new selection of works is chosen to fill the slots. The BBC Symphony Orchestra, always the backbone... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Estonia and Latvia - Pärnu Music Festival's great orchestra goes southThursday, 24 August 2017
For the first time ever Paavo Järvi has been showing other nations why the Estonian Festival Orchestra is among the world's best – travelling to other Nordic countries after their annual gathering in Estonia’s summer capital of Pärnu, with the big... Read more... |
Prom 33 review: Davidsen, Gerhardt, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds - Nordic music glowing with colourFriday, 11 August 2017
Goodness the BBC Philharmonic plays well for John Storgårds. The orchestra’s chief guest conductor has a lovely easy manner on the podium – all curved gestures and loose arms, and the result is a partnership that brings the absolute best out of the... Read more... |
Prom 6: Benedetti, BBC NOW, Søndergård - dazzling violin magicWednesday, 19 July 2017
Nicola Benedetti was the star of this show, no doubt about that. She is a Proms regular and favourite, attracting a large and enthusiastic audience, the Royal Albert Hall filled almost to capacity. And she didn’t disappoint, giving a performance of... Read more... |
Kuusisto, London Chamber Orchestra, Ashkenazy, Cadogan HallThursday, 15 June 2017
Tears were likely to flow freely on this most beautiful and terrible of June evenings, especially given a programme – dedicated by Vladimir Ashkenazy to the victims of the Grenfell Tower fire – already prone to the elegiac. It could hardly... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Sibelius, Temple University Wind SymphonySaturday, 18 March 2017
Bach: Solo Sonatas and Partitas Jeroen de Groot (JDG Records)Dutch violinist Jeroen de Groot recalls watching footage of Glenn Gould playing Bach's Goldberg Variations as a teenager, amazed by the brazen idiosyncrasies of Gould's pianism (“That... Read more... |
BBC Singers, BBCSO, Oramo, BarbicanSaturday, 04 March 2017
It's official: if you want to be guaranteed an infallible musical adrenalin boost in London, you can always be sure to find it with Finnish conductor Sakari Oramo and his BBC Symphony Orchestra. And it's not just a question of splashy excitement:... Read more... |
Kanneh-Mason, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, St Gabriel's PimlicoWednesday, 21 December 2016
Sheku Kanneh-Mason isn't just BBC Young Musician 2016 - he's the year's top player in my books, a master at any level. Despite a contract with Decca, starting with the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto he played in the competition finale, he looks... Read more... |
Wallfisch, LPO, Vänskä, RFHThursday, 27 October 2016
Osmo Vänskä isn't by any means the only Finn who conducts magnificent Sibelius. Sakari Oramo is the BBC Symphony Orchestra's property, but the London Philharmonic could have gone for a change and invited Vänskä's equally impressive and even more... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Oslo: Vasily Petrenko, the Leningrad Dynamo, comes to townWednesday, 24 February 2016
I've never thought of myself as a Shostakovich fan, tending to regard what I know of his output as bleak and forbidding. Photographs of the stone-faced composer with the mortuary attendant's demeanour haven't helped.All this changed after a night... Read more... |
Callow, Hough, LPO, Vänskä, RFHThursday, 11 February 2016
2015, Sibelius anniversary year, yielded no London performances of the composer's last masterpiece, the Prospero's farewell of his incidental music to The Tempest. With Shakespeare400, 2016 has already made amends: even if the Bardic input came... Read more... |
