violin
Benedetti, SCO, Birmingham Town Hall review - a powerful musical allianceTuesday, 28 May 2019
Playing with such energy, such synergy and such general camaraderie at the start of a tour must surely pave the way for even greater things to come. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra with Nicola Benedetti kicked off their European tour at Birmingham... Read more... |
CD: Eliza Carthy - RestituteSaturday, 04 May 2019
Restitute, from its music down to its title, is much about its own back story. Three years ago Eliza Carthy, a key figure in British folk music, made a well-liked album called Big Machine with her group, The Wayward Band. They lost their funding... Read more... |
Benedetti, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - Elgar challenges, Dvořák soothesSaturday, 27 April 2019
Among the greatest violin concertos in the repertoire, the Elgar is far too rarely performed. One of the reasons is its huge dramatic scale and almost hour-long duration – Sakari Oramo wisely programmed it here with Dvořák’s relatively modest... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Martinů, Prokofiev, SullivanSaturday, 23 March 2019
Martinů: The Complete Music for Violin and Orchestra Bohuslav Matoušek (violin), Czech Philharmonic Orchestra/Christopher Hogwood (Hyperion)You can't overdose on Martinů: four reissued discs of concertante music for violin and orchestra might... Read more... |
Faust, Matthews, LSO, Haitink, Barbican review - glimpses of heavenFriday, 15 March 2019
Vibrant rustic dancing to conclude the first half, a heavenly barcarolle to cast a spell of silence at the end of the second: Bernard Haitink's 90th birthday celebrations of middle-European mastery wrought yet more magic in Dvořák and Mahler after... Read more... |
Janine Jansen, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Wigmore Hall review - a totally convincing recitalWednesday, 13 March 2019
Can it happen? That one comes away from a concert with the sense that all of the truth, the shape, the beauty and the urgency of some great works from the classical repertoire has been conveyed as well as is humanly possible? That the programme... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Artyomov, Mozart, SmithSaturday, 23 February 2019
Vyacheslav Artyomov: In Memoriam, Lamentations, Pietà, Tristia I (Divine Art)Born in 1940, Vyacheslav Artyomov trained as a physicist before switching to music. He joined forces with fellow composers Sofia Gubaidlina and Viktor Suslin in the... Read more... |
Sarah Chang, Ashley Wass, Cadogan Hall review – a virtuoso's disturbing 'inner game'Thursday, 14 February 2019
“My first recital in about a gazillion years in London!” wrote Sarah Chang a week ago for her 140,000 Twitter followers. “I usually work with orchestras whenever I'm in town so what an absolute joy+pleasure to be playing a duo program with piano!”... Read more... |
Schumann Series 3 & 4, LSO, Gardiner, Barbican review - upstanding brillianceMonday, 11 February 2019
Schumann revitalized by John Eliot Gardiner and the London Symphony Orchestra last year left us wanting more: namely two of the four symphonies (transcendently great, as it turns out from these revelatory performances). But those concerts also... Read more... |
Hadelich, CBSO, Măcelaru, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - industrial strength Vaughan WilliamsThursday, 31 January 2019
Well, I didn’t expect that – and judging from the way the rest of the audience reacted, nor did anyone else. After Cristian Măcelaru slammed the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra full speed into the final chord of Vaughan Williams’s Fourth... Read more... |
Albums of the Year 2018: Fiona Monbet - ContrebandeThursday, 20 December 2018
2018. Another year when strong presences who have shaped and defined the music for decades, and whom one had fondly imagined might be around for ever, are gone from our midst. Unique vocalists Aretha Franklin and Nancy Wilson have passed... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Josquin, Calidore String Quartet, Ronn McFarlaneSaturday, 03 November 2018
Josquin: Missa Gaudeamus, Missa L’ami Baudichon The Tallis Scholars/Peter Phillips (Gimell)That music composed in the 14th and 15th centuries can be enjoyed and performed today is mind-boggling. As is looking at one of Josquin des Préz’s... Read more... |
