violin
Janine Jansen, Alexander Gavrylyuk, Wigmore Hall review - a totally convincing recitalWednesday, 13 March 2019Can 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 2019Vyacheslav 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 2019Schumann 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 2019Well, 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 20182018. 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 2018Josquin: 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... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Handel, Schmelzer, Tesla QuartetSaturday, 27 October 2018Abbandonata: Handel Italian Cantatas Carolyn Sampson (soprano), The King’s Consort/Robert King (Vivat)The young Handel’s desire to be an opera composer prompted him to spend the years 1706-1710 in Italy. He was already a superb academician and... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Ligeti, Lakshminarayana Subramaniam, Svend Erik TarpSaturday, 06 October 2018Brahms & Ligeti: Horn Trios André Cazalet (horn), Guy Comentale (violin), Cyril Huvé (piano) (Calliope)This is a reissue from the last years of the early digital era (ie 1989), but it's a seriously good one. György Ligeti’s 1982 Horn Trio... Read more... |
Jansen, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - nature's splendours and a fond farewellThursday, 20 September 2018The LSO and Sir Simon Rattle have been launching their new season with a mini-festival, if not so-called, mixing and matching some delectable repertoire. This was their third concert in four days – and its programme was wonderfully shaped, bringing... Read more... |
Kremer, CBSO, Wellber, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - supercharged DvořákThursday, 13 September 2018A shrewd orchestra maintains a strong subs bench. One of the major discoveries in Birmingham during the interregnum between Andris Nelsons’s premature departure and the appointment of Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla was the young Israeli conductor Omer Meir... Read more... |
Prom 69, Skride, Boston SO, Nelsons / Proms at...Cadogan Hall 8, Berlin Philharmonic Soloists review - sophisticated limitsTuesday, 04 September 2018Crazy days are here again – many of us are lucky not to have been born when the last collectve insanity blitzed the world – and nothing in Shostakovich seems too outlandish for reality. On the other hand, there's a growing movement to liberate his... Read more... |