Wigmore Hall
Connolly, Drake, Berrington, Wigmore Hall review – between the actsSaturday, 16 March 2019
Vary the stale format of the vocal recital and all sorts of new doors open for performers and listeners alike. The only downside, as became clear at the Wigmore Hall last night, is that the audience may hear less of a stellar soloist than they... Read more... |
Tynan, Appl, Burnside, Wigmore Hall review - the music of domesticity explored in songWednesday, 20 February 2019
The first visual impression of Monday’s Wigmore Hall song recital was of the marked height difference between Irish soprano Ailish Tynan and the willowy baritone Benjamin Appl. But as they warmed to their task, their voices, which initially seemed... Read more... |
Elīna Garanča, Malcolm Martineau, Wigmore Hall review - towards transcendenceMonday, 18 February 2019
It seems an almost indecent luxury to have heard two top mezzos in just over a week with so much to express, backed up by the perfect technique and instrument with which to do so. Georgian Anita Rachvelishvili with Pappano and the Royal Opera... Read more... |
Endellion Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - four decades of excellenceTuesday, 22 January 2019
The Endellion Quartet first rehearsed on 20 January 1979, deep in the throes of Britain’s so-called “Winter of Discontent”. That longevity – with three of the original players still on the team after four decades – makes the acclaimed ensemble... Read more... |
Winterreise, Gerhaher, Huber, Wigmore Hall review - wintry beautyThursday, 17 January 2019
As Wigmore Hall audiences really ought to know, silence can be golden. Especially at the close of Schubert’s Winterreise, as the uncanny drone-like fifths of the hurdy-gurdy in “Der Leiermann” fade away into – well, whatever state of mind the singer... Read more... |
Alice Coote, Christian Blackshaw, Wigmore Hall review – deep feeling and high dramaSaturday, 22 December 2018
In the recital world, so it sometimes seems, no good deed ever goes unpunished. Like Ian Bostridge (another singer who tries to reinvigorate an often rigid format), Alice Coote often has to fend off brickbats whenever she inject the drama of new... Read more... |
Mahan Esfahani / Richard Goode, Wigmore Hall review - clarity and contrast from two keyboard mastersTuesday, 18 December 2018
Two successive nights, two contrasted solo keyboard recitals at the Wigmore Hall: not great for the knees but marvellous for the soul. On Saturday the Tehran-born, US-raised harpsichordist Mahan Esfahani continued a mammoth project: he has been... Read more... |
Thomas Adès, Wigmore Hall review - playful and erratic JanáčekTuesday, 11 December 2018
Janáček has been an abiding passion for Thomas Adès. As both composer and performer, Adès revels in the whimsical and the absurd, and he finds both in Janáček’s piano works. This recital presented the complete surviving piano music of Janáček (... Read more... |
The English Concert, Bicket, Wigmore Hall review – small-scale BachWednesday, 21 November 2018
It’s Christmas already at Wigmore Hall. Or advent at least – this concert of Bach Advent cantatas was presented by the English Concert without apology or qualification, despite it still being the middle of November. But it proved a welcome fillip... Read more... |
Federico Colli, Wigmore Hall review – poised on the edge of the possibleFriday, 02 November 2018
The Italian pianist Federico Colli, 30, best known so far as winner of the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition, last night arrived for his Wigmore Hall debut sporting an emerald-green cravat, but the sonic colours he magicked out of the piano... Read more... |
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier - Book 2, Hewitt, Wigmore Hall review – high drama in 24 short actsFriday, 05 October 2018
Bach specialists like to explain that the second book of preludes and fugues in The Well-Tempered Clavier, composed around 1740 and thus almost two decades after the first, draws on more of the fancy and daring “modern” music of its time than its... Read more... |
Ian Bostridge, Thomas Adès, Wigmore Hall review - haunting, brutal SchubertTuesday, 18 September 2018
Winterreise brings out the best from Ian Bostridge, and the worst. His dedication to understanding and communicating its complex and harrowing text is everywhere apparent, and this was an emotionally draining evening. But his style of delivery has... Read more... |
