Classical Reviews
Williams, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall Manchester review - vision before gloomMonday, 03 June 2019
The BBC Philharmonic have given memorable accounts of Shostakovich’s Symphony No 4 in Manchester before – notably conducted by Günther Herbig in 2010 and by John Storgårds in 2014 – but surely none as harrowingly grim as under Mark Wigglesworth this time. Read more... |
Kuusisto, Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review - new principal conductor steps upSaturday, 01 June 2019
Last night saw the official unveiling of 33-year-old Finn Santtu-Matias Rouvali as Principal Conductor Designate of the Philharmonia Orchestra, an appointment that has been widely welcomed, not least on theartsdesk. And while I enjoyed Rouvali’s work I had some reservations, and I would like to see him again before coming to a firm judgment. Read more... |
CBSO, Gražinytė-Tyla, Symphony Hall Birmingham review - joy unboundedSaturday, 01 June 2019
You can tell a lot from the opening of Brahms’s Second Symphony. |
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 Town Hall, ahead of performances in Denmark, Switzerland and Germany. Read more... |
Orchestra dell'Accademia Nazionale di Santa Cecilia, Pappano, Barbican review – joy in despairMonday, 27 May 2019
As one half of British politics convulsed into a deeper spasm of suicidal fury, it came almost as a relief to hear a great Anglo-Italian conductor lead an impassioned Roman orchestra in a massive, terrifying symphony once described by a (German) maestro as the first example of musical nihilism. Ah, but that’s the paradox of Mahler’s Sixth. Read more... |
Grosvenor, Doric Quartet, Milton Court review - cohesion or collision?Monday, 27 May 2019
Expectations ran high for this final concert in Benjamin Grosvenor’s Barbican/Milton Court series, especially after the magic he and the Doric Quartet wrought in their February performance. Read more... |
Los Angeles Master Chorale, Gershon, Sellars, Barbican review – embodiments of remorseFriday, 24 May 2019
By some strange alignment of the stars, Peter Sellars’s staged version of Orlando di Lasso’s Lagrime di San Pietro (Tears of St Peter) arrived at the Barbican Hall just as – next door in the theatre – Pam Tanowitz’s directed her dance interpretation of TS Eliot’s Four Quartets. Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – full-spectrum Bach from a prodigious talentThursday, 23 May 2019
You seldom hear a Champions League-level roar of approval at the Wigmore Hall. Last night, though, Igor Levit drew a throaty collective bark of appreciation from the audience after (for once) an awed hush had followed the final dying cadences of the aria’s return in Bach’s Goldberg Variations. Had he earned it? Absolutely. This recital was first of three devoted to the idea of Variations. Read more... |
Benjamin Grosvenor, Barbican review - virtuosity at its classiestFriday, 17 May 2019
It’s 15 years since Benjamin Grosvenor first strolled onto our TV screens as a prodigiously gifted child in the BBC Young Musician Competition. Today he is a self-possessed young man of 26, in his element on the concert platform, yet without a hint of affectation; and unlike certain musicians who play the same type of music all the time, he ventures constantly into new and sometimes surprising musical territory. Read more... |
Takács Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – strong voices in a glorious groupThursday, 16 May 2019
When critics praise a first-rank string quartet, convention demands they claim that the whole adds up to more than the sum of its parts. True enough, maybe, but with the Takács Quartet, each separate element really does blaze with a soloistic, virtuosic flame. From the first bars of last night’s opener at the Wigmore Hall, as Haydn plays pass-the-parcel with an apparently straightforward tune at the start of his G major quartet Op.76 no. Read more... |
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