Classical Reviews
Hardenberger, Pöntinen, Wigmore Hall review - superstar trumpeter shows his classTuesday, 14 May 2019
There can be no questioning trumpeter Håkan Hardenberger’s extraordinary mastery: his big, unforced sound, mellifluous legato, athletic virtuosity and utterly controlled high notes. Read more... |
Mullova, Philharmonia, Järvi, RFH review – clear paths through the forestMonday, 13 May 2019
Visit Ainola, Sibelius’s woodland house by Lake Tuusula north of Helsinki, and you’ll be told the story of the green stove. It appears that the famously synaesthetic Finnish composer identified the shade of his heating installation with the key of F major. Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - inner magic eventually joins outward masteryThursday, 09 May 2019
Nearly 17 years ago, Simon Rattle inaugurated his era at the helm of the Berlin Philharmonic with Mahler's Fifth Symphony. Read more... |
Clara Mouriz, Roderick Williams, Joseph Middleton, Wigmore Hall review - the song recital as mixtapeTuesday, 07 May 2019
It’s the age of the mixtape. And of the Only Connect sequences round. Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, Barbican review – a brace of souped-up symphoniesMonday, 06 May 2019
It’s a fair bet that more people now know Harmonielehre as the title of the 1985 orchestral blockbuster by John Adams than the composition manual written by Schoenberg in 1922. Even the title is “typically, ironically John”, as Sir Simon Rattle remarked in a pre-concert interview introducing the YouTube film of the concert. The piece has swallowed up its object of parody. Read more... |
I Fagiolini, Hollingworth, St George's Bristol review - Leonardo and music, immortal, invisibleSaturday, 04 May 2019
Having started their tour at the Barbican on Sunday, I Fagiolini descended on Bristol with their Leonardo da Vinci celebration on precisely the 500th anniversary of the great man’s death, a fact that earned them an extra round of applause from the proud but sometimes neglected Bristolians in St.George’s. Read more... |
Bronfman, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - weight and witMonday, 29 April 2019
Vladimir Jurowski is always a conductor for making connections, so one wonders why Brahms's Second Piano Concerto wasn't the first-half choice in this programme from the start (the advertised original had been the much stormier No 1). 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. Read more... |
CBSO, Volkov, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - Mahler goes BauhausFriday, 26 April 2019
Just over a decade ago it was predicted by those supposedly in the know that Ilan Volkov would succeed Sakari Oramo as music director of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. In the event, the gig went to Andris Nelsons, and it was probably for the best. Read more... |
Mitten wir im Leben sind, De Keersmaeker, Queyras, Rosas, Sadler's Wells review - Bach-worthy geniusThursday, 25 April 2019
All Bach is dance, a teacher once told me. The justifiable exaggeration switched on a light; leaping to the Brandenburg Concertos followed. This great work of kinetic art is of a different order. Read more... |
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