Classical Reviews
Matthias Goerne, Seong-Jin Cho, Wigmore Hall review - slow and slower StraussWednesday, 25 April 2018
Matthias Goerne has an exceptional ability to sustain evenness and legato through a vocal line. His breath control and his tone production are things to be marvelled at. He is able to function at impossibly slow tempi, and to make an audience hold its collective breath in admiration. The problem comes when he performs a recital programme which sets out to prove that point. Again and again. All evening. Read more...
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LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - incandescent swansongs by Mahler and TippettMonday, 23 April 2018
Why would any conductor resist Mahler's last great symphonic adventure? By which I mean the vast finale of his Tenth Symphony, realised in full by Deryck Cooke, and not the first-movement Adagio, fully scored (unlike most of the rest) by the composer and puritanically regarded as the end of the line by supposed Mahlerians. Read more... |
Wang, RSNO, Oundjian, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - percussion sets Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' ablazeMonday, 23 April 2018
Featuring two Russian composers, the two halves of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s programme could hardly have been more different. In the first, pianist Xiayin Wang (pictured below) joined the RSNO for Scriabin’s florid, rarely-heard Piano Concerto. Read more... |
Ibragimova, Tiberghien, Wigmore Hall review – light, bright and melodic BrahmsSaturday, 21 April 2018
The Brahms violin sonatas make a perfect spring evening recital. The Second and Third were inspired by a summer retreat, but all three are light, bright and with direct melodic appeal. Violinist Alina Ibragimova and pianist Cédric Tiberghien conveyed that carefree spirit perfectly, the long melodic lines simply but elegantly shaped and the accompanying textures always carefully calibrated. Read more... |
Andsnes, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - dazzling symphonic contrasts, plus odditiesThursday, 19 April 2018
Kudos, as ever, to Vladimir Jurowski for making epic connections. Read more... |
Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review – cosmic perspectivesMonday, 16 April 2018
Space is big – that seems to be the message of Unsuk Chin’s new oratorio Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles. The work sets texts, ranging from the Baroque to the present day, concerned with space and scale. Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – music for the agesSaturday, 14 April 2018
Frederic Rzewski marked his 80th birthday with a visit to the Wigmore Hall, for the premiere of his aptly titled Ages. Read more... |
Dickson, SCO, Swensen, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - world premiere of a bold new workFriday, 13 April 2018
It’s as intricate as it is concise. The depth to the architecture of James MacMillan’s Saxophone Concerto – which was given its world premiere this week by saxophonist Amy Dickson and the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – is quite astounding, and all the more so for being packed into three five-minute movements. Read more... |
Chineke!, Parnther, QEH review - a joyful re-building of the houseTuesday, 10 April 2018
Even after the venue’s 30-month refurbishment, you still would not choose the sprawling foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall as the prime site for a pre-concert speech. Read more... |
Gulyak, Orchestra of Opera North, Stasevska, Leeds Town Hall – uncommonly excitingMonday, 09 April 2018
Bach’s Art of Fugue, or maybe Mahler’s Ninth? Nah - in my book, Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances is the greatest last work ever composed. This extraordinary piece gets everything right: a kaleidoscopic summing up of a long career which never lapses into dewy-eyed nostalgia. Read more... |
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