Classical Reviews
Prom 23 review: OAE, Christie - scintillating drama in Handel's Israel in EgyptWednesday, 02 August 2017
How do you make a venerable warhorse frisk like a coltish show-pony? Hire William Christie as the trainer. Read more... |
Prom 22 review: Pygmalion, Pichon – theatrical take on Monteverdi's VespersTuesday, 01 August 2017
As the lights dim the choir turn their backs on the audience. A spotlight picks out a single singer. With one hand aloft he leads the male voices through the “Pater Noster” and “Ave Maria” in a stern and stately plainchant. Then suddenly the full battalion of cornetts and sackbuts, theorbos and recorders burst into the joyful opening of Monteverdi’s Vespers, and we are up and running. Read more... |
Prom 20 review: Hough, BBCPO, Wigglesworth - towards the light fantasticMonday, 31 July 2017
Romantic concerto, contemporary work, classical symphony: it's a common format at the Proms, but not usually in that order. Both David Sawer's 1997 firework The Greatest Happiness Principle and Haydn's ever-radical Symphony No. Read more... |
Prom 16 review: Osborne, BBCSSO, Volkov - scintillating piano concerto premiereThursday, 27 July 2017
Expectations ran high for this first performance of Julian Anderson’s piano concerto, and they weren’t disappointed. Taking its title from a book of the same name by Andre Malraux, The Imaginary Museum goes on a journey around the world over the course of its six movements. Read more... |
Prom 14 review: BBCSSO, Wilson - illusion after illusion from musical conjurerWednesday, 26 July 2017
A packed Royal Albert Hall on a Tuesday night for a programme of 20th-century English music. Have the nation’s concert-goers come over all prematurely patriotic? Is Holst’s The Planets really that much of a draw? Or could the crowds have more to do with John Wilson – the straight-backed, schoolmasterly figure at the centre of the musical maelstrom? Read more... |
Prom 13 review: Rana, BBCSO, Davis – Malcolm Sargent tribute lacks punchTuesday, 25 July 2017
Ten days ago I reviewed the First Night of the 2017 Proms. Last night I was back at the Royal Albert Hall to hear the First Night of the 1966 Proms. This time-capsule experience was courtesy of a re-enactment of Sir Malcolm Sargent’s 500th Prom, in what turned out to be his final season. Read more... |
Prom 10 review: Aurora Orchestra, Collon – a revolution taken to heartMonday, 24 July 2017
When a trail-blazing orchestra takes on a world-transforming work, it would be pointless to leave the staid old rules of concert etiquette intact. Not only did the Aurora Orchestra under Nicholas Collon stretch their repertoire of symphonies performed from memory to cover the epic expansiveness and ear-bending innovations of Beethoven’s Third, the Eroica. Read more... |
Prom 7 review: Weilerstein, BBCSO, Weilerstein - new cello concerto enthralsThursday, 20 July 2017
It’s at times like this that I give thanks for the Proms. Who else would (or could) have put together a programme pairing Berlioz’s Symphonie Fantastique with an 18th-century sonic fantasy, or topped it off with a substantial UK premiere? A bit bonkers on the page, it remained so in performance. Read more... |
Prom 6: Benedetti, BBC NOW, Søndergård - dazzling violin magicWednesday, 19 July 2017
Nicola Benedetti was the star of this show, no doubt about that. She is a Proms regular and favourite, attracting a large and enthusiastic audience, the Royal Albert Hall filled almost to capacity. Read more... |
Prom 3: Faust, COE, Haitink - Europeans tread air under 88-year-old masterMonday, 17 July 2017
The message must be getting through. On the First Night of the Proms, Igor Levit played as encore Liszt's transcription of the great Beethoven melody appropriated as the European Anthem; in Prom 2, Daniel Barenboim unleashed his Staatskapelle Berlin on Elgar's Pomp and Circumstance following an inspirational speech about European culture, education and humanism. Yesterday afternoon's manifesto was a given,... Read more... |
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