Classical Reviews
Bach Motets, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, St Giles CripplegateSunday, 10 April 2016
This second concert in the Barbican residency of Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan transported us across the water from the concert hall to St Giles Cripplegate, and from the greatest of masses to organ masterpieces and, among motets, a work of which Mozart allegedly said, "at last, something to learn from". All that cascading counterpoint in Singet dem Herrn in a bright church acoustic ideally suited to this music told us why. Read more... |
Osborne, RSNO, Denève, Usher Hall, EdinburghSunday, 10 April 2016
“Bon soir, good evening! Nice to see you! To see you...” Four years after bidding an emotional farewell to the Usher Hall, the Gallic charmer is back, maybe slightly stouter, with a tinge of grey in a new beard, the great mop of curly red hair as unruly as ever. And that accent! As the anecdotes flow, stout middle-aged Edinburgers swoon as they imagine themselves drinking pastis on the Boulevard St Germain in the spring sunshine. Read more... |
Hoopes, National Youth Orchestra, Järvi, RFHSaturday, 09 April 2016
On the panel to judge a competition between 14 Dutch school orchestras in Amsterdam's Concertgebouw last month, I couldn't resist using my speech to compare their state-school provenance with our own divisive musical education. I was thinking of two figures I'd been given – that when the National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain started, only five per cent of its young musicians were from private and public schools, whereas now it was 85 per cent. Read more... |
Bach B Minor Mass, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, BarbicanSaturday, 09 April 2016
Masaaki Suzuki’s reputation precedes him. His recordings of Bach’s choral works with Bach Collegium Japan, the group he founded in 1990, have been arguably the finest of recent decades. But visits to the West, and especially to London, are rare, so this evening’s concert offered a valuable opportunity to find out what the dynamics are within the ensemble, and how they achieve such impressive results on disc. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Elgar, Ives, Reich, WaltonSaturday, 09 April 2016
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Françoise-Green Piano Duo, St John's Smith SquareFriday, 08 April 2016
Who wouldn't wish to have been a fly on the wall during those pre-recording days when composers and their friends played piano-duet arrangements of the great orchestral works? Any notion that we don't need such reductions anymore was swept aside by Antoine Françoise and Robin Green in the fourth concert of an untrumpeted but brilliantly conceived piano-duo series matching transcriptions of 20th-century Viennese masterworks with Mozart and/or Schubert and five world premieres. Read more... |
Bach B Minor Mass, London Bach Singers, Feinstein Ensemble, Kings PlaceSunday, 03 April 2016
The B Minor Mass comes in many shapes and sizes. Martin Feinstein opts for a bright and bijou approach, with period instruments, one to a part, and a choir of ten. The small ensemble sometimes lacks finesse, but makes up for it in dynamism, passion, and sheer joy. There was nothing chamber-scaled about this reading: it was all big gestures and direct emotions. Read more... |
Schubert Lieder, Gerhaher, Huber, Wigmore HallFriday, 01 April 2016
In the Wigmore's Lieder prayer meetings, baritone Christian Gerhaher is the high priest. There are good reasons for this, but given that the innermost circle of Wigmore Friends pack out his concerts, you do feel that the slightest criticism might merit lynching by the ecstatic communicants. Read more... |
Capuçon, RPO, Dutoit, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 30 March 2016
Charles Dutoit gets the best from the Royal Philharmonic. He conducts with broad, sweeping gestures, and the orchestra responds with dramatic immediacy and vivid colours. This concert’s programme was well chosen to play to their shared strengths, and the results were impressive: colourful Respighi, muscular Dvořák and taut, compelling Stravinsky. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Elgar, Galilei, Scelsi, Vaughan WilliamsSaturday, 26 March 2016
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Elgar & Walton Cello Concertos Steven Isserlis (cello), Philharmonia Orchestra/Paavo Järvi (Hyperion)
Vincenzo Galilei: The Well-tempered Lute Žak Osmo (lute) (Hyperion)Pages
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