Classical Reviews
Clements Prize, Conway Hall review - newly-written string trios in competitionMonday, 18 October 2021
The Conway Hall in London has hosted chamber music concerts since it was built in 1929, and for 40 years this included a composition prize, in abeyance since the late 1970s. This has now been revived by the hall’s enterprising director of music, pianist Simon Callaghan, to help young composers post-pandemic. Sunday night saw the final concert in which the shortlisted pieces were played and the winner announced. Read more... |
Tamestit, LSO, Ticciati, LSO St Luke's review - viola as chameleon, palpitating BrahmsFriday, 15 October 2021
Returning to LSO St Luke’s, formerly a beacon in the darkness of semi-lockdown for the lucky few allowed to feast upon the London Symphony Orchestra from the gallery, felt the same, yet different, like so much since most of the rules were relaxed. Read more... |
Two-Piano Gala, Kings Place review - five pianists, two pianos, too many piecesMonday, 11 October 2021
I’ve always loved the sound of two-piano music: the amazing range of available textures, the interplay of parts and the sense of collaboration between soloists. Read more... |
Gabriela Montero, Kings Place review - improvising to a Chaplin classic is the icing on a zesty cakeSaturday, 09 October 2021
As the Statue of Liberty appears in Charlie Chaplin’s The Immigrant, our improvising pianist proclaims “The Star-Spangled Banner”, only for it to slide dangerously. Read more... |
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester review - together againSaturday, 09 October 2021
The joint enterprise of soloist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet and conductor Gábor Takács-Nagy, with Manchester Camerata, in recording publicly all Mozart’s piano concertos alongside his opera overtures – with the project theme “Mozart, made in Manchester” – was rudely interrupted after 2019 by you-know-what. Read more... |
theartsdesk at the Two Moors Festival - birdsong, gongs and nocturnes in Dartmoor churchesThursday, 07 October 2021
First came the difficult decision: whether to experience performances by great musicians whose work I already knew in the second, Exmoor-based weekend of the Two Moors Festival, or to go for enticing programmes by others whom I’d never experienced live around Dartmoor. Read more... |
Geniušas, SCO, Emelyanychev, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - glorious return to a much-missed venueSaturday, 02 October 2021
This concert almost had me in tears before a single note was played because it marked (joy!) the first classical concert to take place in the Usher Hall since it was shut in March 2020. She has been closed for eighteen long months, but she hasn’t aged a day. Read more... |
Philharmonia, Rouvali, RFH review - the really big orchestra is back for cosmic StraussFriday, 01 October 2021
Two suns, two moons, two Philharmonia leaders sharing a front desk, two aspirational giants among Richard Strauss's symphonic poems bringing the number of players, in the second half, to 134. Read more... |
The Creation, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - back to choral paradiseThursday, 30 September 2021
Whatever the upsets and uncertainties of this musical season, the return of choral works at full scale and full power has been an unalloyed joy. And sheer, exhilarated, heaven-storming joy branded the Academy of Ancient Music’s reading of Haydn’s The Creation in the Barbican Hall on Tuesday night. Read more... |
Gerhaher, Faust, Wigmore Hall review - husky shadings and dark huesWednesday, 29 September 2021
Christian Gerhaher and a string ensemble led by Isabelle Faust presented here a programme of works with a nocturnal theme. Gerhaher’s voice is an instrument of husky shadings and dark hues, so the night theme seemed wholly appropriate. Read more... |
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