Classical music
La Serenissima, Wigmore Hall review - a convivial guide to 18th century BolognaWednesday, 30 April 2025
When Giuseppe Torelli made the journey from his birthplace of Verona to Bologna in the late 17th century, the trumpet was still seen as something of a brash outsider, suitable for military displays but not for sophisticated music ensembles. Within... Read more... |
Sheku Kanneh-Mason, Isata Kanneh-Mason, Wigmore Hall review - family fun, fire and finesseMonday, 28 April 2025
I came to Isata and Sheku Kanneh-Mason’s Wigmore Hall recital on Saturday armed with a certain degree of scepticism. Not about the siblings’ stupendous talent and technique – their manifold achievements speak for themselves – but about the popular... Read more... |
Mahler 8, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - lights on highMonday, 28 April 2025
Transcendence is everywhere in Mahler’s most ambitious symphony, from the flaming opening hymn to the upper reaches in the epic setting of Goethe’s Faust finale. You’d think no visuals could match the auditory phantasmagoria, just as dance, music... Read more... |
Philharmonia, Alsop, RFH / Levit, Abramović, QEH review - misalliance and magical marathonSaturday, 26 April 2025
“Let the music guide your imagination” was never going to be the slogan of the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival. Its 13 events offer parallel visions, intended in the case of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (a shared project between the LPO and... Read more... |
Bach St John Passion, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - conscience against conformismMonday, 21 April 2025
In a programme note for the St John Passion at the Barbican, the Academy of Ancient Music’s chief executive called their Easter performances of Bach’s compressed gospel tragedy a “ritual”. You understand why that word claims its place. However,... Read more... |
MacMillan St John Passion, Boylan, National Symphony Orchestra & Chorus, Hill, NCH Dublin review - flares around a fine ChristSaturday, 19 April 2025
Never make your mind up too soon about any large-scale work by a genius. Back in 2010, I had my doubts about James MacMillan’s first Passion, hearing in the impact of Colin Davis’s Barbican performance a halfway house between the composer's... Read more... |
First Person: St John's College choral conductor Christopher Gray on recording 'Lament & Liberation'Saturday, 19 April 2025
When I arrived at St John’s College, Cambridge, in April 2023, it was a daunting prospect to be taking over the reins of a choir with such a distinguished recording heritage: there have been more than 100 albums since the 1950s on some of the UK’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Romance, reforestation and a RolleiflexSaturday, 19 April 2025
Thomas Adès: Orchestral Suites London Philharmonic Orchestra/Thomas Adès (LPO)Here are three orchestral suites taken from stage works by Thomas Adès, from different stages of his career, captured at live performances at London’s Royal Festival... Read more... |
Donohoe, RPO, Brabbins, Cadogan Hall review - rarely heard British piano concertoThursday, 17 April 2025
The name Arthur Bliss always summoned up for me the image of a fuddy-duddy old buffer writing boring music. But as I’ve discovered his work over the last few years – initially prompted by Paul Spicer’s excellent 2023 biography – I have realised this... Read more... |
London Choral Sinfonia, Waldron, Smith Square Hall review - contemporary choral classics alongside an ambitious premiereWednesday, 16 April 2025
The London Choral Sinfonia are a very impressive group, a professional choir who are churning out terrific recordings at a breakneck pace – I reviewed their latest release of Malcolm Arnold on theartsdesk only last week – as well as a busy schedule... Read more... |
Goldberg Variations, Ólafsson, Wigmore Hall review - Bach in the shadow of BeethovenMonday, 14 April 2025
Víkingur Ólafsson had something to prove at the Wigmore Hall. And prove it he did, even if, this time, his Goldberg Variations left a few features of Bach’s inexhaustible keyboard panorama at the edge of his pianistic picture. The much-loved... Read more... |
Mahler's Ninth, BBC Philharmonic, Gamzou, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - vision and intensityMonday, 14 April 2025
There was a change of conductor from the one advertised for this BBC Philharmonic performance at the Bridgewater Hall – but the one who we heard from was an interpreter of extraordinary vision and intensity. Yoel Gamzou is also a composer in... Read more... |
