Classical music
Kanneh-Mason, LMP, Martín, Fairfield Halls review – modest mastery on showTuesday, 14 January 2020
The soap-opera saga of the House of Windsor may not have been what the executive director of the London Mozart Players had in mind when she announced from the stage that Sheku Kanneh-Mason “is completely relevant for us”. Four years on from winning... Read more... |
Bridging the cultural divide: Armenian conductor Sergey Smbatyan on marrying east and westTuesday, 14 January 2020
We’re touring across Europe in January 2020, visiting five countries to perform eight concerts with the world-class violinist Maxim Vengerov as our leading soloist. The tour has been organized by the European Foundation for Support of Culture.As... Read more... |
Bowers-Broadbent, Theatre of Voices, Kings Place - grit needed in the oysterMonday, 13 January 2020
Not everyone who flocked to Day Two's evening concert in Kings Place's year-long Nature Unwrapped: Sounds of Life celebrations will have realised that they were catching parts two and three of a trilogy. The masterpiece had come earlier, in a 5pm... Read more... |
Classical CDs and Vinyl Weekly: Beethoven, HolstSaturday, 11 January 2020
Beethoven: Symphonies 1-9 Danish Chamber Orchestra/Ádám Fischer (Naxos)“I need to play the notes in such a way that we can recreate the feelings of the listeners which Beethoven would have wanted to invoke in his audience, rather than playing it... Read more... |
Ibragimova, LSO, Stutzmann, Barbican review – grace and gravityFriday, 10 January 2020
Alina Ibragimova’s solo journey (in 2015) through the peaks and abysses of Bach’s Sonatas and Partitas gave me vivid Proms memories to treasure for a lifetime. The Russian-born violinist’s Bach abounds in both majesty and tenderness, as well as a... Read more... |
Clarke, Ränzlöv, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall - young Mozart among the giantsFriday, 10 January 2020
Assuming the world holds together that long, there will be something we can rely on annually all the way to 2041, the 250th anniversary of Mozart's death: among the celebrations each year, a Wigmore Hall concert like this one, placing Amadeus among... Read more... |
Suzman, London Schools Symphony Orchestra, Edwards, Barbican review - a cabaret from hellThursday, 09 January 2020
The devil wore all manner of outlandish attire in last night's chameleonic programme devised by Peter Ash, the London Schools Symphony Orchestra's challenging artistic director. There was searing verse from Marlowe, Milton and Goethe; music from... Read more... |
Planting seeds for change: Helen Wallace on a year of seminal events at Kings PlaceWednesday, 08 January 2020
When I mention Nature Unwrapped, a year-long series at Kings Place subtitled "Sounds of Life", the responses are often tinged with cynicism: "Oh, very 2020", "So, what’s the carbon footprint with all those musicians flying in?" There’s an assumption... Read more... |
National Youth Orchestra of Great Britain, Martín, Barbican review - songs of protest and resilienceMonday, 06 January 2020
In youth we trust. That can be the only motto worth anything for 2020, as the world goes into further meltdown.So it was startling, stunning and cathartic, two days after the big downer of 3 January – the American horror clown seemingly in... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Schubert, Shostakovich, Berlinskaya-Ancelle Piano DuoSaturday, 04 January 2020
Schubert: Symphony No 9 Scottish Chamber Orchestra/Maxim Emelyanychev (Linn)There’s a telling photo of Maxim Emelyanychev on page 11 of Linn's booklet, the conductor beaming at the camera, the body language suggesting he's having a hard time... Read more... |
Best of 2019: Classical CDsSaturday, 28 December 2019
Classical CDs are still with us, even if the shops that sell them are rarer than hens’ teeth. Maybe this article should be renamed Downloads of the Year, or Cream of the Streams? That people are still listening to good music at all is a cause for... Read more... |
Best of 2019: Classical concertsFriday, 27 December 2019
It says so much for the cornucopia of London's classical music scene alone that all five of the most recent concerts I've attended have made the long list for best of 2019. I'll settle for two. The anger and violence of Vaughan Williams's Fourth... Read more... |
