Classical music
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester, review - concertos as operaThursday, 26 September 2019
Manchester Camerata’s series of in-concert recordings featuring Mozart piano concertos with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is well under way now, and this programme, like others before it, included a couple of his opera overtures too. Why so? "Because all... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Eleanor Alberga, Parry, BlondelSaturday, 21 September 2019
Eleanor Alberga: String Quartets 1, 2 & 3 Ensemble Arcadiana (Navona Records)Eleanor Alberga’s String Quartet No 2 popped up on my iPod’s shuffle setting whilst driving few months ago, provoking me to pull over and spend the next 13... Read more... |
Ólafsson, Hallé, Mäkelä, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - exciting new facesFriday, 20 September 2019
The Hallé Orchestra has a good track record when it comes to bringing in young talents with exciting prospects, and its 2019-20 season begins with the newly appointed Finnish chief conductor designate of the Oslo Philharmonic, Klaus Mäkelä, on the... Read more... |
Kolesnikov, Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra, Latham-Koenig, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - cross-country friendships flourishThursday, 19 September 2019
Celebrating the friendship between the two great 20th-century composers, the Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra launched this year. Founded by British conductor Jan Latham-Koenig and British Ambassador to the Russian Federation Sir Laurie... Read more... |
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 1 - sparkle and charisma versus creative overkillMonday, 16 September 2019
While the Proms were ringing out the old season, the Wigmore Hall ushered in the big celebration of 2020: the 250th anniversary of Ludwig van Beethoven’s birth. The venue’s year-long festival (actually longer – the actual birthday is December ‘20)... Read more... |
Beethoven Festival Weekend, Wigmore Hall review 2 - total mastery in tone and depthMonday, 16 September 2019
Any festival would be proud and honoured to end with the great Elisabeth Leonskaja playing the last three Beethoven piano sonatas. Here the Everest was swiftly scaled as the tenth concert of a packed Wigmore Hall weekend. How I wish I could have... Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, Barbican Hall review – visions of the beyondMonday, 16 September 2019
Simon Rattle has a knack for unearthing large-scale orchestral works that pack a punch. Olivier Messiaen’s Éclairs sur l’Au-Delà … (Illuminations of the Beyond …) was completed in 1991, a year before the composer’s death, and is both a reflection on... Read more... |
Last Night of the Proms, Barton, BBCSO, Oramo review – woke not brokeSunday, 15 September 2019
The BBC put social and ethnic diversity at the heart of this Last Night programme. The concert opened with a new work, by Daniel Kidane, called Woke, and the first half was dominated by the music of black and female composers. In the second half,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Haydn, Korngold, Philippe ManourySaturday, 14 September 2019
Haydn, arr. Stegmann: Symphonies 44, 75 and 92 Ivan Ilić (Chandos)The easiest way for amateur music lovers to get to know orchestral pieces used to be through piano transcriptions and chamber arrangements. Liszt’s versions of Beethoven... Read more... |
Prom 72/3: Aurora Orchestra, Collon review – Berlioz not quite lost in showbizFriday, 13 September 2019
For a few seconds last night, the Royal Albert Hall turned into London’s biggest – and cheesiest – disco. At the end of the Ball movement in the Aurora Orchestra’s dramatised version of the Symphonie Fantastique, Berlioz’s tipsily lurching waltz... Read more... |
Prom 71: Dunedin Consort, Butt review – Bach to the drawing-board pleaseThursday, 12 September 2019
Blame it on the box set. The four Bach Orchestral Suites fit neatly together as a recording project. They used to fill out the four sides of a double LP back in the early stages of the baroque revival. Completists and collectors could rejoice then,... Read more... |
Prom 69: Stikhina, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov – dark textures and powerful passionsWednesday, 11 September 2019
Semyon Bychkov was a surprising choice to take over the Czech Philharmonic last year, a conductor with few obvious connections to Czech music. But on the strength of this visit to the Proms, they make a good team. Bychkov communicates fluently with... Read more... |
