Classical music
Lowe, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall - an education, not quite a triumphWednesday, 18 January 2023
Ian Page’s “journey of a lifetime” with his Mozartists, taking the greatest genius year by year, lands us in 1773 with the adolescent Mozart's first durable crowdpleaser, the pretty-brilliant motet for soprano and orchestra Exsultate, jubilate (last... Read more... |
Faust, Tamestit, EBS, Gardiner, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - countless shades of brilliantSaturday, 14 January 2023
Haydn and Mozart symphonies from John Eliot Gardiner and his English Baroque Soloists are bound, at the very least, to be high, lucid and bright. Last night the X-factor was there too, and trebled in a surely unsurpassable account of Mozart’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Musical saws, keyed fiddles and kestrelsSaturday, 14 January 2023
Dvořák: Symphonies 1-9, Legends, Slavonic Dances Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/José Serebrier (Warner Classics)The advantage of having all the Dvořák symphonies in one handy box is that you can explore the works that rarely get an airing;... Read more... |
Benedetti, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - essays in transparencyFriday, 13 January 2023
Nicola Benedetti and Sir Mark Elder are both in the enviable position of being able to take audiences with them into music territory that might scare some away. So it was a gratifyingly near-capacity house that heard Szymanowski’s Second Violin... Read more... |
First Person: Royal Academy of Music Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood on why a conservatoire should make recordingsWednesday, 11 January 2023
Why is it important for a music conservatoire to make recordings? What is the educational context? These are questions we have continued to reflect upon at the Royal Academy of Music – celebrating its bicentenary this year – since we took our first... Read more... |
Mithras Trio, Wigmore Hall review - exhilarating, highly-toned performanceTuesday, 10 January 2023
The adrenalin was in full flow yesterday lunchtime at the Wigmore Hall as the dynamic young Mithras Trio delivered a vigorous, toned performance featuring Beethoven, Bridge and an electrifying new work by Joy Lisney. The trio, who have been together... Read more... |
National Youth Orchestra, Bloch, Barbican review - blazing and surging odysseysThursday, 05 January 2023
In precarious times, musical wonders never seem to cease – for now, at least. Who would have thought during lockdown that we’d be back so soon and so frequently to the kind of massive orchestra needed to play a cosmic blockbuster like Richard... Read more... |
Best of 2022: Classical CDsSaturday, 31 December 2022
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record (or a cracked CD), it’s reassuring to know that you can still buy new recordings in physical formats. Granted, CDs do take up shelf space, but in most cases they sound better than most downloads and... Read more... |
Best of 2022: Classical music concertsWednesday, 28 December 2022
While the call for livening up the concert format remains dubious – beyond unusual settings and a will to communicate, the rest is window-dressing – there’s always a special buzz about festival-like concatenations of events. For that reason, four... Read more... |
Pavel Kolesnikov, Wigmore Hall review - conjuring spirits from solstitial darknessFriday, 23 December 2022
Quite apart from the stunning range of colours and phrasing, Pavel Kolesnikov’s recitals always give you much more than the programme promises. A golden thread through shorter pieces has been one approach, but here he did something different –... Read more... |
Dunedin Consort, Butt, Wigmore Hall review - Christmas glory in Venice and DresdenWednesday, 21 December 2022
St Mark’s shadow fell gloriously over the Wigmore Hall last night with a programme of Christmas music performed in, or inspired by, the great basilica of Venice. The Dunedin Consort braided festive works from pioneers who wrote for its grandly... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Canons, castles and a converted chapelSaturday, 17 December 2022
In Márta’s Garden Katharina Weber (piano) (Intakt)The Márta of the title of this solo piano album by many-faceted Swiss pianist, composer and teacher Katharina Weber (b. 1958) is Márta Kurtág (1927 -2019). Weber first got to know the... Read more... |
