Beethoven
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Riccardo ChaillySaturday, 27 November 2010
When Riccardo Chailly (b 1953) left the Royal Concertgebouw for the Leipzig Gewandhaus, Richard Morrison said it was as if Bill Gates had ditched Microsoft for Aeroflot. The Gewandhaus has since become one of the lustiest of orchestral beasts in the... Read more... |
100 Years of German Song, 1810-1910, Schade, Martineau, Wigmore HallWednesday, 20 October 2010
As we take in news of the cuts that the arts will have to absorb, and wait for the Cassandras to start hollering, it's important to remind ourselves of one arts venue that won't be wiping one bead of sweat off its brow as a result of today's... Read more... |
Nicholas Daniel, Britten Sinfonia, MacMillan, Queen Elizabeth HallTuesday, 19 October 2010
If you were one of the world's top soloists but with a limited concerto stock - as woodwind players' tend to be - wouldn't you find it more rewarding to work as a principal in the orchestral ranks? That's the ideal, surely, but few carry it out in... Read more... |
Mitsuko Uchida, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 06 October 2010
Mitsuko Uchida’s playing is a glorious collusion of intellect and fantasy. Her recitals are meticulously planned but seemingly unexpected with chosen pieces impacting upon each other in ways one might not have imagined. Three keyboard giants –... Read more... |
Grimaud, Philharmonia, Salonen, Royal Festival HallThursday, 30 September 2010
Esa-Pekka Salonen and his dauntless band of Philharmonia players have been wrestling with heroes. After a celebration of Wagner's Tristan, the legend-making shifted further north last night. Here was Sibelius first as the plain-singing, well-loved... Read more... |
The Seckerson Tapes: Opera North Double BillSaturday, 25 September 2010
"It is a curious tale. I have it written in faded ink, a woman's hand, governess to two children, long ago..." So begins Benjamin Britten's operatic re-imagining of Henry James's ghostly chiller The Turn of the Screw. Oscar Wilde called it "a most... Read more... |
Llŷr Williams, Wigmore HallThursday, 23 September 2010
Do paws get any mightier than Llŷr Williams's? When not crashing down onto the Wigmore Hall Steinway like a ton of singing bricks, they were digging deep, like strong, nifty moles, foraging for the contrapuntal melodies that lay beneath... Read more... |
Fidelio, Welsh National Opera, CardiffSaturday, 18 September 2010
In fact Giuseppe Frigeni’s production and sets have already been seen in Bordeaux, so perhaps it’s more that the novelty by now has worn off. Either way, it’s a miserable affair, devoid of movement or dramatic tension, obscure in its... Read more... |
RSNO, Denève; Ensemble Matheus, Spinosi, Royal Albert HallTuesday, 07 September 2010
Is that asking a lot? Probably not, considering what's already been achieved at this year's BBC Proms. Looking back on it, last night felt implausibly rich yet gloriously digestible, too, at least in retrospect. I couldn't have predicted that I... Read more... |
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra, Rattle, Royal Albert HallFriday, 03 September 2010
Call me a paradoxically wary old Mahler nut, but I reckon that given 24 months of anniversary overkill, it might keep things fresh to catch each of the symphonies live no more than once a year. So, having heard an Everest of a First Symphony from... Read more... |
Tognetti, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Cadogan HallWednesday, 01 September 2010
Australia has many fine exports – wine, women, gap year anecdotes – but increasingly it is her orchestras that are setting the standard. With a magnificent Proms performance from the Australian Youth Orchestra still fresh in the ears (as well as a... Read more... |
Shaham, Minnesota Orchestra, Vänskä, Royal Albert HallSunday, 29 August 2010
A great deal of scepticism greeted the release of a new Beethoven symphony cycle from Osmo Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra in the mid-2000s. Would this lot really be able say anything that hadn't already been said by the hundred or so other... Read more... |
