Brahms
theartsdesk in Verbier: Festival with FireworksSunday, 17 August 2014
Mahler’s Sixth Symphony is dominated by the doleful clang of cowbells. They are an other-worldly intrusion into an otherwise familiar musical scene – unless you happen to be in Verbier, that is, in which case they are just another everyday part of... Read more... |
Simon Trpčeski, Wigmore HallSunday, 20 July 2014
No man is a prophet in his own land – except possibly the Macedonian pianist Simon Trpčeski. In the UK he shot to fame upon winning the London International Piano Competition in 2001 and at home he has become a national hero, his efforts rebooting... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Elgar, Tobias HumeSaturday, 21 June 2014
Brahms: The Violin Sonatas Corey Cerovsek (violin), Paavali Jumppanen (piano) (Milanollo)Listening to Brahms's chamber music in hefty doses is good for the soul. The symphonies and concertos are weighty, rich creations – magnificent in their... Read more... |
Khatia Buniatishvili, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 05 June 2014
A voluptuous dream in sequined silver, the nearly-27-year-old Georgian pianist Khatia Buniatishvili sat down at the keyboard and instantly transcendentalised her mermaid look as Ravel’s Ondine. Even Brahms took to the life aquatic of her recital’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: John Adams, Brahms, Mendelssohn, Malcolm WilliamsonFriday, 30 May 2014
Brahms: String Quintets and Sextets Alexander String Quartet, with Toby Appel (viola) and David Requiro (cello) (Foghorn Classics)Brahms's music is usually at its best, its most bucolic, when it's moseying along in a major key at a stately... Read more... |
Uchida, LPO, Jurowski, RFHThursday, 17 April 2014
Vladimir Jurowski is a master of the through-composed programme. Yet at first this looked like a more standard format: explosive contemporary work (if 1966 can still be called “contemporary”) followed by popular concerto and symphony. On reflection... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Kletzki, Schumann, Szymanowski, Ji LiuSaturday, 05 April 2014
Brahms and Schumann: Piano Quintets Alexander String Quartet, Joyce Yang (piano) (Foghorn Classics)Schumann was the first major composer to pair solo piano with string quartet. His 1842 quintet remains one of the best examples of the genre,... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Prokofiev, Schubert, ZemlinskySaturday, 22 March 2014
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos 1-5 Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, BBC Philharmonic/Gianandrea Noseda (Chandos)Two of Prokofiev's five piano concertos are so well-embedded in the repertoire that they tend to dwarf the other three. So it's great to have the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Janáček, John HarleSaturday, 16 November 2013
Brahms: The Symphonies, Orchestral works Gewandhausorchester /Riccardo Chailly (Decca)Riccardo Chailly's sensational modern-instrument Beethoven cycle hasn't been bettered, and this Brahms symphony set repeats the trick. Pretty much everything... Read more... |
Brahms Cycle 1: Kavakos, Dindo, Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly, BarbicanWednesday, 23 October 2013
For the Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra’s second residency at the Barbican Centre Riccardo Chailly pulled focus on an entirely new sounding Brahms. Gone were all those bad performance practices, bad habits, from the early 20th century, gone was the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Shostakovich, TchaikovskySaturday, 19 October 2013
Brahms Beloved: Symphonies 2 & 4, Clara Schumann Lieder Orchestra Sinfonica di Milano Giuseppe Verdi/John Axelrod, with Indra Thomas, Nicole Cabelle (sopranos) (Telarc)There’s a glut of Brahms symphonies on disc this autumn, with live... Read more... |
Royal Northern Sinfonia, Zehetmair, The Sage GatesheadMonday, 30 September 2013
It’s the Royal Northern Sinfonia now, the Queen having bestowed the prefix earlier this year. Programming two Requiem settings in the opening concert of their 2013-14 season seemed on paper a little strange, but the main work was Brahms’s A German... Read more... |
