Mahler
RSNO, Oundjian, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - ending on a high in MahlerMonday, 04 June 2018
Marking his departure as the Royal Scottish National Orchestra's Music Director after six years, Peter Oundjian definitely left on a high, conducting a gripping, visceral performance of Mahler’s last completed symphony. Its beginnings were glassy... Read more... |
Bavarian State Orchestra, Kirill Petrenko, Barbican review - Mahler's Seventh as dance suiteSaturday, 02 June 2018
Serendipity as well as luxury saw to it that the night after Simon Rattle gave his farewell Festival Hall performance as music director of the Berlin Philharmonic, his imminent successor appeared over at the Barbican with another excellent German... Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - symphonies of death and new lifeFriday, 27 April 2018
In the 27 years since he first conducted Mahler’s Ninth Symphony, Sir Simon Rattle has steadily integrated its moodswings and high contrasts into a reading of a piece which now feels more than ever like the work of a man engaged in a form of... Read more... |
LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - incandescent swansongs by Mahler and TippettMonday, 23 April 2018
Why would any conductor resist Mahler's last great symphonic adventure? By which I mean the vast finale of his Tenth Symphony, realised in full by Deryck Cooke, and not the first-movement Adagio, fully scored (unlike most of the rest) by the... Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – music for the agesSaturday, 14 April 2018
Frederic Rzewski marked his 80th birthday with a visit to the Wigmore Hall, for the premiere of his aptly titled Ages. The pianist Igor Levit is an ardent champion of Rzewski’s music and was the prime mover behind the commission (though it was... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Borup-Jørgensen, Mahler, Philippe Grisvard & Johannes PramsohlerSaturday, 24 March 2018
Axel Borup-Jørgensen: Marin Danish National Symphony Orchestra/Thomas Sôndergård (OUR Recordings)The physical effort involved in composing Marin was a huge strain on the Danish composer Axel Borup-Jørgensen (1924-2012). This ear-stretching musical... Read more... |
Goode, BBC Philharmonic, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review – making beautiful musicMonday, 05 March 2018
Just over a year since his Bridgewater Hall début, Ben Gernon appeared with the BBC Philharmonic there again – this time well into his role as their Principal Guest Conductor, yet his first concert with them there since officially taking up the... Read more... |
Song of the Earth/La Sylphide, English National Ballet review - sincerity and charm in a rewarding double billThursday, 11 January 2018
The unifying theme of this new Coliseum double bill is death, but don’t let that put you off. Kenneth MacMillan’s Song of the Earth and August Bournonville’s La Sylphide may seem like odd bedfellows, but both are a great deal more uplifting than... Read more... |
BBCSO, Storgårds, Barbican review – Jolas intrigues, Mahler 4 disappointsSaturday, 04 November 2017
Betsy Jolas is a pioneer, the programme for this BBC Symphony Orchestra concert told us, and she’s certainly unique. Now 91, she has been following her own course for many decades, an associate of the 1960s French avant-garde, but never a subscriber... Read more... |
Santtu-Matias Rouvali on conducting in Gothenburg - 'they just want to make music. No bullshit'Sunday, 01 October 2017
Sweden's ackowledged "National Orchestra", the Gothenburg Symphony, left its Chief Conductor post unfilled for four seasons, but now it's finally certain to have let the right one in. Having enjoyed a golden age in the (largely unsung) highest... Read more... |
BBCPO, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Mahler's Third lovingly realisedMonday, 25 September 2017
Juanjo Mena memorably began his tenure as chief conductor at the BBC Philharmonic with a Mahler symphony (the Second), and chose to enter his seventh and last season with them at the Bridgewater Hall with the Third. It was a testimonial to an era at... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Cage, Mahler, SatieSaturday, 16 September 2017
John Cage: Two4 Aisha Orazbayeva (violin), Naomi Sato (shō) (SN Variations)The shō is a Japanese wind instrument long associated with traditional court music. Looking like a bundle of sticks, its 17 pipes each plays a distinct pitch. Its sound... Read more... |
