classical music reviews, news & interviews
Boyd Tonkin |
If this time of year should prompt everyone to count their blessings, then one precious musical gift shines brightly over Smith Square Hall this week.
Mark Kidel |
Vox Luminis, the vocal and instrumental group based in Namur and led by Lionel Meunier, continued their residency at the Wigmore Hall, hot on the heels of a memorable rendition of Bach’s B Mass at the Spanish Church a few blocks away, with an equally breathtaking evening of works by Bach and his predecessor as Thomaskantor in Leipzig, Johann Kuhnau.
Boyd Tonkin
When, in late 2021, I heard the UK premiere of Sir James MacMillan’s Christmas Oratorio, it truly felt like a heaven-sent gift of musical and vocal…
graham.rickson
Avril Coleridge-Taylor: Piano Concerto & Orchestral Works BBC Philharmonic Orchestra/John Andrews, Samantha Ege (piano) (Resonus…
Sebastian Scotney
There were moments during the starry, two-evening Beare’s Chamber Music Festival when the quality of the playing reached such heights, it was…
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Rachel Halliburton
Christopher Rousset brought bold stripes of colour to his interpretation
Bernard Hughes
Performance combines the best of two different approaches
Boyd Tonkin
Inward struggle meets global strife in music of the troubled soul
Robert Beale
Drama and vocal strength combine with a touch of operatic style
David Nice
Clear-sighted Bruckner follows transcendent Mozart and Schumann
Bernard Hughes
Iconoclastic re-working of the ineffable String Quintet divides opinion
graham.rickson
Pianistic journeys to Java and the solar system, plus an impressive debut disc and contemporary song
Rachel Halliburton
An enthrallingly authoritative account of the 'Quartet for the End of Time'
Boyd Tonkin
A new eco-concerto joins some well-loved musical landscapes
Robert Beale
Four voices and four strings capture hibernian experience from Lassus to the recent past
Clare Stevens
A splendid if in some ways provisional inauguration
David Nice
True contralto drama alongside coruscating orchestra
David Nice
One great British soprano triumphs as late replacement for another
graham.rickson
Rarely-heard repertoire for two pianos, plus baroque transcriptions and guitar duets
Boyd Tonkin
Drama and drive in Mozart's great unfinished mass
Bernard Hughes
Music by Evelin Seppar highlights interesting intersection with Arvo Pärt’s holy minimalism
David Nice
Superbly sequenced memorials balancing anger and reflection
Robert Beale
A look back to the Covid experience in Dani Howard’s approachable and attractive Trombone Concerto
Robert Beale
A trusted guide and an imaginative soloist charm the crowd
Robert Beale
From 1980 to 2025 with the West Coast’s pied piper and his eager following
David Nice
Perfect ensemble runs the gamut of a supreme masterpiece
Bernard Hughes
A robust and assertive Beethoven concerto suggests a player to follow
Bernard Hughes
Broad and idiosyncratic survey of classical music is insightful but slightly indigestible
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