tue 19/03/2024

Classical Music reviews, news & interviews

St Mary's Music School, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - a shining role for young choristers

Christopher Lambton

For the second year in a row the Royal Scottish National Orchestra chose to share its platform in Edinburgh’s Usher Hall with the young musicians of St Mary's Music School. As RSNO chief executive Alistair Mackie pointed out in a short opening speech, the links between the two organisations run deep, as many players in the RSNO started their musical careers at St Mary's.

Bevan, Williams, BBCSO, MacMillan, Barbican review - inspirational journey from darkness to light

Rachel Halliburton

It began with the tolling of a lone bell and ended in a transcendent blaze of golden light.

First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming...

Peter Whelan

There's something undeniable about the way music can weave itself into the fabric of our lives, shaping our passions and leaving an indelible mark on...

Hughes, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh...

Simon Thompson

Most concert promoters will tell you that contemporary music tends to be, to put it politely, a tricky sell, which is one of the reasons why it’s...

Classical CDs: Cigars, cognac and tarantulas

Graham Rickson

 Bloch: Schelomo, Bruch: Kol Nidrei, Dohnányi: Konzertstück Tim Posner (cello), Berner Symphonieorchester/Katharina Müllner (Claves)You know...

Winterreise, Clayton, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, QEH review - new maps for the great journey

Boyd Tonkin

A mighty tenor surmounts obstacles on stage and in score

Esther, London Handel Festival, St George’s Hanover Square review - a lopsided celebratory oratorio

David Nice

Anniversary acclaim rooted in the honorary Londoner's first concert drama

First Person: Laurence Cummings on his 25th and final year as Musical Director of the London Handel Festival

Laurence Cummings

A blockbuster month begins tomorrow, mixing starry casts with new talent

Theresienstadt-Terezin 1941-1945, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - memorial music of stunning impact

Ed Vulliamy

Masterpieces from composers murdered by the Nazis in a rich day of offerings

Osborne, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - an orchestra at the top of its game

Robert Beale

Another Bruckner symphony for the 200th anniversary year

Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium review - making a move

Miranda Heggie

Music and motion combine for an engaging performance

Morison, Big Noise Wester Hailes, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, Edinburgh - shimmering delicacy and surging swell

Simon Thompson

Fine Impressionism from resident orchestra, but young players bring the broadest smiles

Murray, Vlaams Radiokor, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - visual ‘interpretation’ blunts sonic brilliance in Szymanowski rarity

David Nice

Sterling work from conductor and orchestra couldn’t save an incoherent evening

The Art of Fugue, Schiff, Nosrati, Wigmore Hall review - rarity and quality in music and performance

Ed Vulliamy

Technical hitches over, the great pianist turns from speech to song

Gerstein, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - American glitter and sinew

David Nice

Giddying sonorites as ever in a new John Adams work, but Roy Harris takes the palm

The Creation, Alder, Clayton, Mofidian, LPO, Gardner, RFH review - dancing gay in green meadows

David Nice

Haydn's Genesis pleasure ground gets plenty of bounce and charm

Faust, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - violence and wit in Shostakovich, luminosity in Brahms

Ed Vulliamy

A symphonic epic needed now more than ever

St Matthew Passion, Irish Baroque Orchestra, Whelan, St Patrick’s Cathedral, Dublin review - fluency, fire and some jaw-dropping solos

David Nice

Near-perfection in the greatest of works

First Person: violinist Tom Greed on breaking down barriers in the presentation of chamber music

Tom Greed

Unscary Schoenberg is on the bill of enterprising young musicians' latest new-look event

Classical CDs: Toccatas, taxi horns and tortoises

Graham Rickson

A superb conductor/orchestra pairing celebrated, plus French chanson and an exciting contemporary anthology

Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Bruckner is back

Robert Beale

Dramatic Eighth Symphony is Hallé music director’s first reading

Colin Currie Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - toccatas for triangles and teacups

Bernard Hughes

Scintillating virtuosity from world-leading percussion quartet

'Migrations' String Quartet Weekend, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - memorials and masterpieces

David Nice

Five of the best respond magisterially to a programme focused on war and displacement

RSNO Chorus, Doughty, Greyfriars Kirk, Edinburgh review - breaking out in anniversary Bruckner

Simon Thompson

A motet and a mass sometimes needed more focus, but a rare suite proved a delight

Sánchez, National Symphony Orchestra, Martín, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - Spanish panache

David Nice

Flamenco song and dance matched to orchestral brilliance brings heat to a freezing city

Uproar, Rafferty, Royal Welsh College, Cardiff review - a rare spring in the new music step

Stephen Walsh

Tight planning and high professionalism make for a consistently enjoyable concert

Fung, BBC Philharmonic, Weilerstein, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - clever and comical

Robert Beale

First UK performance of new cello concerto by Katherine Balch given with uncanny skill

Malofeev, BBCSO, Lintu, Barbican review - finesse as well as fireworks

Bernard Hughes

Youthful pianist and senior composers offer excitement and bravura

Lugansky, Strasbourg Philharmonic Orchestra, Letonja, Cadogan Hall review - Russian soul, French flair

Boyd Tonkin

Masterful Rachmaninov flanked by Gallic treats

Footnote: a brief history of classical music in Britain

London has more world-famous symphony orchestras than any other city in the world, the Philharmonia, Royal Philharmonic, London Philharmonic and London Symphony Orchestra vying with the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Royal Opera House Orchestra, crack "period", chamber and contemporary orchestras. The bursting schedules of concerts at the Wigmore Hall, the Barbican Centre and South Bank Centre, and the strength of music in Birmingham, Manchester, Leeds and Cardiff, among other cities, show a depth and internationalism reflecting the development of the British classical tradition as European, but with specific slants of its own.

brittenWhile Renaissance monarchs Henry VIII and Elizabeth I took a lively interest in musical entertainment, this did not prevent outstanding English composers such as Thomas Tallis and William Byrd developing the use of massed choral voices to stirring effect. Arguably the vocal tradition became British music's glory, boosted by the arrival of Handel as a London resident in 1710. For the next 35 years he generated booms in opera, choral and instrumental playing, and London attracted a wealth of major European composers, Mozart, Chopin and Mahler among them.

The Victorian era saw a proliferation of classical music organisations, beginning with the Philharmonic Society, 1813, and the Royal Academy of Music, 1822, both keenly promoting Beethoven's music. The Royal Albert Hall and the Queen's Hall were key new concert halls, and Manchester, Liverpool and Edinburgh established major orchestras. Edward Elgar was chief of a raft of English late-Victorian composers; a boom-time which saw the Proms launched in 1895 by Sir Henry Wood, and a rapid increase in conservatoires and orchestras. The "pastoral" English classical style arose, typified by Vaughan Williams, and the new BBC took over the Proms in 1931, founding its own broadcasting orchestra and classical radio station (now Radio 3).

England at last produced a world giant in Benjamin Britten (pictured above), whose protean range spearheaded the postwar establishment of national arts institutions, resulting notably in English National Opera, the Royal Opera and the Aldeburgh Festival. The Arts Desk writers provide a uniquely rich coverage of classical concerts, with overnight reviews and indepth interviews with major performers and composers, from Britain and abroad. Writers include Igor Toronyi-Lalic, David Nice, Edward Seckerson, Alexandra Coghlan, Graham Rickson, Stephen Walsh and Ismene Brown

Close Footnote

newsletter

Get a weekly digest of our critical highlights in your inbox each Thursday!

Simply enter your email address in the box below

View previous newsletters

latest in today

St Mary's Music School, RSNO, Søndergård, Usher Hall, E...

For the second year in a row the Royal Scottish National...

Manhunt, Apple TV+ review - all the President's men

President Abraham Lincoln was assassinated on 14 April 1865, five days after General Robert E Lee’s surrender at Appomatox signalled the end of...

Blu-ray: Beautiful Thing

Beautiful Thing’s opening scene plays out like a sweary take on Bill Forsyth’s Gregory’s Girl, Meera Syal’s potty-mouthed PE...

Bevan, Williams, BBCSO, MacMillan, Barbican review - inspira...

It began with the tolling of a lone bell and ended in a transcendent blaze of golden light. The UK premiere of James MacMillan’s Fiat Lux...

Salome, Irish National Opera review - imaginatively charted...

“Based on the play by Oscar Wilde,” declared publicity on Dublin buses and buildings, reminding opera-cautious citizens that the poet whose text...

Album: Elbow - Audio Vertigo

On this, their 10th album, the melodious...

First Person: conductor Peter Whelan on coming full circle w...

There's something undeniable about the way music can weave itself into the fabric of our lives, shaping our passions and leaving an indelible...

Music Reissues Weekly: The Mystic Tide - Frustration

Crashing chords are followed by a spindly, untrammelled solo guitar. After this subsides, the singer lays out the issue: “I try, I cry, I just can...

Hughes, SCO, Kuusisto, Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh review - Clyn...

Most concert promoters will tell you that contemporary music tends to be, to put it politely, a tricky sell, which is one of the reasons why it’s...

The New Boy review - a mystical take on Australia's tre...

This is writer-director Warwick Thornton’s third...