sat 08/02/2025

Classical Music reviews, news & interviews

Manchester Collective, RNCM review - something special in new music

Robert Beale

When a piece of music is heard for the first time ever, there’s always the delicious hope that, just by being there, an audience might witness something special, to be remembered fondly. It doesn’t happen always, but I think it did for Héloïse Werner’s Hidden Mechanisms, which received its first performance in Manchester last night.

Classical CDs: Elephants, bells and warm blankets

Graham Rickson

 Michael Tilson Thomas: The Complete Columbia, Sony and RCA Recordings (Sony)

Widmann, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - razor-...

David Nice

Perhaps all great music counterpoints and comments on the times, but Antonio Pappano and the London Symphony Orchestra have been searingly congruent...

Nakariakov, SCO, Emelyanychev, Queen's Hall...

Miranda Heggie

What a delight to see an almost full Queen’s Hall for a programme solely of contemporary music. The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s New Dimensions...

Biss, BBCSO, Hrůša, Barbican review -...

David Nice

At the end of an exhausting week in which Holocaust Memorial Day struck a more urgent note than ever as fascism started tearing through the USA,...

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BBC Singers, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place review - on the way to heaven via King's Cross

Boyd Tonkin

Intimate settings for a musical journey towards bliss

Classical CDs: Mandolins, trumpets and hot soup

Graham Rickson

French chamber music, Viennese waltzes and a disc of viola duets

RAM Song Circle, Wigmore Hall review - excellent young musicians lift the spirits

Bernard Hughes

Royal Academy singers revel in merry monks, mourning mothers and morose musings

Gigashvili, Hallé, Cox, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - beauty and style from a winning pianist

Robert Beale

Music and ‘noise’ come together as new music meets Mozart and Tchaikovsky

Giltburg, Pavel Haas Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - into the labyrinth of a Martinů masterpiece

David Nice

Fierce Czech first half followed by more storm but also balm in Brahms

Tiffin Youth Choir, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Jurowski, RFH review - perfect detachment suits public statements

David Nice

Poised Haydn and John Adams in a surprising sequence

Celtic Connections: Orchestral Qawwali Project, GRIT Orchestra review - two concerts showcasing the cross-genre power of an orchestra

Miranda Heggie

Orchestral music imagined in many ways in Glasgow's global music festival

Sun Rings, Sacconi Quartet, Festival Voices, Kings Place review - lift-off for an exhilarating voyage into the unknown

Rachel Halliburton

A suitably radiant interpretation of a Terry Riley epic

Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra, Dudamel, Barbican review - an epic journey from gossamer-like intimacy to apocalyptic rage

Rachel Halliburton

An orchestra on top form in Mahler's Third Symphony despite swirling controversies

German National Orchestra, Marshall, Cadogan Hall review - sheer youthful exuberance

Sebastian Scotney

Teenagers on tour bring effusive music-making

Leif Ove Andsnes, Wigmore Hall review - colour and courage, from Hardanger to Majorca

Boyd Tonkin

Bold and bracing pianism in favourite Chopin and a buried Norwegian treasure

Chamayou, BBC Philharmonic, Wigglesworth, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Boulez with bonbons

Robert Beale

Assurance and sympathy from Mark Wigglesworth for differing French idioms

Classical CDs: Antiphons, ale dances and elves

Graham Rickson

Big box sets, neglected symphonies and Norwegian songs

Liepe, National Youth Orchestra of Ireland, Cottis, NCH, Dublin review - a spirited shot at Shostakovich

David Nice

All energy devoted to a symphonic epic, played with total commitment

Davis, National Symphony Orchestra, Maloney, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - operetta in excelsis

David Nice

World-class soprano provides the wow factor in fascinating mostly-Viennese programme

Best of 2024: Classical music concerts

David Nice

Young and old in excelsis, and competition finales turned into winning programmes

Spence, Perez, Richardson, Wigmore Hall review - a Shakespearean journey in song

Boyd Tonkin

A festive cabaret - and a tenor masterclass

Best of 2024: Classical CDs

Graham Rickson

Our pick of the year's best classical releases

First Person: cellist Matthew Barley on composing and recording his 'Light Stories'

Matthew Barley

Conceived a year ago, a short but intense musical journey

The English Concert, Bicket, Wigmore Hall review - a Baroque banquet for Christmas

Boyd Tonkin

Charpentier's charm, as well as Bach's bounty, adorn the festive table

Classical CDs: Woden, waltzes and watchmaking

Graham Rickson

Big box sets, a great British symphony and a pair of solo cello discs

Messiah, Wild Arts, Chichester Cathedral review - a dynamic battle between revelatory light and Stygian gloom

Rachel Halliburton

This supple inventive interpretation of the 'Messiah' thrillingly delivers the story

Messiah, Academy of Ancient Music, Cummings, Barbican review - once more, with real feeling

Boyd Tonkin

The seasonal standby returns with heart, zest and grace

Christmas with Connaught Brass, Milton Court review - delightful seasonal fare from Bach to Boulanger

Bernard Hughes

Young quintet dazzle with their technical accomplishment and easy charm

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

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