Classical Reviews
Kolesnikov, BBCSO, Brabbins, Barbican review - rethought masterpiece, stolid rarityFriday, 16 November 2018
Forget the latest International Tchaikovsky Competition winner (I almost have; only a dim memory of Dmitry Masleev's playing the notes in the obligatory First Piano Concerto, and nothing else, remains from an Istanbul performance). Read more... |
Our Classical Century, BBC Four review - enthusiasm and delightFriday, 16 November 2018
Jerusalem! Read more... |
Thibaudet/Batiashvili/Capuçon Trio, Barbican review – a supergroup to savourTuesday, 13 November 2018
Even in a large hall, very good things can come in small packages. In advance, partisans of the Wigmore Hall or some other dedicated chamber space might have feared that the Barbican’s main auditorium would turn out to be too chilly a barn for the intimate music-making promised by this supergroup. All-star trios or quartets, made up of soloists more accustomed to the undivided limelight, can frequently add up to less than the sum of their parts. Read more... |
LSO, Roth, Barbican - not enough pathos, but a remarkable step-inMonday, 12 November 2018
Missa in Angustiis. Mass in troubled times. There was a logic in programming Haydn’s D minor Mass on the Armistice Centenary day. The final words of the mass, dona nobis pacem, would be the right ones to end this day of reflection. Read more... |
Borodin Quartet, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - mixed results in oddball CzechfestThursday, 08 November 2018
How many times have you heard live in concert a concerto for string quartet and instrumental ensemble? In my case, three, all of the occasions performances of John Adams's Beethoven-based giant scherzo Absolute Jest. Read more... |
Fialkowska, BBCSO, Nesterowicz, Barbican review – a cliche-free night in PolandSaturday, 03 November 2018
National feeling – in music, as anywhere else – depends on choice, not blood. This BBC Symphony Orchestra concert at the Barbican to mark the centenary of Poland’s rebirth as a nation never felt remotely like a feast of aural jingoism. Read more... |
Federico Colli, Wigmore Hall review – poised on the edge of the possibleFriday, 02 November 2018
The Italian pianist Federico Colli, 30, best known so far as winner of the 2012 Leeds International Piano Competition, last night arrived for his Wigmore Hall debut sporting an emerald-green cravat, but the sonic colours he magicked out of the piano quickly put its gleam in the shade. Read more... |
Dmitri Ensemble, Ross, St John's Smith Square review - impressive minimalism for stringsMonday, 29 October 2018
The latest instalment of the Americana ’18 series at St John’s Smith Square last Friday saw the Dmitri Ensemble and conductor Graham Ross present a survey of American minimalist music for string ensemble. In a brilliantly conceived programme, the ensemble found fresh energy and propulsion in these classic works, but also a subtlety and humanity in a style that can be mechanistic. Read more... |
Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review – pictorial, dramatic powerFriday, 26 October 2018
Sir Mark Elder’s first concert in the Hallé Thursday series for 2018-19 was on clearly mapped Hallé territory – Richard Strauss and Elgar. They have a reputation, and a tradition, of playing these composers’ music very well. Read more... |
Car, Australian Chamber Orchestra, Tognetti, Milton Court review - a rattlebag of happy collaborationsThursday, 25 October 2018
Presenting the last Mozart symphonies as a three-act opera for orchestra, as Richard Tognetti and his febrile fellow Australians did on Monday, was always going to be a supreme challenge. It worked, as Boyd Tonkin reported here. Read more... |
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