Classical Reviews

Hardenberger, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall Birmingham

Richard Bratby Friday, 13 January 2017

Birmingham audiences are a supportive bunch. There was never much likelihood that they’d greet Andris Nelsons’s first Birmingham appearance since he departed for Boston in 2015 with less than the same warmth that they keep for other former CBSO music directors.

Gerhardt, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place

David Nice Monday, 09 January 2017

What's not to like, or love, would have to be the sensible response to both the opening programme of Kings Place's year-long Cello Unwrapped festival at Kings Place and its life-enhancing execution.

Classical CDs Weekly: Fauré, Poulenc, Franui, Sami Junnonen

graham Rickson Saturday, 07 January 2017

Aubade – Music by Fauré and Poulenc Västerås Sinfonietta/Howard Shelley (piano and conductor) (dB Productions)

Best of 2016: Classical

David Nice Wednesday, 28 December 2016

Revelations in the classical year never stop coming. Even the week before Christmas yielded two performances as good as you're going to get: the sheer effervescence and light-flourishing of Lucy Crowe in ecstatic Bach and Mozart with La Nuova Musica, and Sheku Kanneh-Mason in Haydn's C major Cello Concerto. So any sifting of 2016's musical riches needs to put the truly one-off packages at the top of the list.

Classical LPs Weekly: Corker, Sveinsson, Tchaikovsky

graham Rickson Saturday, 24 December 2016

Adrian Corker: The Have-Nots OST (SN Variations)

Kanneh-Mason, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, St Gabriel's Pimlico

David Nice Wednesday, 21 December 2016

Sheku Kanneh-Mason isn't just BBC Young Musician 2016 - he's the year's top player in my books, a master at any level. Despite a contract with Decca, starting with the Shostakovich First Cello Concerto he played in the competition finale, he looks likely to remain loyal to family and friends, including the Fantasia Orchestra, founded this year, in which he's already played as part of the cello section.

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gatti, Barbican

Peter Quantrill Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Time was when the principal conductor of a top orchestra could afford to refine mastery of a small and familiar repertoire, covering a century and a half of music at most. The rest he (always he) would leave to loyal or youthful lieutenants. The days of such podium dinosaurs are numbered.

Crowe, La Nuova Musica, Bates, St John's Smith Square

David Nice Tuesday, 20 December 2016

Five seconds of cadenza in Mozart's Exsultate Jubilate would be enough to tell you that there's no more magical stylist among sopranos than Lucy Crowe. In an evening of Allelujas, Glorias and heartfelt Amens beautifully modulated by director of sprightly La Nuova Musica David Bates - henceforth David Peter Bates - hers was the central spot, and you wanted it to go on for ever.

Comment

In Search Of Julius Eastman, London Contemporary Music Festival

Peter Culshaw Monday, 19 December 2016

Certain places and times are a vortex of creativity for music, collective fever points of innovation. Paris in the 1920s was one, New York in the 1970s another. Within a few years within a mile or two in Manhattan several music forms were essentially invented that went global – including disco, hip hop, punk and New York’s variant of salsa. It was also when the Minimalism of the likes of Philip Glass and Steve Reich began to find a large audience.