Classical Reviews
Hardenberger, CBSO, Nelsons, Symphony Hall BirminghamFriday, 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. Read more... |
Gerhardt, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings PlaceMonday, 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. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Fauré, Poulenc, Franui, Sami JunnonenSaturday, 07 January 2017
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Best of 2016: ClassicalWednesday, 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. Read more... |
Classical LPs Weekly: Corker, Sveinsson, TchaikovskySaturday, 24 December 2016
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Kanneh-Mason, Fantasia Orchestra, Fetherstonhaugh, St Gabriel's PimlicoWednesday, 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. Read more... |
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Gatti, BarbicanTuesday, 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. Read more... |
Crowe, La Nuova Musica, Bates, St John's Smith SquareTuesday, 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. Read more... |
In Search Of Julius Eastman, London Contemporary Music FestivalMonday, 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. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Christmas 2016 (part 2)Saturday, 17 December 2016
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Aubade – Music by Fauré and Poulenc Västerås Sinfonietta/Howard Shelley (piano and conductor) (dB Productions)
Adrian Corker: The Have-Nots OST (SN Variations)
Bach: Christmas Oratorio Dunedin Consort/John Butt (Linn)Pages
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