Classical Reviews
Debussy Préludes, Alexander Melnikov, Wigmore HallThursday, 06 April 2017
Who needs hallucinogenic drugs when we have Debussy's two books of Préludes? In the hands, that is, of a pianist magician who holds the key to this wild parade, demi-real wonderland, call it what you will. I've only heard two wizards equal to the whole sequence: on disc, Krystian Zimerman, graced by a wide recorded range the old masters could never command, and now, in the concert hall, Alexander Melnikov... Read more...
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Ma, New York Philharmonic, Gilbert, BarbicanMonday, 03 April 2017
John Adams, greatest communicator among living front-rank composers, zoomed into the follow-spot for the second and third concerts of the New York Philharmonic's Barbican mini-residency. Read more... |
Landshamer, New York Philharmonic, Gilbert, BarbicanSaturday, 01 April 2017
Alan Gilbert chose a surprisingly low-key programme to open the New York Philharmonic’s three-day Barbican residency, Bartók’s genre-defying Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and... Read more... |
Trpčeski, LSO, Roth, BarbicanFriday, 31 March 2017
In musical performance, if you get the start right and the end right, you can get away with a lot in between. In last night’s LSO concert under François-Xavier Roth there was a mixed bag of more and less successful beginnings and endings, but lots of fine playing sandwiched in the middle. Read more... |
Alceste, Early Opera Company, Curnyn, Wigmore HallThursday, 30 March 2017
A wife dies to save her husband; a hero goes to hell and back to retrieve her from the underworld. Read more... |
Jonathan Biss, Milton CourtTuesday, 28 March 2017
"Late Style", the theme and title of pianist Jonathan Biss's three-concert miniseries, need not be synonymous with terminal thoughts of death. Read more... |
Buchbinder, Philharmonia, Hrůša, RFHFriday, 24 March 2017
It's a rare concert when nothing need be questioned about the orchestral playing. The usual nagging doubts – about whether any of the London orchestras has a recognisable sound-identity, or whether Rattle's swipe agains the two main London concert halls as merely "adequate" means players can't make a proper mark here – simply vanished. Read more... |
Bryars and Reich, London Philharmonic Orchestra, RFHFriday, 17 March 2017
In 1970, documentary maker Alan Power interviewed homeless people in the Elephant and Castle area of London. Rejected footage found its way to composer Gavin Bryars, including a short clip of an old man singing a snatch of a religious song. This became the basis of the minimalist classic Jesus’ Blood Never Failed Me Yet, performed by members of the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall on Wednesday. Read more... |
Andreas Scholl, Accademia Bizantina, BarbicanThursday, 16 March 2017
Marian devotions have given us some of sacred music’s most striking works, from graceful Ave Marias to anguished settings of the Stabat Mater. Andreas Scholl and musicologist Bernardo Ticci have recently gone in search of some less familiar ones – companion pieces for Vivaldi’s theatrical Stabat Mater, which has long been part of Scholl’s concert repertoire. Read more... |
Maurizio Pollini, RFHWednesday, 15 March 2017
Age is finally catching up with Maurizio Pollini. This recital was one of a series to mark the pianist’s 75th birthday, presenting Beethoven piano sonatas, music at the core of his repertoire. His legendary status was justified by these readings, his usual combination of rich, robust voicing and elegant, craggy lyricism. Read more... |
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