sat 12/07/2025

Classical Reviews

Prom 31, Mutter, West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Barenboim review - beauty against barbarism

Boyd Tonkin

Founded by Daniel Barenboim and Edward Said, the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra first performed at the Proms – to a rapturous welcome – in 2003. For two decades the visits, and the audience rapture, have continued, while the region of most WEDO players’ birth now looks, this hideous year above all, more steeped in blood and hate than ever. 

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Bamberg SO, Hrůša / Up Late at the Hub, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - death, life and points in between

Simon Thompson

When you’re running a three-concert residency, you can afford to take a few repertoire risks, to programme a few things that might be close to your heart but which won’t pack in the punters.

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Prom 30, National Youth Orchestra, NYO Inspire, Bloch, Jackson review - sheer youthful joy, passion and precision

David Nice

Let’s begin at the end. Can the Paris Olympics' closing ceremony offer anything as classy or joyous as 260 musicians aged 13 to 18 singing the French carol-plus-farandole finale of Bizet’s L'Arlésienne music?* This encore also made Proms history as a unique riposte to the Simón Bolivar Youth Orchestra’s instrument-twirling Bernstein “Mambo”. And what a sequel to a Mahler One brimming with energy, masterfully negotiated by conductor Alexandre Bloch.

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Prom 26, Feldmann, BBC Philharmonic, Bihlmaier review - two warhorses and a femmage

Bernard Hughes

This was my first Prom of the season – always an exciting moment, even in my fourth decade as an attendee.

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Schola Cantorum de Venezuela / Llewellyn, Lepper, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - scorching energy and deep tenderness

Simon Thompson

The Queen’s Hall isn’t going to know what has hit it after the opening weekend of this year’s Edinburgh International Festival. What’s usually the festival’s demure home of chamber music – string quartets, piano trios and so on – was still recovering from Jakub Józef Orliński’s theatrics from Saturday morning, when it encountered this scorching performance of choral music from the Schola Cantorum de Venezuela (★★★★).

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Bach/Mendelssohn St Matthew Passion / First Night at the Hub, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - a reimagining and a joyous celebration

Simon Thompson

When I first started attending the Edinburgh International Festival in the 1990s, the Opening Concert (capitals intentional) was a grand Usher Hall affair on a Sunday evening; a central work of the western classical tradition to set the festival running. Not any more. They’ve steadily moved the opening of the festival forwards over the years (the first of 2024’s preview events took place last Thursday) and this year the opening concerts take place over not one but two nights.

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Prom 23, Grosvenor, LPO, Gardner review - strange meetings

David Nice

Not everyone knew what to expect from this fascinating programme. Rachmaninov’s Symphonic Dances, last of his orchestral masterpieces, is nothing like the more familiar aspects of his piano concertos. Nor is Busoni’s nominal attempt at the form, which seems more of a Symphony-Concerto than anything else, and style-wise impossible to pin down. Both works had the fullest care and focus last night.

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theartsdesk at the Haapsalu Early Music Festival 2024 - other-worldly instruments, perfect programmes and haunting venues

David Nice

The buildings, 13th-16th century, are earlier than the music (mostly Baroque). And what buildings. Non-Estonians like myself had heard that Haapsalu was a fine seaside town; but tourist publicity neglected the glory of the castle and cathedral, a central festival venue. If Livonians, Germans, Swedes and Russians all passed through, enriching and destroying, this most perfect of small festivals now welcomes international musicians to perform alongside world-class Estonians.

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Prom 21, Osborne, Sinfonia of London, Wilson review - a spectacular drive across America

Boyd Tonkin

Does John Wilson ever stumble?

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La Pasión según San Marcos / Carmen, Opéra Comique, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - united in story and song

Miranda Heggie

Trouble. Overly honest. Too opinionated. Ultimately get killed for refusing to let go of their principles and kowtowing to the status quo. 

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