Classical Reviews
The Sixteen, Kings PlaceFriday, 04 November 2016
And so it comes to an end. Six months, 33 concerts, and many miles of travelling later, The Sixteen’s annual Choral Pilgrimage is now finished for another year. With so many concerts it’s inevitable that the singers’ relationship to the repertoire evolves and develops; the performances we heard last night will not have been those the audience at St John’s College, Cambridge experienced back in April. So what is the effect of living so intimately with this small handful of works? Read more... |
The Schumann Project, Oxford Lieder FestivalMonday, 31 October 2016
It felt oddly disrespectful showing up in time for Schumann's wake on the fifteenth and final day of this year's Oxford Lieder Festival. Read more... |
Gerstein, BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Bychkov, BarbicanSaturday, 29 October 2016
What a relief to find Semyon Bychkov back on romantic terra firma after his slow-motion Mozart at the Royal Opera (performances speeded up somewhat, I'm told, after a sticky first night). On his own, dark-earth terms, there's no-one to touch him for nuanced phrasing, strength of purpose and the devoted responsiveness he wins from the BBC Symphony Orchestra - foot-stamping its approval at the end, a rarity - in Tchaikovsky and Rachmaninov. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Josquin, Mozart, Set in StoneSaturday, 29 October 2016
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Wallfisch, LPO, Vänskä, RFHThursday, 27 October 2016
Osmo Vänskä isn't by any means the only Finn who conducts magnificent Sibelius. Sakari Oramo is the BBC Symphony Orchestra's property, but the London Philharmonic could have gone for a change and invited Vänskä's equally impressive and even more experienced successor at the Lahti Symphony Orchestra, Okko Kamu. Still, they played safe by repeating their success with this combination in 2010, adding British string concertos, and why not? Read more... |
Jamie Barton, Wigmore HallWednesday, 26 October 2016
American mezzo-soprano Jamie Barton has a wonderful, characterful voice, with apparently effortless and even tone production and control. She seems to be able to spin out a quiet phrase – and just hold it for ever. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Leo, Martinů, SchubertSaturday, 22 October 2016
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Zehetmair, LPO, Jurowski, RFHTuesday, 18 October 2016
This is how new and modern music should be done. In the London Philharmonic, we had an orchestra well-prepared to meet technical challenges and resolved to making sense from them. Vladimir Jurowski is a conductor who places faith in composers and audiences, who can welcome listeners and guide them through the evening as a congenial master of ceremonies rather than dessicated college lecturer. Read more... |
MacMillan's Stabat Mater, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia, Barbican HallMonday, 17 October 2016
No living composer writes more compellingly for choir or for strings than James MacMillan (a surprisingly accepted "Sir" is now an optional addition to the name). This beautifully planned programme's first half gave us the former, a cappella choral music at its most masterly in the setting of the Miserere premiered by The Sixteen in 2009, before Vaughan Williams's Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis lay down the gauntlet for the latter. Read more... |
Smith, Wyn-Rogers, Philharmonia, Pons, RFHMonday, 17 October 2016
The Philharmonia’s Sunday concert wasn’t quite the event they’d planned. Christoph von Dohnányi scored a hit last season with Schubert's Ninth Symphony, so his reading of the Eighth seemed an ideal way to begin. But Dohnányi withdrew early on, leaving the work in the less inspiring hands of Josep Pons. Read more... |
Josquin: Masses The Tallis Scholars/Peter Philips (Gimmell)
Leonardo Leo: Sacred Works Ensemble &cetera/Ulrike Hofbauer (soprano and direction) (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)Pages
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