Classical Reviews

The Sixteen, Kings Place

alexandra Coghlan Friday, 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?

The Schumann Project, Oxford Lieder Festival

David Nice Monday, 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.

Gerstein, BBC Symphony Chorus and Orchestra, Bychkov, Barbican

David Nice Saturday, 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.

Classical CDs Weekly: Josquin, Mozart, Set in Stone

graham Rickson Saturday, 29 October 2016

Josquin: Masses The Tallis Scholars/Peter Philips (Gimmell)

Wallfisch, LPO, Vänskä, RFH

David Nice Thursday, 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?

Jamie Barton, Wigmore Hall

Sebastian Scotney Wednesday, 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.

Classical CDs Weekly: Leo, Martinů, Schubert

graham Rickson Saturday, 22 October 2016

Leonardo Leo: Sacred Works Ensemble &cetera/Ulrike Hofbauer (soprano and direction) (Deutsche Harmonia Mundi)

Zehetmair, LPO, Jurowski, RFH

Peter Quantrill Tuesday, 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.

MacMillan's Stabat Mater, The Sixteen, Britten Sinfonia, Barbican Hall

David Nice Monday, 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.

Smith, Wyn-Rogers, Philharmonia, Pons, RFH

Gavin Dixon Monday, 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.