Classical Reviews

Shakespeare 400 Gala, LPO, Jurowski, RFH

David Nice Sunday, 24 April 2016

Every year is Shakespeare year in theatre, opera house and concert hall. An anniversary's best, though, for those select few galas where the mind's made flexible by constant comparison between different Shakespearean worlds.

Bruckner 6, OAE, Rattle, RFH

Peter Quantrill Saturday, 23 April 2016

It’s always fun to watch the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment. As members of a self-governing orchestra, and often soloists in their own right, the players like to do things their way. Come the ripe second theme of the Bruckner Adagio and the cellos were giving it lashings of vibrato; muesli-wearing adherents to pure tone be damned.

Classical CDs Weekly: Krenek, Schumann, Osmosis

graham Rickson Saturday, 23 April 2016

Krenek: Piano Concertos 1-3 Mikhail Korzhev (piano), English Symphony Orchestra/Kenneth Woods (Toccata Classics)

Vavic, SCO, Bloch, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh

David Kettle Sunday, 17 April 2016

It’s not the first time that young French conductor Alexandre Bloch has been in front of the Scottish Chamber Orchestra – he took them on a well-received short Scottish tour last summer. But it was his first main-season gig with the band, and he certainly had something to say. "A bit of French and Russian atmosphere," was how he modestly described his concert in the concert progamme’s intro: it was certainly that, but plenty more besides.

Brahms: A German Requiem, ENO Chorus, Wigglesworth, St George's Hanover Square

alexandra Coghlan Saturday, 16 April 2016

There aren’t many opera choruses I’d want to hear singing Brahms’ Requiem, and still fewer I’d rush to hear. But the Olivier Award-winning ENO chorus is a different beast altogether – as responsive and flexible of tone as it is skilled with an all-out musical punch – and more than capable of finding the interiority as well as the intensity in this choral classic.

Comment

Classical CDs Weekly: Bartók, Birkin, Berlin Piano Quartet

graham Rickson Saturday, 16 April 2016

Bartók & Folk:Complete works for male choir, interspersed with folk music Saint Ephraim Male Choir/Tamás Bubnó, Balázs Szokolay Dongó (flute, bagpipe, tárogató), Márk Bubnó (gardon) (BMC)

Bruckner 8, LSO, Rattle, Barbican

Peter Quantrill Friday, 15 April 2016

Last and most imposing of Bruckner’s completed symphonies, the Eighth invites and frequently receives architectural comparisons.

Bach Cantatas and Magnificat, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, Saffron Hall

Sebastian Scotney Tuesday, 12 April 2016

“The rests, the silences in Bach are never for nothing,” I once heard the Dutch cellist and baroque specialist Anner Bylsma telling a student in a masterclass. “You jump up from them, you reach higher.” Hearing the Bach Collegium Japan on Sunday night kept bringing those phrases to mind, because the listener in the acoustic of Saffron Hall really does get to hear this music, so delicately played, emerging again and again from silence.

Bach Motets, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki, St Giles Cripplegate

David Nice Sunday, 10 April 2016

This second concert in the Barbican residency of Masaaki Suzuki and the Bach Collegium Japan transported us across the water from the concert hall to St Giles Cripplegate, and from the greatest of masses to organ masterpieces and, among motets, a work of which Mozart allegedly said, "at last, something to learn from". All that cascading counterpoint in Singet dem Herrn in a bright church acoustic ideally suited to this music told us why.

Osborne, RSNO, Denève, Usher Hall, Edinburgh

Christopher Lambton Sunday, 10 April 2016

“Bon soir, good evening! Nice to see you! To see you...” Four years after bidding an emotional farewell to the Usher Hall, the Gallic charmer is back, maybe slightly stouter, with a tinge of grey in a new beard, the great mop of curly red hair as unruly as ever. And that accent! As the anecdotes flow, stout middle-aged Edinburgers swoon as they imagine themselves drinking pastis on the Boulevard St Germain in the spring sunshine.