Classical Reviews
Verdi's Requiem / Capriccio, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - words, music, judgementTuesday, 27 August 2024
The Philharmonia’s residency was the centrepiece of the Edinburgh International Festival’s final weekend, and it’s right that the orchestra should be the focus because they were consistently the finest thing about both their Verdi Requiem and their concert performance of Richard Strauss’ last opera Capriccio. Read more... |
Prom 44, Shani, Rotterdam Philharmonic review - impressive multi-tasking by conductor-pianistSaturday, 24 August 2024
Conducting a piano concerto and playing a piano concerto are normally two separate jobs. Not at last night’s Prom, where Lahav Shani did both – and not just in a breezy Mozart concerto, but the beast that is Prokofiev’s Third. It was quite the feat, like climbing Mount Everest carrying not just your own supplies, but everyone else’s too. I hope he was on at least time-and-a-half. Read more... |
Fire in my mouth, Philharmonia, NYCOS, Alsop, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - total work of art for our timesSaturday, 24 August 2024
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 2018, Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth is a multi-sensory oratorio written to commemorate the 146 workers who perished in a factory fire in what was the deadliest industrial disaster in New York’s history. Scored for orchestra and female chorus, each voice part represents an individual worker who died, most of them Jewish or Italian immigrants. Read more... |
Prom 42, Beethoven's Ninth Symphony, Aurora Orchestra, Collon review - a dramatic coupThursday, 22 August 2024
Hugh Masekela used to give advice for concerts like this one: “If you haven’t got tickets, turn yourself into a cockroach.” Every seat for Aurora Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Ninth by Heart Prom had already sold out on the first morning when season booking opened back in May, and the queue for returns at the Royal Albert Hall last night must have had well over a hundred people in it. Read more... |
Prom 40, St John Passion, Bach Collegium Japan, Suzuki review - finesse and feelingWednesday, 21 August 2024
Bach’s St John Passion came into the world just three centuries ago, in Leipzig at Easter 1724. This year’s Proms shower of manna from musical heaven continued with a consummately polished, sensitive and – ultimately – very moving birthday performance by Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan. Read more... |
Prom 37, War Requiem, Clayton, Liverman, Romaniw, LSO, Pappano review - terror and tendernessMonday, 19 August 2024
This year’s Proms programme initially gave rise to some now-customary sneers about predictability, banality and dumbing down. Well, it all depends on where you sit, and what you hear. And my seats have witnessed one absolute humdinger after another. Read more... |
Altstaedt, EUYO, Noseda, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - inclusive and brilliantMonday, 19 August 2024
People hold lots of different opinions about the European Union, but there’s really only one acceptable opinion to be held about the European Union Youth Orchestra; namely, that they’re brilliant. Their visit to the Edinburgh International Festival consisted of two hour-long concerts, but the hundred musicians, aged 18-26, hailing from 27 countries, crammed more artistry and brilliance into those two concerts than some orchestras manage in a season. Read more... |
Prom 36, McGill, BBCSSO, New review - summery Shakespearean mummerySaturday, 17 August 2024
My three Proms so far this year have all featured regional BBC orchestras conducted by women, all excellent, and it surely reflects well on the Proms management that they have done so much to address this gender imbalance in recent years. In last night’s Prom 36 the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra were led by the New Zealander Gemma New, who navigated a programme of Mozart, Mendelssohn and Bonis with élan, good humour and a gorgeous black frock coat. Read more... |
Bostridge, Osborne, Edinburgh International Festival 2024 review - the heights and the abyssFriday, 16 August 2024
When you stop to think about it, Schwanengesang is a pretty ridiculous thing. Schubert’s final song cycle was famously put together by his publishers after his death, and so it’s barely a cycle at all. Therefore, unlike Die schöne Müllerin and Winterreise, there’s no story and, even worse, the lurches in mood between the songs are so extreme that they can become absurd. Read more... |
Prom 32, Gillam, BBCNOW, Venditti review - belated debuts and a dancing delightTuesday, 13 August 2024
This Prom by the BBC National Orchestra of Wales and Nil Venditti featured a first half of Welsh composers, including the belated Proms debut of Karl Jenkins at the age of 80. It’s a sign of how Proms programming has evolved over the last 30 years that either of them gets a look-in and, even if I had some mixed feelings about their pieces, it can only be a good thing that they are now being heard in this festival. Read more... |
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