Classical Reviews

Trpčeski, CBSO, Măcelaru, Symphony Hall Birmingham

Richard Bratby Friday, 25 September 2015

Cards on the table: the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra is looking for a new music director. Having filled its new season with emerging talents – Andrew Gourlay, Daniele Rustioni, Ryan Wigglesworth and Ben Gernon, to name just four – it’s an open secret that any concert directed by a youngish, more-or-less unattached conductor in Birmingham for the foreseeable future is effectively an audition for the job. And don’t let anyone tell you otherwise.

LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall

David Nice Thursday, 24 September 2015

Nothing will ever test the depth, breadth and sheer virtuosity of a large orchestra more than Mahler’s symphonies.

theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Mark Wigglesworth

David Nice Wednesday, 23 September 2015

Mark Wigglesworth and I go back quite a long way in terms of meetings – namely to 1996, when I interviewed him for Gramophone about the launch of his Shostakovich symphonies cycle on BIS. He completed it a decade later, though that release hung fire until last year.

Accentus, Insula, Equilbey, Barbican

Peter Quantrill Tuesday, 22 September 2015

The frail bridge between Baroque and Classical aesthetics was the theme for this debut UK appearance by Insula, the period-orchestra extension to Laurence Equilbey’s superb vocal ensemble accentus.

Baroque Alehouse, Eike, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

alexandra Coghlan Tuesday, 22 September 2015

Sunday evening may have been all about melancholy at the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, but last night Bjarte Eike and his uproariously talented Barokksolistene traded wails for ales and one of their legendary alehouse sessions at the Globe’s Sam Wanamaker Playhouse. There was music, certainly, but also dancing, storytelling, drinking (yes, really) and more joy than it’s possible to imagine from this tight-knit bunch of musical mavericks.

Perahia, Richter, LSO, Haitink, Barbican

Sebastian Scotney Monday, 21 September 2015

Last night's perfectly-judged, superbly communicated performance of Mahler's Fourth Symphony served as a reminder that the passion, experience and astonishing musicality of 86-year-old conductor Bernard Haitink are things to be cherished and never taken for granted. The symphony, first performed in 1901, was the main work in this second of Haitink's three concerts with the LSO before they leave together for Japan.

The Image of Melancholy, Eike, Sam Wanamaker Playhouse

David Nice Monday, 21 September 2015

“Sounds a bit depressing,” said several friends when I urged them to attend the theatrical incarnation of The Image of Melancholy, inspirational violinist Bjarte Eike’s award-winning CD with his stunning Norwegian-based group Barokksolistene. Creative melancholy, though, is not the same as stuck depression, and the sequence on the disc was well-balanced with songs and dances as well as superbly engineered sound.

theartsdesk at the Lammermuir Festival

David Kettle Monday, 21 September 2015

It’s hard to believe that East Lothian’s Lammermuir Festival has only been around for six years. In that short time, it’s become a cherished fixture in Scotland’s musical calendar. For regular concert-goers, it’s a calmer antidote to the August festival mayhem of Edinburgh, just half an hour away, and just a couple of weeks after the capital’s wall-to-wall chaos ends.

Classical CDs Weekly: Bernstein, Fučík, Wartime Consolations

graham Rickson Saturday, 19 September 2015

Bernstein: Symphony No. 3 'Kaddish' Baltimore Symphony Orchestra/Marin Alsop (Naxos)

Hofmann, Royal Danish Orchestra, Boder, Symphony Hall, Birmingham

Richard Bratby Thursday, 17 September 2015

There’s just something about an opera orchestra when it’s let out of the pit. The Royal Danish Orchestra is more than that, of course – it makes much of its six centuries of history, and since its past members included John Dowland, Heinrich Schütz and Carl Nielsen, why wouldn’t it?