Classical Reviews
Alexander Ivashkin Memorial Concert, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 13 February 2015
A memorial concert to a busy man. Alexander Ivashkin, who died last January, was a cellist, a scholar, a teacher, an authority on Russian music, and much else besides. This evening’s concert faced up to the daunting challenge of commemorating the many diverse aspects of Ivashkin’s career. The results were predictably wide-ranging, yet always coherent, and an impressive focus was brought to this mixed but never eclectic programme. Read more... |
Hannigan, Uchida, Philharmonia, Salonen, Royal Festival HallFriday, 13 February 2015
While the Berlin Philharmonic's progress through London with Simon Rattle has grabbed the column inches away from the rest of the capital's classical music offerings this week, a delightful mostly Ravel programme from the Philharmonia should not be passed over. Read more... |
Sibelius Cycle 2, Kavakos, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, BarbicanThursday, 12 February 2015
Bass lines were Edward Seckerson’s starting point yesterday in welcoming the Berlin Philharmonic Sibelius cycle to London, and none strikes more terror from the depths than the subterranean growl that launches the most selectively-scored symphony of the 20th Century, the Fourth. Read more... |
Sibelius Cycle 1, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, BarbicanWednesday, 11 February 2015
Sir Simon Rattle’s Sibelian journey has been long and fruitful and has taken him all the way from Birmingham to Berlin, and more particularly the revered Philharmonic where the spaces between the notes now resonate in extraordinary ways and the bass lines are sunk deeper than with any other orchestra on the planet. Read more... |
Lewis, Philharmonia, Nelsons, Royal Festival HallMonday, 09 February 2015
Andris Nelsons is flavour of the month in London. He is in town to conduct The Flying Dutchman at Covent Garden, but between performances he is moonlighting at the Festival Hall, giving two concerts with the Philharmonia. This, the first, opened with a serviceable Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 from Paul Lewis, and concluded with a Bruckner Third Symphony that was in a different league entirely. Read more... |
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Scapucci, Liverpool Philharmonic HallSunday, 08 February 2015
The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has something of a track record when it comes to finding conductors destined for great heights. After all, Sir Simon Rattle was a player in Merseyside Youth Orchestra and started his conducting career in Liverpool. The latest RLPO concert, following that great tradition, included a new face. And what an impact she made. Read more... |
Bondarenko, LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 08 February 2015
The concert season’s title may be Rachmaninoff Inside Out. But the work that dominated and got people talking in yesterday’s instalment of Vladimir Jurowski’s London Philharmonic series was by another composer entirely. “Weird, isn’t it?” said the man in the row behind. And that was only after the first movement of George Enescu’s massive Symphony No. Read more... |
Carducci String Quartet, St George's Hall Concert Room, LiverpoolThursday, 05 February 2015
When you’re visiting someone for the first time, it’s probably just as well that you make a good impression – or else you may not be asked back. Read more... |
Tutuguri, BBCSO, Nagano, BarbicanSunday, 01 February 2015
If what you wanted to do was go out to the middle of the Mexican desert, invert the Cross and dip it in blood, screaming obscenities all the while, surrounded by a sunburnt band of fellow travellers all off their heads on mescalin, Tutuguri is definitely the music you’d want to do it to. Read more... |
Florian Boesch, Roger Vignoles, Wigmore HallFriday, 30 January 2015
Ernst Krenek is probably best remembered nowadays as the composer of Jonny Spielt Auf – the quintessential Zeitoper of Weimar Germany and later the archetype of all that was designated “degenerate” in art by the Nazi regime. And perhaps also as – briefly – the husband of Anna Mahler, daughter of Gustav. But Krenek was far more than that. Read more... |
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