Classical Reviews

Sonia Prina, Wigmore Hall

David Benedict Tuesday, 31 December 2013

The great Marilyn Horne used to joke that she was going to release an album entitled “Chestnuts for Chest Nuts”. She never did, but that leaves the door wide open for Sonia Prina whose dark, thrillingly low sound marks her out as the real deal, a genuine contralto. But the excitement of Prina in performance isn’t just about her extraordinary skill at using her unusual range.

Comment

Vadim Gluzman, Angela Yoffe, Wigmore Hall

David Nice Sunday, 29 December 2013

There were two strong reasons, I reckoned, for struggling to the Wigmore Hall during the interstitial last week of the year. One was an ascetic wish to be harrowed by a mind and soul of winter, both within and without, in Prokofiev’s towering D minor Violin Sonata, after so much Christmas sweetness and light.

Classical and Opera 2013: A Year of Anniversaries

David Nice Saturday, 28 December 2013

Which musical calendar year isn’t laden down with composer commemorations, too often a pretext for lazy and unimaginative planning? The last 12 months, with Verdi, Wagner and Britten as the birthday boys (in case you failed to hear), have raised the stakes.

Christmas Oratorio, Trinity College Choir, OAE, Layton, St John's Smith Square

David Nice Monday, 23 December 2013

Not every Yuletide fixture need be commercial and routine. Certainly St John’s annual Christmas Festival packs them in, but why wouldn’t it when the voices for the last two events, backed up by no less than the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, are the best you could possibly find for the great monuments of Handel and Bach?

Bach B minor Mass, Clare College Choir, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings Place

David Nice Sunday, 22 December 2013

Nothing tests small-hall acoustics better than that most exuberant of holies, the Sanctus from Bach’s B minor Mass. After one of the year’s big disappointments, the blowsy sound coming from chamber ensembles in the Barbican/Guildhall School’s new Milton Court – a surprise miscalculation from Arup acousticians - it seemed imperative to get back to Kings Place’s Hall One, which feels bigger but is some 200 seats smaller (420 to Milton Court’s 608).

BBC Singers, St James's Baroque, Hill, Temple Church

David Benedict Saturday, 21 December 2013

There’s a reason why many people think Handel and, particularly his Messiah, is dull. Relatively easy to play, his music is incredibly difficult to perform well. Take this Temple Winter Festival outing with choral expert David Hill conducting the immensely skilled BBC Singers who can, and largely do, sing everything; four soloists all banishing grandiose, wobbly vibrato from days of yore; and the accomplished St James’s Baroque.

Brewer, BBCSO, Gardner, Barbican

Mark Valencia Saturday, 21 December 2013

Although worlds away from festive mangers and mince pies, the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s pre-Christmas offering spread good cheer aplenty thanks to an absorbing programme of Austro-German repertoire that explored the outer reaches of Romanticism without ever quite leaving its orbit.

Classical CDs Weekly: Tchaikovsky, Harry Christophers, 4 Girls 4 Harps

graham Rickson Saturday, 21 December 2013

Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (complete ballet) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Neeme Järvi, with James Ehnes (violin) (Chandos)

Winterreise, Gilchrist, Tilbrook, Temple Church

Sebastian Scotney Thursday, 19 December 2013

A rare thing indeed. A British singer/pianist duo has had the patience, and also been given the opportunities over a number of years, to own and to inhabit a thoroughly individual and intelligent interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise.

Uchida, Musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic, Wigmore Hall

Edward Seckerson Wednesday, 18 December 2013

Exactly what constitutes “the End of Time” in Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Quartet for piano, violin, cello and clarinet? Not surely “the end of days” but rather the end of measured time; music unfettered, music of the spheres, music without frontiers.