Classical Reviews
Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, Jansons, Barbican HallSunday, 13 May 2012
I half expected to hear someone on the platform call out “Is there a doctor in the house?” For Mariss Jansons, principal conductor of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra, and esteemed beyond measure, didn’t look well during this concert, the second in the orchestra’s current Barbican residency. Drained from his exertions during Strauss’s Also sprach Zarathustra, he left the platform weary and grey. The following interval was seriously extended. Read more...
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Brigham Young University Singers, St John's Smith SquareSunday, 13 May 2012
Brigham Young University in Utah is the largest private university in America, and is probably best known for its affiliation with The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, AKA the Mormons. What’s less commonly known is that the university also has a choir (four different choirs, in fact) that is among the finest collegiate ensembles in the US. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bruckner, Mahler, PärtSaturday, 12 May 2012
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Einstein on the Beach, Barbican TheatreSaturday, 05 May 2012
Einstein on the Beach was meant to be one of the jewels in the crown for the Cultural Olympiad. The celebrated 1970s collaboration between Philip Glass, Robert Wilson and Lucinda Childs - which Susan Sontag claimed to be one of the greatest theatrical experiences of the 20th century - was receiving its UK premiere at the Barbican Theatre last night, thirty-six years after it was first created. And what we got was a technical shambles. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Debussy, Rachmaninov, StravinskySaturday, 05 May 2012
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Helmchen, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallThursday, 03 May 2012
Two more contrasting pianists than Yuja Wang and Martin Helmchen would be hard to find. To move within 24 hours from the glittering assault of Wang’s technique to the restrained, almost introverted, Helmchen is an exercise in extremes, and one that left me yearning, Goldilocks-style, for a soloist neither too hot nor too cold, but just right. Read more... |
Yuja Wang, Queen Elizabeth HallWednesday, 02 May 2012
Let no one tell you that Chinese pianists can't play with passion. Yuja Wang ran the full gamut of emotions in last night's Queen Elizabeth Hall recital from the tender to the rhapsodic. But mostly she channelled her energies to delivering some of the most colourfully explosive playing I've heard for ages. Read more... |
Tetzlaff, London Symphony Orchestra, Eötvös, Barbican HallMonday, 30 April 2012
“I don’t want to be a Cyclops,” Pierre Boulez said in 2010, faced with the prospect of conducting a Chicago concert with only one working eye. Read more... |
Arvo Pärt Total Immersion, BarbicanMonday, 30 April 2012
How incredibly heartening that this latest edition of the BBC Symphony Orchestra's Total Immersion, focusing on the music of the contemporary Estonian composer, Arvo Pärt, sold out days in advance. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Medtner, Martin Shaw, StravinskySaturday, 28 April 2012
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Bruckner: Symphony no 5 Lucerne Festival Orchestra/Claudio Abbado (Accentus DVD)
Bach: The Well-Tempered Clavier Book 2 Peter Hill (piano) (Delphian)
Medtner: Arabesques, Dithyrambs, Elegies and other short piano works Hamish Milne (Hyperion)Pages
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