Classical Reviews
CBSO Chorus, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - a mass of lifeThursday, 17 March 2022
One of the world’s top five orchestras – sorry, but I locate them all in continental Europe – played on the second night of its London visit to a half-empty Barbican Hall. Half-full, rather, attentive and ecstatic. As for the much-criticised venue, which I’ve always been able to live with, playing as fine as this shows that you don’t need a state-of-the-art auditorium to make the most beautiful sounds. Read more... |
Wang, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - the sound of historyWednesday, 16 March 2022
“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner famously wrote. “It’s not even past.” Funny to think that I approached 2022 bored in advance with all the glib celebrations of post-WWI international modernist breakthroughs that the centenary of Ulysses and co. heralded. Yet here we are, the year only a couple of months old, standing eagerly for a national anthem in a packed concert hall. Read more... |
Bartlett, LPO, Mathieson, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne review – Rhymes, Rhapsody and Winter DaydreamsTuesday, 15 March 2022
Who could have imagined the table-turning controversy that might have cast doubt on the inclusion of works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky when planning this programme? Read more... |
Philippens, BBCSSO, Wigglesworth, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - peace and triumph side by sideMonday, 14 March 2022
Mark Wigglesworth is a semi-regular guest with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and he’s hugely experienced in the opera world, which might explain why my expectations were so high for his Wagner in this concert. In the event, though, I didn’t love his take on Tristan’s Prelude and Liebestod. Read more... |
Cabell, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - transatlantic trafficFriday, 11 March 2022
Had he never written a note of his own, George Walker would still have left a record of trailblazing achievements. Born in Washington DC in 1922, he studied piano at Oberlin College and the Curtis Institute (the conservatoire that notoriously rejected Nina Simone). Read more... |
Koranyi, Hallé, Berglund, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - beauty and joyFriday, 11 March 2022
It’s catching on … for the second consecutive night I heard an orchestra begin by playing, to a standing audience, the Ukrainian national anthem. Read more... |
Rangwanasha, OAE, Fischer, RFH review - Mahler reimaginedWednesday, 09 March 2022
Mahler on modern instruments is ubiquitous these days, so historically informed performance is bound to be revealing. Here, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment brought transparency and focus to Mahler’s often complex textures in his Fourth Symphony. Read more... |
Hough, BBC Philharmonic, Wellber, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - Beethoven for todayTuesday, 08 March 2022
There was something extraordinarily powerful and moving about Saturday’s Beethoven commemoration concert by the BBC Philharmonic and its chief conductor, Omer Meir Wellber. Read more... |
Simon Trpčeski and Friends, Wigmore Hall online review – chamber music classics old and newTuesday, 08 March 2022
The main course of this Wigmore lunchtime concert was Brahms but I was lured in by the dessert: a rare chance in this country to hear the music of the French composer Guillaume Connesson. Read more... |
Cooper, Bournemouth SO, Wigglesworth, Lighthouse, Poole review – musical sunburstsMonday, 07 March 2022
With reference to smiles beginning to emerge from behind our masks, Mark Wigglesworth, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra’s new Principal Guest Conductor, wrote the most hopeful and optimistic note of welcome in the programme for this concert featuring Mozart’s Piano Concerto No 22, K482 and Schubert's “Great” C major Symphony. Read more... |
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