Prokofiev
BBC Young Musician 2018 Final, Symphony Hall, Birmingham review - sky-high standardsMonday, 14 May 2018
The BBC Young Musician final was a big event in Birmingham. It drew a capacity audience to Symphony Hall, as enthusiastic, engaged and encouraging as any of the competitors could have wished. After the prodigious talent on show in the section finals... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Prokofiev, Philip Sawyers, Andrew Matthews-OwenSaturday, 17 March 2018
Visions of Prokofiev Lisa Batiashvili (violin), Chamber Orchestra of Europe/Yannick Nézet-Seguin (DG)Buried beneath the soft focus photos and waffly booklet are very decent performances of Prokofiev’s two Violin Concertos. Lisa Batiashvili... Read more... |
Cinderella, Sadler's Wells review - Matthew Bourne puts Cinderella through the BlitzThursday, 21 December 2017
Even if Matthew Bourne were never to choreograph another step, he could fill theatres in perpetuity by rotating old stock. Cinderella, made in 1997, was the follow-up to his break-out hit Swan Lake but, never quite happy with it, he reworked it in... Read more... |
Proms 67 & 68 review: Freiburg Baroque, Heras-Casado / Mariinsky, Gergiev - reformation and revolutionMonday, 04 September 2017
Even tuning up, the multinational musicians of the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra make a lovely sound, well-anchored by the tug of four period-instrument cellos and three basses, yet buoyant and stippled with upper-wind colours, flutes circling and... Read more... |
Prom 30 review: Bournemouth SO, Karabits - pagan fire and thunderTuesday, 08 August 2017
A Prom of unrelenting momentum began promisingly with Beethoven, and the false start that opens his First Symphony. On this showing, Kirill Karabits has coached his Bournemouth musicians in the classical repertoire with a dash and flair that brings... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Prokofiev, Skempton, WaltonSaturday, 29 July 2017
Prokofiev: Piano Concertos 1&3, Overture on Hebrew Themes Simon Trpčeski (piano), Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra/Vasily Petrenko (Onyx)Good recordings can make you notice things you've never heard before. Like this one: Simon Trpčeski’s... Read more... |
Jonathan Miles: St Petersburg review - culture and calamitySunday, 02 July 2017
Talk about survival: St Petersburg, Petrograd, Leningrad, now again St Petersburg, all the same city, has it nailed down. It was founded through the mad enthusiasm, intelligence, determination and just off-the-scale energy of Peter the Great in 1703... Read more... |
Evgeny Kissin: Memoirs and Reflections review - Russian education, European conviction, Jewish heritageSunday, 04 June 2017
"Generally speaking," writes Evgeny Kissin in one of the many generous tributes to those whose artistry he most admires, "the mastery of [Carlo Maria] Giulini is exactly what is dearest of all to me in art: simplicity, depth and spirituality". The... Read more... |
Koen Kessels: 'there's a joke in ballet we only have two tempi' - interviewWednesday, 31 May 2017
Koen Kessels is on a mission to change the culture around music in ballet. Anyone who has heard the Belgian conduct will know that he is the right person for the job: Kessels makes the classic scores come alive in the pit like nobody else I’ve heard... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: Soprano Aida GarifullinaSaturday, 27 May 2017
There are certain roles where you’re lucky to catch one perfect incarnation in a lifetime. I thought I'd never see a soprano as Natasha in Prokofiev's War and Peace equal to Yelena Prokina, Valery Gergiev’s choice for Graham Vick’s 1991 production.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Laurence Crane, Martinů, ProkofievSaturday, 29 April 2017
Laurence Crane: 6 Trios, 2 Solos and 1 Quintet The Ives Ensemble (RTF Classical)It's a rare pleasure to discover a contemporary composer whose work speaks with such effortless clarity. You'll know within a few seconds of Laurence Crane’s Trio for... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Prokofiev, Strauss, WeinbergSaturday, 04 March 2017
Prokofiev: Piano Sonatas 2, 6 and 8 Alexander Melnikov (Harmonia Mundi)These three sonatas provide a neat overview of Prokofiev’s compositional career, 1912’s No 2 blending heady romanticism with smiling, percussive modernism. I’d not realised... Read more... |
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