Shostakovich
Classical CDs Weekly: Messiaen, Shostakovich, Berlin Philharmonic OrchestraSaturday, 02 June 2018
Messiaen: Catalogue d’Oiseaux Pierre-Laurent Aimard (Pentatone)The title Catalogue d’Oiseaux suggests a dusty ornithological textbook. And Messiaen implied that all he’d done to compose this ear-tickling sequence of piano pieces was to... Read more... |
Los Angeles Philharmonic, Dudamel, Barbican review - brilliant if overwhelming showcaseThursday, 03 May 2018
Insistence was the name of the LA Phil's first game in its short but ambitious three-day Barbican residency - insistence honed to a perfect sheen and focus, but wearing, for this listener at least, some way in to the Shostakovich Fifth Symphony... Read more... |
Violinist Eldbjørg Hemsing: 'in the moments when magic happens, you think, that's why we do this'Saturday, 28 April 2018
In a classical recording industry seemingly obsessed with marketing beautiful young female violinists, but very often presenting them in repertoire to which most of them seem to have little individual to add, how do you make your mark? Norwegian... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Borgström, Shostakovich, Tchaikovsky, Alec Frank-GemmillSaturday, 28 April 2018
Borgström: Violin Concerto, Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1 Eldbjørg Hemsing (violin), Wiener Symphoniker/Olari Elts (BIS)Hjalmar Borgström sounds like the name of a BBC Four gumshoe, a melancholy detective solving crimes in downtown... Read more... |
Wang, RSNO, Oundjian, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - percussion sets Shostakovich's 'Leningrad' ablazeMonday, 23 April 2018
Featuring two Russian composers, the two halves of the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s programme could hardly have been more different. In the first, pianist Xiayin Wang (pictured below) joined the RSNO for Scriabin’s florid, rarely-heard... Read more... |
Andsnes, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - dazzling symphonic contrasts, plus odditiesThursday, 19 April 2018
Kudos, as ever, to Vladimir Jurowski for making epic connections. Not only did he bookend a rich LPO concert with two very different symphonies from the late 1930s by Stravinsky and Shostakovich; he also masterminded and attended the early evening... Read more... |
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Royal Opera review - bleak rigour and black comedy still cast a spellFriday, 13 April 2018
Anyone who's seen Richard Jones's rigorous production before will remember the makeover – Katerina Izmailova, bored and brutalised housewife released by sex and murder from her shackles, having her drab bedroom expanded and redecorated in deliberate... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Shostakovich, Christoph Prégardien, Nataša MirkovičSaturday, 10 February 2018
Shostakovich: Symphony No 6, Sinfonietta (Quartet No 8, arr. Abram Stasevich) Estonian Festival Orchestra/Paavo Järvi (Alpha Classics)The one false note here comes in the form of Paavo Järvi’s description of Shostakovich's Symphony No 6, referring... Read more... |
Weilerstein, Platt, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - insight and passionFriday, 19 January 2018
Alisa Weilerstein is making two visits to Manchester in just over three weeks. Last night it was with the Hallé, next time she’ll be guesting with the Czech Philharmonic. This one was to play the solo in Shostakovich’s First Cello Concerto, with Sir... Read more... |
Capuçon, BBCPO, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - awesome unityMonday, 11 December 2017
Shostakovich’s First Violin Concerto is a big work in every sense: four movements, plus a solo cadenza before the last one that makes it seem almost like five; a soloist’s role that even David Oistrakh (for whom it was first written) found taxing;... Read more... |
Messiaen & Shostakovich, St John's Smith Square review - Osborne and Gerhardt anchor 1940s masterpiecesWednesday, 15 November 2017
Only connect. As the Southbank Centre's International Chamber Music Series at St John's showcased supreme eloquence in two searing but perfectly-proportioned meditations from the Second World War, over the road at Smith Square Europe House was... Read more... |
A Celebration of Sir Kenneth MacMillan, Northern Ballet review - a brave and worthy tributeSaturday, 14 October 2017
Northern Ballet do a challenging job really well: on a mid-scale touring company budget and doing all the things mid-scale touring companies have to do (tour, obviously, but also outreach and audience-building and Christmas ballets for children),... Read more... |
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