Classical music
David Nice
Namedrop first: it was Charles Mackerras who introduced me to the music of Vítězslava Kaprálová, lending me a CD with her Military Sinfonietta leading the way. It piqued interest, but more as a sense of promise cut short: this abundantly gifted young woman, first female conductor of the Czech Philiharmonic at the age of 22 when she premiered the work, died three years later before fulfilling her genius.Last night’s performance of what might be more accurately called Semi-military Kaleidoscope, though it couldn’t have been finer than in the supple hands of Jakub Hrůša in his second Prom with Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
How easy it is to fall instantly in love with the Dvořák Cello Concerto. And particularly when it is played by an orchestra as fine as the Czech Philharmonic.Everything’s there in the opening minute. We get our first, wonderful. ear-wormish theme straight away, from the subtle grenadilla wood of a lone clarinet in A. Then we hear it build in what seems no time at all to the blaze of the full orchestra. Dvořák marked that first glorious arrival “Grandioso”, and the whole of the strings, wind and brass are involved, every single player throwing her or his whole being into the fortissimo. Read more ...
Simon Thompson
The Philharmonia’s residency was the centrepiece of the Edinburgh International Festival’s final weekend, and it’s right that the orchestra should be the focus because they were consistently the finest thing about both their Verdi Requiem and their concert performance of Richard Strauss’ last opera Capriccio.First to Verdi. Not only was the playing rich and majestic, but there was terrific clarity, too, and I was repeatedly struck by how pristine the details were. I don’t think I’ve ever previously noticed the role of the piccolo, for example, and the quintet of horns made themselves Read more ...
Gavin Dixon
The summer festival circuit in Central Europe can be a bit of a merry-go-round. Notices in festival towns promise world-class orchestras and soloists, but they are usually the same performers, making festival appearances as part of broader touring schedules.But a festival needs to be distinctive, it needs to be unique. Any hint of routine is fatal to its spirit of occasion. The setting usually helps, and the festivals in Lucerne and Gstaad both take place amid breathtaking scenery and in towns of real charm and character. Add to that a homegrown ensemble – typically a festival orchestra – and Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
Conducting a piano concerto and playing a piano concerto are normally two separate jobs. Not at last night’s Prom, where Lahav Shani did both – and not just in a breezy Mozart concerto, but the beast that is Prokofiev’s Third. It was quite the feat, like climbing Mount Everest carrying not just your own supplies, but everyone else’s too. I hope he was on at least time-and-a-half.Of course, it’s not just a question of doing it at all: it’s only worth it if it’s done well, and it was. Shani (pictured below), who also conducted the rest of the programme (with the Rotterdam Philharmonic) in more Read more ...
Miranda Heggie
Commissioned by the New York Philharmonic and premiered in 2018, Julia Wolfe’s Fire in my mouth is a multi-sensory oratorio written to commemorate the 146 workers who perished in a factory fire in what was the deadliest industrial disaster in New York’s history. Scored for orchestra and female chorus, each voice part represents an individual worker who died, most of them Jewish or Italian immigrants.The piece begins with a depiction of passengers on a board a ship, and in this performance the female voices of the National Youth Choir of Scotland were on their standard excellent form, swaying Read more ...
Sebastian Scotney
Hugh Masekela used to give advice for concerts like this one: “If you haven’t got tickets, turn yourself into a cockroach.” Every seat for Aurora Orchestra’s Beethoven’s Ninth by Heart Prom had already sold out on the first morning when season booking opened back in May, and the queue for returns at the Royal Albert Hall last night must have had well over a hundred people in it.This performance, preceded by an illuminating, engaging and amusing 45-minute “musical and dramatic exploration”, was a reminder of quite how far Aurora has grown in confidence and stature, and has evolved its Read more ...
Boyd Tonkin
Bach’s St John Passion came into the world just three centuries ago, in Leipzig at Easter 1724. This year’s Proms shower of manna from musical heaven continued with a consummately polished, sensitive and – ultimately – very moving birthday performance by Masaaki Suzuki and his Bach Collegium Japan.Their profound familiarity with the work, and proficiency in all its idioms, bred not routine slickness but an inward intimacy that serenely bridged the gap between the liturgical rituals of the German Baroque and the music drama of today. For all his historically-informed scholarship (right Read more ...
Boyd Tonkin
This year’s Proms programme initially gave rise to some now-customary sneers about predictability, banality and dumbing down. Well, it all depends on where you sit, and what you hear. And my seats have witnessed one absolute humdinger after another. Last night, Sir Antonio Pappano and his London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus partnered with three exceptional soloists to deliver Benjamin Britten’s War Requiem with a commitment, intensity and, above all, ferocious attention to detail that made it an occasion to remember, and to celebrate. To call this performance “operatic”, given Pappano’s Read more ...
Simon Thompson
People hold lots of different opinions about the European Union, but there’s really only one acceptable opinion to be held about the European Union Youth Orchestra; namely, that they’re brilliant. Their visit to the Edinburgh International Festival consisted of two hour-long concerts, but the hundred musicians, aged 18-26, hailing from 27 countries, crammed more artistry and brilliance into those two concerts than some orchestras manage in a season.Sure, the tone wasn’t always there, and occasionally you could notice a lack of maturity. The violins sounded rather too bright for Elgar’s " Read more ...
Bernard Hughes
My three Proms so far this year have all featured regional BBC orchestras conducted by women, all excellent, and it surely reflects well on the Proms management that they have done so much to address this gender imbalance in recent years. In last night’s Prom 36 the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra were led by the New Zealander Gemma New, who navigated a programme of Mozart, Mendelssohn and Bonis with élan, good humour and a gorgeous black frock coat.Before doing my research, the name Mel Bonis would have suggested an Australian Olympic athlete, or Californian surf champion, but she was in Read more ...
graham.rickson
Fauré: Requiem, Gounod: Messe de Clovis Le Concert Spirituel/Hervé Niquet (Alpha-Classics)It was as an avid fan of the short story author Saki that my eye was drawn to the title of Gounod’s Messe de Clovis, although the Clovis here is the 14th century king of France, who became, like Joan of Arc, an emblematic figure for the French people after defeat by Prussia in 1870. Paired with a recording of Fauré’s Requiem, which are ten-a-penny, this seems to be the only available recording of the Gounod, whose music I have become more interested in over the last couple of years. Gounod was Read more ...