Mark Padmore, Britten Sinfonia, Queen Elizabeth Hall

A concert of English music that cast aside chintz for neon brights

by Alexandra CoghlanWednesday, 09 February 2011

Mark Padmore: The go-to tenor for English expressiveness

It was Leonard Bernstein who declared of English music that it was “too much organ voluntary in Lincoln Cathedral, too much Coronation in Westminster Abbey, too much lark ascending, too much clodhopping on the fucking village green”. Fey, whimsical and faintly patterned with chintz – English music doesn’t always get the best press. In the hands of the Britten Sinfonia however, it defies any notion of pastel prettiness, stepping out in only the feistiest and most glorious Technicolor.

There’s no denying the affinity and rightness of this music under Padmore's voice

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Mark Padmore, Mitsuko Uchida, Wigmore Hall review - direct and uncompromising Schubert

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