Mark Padmore, Britten Sinfonia, Queen Elizabeth Hall | reviews, news & interviews
Mark Padmore, Britten Sinfonia, Queen Elizabeth Hall
Mark Padmore, Britten Sinfonia, Queen Elizabeth Hall
A concert of English music that cast aside chintz for neon brights
Wednesday, 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.
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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