Royal Concertgebouw, Jansons, Barbican

Life-enhancing Mahler and Brahms from the world's greatest orchestra

by Igor ToronyilalicMonday, 14 December 2009

Mariss Jansons in full seraphic swing

There’s simply no orchestral sound quite like it. The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra had barely done a bar of Bedřich Smetana’s overture to The Bartered Bride before I found myself grinning like a fool. It was as if I had stepped off a plane and walked into a bath of fresh foreign sun. The biting cold of winter had temporarily lifted for those who had made it to the Barbican this weekend. Spring had come early.

Damrau, BRSO, Jansons, Barbican review - broad and passionate Strauss

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