mon 09/06/2025

BBCSO

Watkins, BBCSO, Bychkov, Barbican

We don’t often hear Semyon Bychkov in the core Austro-German repertoire. That’s a great shame, because the qualities that make his Russian music performances so special are just as valuable here: the dynamism and immediacy, the supple but propulsive...

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Best of 2015: Classical Concerts

The musical future looks bright indeed, at least from my perspective. There are more classical concerts than ever going on across the UK on most days of the year, so who can know with any authority what might have been missed? Yet each of...

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Zazà, BBCSO, Benini, Barbican

Send in the clowns, as they sing in this palace-of-varieties first act, not for Pagliacci, Leoncavallo’s sole foothold on today’s operatic repertoire, but for the fool-for-love heroine of a sparkling, swooning rarity. Musically, Zazà is a notch...

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CD: Def Leppard - Def Leppard

In 1987 Def Leppard released Hysteria, a high-water mark in the history of soft rock. Not only was it gloriously infectious but there was also a moving backstory. To recap: the band’s drummer, Rick Allen, lost an arm in a road accident during...

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BBC Symphony Orchestra, Volkov, Barbican

This Barbican concert began with a Mendelssohn overture and ended with a Haydn symphony. But on stage were the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Ilan Volkov. What did you expect in between, a Mozart piano concerto? Not likely. Instead they gave the first...

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Total Immersion: Henryk Górecki, Barbican

This was Henryk Górecki beyond the Third Symphony. His otherwise ubiquitous masterpiece was notable by its absence from yesterday's programme. That was surely a conscious decision, and a wise one, allowing his many other important works to come out...

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Cargill, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican

In 2007, Jiří Bělohlávek set the distinctive seal on his leadership of the BBC Symphony Orchestra and their ongoing Mahler cycle with a riveting performance of the Third Symphony. The legacy he established of a deep, well-moulded string sound...

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Last Night of the Proms, BBCSO, Alsop

“A rich and eclectic sequence of works” was the promise made in this evening’s concert programme. It certainly was that, with the Last Night festivities taking in new and old, well-known and obscure, plus a handful of celebrity soloists for good...

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Prom 72: Kraggerud, BBCSO, Litton

Queen Margrethe II of Denmark attended Nielsen’s 150th birthday concert earlier this year in Copenhagen’s glorious new concert hall. Her grandparents were there at the premiere of Nielsen’s blithest work, his cantata Springtime in Funen on 1921. Our...

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Prom 58: Kullervo, BBCSO, Oramo

Last night's Proms performance of Sibelius's Kullervo symphony was radiant, unforgettable, but there has also been a pure coincidence this past week which is simply too good to pass over unremarked: Thursday also saw the first-time publication...

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Prom 47 : BBCSO, Oramo/ Prom 48: AAM, Hill

It’s been glorious to hear so much Bach at this year’s Proms – most of it after dark, and still more of it for the most intimate of forces. On paper, the Academy of Ancient Music and BBC Singers’ Late Night concert of Bach choral works didn’t quite...

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Prom 43: BBCSO, Vänskä

Nearly 10 years ago to the day, an almost unknown 24-year-old Venezuelan conductor came a cropper when valiantly stepping in at short notice to conduct Sibelius’s Fifth Symphony at the Proms. (His name was Gustavo Dudamel. Whatever happened to him...

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