Elgar
Classical CDs: Vitamins, kings and magic spellsSaturday, 23 November 2024
Brahms: Piano Concertos 1 and 2, Solo piano works Igor Levit (piano), Wiener Philharmoniker/Christian Thielemann (Sony)Who’d have thought that Igor Levit and Christian Thielemann would be such effective partners? Levitt is one of the most... Read more... |
Frang, LSO, Pappano, Barbican review - a concerto performance to treasureFriday, 13 September 2024
Hauntings, memories, echoes: Antonio Pappano has started his official tenure as chief conductor of the London Symphony Orchestra by looking back in time. Wednesday’s season opener gave us a MacMillan premiere “haunted by earlier musical spirits and... Read more... |
Prom 19, Rummukainen, Dandy, BBCSO, Oramo review - inward reflections and choral transcendenceSunday, 04 August 2024
How do you get five thousand plus people into the Albert Hall to hear two Sanskrit-based rarities by British-born composers? Simple: place the Elgar Cello Concerto in between them. Here was another daring Prom programme that totally worked, not... Read more... |
Prom 10, Van der Heijden, BBCSSO, Ryan Wigglesworth review - an engaging and esoteric delightSaturday, 27 July 2024
What is Englishness? Over the last century the answer has changed substantially. Yet last night’s Prom, which – according to the programme – set itself the task of celebrating “all things English” had a very particular answer.This was an England of... Read more... |
Hough, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - affection and adventureMonday, 20 May 2024
It’s probably a bit early to be getting misty-eyed about the approaching end of Sir Mark Elder’s time as music director of the Hallé, but the programme he and they have just finished touring in the North of England will have been, for many, his real... Read more... |
Marwood, Power, Watkins, Hallé, Adès, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - sonic adventure and luxurianceTuesday, 09 April 2024
For the second big concert of his “residency” with the Hallé this season, Thomas Adès chose one major piece of his own, rather than a set of shorter ones. Tevot, a 21-minute one-movement work written for the Berlin Philharmonic 18 years ago,... Read more... |
Album: Beyoncé - Cowboy CarterMonday, 01 April 2024
The second act of a trilogy, launched with “Renaissance” (2022), Beyoncé’s latest release has been loudly proclaimed as her “Country” album. In a tradition of surprising and controversial self-reinventions that includes among others Bob Dylan’s... Read more... |
Anemoi / The Cellist, Royal Ballet review - a feast of music in a neat double billWednesday, 25 October 2023
Double bills at the ballet don’t often come as neatly gift-wrapped. Each of the works in question was made just before or during lockdown, arriving at its premiere by the skin of its teeth. Each went on to win a Critics’ Circle National Dance Award... Read more... |
Kim, BBC Philharmonic, Gernon, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - the sound of brassMonday, 09 October 2023
Ben Gernon’s relationship with the BBC Philharmonic has been a richly rewarding one over the close-on seven years since his appointment as their principal guest conductor began, and indeed subsequently. The impression gained on his first... Read more... |
Fung, RPO, Schwarz, Cadogan Hall review - high style from new cellist and conductor on the blockThursday, 28 September 2023
You go to a concert, three-quarters of it popular classics – also great masterpieces – having been told you have to hear a brilliant young cellist, and into the bargain you also discover a remarkable conductor and an orchestra on top form shedding... Read more... |
Prom 14: Lisiecki, BBCSO, Chan - fine textures and subtle delightsWednesday, 26 July 2023
One of the undoubted highlights of Prom 14 was unprogrammed – following his commanding performance of Beethoven’s third piano concerto, Jan Lisiecki returned to the stage to give an encore of Chopin’s Nocturne in E Flat, Opus 9 No 2.There was a rapt... Read more... |
theartsdesk at The Three Choirs Festival - Elgar, Vaughan Williams and HammondTuesday, 25 July 2023
The Three Choirs is (are?) off again, for the 295th time, but with a very different look, even from the festivals of my youth, never mind 1715, or whenever the first one was held (there seems to be some doubt about it). The big oratorio... Read more... |
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