piano
Imogen Cooper 70th Birthday Concert, Wigmore Hall review - outwardly austere, lit from withinWednesday, 23 October 2019
There are now two septuagenarians playing Schubert at a level no other living pianist can touch. Imogen Cooper celebrated her 70th birthday on 28 August, and marked it at the Wigmore Hall last night with a two-interval epic, poised but full of inner... Read more... |
Bavouzet, Manchester Camerata, Takács-Nagy, Stoller Hall, Manchester, review - concertos as operaThursday, 26 September 2019
Manchester Camerata’s series of in-concert recordings featuring Mozart piano concertos with Jean-Efflam Bavouzet is well under way now, and this programme, like others before it, included a couple of his opera overtures too. Why so? "Because all... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Saint-Saëns, Yolanda Kondonassis, Konstantin Reinfeld & Benyamin NussSaturday, 31 August 2019
Saint-Saëns: Piano Concertos 3, 4 & 5 Alexandre Kantorow (piano), Tapiola Sinfonietta/Jean-Jacques Kantorow (BIS)Saint-Saëns’ five piano concertos are a pleasure no one need feel guilty about indulging in. My current go-to cycle is a... Read more... |
Manchester International Piano Competition, Chetham’s review - stars in the makingTuesday, 27 August 2019
The Manchester International Piano Competition produced three outstanding performances over the two evenings of its finals: the winner of the first prize was Ilia Lomtatidze, from Georgia, with second prize awarded jointly to the Italian and French... Read more... |
Prom 43: Haefliger, BBCSO & Chorus, Oramo review – the frisson of the newTuesday, 20 August 2019
Time was, not long ago, when the very word “premiere” was enough to ensure a sizeable smattering of red plush holes in the Royal Albert Hall audience. It seemed people did not want to risk attending new works for fear they would sound ghastly. Any... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Isabelle Aboulker, Swan Hennessy, SchubertSaturday, 03 August 2019
Isabelle Aboulker: Mélodies/Songs en français and in English Julia Kogan (soprano), Isabelle Aboulker (piano) (First Hand Records)Never heard of Isabelle Aboulker? Now in her 80th year, she's worked as a choral director and a singing... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Brahms, Sibelius, Thomas WilsonSaturday, 27 July 2019
Brahms: The Piano Quartets The Primrose Piano Quartet (Meridian)Schoenberg complained that performances of Brahms’s G minor Piano Quartet never pleased him (“the better the pianist, the louder he plays and you hear nothing from the strings”).... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Stewart Goodyear, Nielsen, WeinbergSaturday, 20 July 2019
Stewart Goodyear: Callaloo, Piano Sonata; Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue Stewart Goodyear (piano), Chineke! Orchestra/Wayne Marshall (Orchid Classics)Callaloo is Stewart Goodyear’s indecently entertaining suite for piano and orchestra, the title... Read more... |
Ax, Keenlyside, Dover Quartet, Wigmore Hall review – celebratory SchumannWednesday, 26 June 2019
Emanuel Ax here celebrated his 70th birthday with an all-Schumann recital. In fact, it was an all-Schumann marathon, a three-hour concert at Wigmore Hall featuring solo works, Dichterliebe with Simon Keenlyside, and, with the Dover Quartet, the... Read more... |
Kozhukhin, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - more cultured than electrifyingWednesday, 12 June 2019
With two German giants roaring - Brahms in leonine mode, Richard Strauss more with tongue in armour-plated cheek - it could have all been too much. Not in the eloquent hands of the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's Music Director Designate, Vasily... Read more... |
Alfredo Rodriguez and Pedrito Martinez, Ronnie Scott's review - Cuban wizards of piano and percussionTuesday, 04 June 2019
Percussionist Pedrito Martinez is one of those musicians who forces you to re-think what instruments are capable of – while making you wonder if there is actually anything he can’t do. He plays congas, batá drums and bongos with breathtaking... Read more... |
Igor Levit, Wigmore Hall review – full-spectrum Bach from a prodigious talentThursday, 23 May 2019
You seldom hear a Champions League-level roar of approval at the Wigmore Hall. Last night, though, Igor Levit drew a throaty collective bark of appreciation from the audience after (for once) an awed hush had followed the final dying cadences of the... Read more... |
