piano
Tharaud, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chorus, Nézet-Séguin, Royal Festival HallThursday, 24 October 2013
If ever there were a week for London to celebrate Poulenc in the lamentably under-commemorated 50th anniversary year of his death, this is it. Two major choral works and two fun concertos at last join the party. But if Figure Humaine and the... Read more... |
Hough, BBC Philharmonic, Mena, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSunday, 29 September 2013
They did it, and continue to do it, their way. Under the self-confident title of The Mancunian Way, the BBC Philharmonic’s new season aims to celebrate the story of music-making in the city through works, composers and performers with special links... Read more... |
Uchida, London Symphony Orchestra, Ticciati, BarbicanFriday, 20 September 2013
Rumour machines have been thrumming to the tune of “Rattle as next LSO Principal Conductor”. Sir Simon would, it’s true, be as good for generating publicity as the current incumbent, the ever more alarming Valery Gergiev. But if the orchestra... Read more... |
Prom 73: Imogen Cooper, Paul LewisFriday, 06 September 2013
It’s not because I lament the annual end of a love-hate relationship with the Albert Hall that the last few days of Proms feel rather melancholy. A bittersweetness lies rather in the drawing-in of evenings, however hot it is, so late night Schubert... Read more... |
Prom 69: Hadland, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, PetrenkoWednesday, 04 September 2013
May I be permitted a rude, opinionated intermezzo between reflections on Vasily Petrenko’s two Oslo Philharmonic Proms, and before Marin Alsop steps up to great expectations for the Last Night? Here’s another Russian in trouble, not for keeping mum... Read more... |
Prom 33: Uchida, Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra, JansonsSaturday, 10 August 2013
Precious few musicians can instill such a sense of intimacy into their playing as to have us believing that the Royal Albert Hall is the Wigmore Hall and that their performance is for an audience of one and not six thousand. Mitsuko Uchida is... Read more... |
Prom 30: Bavouzet, BBC Philharmonic, NosedaTuesday, 06 August 2013
It was mostly Russian night at the Proms, and mostly music you could dance to, as a hand jiving Arena Prommer rather distractingly proved in the finale of Tchaikovsky’s Second Symphony. Even Prokofiev’s elephantine Second Piano Concerto was... Read more... |
Prom 26: Serkin, BBC Symphony Orchestra, KnussenFriday, 02 August 2013
You wait years for a live performance to test whether Tippett’s Second Symphony is a masterpiece, and then two come along within six months. Both are due to the missionary zeal of the BBC Symphony Orchestra management, determined to give an... Read more... |
Yevgeny Sudbin, Wigmore HallFriday, 19 July 2013
A second visit to hear this already great young Russian pianist in six months was meant for private pleasure only. Yet no-one in the Wigmore Hall audience last night, I’ll hazard a guess, will ever have heard Liszt playing like Sudbin’s in a first... Read more... |
Martha Argerich, Bridgewater Hall, ManchesterSaturday, 13 July 2013
It is nearly 50 years since Martha Argerich played in Manchester. She performed with the Hallé Orchestra and the conductor was Claudio Abbado, making his UK debut. That was in 1965 and a year later they repeated their double act. Thanks to the... Read more... |
Elisabeth Leonskaja, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 06 June 2013
On most of her London visits, Elisabeth Leonskaja has been an unassuming high priestess of the mysteries and depths in core sonatas by Beethoven, Chopin and Schubert. This time she applied her Russian-school style of orchestral pianism, tempered as... Read more... |
Berezovsky, Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Järvi, Royal Festival HallSaturday, 25 May 2013
In 1980, an orchestra and conductor then hardly known in Britain came to the Royal Festival Hall. I went to hear Elisabeth Söderström in Strauss’s Four Last Songs; I left stunned by an unorthodox Sibelius Second Symphony and above all by one of the... Read more... |
