Royal Albert Hall
First Night of the Proms, BBCSO, Chan review - from the sublime to the mischievously meticulousSaturday, 20 July 2024
The first night of the BBC’s 2024 Proms season was illuminated by the blazing brilliance of Isata Kanneh-Mason’s performance of Clara Schumann’s Piano Concerto and the world premiere of Ben Nobuto’s witty video-game-inspired Hallelujah Sim. Hong... Read more... |
Prom 6, Verdi's Requiem, BBCNOW, Bancroft review - running the emotional gamutWednesday, 24 July 2024
Returning after ten months to the unique vasts of Albert’s colosseum, especially for a Verdi Requiem as powerful as this and a packed hall, felt like a rebirth. There was immediate purging in the focused whispers of the first “Requiem aeternam”s,... Read more... |
Prom 5, BBC National Orchestra of Wales, Bancroft review - a luxury orchestral cruiseTuesday, 23 July 2024
This looked like a classic Prom in the grand old BBC tradition: two big but lesser-known pieces by pivotal figures (Schoenberg and Zemlinsky) played by a major non-metropolitan ensemble, the BBC National Orchestra of Wales. And so it proved, with... Read more... |
BBC Proms 2024 Preview: theartsdesk recommends…Friday, 19 July 2024
So maybe there’s a bigger quota of popular Proms, leading Stephen Walsh to lambast what he sees as "junk" to avoid. It surely doesn’t matter. Among the 89 concerts, some of them beyond the Royal Albert Hall, the mix of old and new, middle-of-the-... Read more... |
Ellie Goulding, Royal Philharmonic Concert Orchestra, Royal Albert Hall review - a mellow evening of strings and songSaturday, 13 April 2024
For a singer so often sampled in electronic dance music, it’s a high-end twist to replace synth, claps and bass drum with the woodwinds, strings and brass of an orchestra.Hot on the heels of her newest release, “Higher Than Heaven”, Ellie Golding... Read more... |
Ben Folds, Royal Albert Hall review - piano pyrotechnics and modern musingsWednesday, 15 November 2023
When Ben Folds emerged in the mid-90s he was like Billy Joel’s snot-nosed little brother: another virtuoso pianist and songwriter but one whose style was sarcastic, subversive and a little bit punky.He has now mellowed into something of an elder... Read more... |
Album: Cat Power Sings Dylan - The 1966 Royal Albert Hall ConcertWednesday, 08 November 2023
Cat Power, aka singer-songwriter Chan Marshall, is releasing her first live album – a recording of the faithful recreation of Bob Dylan’s infamous gig of 1966, played in November 2022 at the Royal Albert Hall.Dylan’s transformative gig actually took... Read more... |
Life after Tár: conductors at the 2023 BBC PromsFriday, 15 September 2023
A conductor who can now add "Gár" to his less flattering sobriquets may not have appeared as advertised at this year's Proms, but surely Chris Christodoulou can find a photo of him punching the air among his 43 years' worth of conductor portraits... Read more... |
Prom 65: Bruckner's Eighth, BBCSO, Bychkov review - a friendly giantTuesday, 05 September 2023
Bruckner's behemoth has always had its fervent champions – and its muttering sceptics. The 85-odd minutes of his Eighth Symphony, finally performed after major revisions in 1892, build into a titanic testament. Advocates read into it enough... Read more... |
Prom 64: Les Troyens, Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, Sousa review - ravishing interpretation of Berlioz's masterpieceMonday, 04 September 2023
It’s one of the great tragedies of Les Troyens that its composer never got to hear it performed in its entirety during his lifetime. This ravishing, big-hearted interpretation of the two of the most dramatic episodes in Virgil’s Aeneid was dismissed... Read more... |
Prom 60: Gerstein, Berlin RSO, Jurowski review - a master conductor returns with his German bandFriday, 01 September 2023
During his transformational time at the helm of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, Vladimir Jurowski conducted the complete Threepenny Opera in concert and two performances of Rachmaninov’s Third Symphony which changed my mind about its being good... Read more... |
Prom 55: Thibaudet, Boston Symphony Orchestra, Nelsons review - old-style showmanshipMonday, 28 August 2023
Funfairs and dance music, old world and new, should have guaranteed a corker of a second Prom from the Boston Symphony Orchestra with its chief conductor, Andris Nelsons. Glitter it did; but wit, drive and violence took a back seat to showcase... Read more... |
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