Classical Reviews

Hannigan, Uchida, Philharmonia, Salonen, Royal Festival Hall

Sebastian Scotney Friday, 13 February 2015

While the Berlin Philharmonic's progress through London with Simon Rattle has grabbed the column inches away from the rest of the capital's classical music offerings this week, a delightful mostly Ravel programme from the Philharmonia should not be passed over.

Sibelius Cycle 2, Kavakos, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, Barbican

David Nice Thursday, 12 February 2015

Bass lines were Edward Seckerson’s starting point yesterday in welcoming the Berlin Philharmonic Sibelius cycle to London, and none strikes more terror from the depths than the subterranean growl that launches the most selectively-scored symphony of the 20^th Century, the Fourth.

Sibelius Cycle 1, Berliner Philharmoniker, Rattle, Barbican

Edward Seckerson Wednesday, 11 February 2015

Sir Simon Rattle’s Sibelian journey has been long and fruitful and has taken him all the way from Birmingham to Berlin, and more particularly the revered Philharmonic where the spaces between the notes now resonate in extraordinary ways and the bass lines are sunk deeper than with any other orchestra on the planet.

Lewis, Philharmonia, Nelsons, Royal Festival Hall

Gavin Dixon Monday, 09 February 2015

Andris Nelsons is flavour of the month in London. He is in town to conduct The Flying Dutchman at Covent Garden, but between performances he is moonlighting at the Festival Hall, giving two concerts with the Philharmonia. This, the first, opened with a serviceable Mozart Piano Concerto No. 25 from Paul Lewis, and concluded with a Bruckner Third Symphony that was in a different league entirely.

Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra, Scapucci, Liverpool Philharmonic Hall

Glyn Môn Hughes Sunday, 08 February 2015

The Royal Liverpool Philharmonic has something of a track record when it comes to finding conductors destined for great heights. After all, Sir Simon Rattle was a player in Merseyside Youth Orchestra and started his conducting career in Liverpool. The latest RLPO concert, following that great tradition, included a new face. And what an impact she made.

Bondarenko, LPO, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall

Geoff Brown Sunday, 08 February 2015

The concert season’s title may be Rachmaninoff Inside Out. But the work that dominated and got people talking in yesterday’s instalment of Vladimir Jurowski’s London Philharmonic series was by another composer entirely. “Weird, isn’t it?” said the man in the row behind. And that was only after the first movement of George Enescu’s massive Symphony No.

Carducci String Quartet, St George's Hall Concert Room, Liverpool

Glyn Môn Hughes Thursday, 05 February 2015

When you’re visiting someone for the first time, it’s probably just as well that you make a good impression – or else you may not be asked back.

Tutuguri, BBCSO, Nagano, Barbican

Peter Quantrill Sunday, 01 February 2015

If what you wanted to do was go out to the middle of the Mexican desert, invert the Cross and dip it in blood, screaming obscenities all the while, surrounded by a sunburnt band of fellow travellers all off their heads on mescalin, Tutuguri is definitely the music you’d want to do it to.

Florian Boesch, Roger Vignoles, Wigmore Hall

alexandra Coghlan Friday, 30 January 2015

Ernst Krenek is probably best remembered nowadays as the composer of Jonny Spielt Auf – the quintessential Zeitoper of Weimar Germany and later the archetype of all that was designated “degenerate” in art by the Nazi regime. And perhaps also as – briefly – the husband of Anna Mahler, daughter of Gustav. But Krenek was far more than that.

Comment

Hannigan, LPO, Jurowski, Festival Hall

Geoff Brown Thursday, 29 January 2015

Barbara Hannigan, we all know, is game for anything. This Canadian soprano with the pearliest tones and the dramatic instincts of a Sarah Bernhardt can find beauty and meaning in almost every contemporary composer’s barbed wire. Recently she’s been cavorting on stage as Alban Berg’s Lulu; earlier this month, for a sliver of Ligeti, she paraded herself on the Barbican platform as a gum-chewing schoolgirl in a naughty micro-skirt.