Classical Reviews
Bach B minor Mass, Clare College Choir, Aurora Orchestra, Collon, Kings PlaceSunday, 22 December 2013
Nothing tests small-hall acoustics better than that most exuberant of holies, the Sanctus from Bach’s B minor Mass. After one of the year’s big disappointments, the blowsy sound coming from chamber ensembles in the Barbican/Guildhall School’s new Milton Court – a surprise miscalculation from Arup acousticians - it seemed imperative to get back to Kings Place’s Hall One, which feels bigger but is some 200 seats smaller (420 to Milton Court’s 608). Read more... |
BBC Singers, St James's Baroque, Hill, Temple ChurchSaturday, 21 December 2013
There’s a reason why many people think Handel and, particularly his Messiah, is dull. Relatively easy to play, his music is incredibly difficult to perform well. Take this Temple Winter Festival outing with choral expert David Hill conducting the immensely skilled BBC Singers who can, and largely do, sing everything; four soloists all banishing grandiose, wobbly vibrato from days of yore; and the accomplished St James’s Baroque. Read more... |
Brewer, BBCSO, Gardner, BarbicanSaturday, 21 December 2013
Although worlds away from festive mangers and mince pies, the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s pre-Christmas offering spread good cheer aplenty thanks to an absorbing programme of Austro-German repertoire that explored the outer reaches of Romanticism without ever quite leaving its orbit. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Tchaikovsky, Harry Christophers, 4 Girls 4 HarpsSaturday, 21 December 2013
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Winterreise, Gilchrist, Tilbrook, Temple ChurchThursday, 19 December 2013
A rare thing indeed. A British singer/pianist duo has had the patience, and also been given the opportunities over a number of years, to own and to inhabit a thoroughly individual and intelligent interpretation of Schubert's Winterreise. Read more... |
Uchida, Musicians from the Berlin Philharmonic, Wigmore HallWednesday, 18 December 2013
Exactly what constitutes “the End of Time” in Olivier Messiaen’s extraordinary Quartet for piano, violin, cello and clarinet? Not surely “the end of days” but rather the end of measured time; music unfettered, music of the spheres, music without frontiers. Read more... |
L'Enfance du Christ, BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, Roth, BarbicanSunday, 15 December 2013
For seasonal fare that’s also profound, few pre-Christmas weekends in London can ever have been richer than this one. Hearts battered by John Adams’ nativity oratorio El Niño last night, one hoped for more soothing medicine this afternoon in the naïve and sentimental music of Berlioz’s sacred trilogy, first performed some 145 years earlier. Read more... |
El Niño, London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 15 December 2013
John Adams’ millennial conflagration of musical poems about childbirth, destruction and the divine made manifest not only served as a seasonal farewell and a transcendent epilogue to the Southbank’s year of 20th-century music The Rest is Noise; it also stood pure and proud as a masterpiece. Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Berlioz, Ensemble GalileiSaturday, 14 December 2013
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The Orgelbüchlein Project, Chapel Royal of St Peter ad VinculaSunday, 08 December 2013
It was a bright idea which, thanks to careful programming, has delivered – among other special events – two rich concerts in the Tower of London’s unexpectedly welcoming Tudor church, courtesy of the enterprising Spitalfields Music Winter Festival. Bach left behind an exquisite volume, the “Little Organ Book”, designed to contain 164 chorale preludes. Read more... |
Tchaikovsky: Swan Lake (complete ballet) Bergen Philharmonic Orchestra/Neeme Järvi, with James Ehnes (violin) (Chandos)Pages
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