Classical Reviews
Sounds of Estonia, Kings Place review - one of the world's great choirs on spellbinding formMonday, 28 March 2022
The history of Estonia has been described as “a story set to song”. The Estonian activist Heinz Valk called singing “our nation’s most glorious form of self-expression.” There are, of course, other nations where singing is seen as an expression of national identity, but probably none more so than the Baltic country. Read more... |
Ferrández, RPO, Petrenko, RFH review - music defying oppressionFriday, 25 March 2022
This concert started with a heartfelt and moving speech from the Festival Hall podium by Vasily Petrenko, half-Ukrainian, brought up in St Petersburg. “What could I have done? What could we all have done? Read more... |
St John Passion, English Touring Opera, Lichfield Cathedral review - free-range Bach doesn't quite add upTuesday, 22 March 2022
JS Bach’s Passions as music theatre? Well, why not? Whatever the aura of untouchability around these works, they were always conceived as part of a bigger picture: a communal sacred ritual in which the divide between performer and audience wasn’t so much blurred as nonexistent. Read more... |
Hallé Choir, BBC Philharmonic, Davis, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - celebrating Vaughan WilliamsTuesday, 22 March 2022
Continuing the joint BBC Philharmonic/Hallé celebration of Vaughan Williams, Sir Andrew Davis took on the job of presenting three substantial works on Saturday. Read more... |
Angela Hewitt, Wigmore Hall review - grand tour in a luxury vehicleMonday, 21 March 2022
The four years of Angela Hewitt’s globe-trotting “Bach Odyssey” confirmed time and again that she brings a nonpareil artistry and authority to the most demanding, and rewarding, of all keyboard repertoires. Yet the Canadian pianist, as we already knew, carries plenty of other arrows in her musical quiver. Read more... |
Kolesnikov, Tsoy, LSO St Luke’s review - light, air and adventure from two pianosMonday, 21 March 2022
After the turbulence of masterpieces over the previous three evenings – Janáček, Britten, and the greats featured in this duo’s Fidelio Café fundraiser for Ukraine – it was balm to feel the air and leisure of the first three miniatures in this beautifully-planned programme. Read more... |
Bournemouth SO, Karabits, Lighthouse, Poole – let there be light and joySaturday, 19 March 2022
Returning to his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the first time since the crisis began in his home country, Kirill Karabits’ arrival on stage was greeted by the entire Lighthouse audience rising to their feet with loud applause and cheers of support. Read more... |
CBSO Chorus, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - a mass of lifeThursday, 17 March 2022
One of the world’s top five orchestras – sorry, but I locate them all in continental Europe – played on the second night of its London visit to a half-empty Barbican Hall. Half-full, rather, attentive and ecstatic. As for the much-criticised venue, which I’ve always been able to live with, playing as fine as this shows that you don’t need a state-of-the-art auditorium to make the most beautiful sounds. Read more... |
Wang, Czech Philharmonic, Bychkov, Barbican review - the sound of historyWednesday, 16 March 2022
“The past is never dead,” William Faulkner famously wrote. “It’s not even past.” Funny to think that I approached 2022 bored in advance with all the glib celebrations of post-WWI international modernist breakthroughs that the centenary of Ulysses and co. heralded. Yet here we are, the year only a couple of months old, standing eagerly for a national anthem in a packed concert hall. Read more... |
Bartlett, LPO, Mathieson, Congress Theatre, Eastbourne review – Rhymes, Rhapsody and Winter DaydreamsTuesday, 15 March 2022
Who could have imagined the table-turning controversy that might have cast doubt on the inclusion of works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky when planning this programme? Read more... |
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