Classical music
Kraggerud, Irish Chamber Orchestra, RIAM Dublin review - stomping, dancing, magical Vivaldi plusFriday, 11 April 2025
A lot hung upon the delivery last night of Henning Kraggerud, whom I last witnessed leading performances of Strauss’s Metamorphosen and some of his own music at the head of a mine in Svalbard: he was announced at the beginning of the concert as the... Read more... |
Small, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - return to Shostakovich’s ambiguous triumphalismFriday, 11 April 2025
Kahchun Wong returned to the symphony with which he made his first big impression conducting the Hallé – and made a big impression with it again.The evening in February 2023 when he conducted Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony was his first concert with... Read more... |
LSO, Noseda, Barbican review - Half Six shake-upThursday, 10 April 2025
Tired after a hard day at the office? You might think you need a Classic FM-style warm bath, but the blast of Prokofiev’s Second Symphony, one of the noisiest in the repertoire, is the real ticket to recharging the batteries. Gianandrea Noseda, on... Read more... |
Frang, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - every beauty revealedMonday, 07 April 2025
When Vladimir Jurowski returns to what used to be “his” London Philharmonic Orchestra, you’d better jump. I would have done on Wednesday had I been able to get to his heady mix of Russian and Ukrainian rarities; luckily I could on Saturday night,... Read more... |
Levit, Sternath, Wigmore Hall review - pushing the boundaries in Prokofiev and ShostakovichSaturday, 05 April 2025
Igor Levit is a master of the unorthodox marathon, one he was happy to share last night with 24-year-old Austrian Lukas Sternath, his student in Hanover. Not only did Sternath get the obvious stunner of two Prokofiev sonatas in the first half; he... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Big bands, beasts and birdcallsSaturday, 05 April 2025
Vox Feminae: music by Barbara Strozzi, Antonia Bemba, Hieryonymus Kapsberger... Les Kapsber’girls/Albane Imbs (Alpha)What a complete transformation from one album to the next. The last one, Vous-avez dit brunettes? – "did you say... Read more... |
Connolly, BBC Philharmonic, Paterson, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a journey through French splendoursMonday, 31 March 2025
The BBC Philharmonic took its Saturday night audience on a journey into French sonic luxuriance – in reverse order of historical formation, beginning with Duruflé, continuing with Chausson and ending with Saint-Saëns. It was conducted by Geoffrey... Read more... |
Biss, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, NCH Dublin review - full house goes wild for vivid epicsSaturday, 29 March 2025
On paper, it was a standard programme with no stars to explain how this came to be a sellout concert. But packed it was, an audience of all ages which sat with concentrated awe through the spellbinding slow movement of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto... Read more... |
Verdi Requiem, Philharmonia, Muti, RFH review - new sparks from an old flameFriday, 28 March 2025
Forget, for a moment, the legend and the lustre. If you knew nothing about Riccardo Muti’s half-century of history with Verdi’s Messa da Requiem for the writer-patriot Alessandro Manzoni – he first gave it with the Philharmonia back in 1974 – and... Read more... |
Batsashvili, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a star in the piano universeTuesday, 25 March 2025
Mariam Batsashvili, the young virtuosa pianist from Georgia, is a star. No doubt about that. Trained at the Liszt Academy in Weimar and winner of the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in that city in 2015, she should know... Read more... |
Naumov, SCO, Egarr, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - orchestral magic rescues some punishing musicSaturday, 22 March 2025
The Scottish Chamber Orchestra has had to put up with its fair share of artist cancellations over the last month, and the ensuing games of musical chairs led to the somewhat implausible scenario of this concert, where Richard Egarr, a conductor more... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Shipping lines, sabre dances and sea liceSaturday, 22 March 2025
Donizetti: Songs Vols. 3 & 4 Michael Spyres (tenor), Carlo Rizzi (piano) – Vol. 3, Marie-Nicole Lemieux (mezzo-soprano), Giulio Zappa (piano) – Vol. 4. (Opera Rara)“The songs Donizetti poured forth during his composing career have [..]... Read more... |
