Classical music
Sound Unwrapped Launch, Kings Place review - ravishing combination of ancient and modernSaturday, 21 January 2023
The distinctive silvery tones of the viola da gamba were eclipsed in the 18th century as music moved from intimate settings to the brasher acoustic demands of the concert hall. Yet for Liam Byrne, discovering the viola da gamba at Indiana University... Read more... |
First Person: Kings Place Artistic and Executive Director Helen Wallace on a year of 'Sound Unwrapped'Saturday, 21 January 2023
2023 is surely the year the performing arts reach peak "immersive", a word endangered by its own ubiquity. From Punchdrunk’s Burnt City to Danny Boyle’s The Matrix we are promised a swallowing-up by art. Kings Cross is the location for two visual... Read more... |
Watts, BBCSO, Wigglesworth, Barbican review - clarity, control and focusSaturday, 21 January 2023
Ryan Wigglesworth is a man of many talents. He has recently been appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony, but he is also a versatile opera conductor, and an operatic sensibility is clear in the musical personality he projects.Last... Read more... |
Yevgeny Sudbin, World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens review - phenomenal pianism in close-upThursday, 19 January 2023
It was a rare treat to hear Yevgeny Sudbin’s piano artistry quite so close up. World Heart Beat Embassy Gardens is a new venue, in fact just in the process of being born (more about the venue lower down). In the room, with its seated capacity of... Read more... |
Lowe, The Mozartists, Page, Wigmore Hall - an education, not quite a triumphWednesday, 18 January 2023
Ian Page’s “journey of a lifetime” with his Mozartists, taking the greatest genius year by year, lands us in 1773 with the adolescent Mozart's first durable crowdpleaser, the pretty-brilliant motet for soprano and orchestra Exsultate, jubilate (last... Read more... |
Faust, Tamestit, EBS, Gardiner, St Martin-in-the-Fields review - countless shades of brilliantSaturday, 14 January 2023
Haydn and Mozart symphonies from John Eliot Gardiner and his English Baroque Soloists are bound, at the very least, to be high, lucid and bright. Last night the X-factor was there too, and trebled in a surely unsurpassable account of Mozart’s... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Musical saws, keyed fiddles and kestrelsSaturday, 14 January 2023
Dvořák: Symphonies 1-9, Legends, Slavonic Dances Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra/José Serebrier (Warner Classics)The advantage of having all the Dvořák symphonies in one handy box is that you can explore the works that rarely get an airing;... Read more... |
Benedetti, Hallé, Elder, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - essays in transparencyFriday, 13 January 2023
Nicola Benedetti and Sir Mark Elder are both in the enviable position of being able to take audiences with them into music territory that might scare some away. So it was a gratifyingly near-capacity house that heard Szymanowski’s Second Violin... Read more... |
First Person: Royal Academy of Music Principal Jonathan Freeman-Attwood on why a conservatoire should make recordingsWednesday, 11 January 2023
Why is it important for a music conservatoire to make recordings? What is the educational context? These are questions we have continued to reflect upon at the Royal Academy of Music – celebrating its bicentenary this year – since we took our first... Read more... |
Mithras Trio, Wigmore Hall review - exhilarating, highly-toned performanceTuesday, 10 January 2023
The adrenalin was in full flow yesterday lunchtime at the Wigmore Hall as the dynamic young Mithras Trio delivered a vigorous, toned performance featuring Beethoven, Bridge and an electrifying new work by Joy Lisney. The trio, who have been together... Read more... |
National Youth Orchestra, Bloch, Barbican review - blazing and surging odysseysThursday, 05 January 2023
In precarious times, musical wonders never seem to cease – for now, at least. Who would have thought during lockdown that we’d be back so soon and so frequently to the kind of massive orchestra needed to play a cosmic blockbuster like Richard... Read more... |
Best of 2022: Classical CDsSaturday, 31 December 2022
At the risk of sounding like a scratched record (or a cracked CD), it’s reassuring to know that you can still buy new recordings in physical formats. Granted, CDs do take up shelf space, but in most cases they sound better than most downloads and... Read more... |
