Classical music
Isserlis, LPO, Elder, Southbank Centre online review – songs of life and deathThursday, 15 April 2021
The Southbank Centre automatically stuck the trusty “Bohemian Rhapsodies” headline on this London Philharmonic Orchestra concert of Czech music streamed from the still-deserted Royal Festival Hall. Given Janáček’s presence on the bill, they should... Read more... |
Benjamin Grosvenor, Barbican online review - black magic and golden-age gorgeousnessTuesday, 13 April 2021
I can’t deny that it’s great to be able to experience a recital by Benjamin Grosvenor live from the Barbican despite lockdown, streamed into your own home. The filming of this performance on Saturday night was superb, clear and well paced; we could... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Dramatic symphonies, medieval bagpipes and a solo bassoonSaturday, 10 April 2021
Beethoven: Symphony No. 7, Piano Concerto No. 4, Rotterdam Philharmonic Orchestra/Lahav Shani (piano and conductor) (Warner Classics)Poor Beethoven’s 250th anniversary year saw most of the projected live events cancelled, but good new... Read more... |
Castalian Quartet, Stoller Hall, Manchester online review - mercurial playing fits a varied programmeFriday, 09 April 2021
The Polyphonic Concert Club is a collective of musicians – including Isata Kanneh-Mason and I Fagiolini – offering recorded chamber recitals released weekly through March and April. Like the festivals of Voces8 (I reviewed their Christmas series)... Read more... |
Messiah highlights, English National Opera, BBC Two review – short-cut sorrow and redemptionSunday, 04 April 2021
Well, it wasn’t quite Messiah, but it was a source of joy. In ENO’s end-of-lockdown staging, BBC Two’s transmission of Handel’s resurrection song delivered a scant 54 minutes of music from the Coliseum on Easter Saturday. In contrast, two ancient... Read more... |
Bach St John Passions from Oxford and Stockholm online review – theatrical drive from Gardiner, interiority under HardingSaturday, 03 April 2021
Last Easter, viewing options were limited: no-one who saw it will forget a version of Bach’s St John Passion from the church where it was first performed in 1724, Leipzig’s Thomaskirche, with an idiosyncratic tenor taking all the parts other than... Read more... |
Ibragimova, Davies, Sampson, Arcangelo, Wigmore Hall online review – baroque masterpieces played with verveThursday, 01 April 2021
The baroque music ensemble Arcangelo have been around since 2010 but I hadn’t heard them before this pair of concerts streamed from Wigmore Hall in the last week. But what I heard has certainly encouraged me to seek out more – and they have quickly... Read more... |
Tenebrae, Short, Wigmore Hall online review - reflections for Holy WeekWednesday, 31 March 2021
A year into the pandemic, it is hard to imagine anybody relishing the prosect of Lenten austerity. But the liturgical calendar trundles on, and here we are in Holy Week. The aptly named Tenebrae Choir, under conductor Nigel Short here offer a... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Music for Easter, vocal anthologies and a trip to DundalkSaturday, 27 March 2021
Bach: St Matthew Passion Gaechinger Cantorey/Hans-Christoph Rademann (Accentus)Your shelves may already be overburdened with recordings of Bach’s St Matthew Passion, but make a small space for this one. Recorded in November 2020 under lockdown... Read more... |
First Person: violinist Abigail Young on getting back to her Japanese orchestra in Covid yearFriday, 26 March 2021
February 2020: an item a long way down the agenda of the nightly news caused me to remark, fairly casually, “I wonder if that will affect me”. I had already heard about Covid-19, the new virus emerging from China; now it was spreading... Read more... |
Lewis, Hallé, Thórarinsdóttir online review - serenity and spiceFriday, 26 March 2021
For the newest performance of their part-postponed “Winter Season” on film, the Hallé return to their rehearsal and performance centre in Ancoats, and with the help of piano soloist-director Paul Lewis and guest leader-director Eva Thórarinsdóttir... Read more... |
theartsdesk Q&A: conductor Klaus MäkeläThursday, 25 March 2021
Let the facts – and the music-making you can see and hear online – speak for themselves first. Finnish conductor Klaus Mäkelä became the Oslo Philharmonic’s chief conductor last September, at the age of 24; he takes up the same post with the... Read more... |
