Barbican
Bavouzet, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - playing the long game in SibeliusSaturday, 28 October 2017
Perhaps Sibelius did the right thing, signing off Tapiola in 1926 and then all but closing his account, spending the next three decades sitting and drinking. Over in Paris, his near-contemporary Florent Schmitt carried on, beavering away not only as... Read more... |
October, LSO, Strobel, Barbican review - Eisenstein with steel scoreFriday, 27 October 2017
Forget the ersatz experience of Sergey Eisenstein's mighty silent films accompanied by slabs of Shostakovich symphonies composed years later. This collaboration between the London Symphony Orchestra and Kino Klassika is as close as we can ever come... Read more... |
Total Immersion: Julian Anderson, Barbican review - BBC ensembles showcase leading British composerMonday, 23 October 2017
Julian Anderson’s 50th birthday this year was the prompt for the latest of the BBC’s Total Immersion days, devoted to the work of a single contemporary composer. I have long been a fan of Anderson’s music since hearing the marvellous Khorovod in the... Read more... |
Michael Clark Company, Barbican Theatre review - bad boy of dance comes goodSaturday, 21 October 2017
If there were an arts award for loyalty, the Barbican Theatre would surely win it for having kept faith with Michael Clark. It’s no secret that the bad-boy image that has clung to Clark since his punk extravaganzas in the 1980s had consequences in... Read more... |
BBCSO, Brabbins, Barbican review - commanding vistas of earth and seaSaturday, 14 October 2017
Dances of earth and songs of sea – the BBC Symphony Orchestra's latest programme offered an inspired coupling, where similar inspirations balanced contrasting styles. In a gritty first half, Birtwistle’s Earth Dances played out over a continuous 40-... Read more... |
After the Rehearsal/Persona, Toneelgroep Amsterdam, Barbican - van Hove reconfigures BergmanSaturday, 30 September 2017
Three tall orders must be met in any successful transfer of an Ingmar Bergman text from screen to stage. First, take a company of actors as good as the various ones that the master himself assembled over the years, both in his films and in the... Read more... |
Pogostkina, BBCSO, Oramo, Barbican review - human emotions in Sibelius's heavenThursday, 28 September 2017
It was on the strength of a single concert including a startling Sibelius Luonnotar and Third Symphony, thankfully reported here, that Sakari Oramo was appointed Chief Conductor of the BBC Symphony Orchestra. We had to wait a while for more major... Read more... |
Stravinsky Ballets, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - the big three burn with focused energyFriday, 22 September 2017
“Next he’ll be walking on water,” allegedly quipped a distinguished figure at the official opening of Simon Rattle’s new era at the helm of the London Symphony Orchestra. Well, last night, with no celebratory overload around the main event, the... Read more... |
Basquiat: Boom for Real, Barbican review - the myth exploredFriday, 22 September 2017
Beautiful, shy, charming and talented, Jean-Michel Basquiat was a shining star who streaked across the New York skyline for a few brief years in the early 1980s before a heroin overdose claimed his life at the age of only 27. I’ve introduced... Read more... |
La Damnation de Faust, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - infernal dynamiteMonday, 18 September 2017
For his monster concerts in 1840s Paris, Berlioz took pride in assembling and marshalling a "great beast of an orchestra". At the Barbican on Sunday night, the LSO filled the stage and fitted the bill. Their thoroughbred tradition of Berlioz... Read more... |
Tetzlaff, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - a triumphant homecoming for the maestroFriday, 15 September 2017
After all the talk and anticipation, at last some music. Simon Rattle took up the reins of the London Symphony Orchestra last night – as its first ever “Music Director” – with a programme dedicated to home-grown composers whose lives span the... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Dutilleux, Dvořák, Ravel, TchaikovskySaturday, 26 August 2017
Dvořák: Symphony No 9, Sibelius: Finlandia Chineke! Orchestra/Kevin John Edusei (Signum)These live performances mark the recording debut of the Chineke! Orchestra, an ensemble created by bassist Chi-chi Nwanoku to provide opportunities for BME... Read more... |
