Beethoven
Prom 4: CBSO, NelsonsMonday, 20 July 2015
This Prom was the final concert of Andris Nelsons's remarkable seven-year spell as principal conductor of the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Their Prom showed the astonishing level of responsiveness and flexibility which he and they have... Read more... |
Remembering Jon Vickers (1926-2015)Wednesday, 15 July 2015
Canadian heroic tenor Jon Vickers, who died on Friday 10 July aged 88 and whose full life took him from work on a Saskatchewan farm to the great opera houses of the world, was inimitable, terrifying and titanic. Faced with the intense flavour of... Read more... |
Tetzlaff, LSO, Harding, BarbicanMonday, 25 May 2015
With Kavakos, Faust, Shaham and Skride already been and gone, and Jansen, Ehnes, Bell and Ibragimova still to come, the LSO’s International Violin Festival has nothing left to prove. We’re not short of star power in London’s concert scene, but even... Read more... |
Yevgeny Sudbin, QEHThursday, 14 May 2015
Mahler once wrote that his symphonies were edifices built from the same stones, gathered in childhood. In each of the four recitals I’ve heard from Yevgeny Sudbin, he’s moved several of his repertoire cornerstones around to different effect in the... Read more... |
Perianes, LPO, Ticciati, RFHThursday, 16 April 2015
Conductor Robin Ticciati and pianist Javier Perianes are an odd couple. Ticciati is forthright and disciplined, while Perianes is reticent but erratic. But they demonstrated last night that Beethoven's Fourth Piano Concerto can accommodate those... Read more... |
RLPO 175th Birthday Concert, Petrenko, Liverpool Philharmonic HallSaturday, 14 March 2015
When the curtain came down on Liverpool’s year in the limelight as European Capital of Culture, back in 2008, there may have been some who thought that the party was over. Things in the city’s arts world were never going to the same, however, and... Read more... |
Carducci String Quartet, St George's Hall Concert Room, LiverpoolThursday, 05 February 2015
When you’re visiting someone for the first time, it’s probably just as well that you make a good impression – or else you may not be asked back. If that’s what the Carducci String Quartet was trying to do on their début visit to Liverpool, then they... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Henry Mancini, Georg Breinschmid, BeethovenSaturday, 24 January 2015
Henry Mancini: The Classic Soundtrack Collection (Sony)You get a good sense of any composer's strengths and limitations when you consume their music in box set-sized quantities. With the Juilliard-trained Henry Mancini, you marvel at the... Read more... |
Simón Bolívar Symphony Orchestra of Venezuela, Dudamel, RFHFriday, 09 January 2015
Youth may have vanished from the title, and its first flush is gone from the cheeks of most of the young persons. Now they’re in their prime, a magnificent sight – and the sound, too, is that of a world-class orchestra with a voice. Which we heard... Read more... |
Queyras, Melnikov, Wigmore HallMonday, 01 December 2014
Even the most reluctant of completists should find the prospect of the Beethoven works for cello and piano undaunting. In their totality, these pieces consist of just five sonatas and three sets of variations, which fit neatly on to just two CDs, or... Read more... |
RPO, National Arts Centre Orchestra, Zukerman, Royal Festival HallTuesday, 28 October 2014
This concert was part of a tour of Canada’s National Arts Centre orchestra to five cities in the UK themed around the anniversary of the start of World War One. The Ottawa-based orchestra joined forces with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and the... Read more... |
quartet-lab, Wigmore HallWednesday, 22 October 2014
Musical theatre needn’t be dominated by the human voice. Instrumental dramas with an element of acting can be a good way into the wonderful world of chamber music for younger audiences, and the Wigmore Hall’s new gambit of special student tickets... Read more... |
