Rachmaninov
Rachmaninov Vespers, Maryinsky Chorus, Llandaff CathedralFriday, 07 November 2014
Anyone whose affection for Rachmaninov is bounded by the Second Piano Concerto or the Paganini Rhapsody might be surprised to learn that his own favourite work of his was his setting for unaccompanied choir of the Vespers, or All-Night Vigil, of the... Read more... |
Daniil Trifonov, Royal Festival HallWednesday, 01 October 2014
Daniil Trifonov, 23, has shot to prominence as one of the hottest pianistic properties of the moment. With multiple competition wins behind him, including the Tchaikovsky in his native Russia, plus a recording contract with DG and a frenetic globe-... Read more... |
10 Questions for Conductor Vladimir JurowskiTuesday, 23 September 2014
The Russian conductor Vladimir Jurowski, chief conductor of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, heads its major new series devoted to the music of Sergei Rachmaninov, in context with his forerunners and successors. This is to be the largest... Read more... |
Prom 64: Berlin Philharmonic, RattleSaturday, 06 September 2014
After Monday’s Respighi extravaganza at the Proms, it was back on the rainbow express for more wonders of orchestral colour last night. In the young Stravinsky’s large-scale signing-in and poor depressed old Rachmaninov’s signing-off, you could... Read more... |
Prom 43: Skride, BBCSO, GardnerTuesday, 19 August 2014
The Russians were coming - and the prospect of Tchaikovsky’s 1812 Overture, even without the added attraction of hearing it in Igor Buketoff’s questionable choral arrangement where the Tsarist hymn is taken at its word and does a Boris Godunov on us... Read more... |
DVD: Venus in FurMonday, 28 July 2014
Action film fans should stay away from this Roman Polanski duet. But those who like their sexual politics served in symbolic form will be delighted. Polanski's wife Emmanuelle Seigner stars as an actress, Vanda, and Polanski-lookalike Mathieu... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Paris: San Francisco Ballet 2Friday, 18 July 2014
Having a strong company style is usually no bad thing, especially if – as with San Francisco Ballet – the main component of it is a commitment to excellence. It has been impressive watching the gritty energy with which, night after night, the... Read more... |
BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014, BBC FourMonday, 19 May 2014
No quibble about the result. Pianist Martin James Bartlett deservedly became BBC Young Musician of the Year 2014 at Usher Hall in Edinburgh last night. The 17-year-old, a student at the specialist Purcell School in Hertfordshire, and at the Junior... Read more... |
Serenade/Sweet Violets/DGV, Royal BalletThursday, 15 May 2014
Some artists acquire (or create) cults of personality because – Byron, Wagner or Van Gogh – they are just so obviously fruity. Some others, though less fruity, are venerated because their work is so tear-prickingly astonishing that we are desperate... Read more... |
Lugansky, Queen Elizabeth HallThursday, 15 May 2014
Am I alone in a readiness to sacrifice all four Rachmaninov piano concertos – though maybe not the Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini – in favour of the second sets of Preludes and Études-Tableaux? Probably not, after last night, when Nikolay Lugansky... Read more... |
Gerstein, LPO, Petrenko, RFHSaturday, 22 February 2014
Vasily Petrenko used his baton like a piratical rapier to galvanise the London Philharmonic violins in their flourishes of derring-do at the start of Berlioz’s Overture Le Corsaire. And the brilliance was in the quicksilver contrasts, the lightness... Read more... |
Boris Giltburg, Queen Elizabeth HallFriday, 15 November 2013
Among the diaspora of younger-generation Russian or Russian-trained pianists, there are at least four whose intellect and poetry match their technique. Three whose craft was honed at the Moscow or St Petersburg Conservatories – Yevgeny Sudbin,... Read more... |
