Rachmaninov
Prom 68: Skride, Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra, PetrenkoTuesday, 03 September 2013
The Oslo Philharmonic Orchestra made quite a splash with their Tchaikovsky symphony series under Mariss Jansons back in the 1980s. The watchwords then were freshness and articulation, a re-establishment of Tchaikovsky’s innate classicism - and so it... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Stavanger: A touch of FröstSunday, 01 September 2013
Three great pianists, one of the world’s top clarinettists and two fine string players in a single concert: it’s what you might expect from a chamber music festival at the highest level. What I wasn’t anticipating on the first evening in Stavanger... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Rachmaninov, Terje Rypdal, Valentina Montoya MartínezSaturday, 24 August 2013
Rachmaninov: The Bells, Symphonic Dances Rundfunkchor Berlin, Berliner Philharmoniker/Sir Simon Rattle (Warner Classics)The red spine on the jewel case and the typeface look familiar enough, though the top right hand corner of the CD cover... Read more... |
Yevgeny Sudbin, Westminster Cathedral HallMonday, 14 January 2013
It was the kind of programme that great pianist Vladimir Horowitz used to pioneer, with the simple balm of Scarlatti offset by Scriabin’s flights of fancy, and a dash of virtuoso fireworks to conclude. Though he is an admirer of the master, and even... Read more... |
BBC Philharmonic, Leeds Festival Chorus, Wright, Leeds Town HallSunday, 25 November 2012
Rachmaninov’s choral symphony The Bells always feels like a valedictory late work, a composer’s eloquent, melancholy adieu both to pre-revolutionary Russia and to the fulsome late-romantic style which had served him so well. Happily, Rachmaninov’s... Read more... |
London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival HallSunday, 30 September 2012
What, another review of an LPO/Jurowski concert in less than a week? Reasoning the need, it only has to be said that other orchestras may kick off their seasons by mixing the unfamiliar with core repertoire, but none would dare launch with not one... Read more... |
San Francisco Ballet, Balanchine/ Liang/ Wheeldon, Sadler's Wells TheatreSunday, 16 September 2012
It's been eight years since San Francisco Ballet were last here, charming us with their finesse and their smiles - welcome back. They offer a boost of spirit to the gloomsters of ballet over here. This small city which punches many times above its... Read more... |
Yuja Wang, Queen Elizabeth HallWednesday, 02 May 2012
Let no one tell you that Chinese pianists can't play with passion. Yuja Wang ran the full gamut of emotions in last night's Queen Elizabeth Hall recital from the tender to the rhapsodic. But mostly she channelled her energies to delivering some of... Read more... |
Andsnes, BBCSO, Bělohlávek, Barbican HallThursday, 13 October 2011
Pundits have always yoked architecture and Bruckner together, touting void and mass at the expense of the dynamic experience music ought to be. Abbado and his Lucerne Festival Orchestra favoured sinuous instability in the Fifth Symphony earlier this... Read more... |
Gerhard Richter: Panorama, Tate ModernFriday, 07 October 2011
In recent years it seems we have seen an awful lot of Gerhard Richter. There have been three major exhibitions in London well within the last seven or eight years. One is hardly complaining, since there is always a demand to see “the world’s most... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Mahler, Rachmaninov, WebernFriday, 26 August 2011
A legendary septuagenarian wind player from Switzerland returns to the repertoire with which he made his name 50 years ago, and there's an exciting live reading of a gloomy fin-de-siècle symphony conducted by a contemporary French giant. The same... Read more... |
Yevgeny Sudbin, Wigmore HallFriday, 29 July 2011
Older pianomanes may lament the passing of the great Russian schooling that gave us the likes of Sofronitsky, Yudina and Richter. I'm not so sure. The younger generations may have dropped the mystic torch, but their more even-tempered approach can... Read more... |
