Shostakovich
Goldscheider, Royal Orchestral Society, Miller, SJSS review - fine horn playing from the very bestMonday, 17 June 2024![]() London’s non-professional orchestra sector is an undervalued asset to the city, and deserves more attention. And so last night I went to hear the Royal Orchestral Society, accompanying horn superstar Ben Goldscheider, and it proved a better way to... Read more... |
Gomyo, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - painful brilliance around a heart of darknessSaturday, 11 May 2024![]() No soloist gets to perform Shostakovich’s colossal First Violin Concerto without mastery of its fearsome technical demands. But not all violinists have the imagination to colour and inflect the Hamlet-like monologue of its withdrawn first movement,... Read more... |
Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium review - making a moveMonday, 11 March 2024![]() Continuing the relationship with choreographer Örjan Andersson – who choreographed their landmark project Goldberg Variations – Scottish Ensemble gave the first of their latest movement-inspired performance, Impulse: Music in Motion in Glasgow on... Read more... |
Faust, LSO, Rattle, Barbican review - violence and wit in Shostakovich, luminosity in BrahmsSunday, 03 March 2024The LSO’s apéritif hour “Half-Six Fixes” have an informality that usually works and sometimes doesn’t. But the first of this two-night run of Dmitri Shostakovich’s monstrous and terrifying Fourth Symphony was unforgettable. Panels on the auditorium... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Herd girls, mojitos and mariachiSaturday, 10 February 2024![]() Paavo Berglund: The Warner Edition (Warner Classics)Jean Sibelius’s presence looms over this box like a friendly giant. Paavo Berglund (interestingly, one of the few left-handed conductors to have achieved international fame) recorded the... Read more... |
Tetzlaff, BBC Philharmonic, Storgårds, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - something of a puzzleTuesday, 30 January 2024![]() Chief conductor John Storgårds’ first programme of 2024 in the Bridgewater Hall was notable for the visit of Christian Tetzlaff as violin soloist, but perhaps a little puzzling in the choice of Thomas Adès’ Violin Concerto as the vehicle for his... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Fringes, canons and contestsSaturday, 27 January 2024![]() Leif Ove Andsnes: The Warner Classics Edition 1990-2010 (Warner Classics)It’s good to review a compendious box set celebrating a musician who’s very much still around. The 36 discs in this set certainly aren’t what you’d call historical... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Peasant weddings, chilly vistas and bass drumsSaturday, 22 July 2023![]() Louise Farrenc: Symphonies 1-3 Insula Orchestra/Laurence Equilbey (Erato)Louise Farrenc (1804-1875) is not perhaps the best-known name among pre-20th century women composers garnering increased attention recent years – but she might be the... Read more... |
Concert Theatre DSCH, Norwegian CO, Oslo Opera House Scene 2 review - Shostakovich choreographed for strings and accordionMonday, 05 June 2023![]() Do we really need instrumental Shostakovich with lighting, movement, costumes and video projection? I might have said no before having seen what the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra could do with former leader Terje Tønnesen, performing the Chamber... Read more... |
Classical CDs: Beer, brio and tubular bellsSaturday, 13 May 2023![]() Shostakovich: Symphonies 8, 9 and 10 Berliner Philharmoniker/Kirill Petrenko (Berlin Phil Media)Potential purchasers worrying that the Berlin sound might be a little too well-upholstered for Shostakovich needn’t worry; one striking aspect of... Read more... |
Belcea Quartet, Chamayou, Wigmore Hall review - romantic winged beast soars over neobaroque chameleonFriday, 14 April 2023![]() In search of relatively rare fabulous beasts like César Franck’s Piano Quintet – given a fantastical performance last night – you often have to take in the ubiquitous Shostakovich specimen, the modest work of a master using simple means to his own... Read more... |
Jerusalem Quartet, Leonskaja, Wigmore Hall review - freedom and rigour in perfect balanceFriday, 17 February 2023![]() It’s not often that the most bittersweet moment in a rich concert comes in the encore. Elisabeth Leonskaja had already played the generous extra in question, the Dumka movement of Dvořák’s A major Piano Quintet, with the Staatskapelle Quartet only a... Read more... |
