Shostakovich
Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, English National OperaSunday, 27 September 2015
“The music quacks, hoots, pants and gasps”: whichever of his Pravda scribes Stalin commandeered to demolish Shostakovich’s “tragedy-satire” in January 1936, two years into its wildly successful stage history, didn’t mean that as a compliment, but it... Read more... |
Last Night of the Proms, BBCSO, AlsopSunday, 13 September 2015
“A rich and eclectic sequence of works” was the promise made in this evening’s concert programme. It certainly was that, with the Last Night festivities taking in new and old, well-known and obscure, plus a handful of celebrity soloists for good... Read more... |
Listed: Essential Operas 2015-16Tuesday, 01 September 2015
September is upon us and it’s nearly time for the new season. English National Opera’s Artistic Director John Berry may have left the building but his enterprising legacy lives on in a 2015-16 season that looks on paper as good as any in the past 20... Read more... |
Prom Chamber Music 6: Jeremy Denk/ Prom 53: Fray, Philharmonia, SalonenTuesday, 25 August 2015
There were two reasons why I didn’t return to the Albert Hall late on Friday night to hear Andras Schiff play Bach’s Goldberg Variations. The first was that one epic, Mahler’s Sixth in the stunning performance by Andris Nelsons and the Boston... Read more... |
Prom 51: Boston SO, NelsonsMonday, 24 August 2015
Andris Nelsons and the Boston Symphony Orchestra have made the Shostakovich Tenth their calling card. Their recent recording of the work on Deutsche Grammophon has received universal acclaim, and now they're making their first European tour together... Read more... |
Prom 45: Leonskaja, RPO, DutoitThursday, 20 August 2015
Drawing an audience of five and a half thousand in to listen intently is harder than pushing out into the vasts of the Albert Hall. Yet it’s what seems to work best in this unpredictable space, and last night masterful veterans Elisabeth Leonskaja... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Maria Camahort QuintetSaturday, 15 August 2015
Schoenberg: Gurre-Lieder Gürzenich-Orchester Köln/Markus Stenz (Hyperion)Schoenberg's vast Gurre-Lieder began life in 1900 as a modest song cycle for soprano, tenor and piano, its texts drawn from Danish poetry. He suspended work on the piece in... Read more... |
theartsdesk in Pärnu: Top players, great EstoniansTuesday, 28 July 2015
In 1989 Neeme Järvi, already rated one of the world’s top conductors and soon to be voted “Estonian of the Century” by his compatriots, returned with his Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra to the homeland he had left for America nearly a decade earlier.... Read more... |
Classical CDs Weekly: Bach, Shostakovich, Henrik SchwarzSaturday, 23 May 2015
Bach: Brandenburg Concertos Florilegium, dir. Ashley Solomon (Channel Classics)This is a predictably satisfying pair of discs, another outstanding set of period-instrument Brandenburgs from a crack British group. It did prompt me to sample naughtily... Read more... |
Ronald Stevenson (1928-2015): A virtuoso rememberedMonday, 30 March 2015
Ronald Stevenson, who died on Saturday at the age of 87, was a composer and pianist who will be much missed both in the small Borders village where he lived and by the much larger musical community in Scotland and beyond. As a composer he was... Read more... |
Wang, LSO, Tilson Thomas, BarbicanFriday, 13 March 2015
Michael Tilson Thomas is in town to celebrate his 70th birthday. And he's with old friends – he’s been working with the London Symphony since 1970, including six years as principal conductor. There is still plenty of chemistry here, and the... Read more... |
Becker, RLPO, Ang, Liverpool Philharmonic HallSaturday, 14 February 2015
While there is, of course, safety in numbers, but five premieres on four continents is, perhaps, a little novel. Tan Dun’s new Concerto for Double-Bass, subtitled Wolf Totem, is a co-commission by five orchestras: the Royal Concertgebouw, St Louis... Read more... |
