| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 1-May-2013 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Ideas, ideals, and influences: A Child of Our Time at The Rest is Noise with the LPO and Wigglesworth |
 Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival has a number of strands of thought permeating its concerts. It explores the effects of war, sex and sexuality, politics, and race on some of the 20th century’s most important musical output. The underlying argument behind putting on this extraordinary series of events is that the music, much of which we know and love, cannot be understood properly without understanding the context in which it was written.
Read full review... | |
| 26-Apr-2013 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Hope in adversity: The Berlin Philharmonic and Radio Choir perform Tippett and Dean |
 Programming is a delicate art, and one which is difficult to get right. However, it is one of Simon Rattle’s fortes, and this was clearly evident in Friday night’s concert. Both works on the programme, Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time are large-scale oratorios dealing with difficult subject matter, and it is highly unusual to pair such works. But they both share one overarching theme: hope in the face of adversity. Though full of despair and sorrow, it is hope that draws both works to a close.Read full review... | |
| 1-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 25: BBC Symphony Orchestra and BBC Proms Youth Choir with David Robertson |
 The numerous links and connections between each of tonight’s pieces make this a very cleverly crafted programme, on paper at least. Unified by a theme of ‘reflection and questioning’, the concert is evenly balanced, with two open-ended, questioning pieces (Ives’ The Unanswered Question and Zimmermann’s Nobody knows de trouble I see are both left hanging, unable to find resolution) each followed by a more pensive piece (Barber’s immensely popular Adagio and Tippett’s contemplative A Child of Our Time respectively).Read full review... | |
