| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 27-Nov-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Strange meetings: Britten's War Requiem at the Southbank Centre |
 November continues to be a month of poppy art, despite Philip Larkin’s derisory account of “Wreath-rubbish in Whitehall”. As the only flower to survive the ravished soils of the trenches following the First World War, the poppy is replicated in the form of a paper badge to be worn yearly in commemoration of 11 November, the Armistice Day of 1918. It was deemed to be a symbol of hope and regeneration in the aftermath of devastating combat.Read full review... | |
| 17-Jul-2011 Royal Albert Hall | Havergal Brian's monumental Gothic Symphony |
 A work scheduled to last nearly two hours could be excused for starting with a long slow build up, but Havergal Brian’s massive Gothic Symphony (the longest symphony ever composed) bursts onto the scene with a brisk and bustling march-like flourish, contrasted briefly with a delicate violin solo that reminds us that this is very much an English composition. The rest of the first movement is musically intense as the tension is tightened in a series of harmonically complex climaxes, aided for the last few bars by the massive sound of the organ.Read full review... | |
