| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-May-2013 Chicago Symphony Center | Hamelin, the technician, at Chicago Symphony Center |
 Anyone who knows the name Marc-André Hamelin will know him foremost for his technique. It is, to use a crude expression, what his brand is built upon. He is known to be able to handily dispatch the most taxing pieces in both the modern repertoire and the warhorse cabinet, the latter of which furnished much of his recent program at Symphony Center in Chicago – Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata, for a start. Yet the fact of his technique obscures its place – in fact, its obscuring place – in his musicianship.
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| 8-Apr-2013 Kennedy Center: Eisenhower Theater | The devotee of music: Diana Damrau in Washington DC |
 On Monday night the Eisenhower Theater at the Kennedy Center for Performing Arts hosted a debut recital of internationally acclaimed German soprano Diana Damrau and her concert accompanist, French harpist Xavier de Maistre. The final concert of this season’s Celebrity Series from Washington National Opera, this event had been much anticipated by DC opera fans, especially after the soprano withdrew from her WNO 2010 gig as Ophélie in Ambroise Thomas’ Hamlet.
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| 30-Mar-2013 The Birnam Institute | An evening of classics in Birnam with Chamber Philharmonic Europe |
 The Chamber Philharmonic Europe is an orchestra of some sixty players from all over Europe, founded in Cologne in 2006. During this past month, ten of its players have been touring a popular classical programme round small venues across the country, taking classical music to the far-flung reaches of the kingdom. Heading south from concerts in Thurso and Inverurie, this performance found them in Birnam Arts Centre near Dunkeld, Scotland, where a decent crowd filled the hall.
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| 9-Mar-2013 Wigmore Hall | Simon Keenlyside and Malcolm Martineau at the Wigmore Hall |
 Centered around the later, lesser-known composers of art song, tonight’s programme started with a first half of melancholy Hugo Wolf Lieder. Both Schubert and Schumann wrote settings of Goethe’s unhappy Harfenspieler, but evidently Wolf was unsatisfied, as, on principle, he avoided setting texts which he thought had been successfully treated before. Wolf of course has the advantage of post-Wagnerian harmony and the sumptuous opening sequence to “Harfenspieler I” was an example of this.Read full review... | |
