| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 16-Feb-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Ballets Russes: 1913 with the CBSO, James Ehnes and Simone Young |
 It isn’t every day that you bump into a world-class virtuoso violinist. I bumped into one, James Ehnes as it happens, and in the literal rather than figurative sense, only minutes before he was to star in the CBSO’s concert celebrating the Ballets Russes in 1913 – a programme that brought together the delightful tranquillity of Mussorgsky’s prelude to Khovanshchina, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, Debussy’s Jeux and finally Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite.
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| 15-Nov-2012 Oslo Opera House, Main Stage | A celebration of sound: The Berlin Philharmonic in the Oslo Opera House |
 How very fitting that the Berlin Philharmonic, an orchestra that claims to be made up of 128 soloists, should start Thursday’s concert and their European tour with perhaps one of the most soloistic orchestral pieces ever written: Ligeti’s Atmosphères.
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| 30-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 63: Texture and atmosphere is all from the Berliner Philharmoniker |
 It was, truly, music from another world. Opening the concert with György Ligeti's 1961 Atmosphères, the Berliner Philharmoniker started with the gentlest of wafting string tones with clustered woodwind sounding almost organ-like, whereupon layer after layer piled in, an infinite variety of orchestral textures shifting and swirling. Mid way through this eight-minute piece, we jump from an ear-splitting, scary motif on the highest notes of a piccolo down to a thunderous passage on double basses, followed by the gentle swelling of strings, which morphs into a buzzing swarm.Read full review... | |
| 2-Jul-2012 Wigmore Hall | Erotic and Exotic: François-Frédéric Guy and Jean-Efflam Bavouzet at Wigmore Hall |
 In a neat piece of programming, Monday’s Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert brought together two French master-pianists to play two French masterpieces for the ballet, Debussy’s Jeux and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, both transcribed for two pianos.
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