| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 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... | |
| 16-Apr-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | A fitting tribute to Sir Colin Davis: LSO and a superb cast perform Britten's The Turn of the Screw |
 Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s contribution to the Britten 100 celebrations, was supposed to have been conducted by Sir Colin Davis; it was instead dedicated to his memory following his death last Sunday. Before the concert began, LSO Chairman and Sub-Leader Lennox Mackenzie and LSO Managing Director Kathryn McDowell delivered an eloquent and fitting tribute to the man they described as the “head of our family”.Read full review... | |
| 30-Mar-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Gergiev and the LSO in Brahms and Szymanowski choral works |
 I don’t think Valery Gergiev has ever been out to claim that Brahms and Szymanowski were particularly similar composers. I certainly hope he hasn’t, at any rate, on the basis of his final LSO programme pairing the two of them. But that’s not to say they don’t make an intriguing match, and this meeting of the Pole’s Stabat Mater (1925–26) and the German’s Requiem (1865–68) was provocative and worthwhile.
Read full review... | |
| 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... | |
