| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 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... | |
| 4-Feb-2013 Southbank Centre: Purcell Room | "The invisible world": String quartets from the Royal College of Music celebrate Lutosławski |
 Celebrating the centenary of Polish composer Witold Lutosławski’s birth, the Philharmonia Orchestra have embarked on Woven Words, a series also involving the Royal College of Music. The title, an English translation of Lutosławski’s Paroles tissées (1965), invites audiences to consider a multitude of questions concerning music and meaning. As further provocation, a remark of Claude Debussy’s – “Music begins where words end” – sits underneath this heading: a statement contemplated and challenged by Lutosławski in his writings.Read full review... | |
| 17-Jan-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Thrilling Shostakovich and Ravel from Yannick and the Philadelphia Orchestra |
 In an interview with Charlie Rose a couple of years ago, Sir Simon Rattle made the startling comment that conductors only become “competent” after they turn 60. If that’s the case, it’s really quite difficult to imagine just how “competent” young Canadian conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin might be after more than another two decades on the podium, particularly with a band in front of him as supple and giving as the revitalized – and no longer bankrupt – Philadelphia Orchestra.
Read full review... | |
| 15-Dec-2012 Salle Pleyel | Memory and (re)discovery: Gergiev and the LSO at the Salle Pleyel |
 The Salle Pleyel’s programmatic dichotomy between “memory” and “creation” continually seeks to promote the more established names in classical music, whilst also shedding light on lesser-known repertoires from all musical epochs.Read full review... | |
