| 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.
Read full review... | |
| 13-Dec-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Maazel, Trifonov and the Philharmonia play Russian works at the Royal Festival Hall |
 If the graphic design of a concert programme can be said to shape our expectations of the event then the Philharmonia Orchestra’s 2012/13 booklet, on which the press verdict “blazing originality” is encircled by red-hot flames, had perhaps set its sights rather high. Thursday’s concert, however, did not disappoint. Its explosive selection brought together Igor Stravinsky’s suite L’oiseau de feu (“The Firebird”, 1919), Sergei Prokofiev’s Piano Concerto no.Read full review... | |
| 4-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 28: Ulster Orchestras with Sir James Galway and JoAnn Faletta |
 It is a cliché in music commentary to say that youth orchestras bring vitality, fearlessness and chutzpah to the programmes that they play. But as with most clichés, it does appear to be based in truth, and that is perhaps one reason why the BBC Proms continue to give such support to young players as well as young composers. The Ulster Youth Orchestra opened Prom 28 with an energetic performance of Emmanuel Chabrier’s España: Rhapsody for orchestra.Read full review... | |
| 13-Oct-2011 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | A Conductor's Craft |
| If the craft of the conductor has ever been a mystery to you – for it can certainly be a mystery to the orchestra – there couldn’t have been a finer explanation than this showcase concert. A rostrum rota was in play, as a carousel of conductors from the International Conductors’ Academy of the Allianz Cultural Foundation each wheeled their distinctive gestures, and effected radically different musical results.
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