| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 27-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 18: Beethoven's Ninth |
 Few conductors could hold an audience's applause whilst shaking hands with every member of the orchestra and then speaking extensively about politics. Daniel Barenboim, though, on completion of a week-long Beethoven cycle, did so and then dashed to the Olympic opening ceremony to bear the Olympic flag alongside Ban Ki-Moon, among others. Some critics have written in the last week that no amount of sociopolitical benevolence can paper over minor technical flaws in the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra's playing.Read full review... | |
| 6-Jun-2012 National Theatre | Andreas Kriegenburg's Wozzeck: A true masterpiece |
 The plight of the introvert, stigmatised by society despite the many benefits of their contemplative natures and inner strength, is an important part of the contemporary Zeitgeist, but it is in fact nothing new. In the early to mid 20th century, fuelled by Freud and psychoanalysis, this concept was particularly strong, and fed into the works of artists of many different stripes, producing some of the greatest works of 20th-century opera.Read full review... | |
| 17-Aug-2011 Usher Hall | An orchestra descends into the circular auditorium |
 The more intriguing a piece's title, the more interesting the endeavour to explore its connection to the compositional process. The Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal, under Kent Nagano, opened their Edinburgh Festival concert with a shimmering piece by Tōro Takemitsu (1930-1996). It's title, A Flock Descends into the Pentagonal Garden (1977) refers less to a pentagon in the Euclidean sense than to a pentacle, or 5-point star.Read full review... | |
