| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 19-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 8: OAE forces thrill in Handel's Judas Maccabaeus |
 Written in the late 1740s, Judas Maccabaeus was a clever attempt by the ever-wily Handel to capitalize on recent successes, both his own – in the form of the now-established oratorio concert – and that of the nation, in the wake of the recent victories over Bonnie Prince Charlie’s Scottish rebels. Until this evening, only excerpts of the work had been heard at the Proms, and so tonight was an opportunity for the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment and their director, Laurence Cummings, to make their case for a work much less popular now than it was in Handel’s own day.
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| 12-Jul-2012 St Paul's Cathedral | Meditations in sound from The Hilliard Ensemble and Jan Garbarek |
 In 1993, by some strange musical alchemy, a creative partnership was born that has gone on to bear some remarkable fruit. On Officium, stylish jazz and classical label ECM brought together The Hilliard Ensemble – a vocal quartet known for the precision with which it had tackled and animated austere soundworlds from Perotin to Pärt – and Norwegian jazz saxophonist Jan Garbarek. The resultant album, of early vocal music overlaid and intertwined with plangeant, improvised saxophone, proved not only original but enormously successful.Read full review... | |
| 28-Mar-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | The Show Must Go On: Mozart and Mahler at the Royal Festival Hall |
 It was announced shortly before tonight's concert that the advertised conductor, the London Philharmonic's Principal Guest Conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin, was indisposed. In a programme which included Mahler's enormous Symphony no. 9, it was no small thing for Australian conductor Matthew Coorey to take over at short notice. Nézet-Séguin's misfortune also provided the occasion for Lisa Batiashvili to show her quality as a musician, as she elected to lead the orchestra from the violin in Mozart's Violin Concerto no. 3 in G.
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| 21-Mar-2012 Cadogan Hall | New York Polyphony's UK Debut at Cadogan Hall |
ChrisOwyoung.jpg) Matching ties. Sharp suits. As they strode onto Cadogan Hall's stage, New York Polyphony were already living up to their image, one hand-tailored to New York's intellectual, social-media savvy hipsters. It wasn't long before they proved that style went hand-in-hand with substance, in a programme outstanding in vocalism and musicality.
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| 1-Mar-2012 Sheldonian Theatre | Daniel Cohen shines in debut with Oxford Philomusica |
 It seems unfair to label a young conductor a 'discovery', especially since most young conductors labour tirelessly for many years prior to achieving wider recognition. But that's what Daniel Cohen was for me: a discovery, and a very pleasing one at that. On Thursday evening he made an extremely assured debut with Oxford Philomusica, bringing energy and understanding to each of the rather disparate works played.
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| 21-Feb-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Russian Masterworks at the Barbican with Gergiev |
 Russian was the theme and Russian the temperament in this concert, part of an ongoing series at the Barbican. This particular group of "Gergiev's Russians" consisted of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, in music spanning seventy years of compositional history. The works played tonight offered different perspectives on the idea of musical classicism, a concept central to the formation of twentieth-century Russian music. Each composer was preoccupied in a different way with the classical traditions that preceded them.
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| 14-Feb-2012 Wilton's Music Hall | The King's Consort: Musical Oysters at Wilton's Music Hall |
 'Romantic' is a term normally applied to heart-on-sleeve 19th-century music, but this evening's concert had me convinced that the real music of love is baroque. The venue was well-chosen for this evening of musical oysters; Wilton's Music Hall is beautiful, intimate and yet grandiose. The faded glamour of the music hall era was a wonderful backdrop to an evening of great variety, and anyone expecting The King's Consort to stay within the confines of the baroque period was to be quite surprised by what was in store – not quite 'Knees Up Mother Brown', but just as good...
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| 28-Jan-2012 Holywell Music Room | John Mark Ainsley and Roger Vignoles: A night of dreams in Oxford |
 This was the first concert of Oxford Lieder's new season, and setting the bar pleasingly high for those who will come after was the partnership of tenor John Mark Ainsley, veteran of concert and opera stage alike, and Roger Vignoles, a name synonymous with the highest levels of professionalism in the accompaniment of song. Whilst the famous Dichterliebe was the main attraction, we were also treated to other Heine settings by Brahms and Mendelssohn, in a programme focused on themes of night and dreams.
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