| Date and venue | Title |
|---|---|
| 20-Feb-2013 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | The Rest is Noise: America – but not as we know it |
.jpg) When we think of America, Dvořák and Milhaud are not among the first set of composers to come to mind, but it turns out they deserve to be among the second. The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest programming venture in The Rest is Noise festival, this time with conductor Marin Alsop, launched American music on the world in a way we wouldn’t necessarily expect – exploring the influence of American culture on non-American composers as well as taking a look at some American classics in their own right.
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| 1-Feb-2013 St John's Smith Square | English exiles return to St John's Smith Square |
 While early English Baroque is not an area of music which generally comes to mind when we think of controversial composers, it seems that the scores of composers we now associate with purity and conventionalism had their own streaks of radicalism in their time, political and otherwise, and a fair few were exiled. The Choir of Royal Holloway, directed by Rupert Gough, and the English Cornett and Sackbut Ensemble decided to join forces to root out a few of the old English rascals and showcase their works.Read full review... | |
| 25-Jan-2013 Cadogan Hall | From tragedy to pastoral scenes: RPO at Cadogan Hall |
 Brahms, Chopin, Beethoven: the programme of he Royal Philharmonic Orchestra's most recent Cadogan Hall concert, under the baton of Fabien Gabel, was unashamedly mainstream. The opening item of the programme was the Brahms Tragic Overture. The opening strident chords managed to be agitated yet pensive, interrupted silence hanging in the air as each note dissipated once more.Read full review... | |
| 19-Jan-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Stephen Hough explores Brahms and Schumann at the Barbican |
 There are very few musicians who could lay claim to a MacArthur Fellowship, and even fewer pianists, but then it seems that Stephen Hough is no ordinary pianist: writer, composer and recognised polymath, Mr Hough’s phenomenal playing skills still find time to shine alongside his many other extraordinary talents, and his performance at this recital was no exception.Read full review... | |
| 11-Jan-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | A tour of British music: Clyne, Britten and Elgar with the BBC Symphony Orchestra |
.jpg) Britain is a country not often historically associated with great composers, repertoire or music: apart from the occasional early music programme peppered with Purcell or production of Peter Grimes, there is a great tendency to overlook British classical music, both past and present, in favour of its Germanic and Slavic cousins.Read full review... | |
| 1-Dec-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Speech to song: The London Philharmonic Orchestra plays Brahms and Zimmermann |
 A German Requiem and two German composers sounds like your standard concert menu, but this concert was an interesting juxtaposition of two very different halves, the first filled by German composer Bernd Alois Zimmermann’s little-heard Ecclesiastical Action, and the second by the much-loved, much-performed German Requiem by Brahms.Read full review... | |
| 23-Nov-2012 Kings Place: Hall One | Mark van de Wiel and Endymion play Brahms |
 Whenever Brahms is mentioned, songs and symphonies often come straight to mind: after all, the man was the master of all things symphonic, even his piano sonatas being called “veiled symphonies” by his mentor, Schumann. But what would a Brahms marathon be without a nod to his chamber music? In honour of such great and less performed repertoire, Kings Place enjoyed a visit from the long-running ensemble Endymion, a mix-and-match chamber group with a solid reputation, for the latest installment in the venue’s Brahms Unwrapped series.
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| 6-Nov-2012 Cadogan Hall | Dances, variations and New Worlds with the RPO, Nowak and Julian Steckel |
 It is not often you can say that the conductor’s outfit was as ornate and charming as the billed programme, but the entrance of a silver-coated Grzegorz Nowak proved that even a conductor’s first bow can be the perfect aesthetic prelude to an evening of similarly silvery, charming music.
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| 16-Oct-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Russian rue and revelry with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra |
 Beginning with a work sprung from the minds of not one, but two great Russian composers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton opened their latest distinctly Slavic programme at the Southbank Centre with Rimsky-Korsakov’s revised version of Mussorgky’s Night on Bare Mountain.Read full review... | |
| 13-Oct-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Tragedy and triumph: Brahms and Szymanowski from the LSO |
 For the 2010/11 season, the London Symphony Orchestra, under the baton of Valery Gergiev, made a point of extensively exploring the works of Tchaikovsky, Mahler, Shostakovich and Shchedrin. For the 2011/12 season, it was Tchaikovsky and Stravinksy. This year, Gergiev has opted for a flavour of both Western and Eastern European music, juxtaposing the symphonic giant Brahms with another four-symphonied companion, the often overlooked Szymanowski.Read full review... | |
| 18-Sep-2012 Cadogan Hall | Fanfares and Finland: The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at Cadogan Hall |
 What do you get when you cross Teutonic drama, Finnish sentimentality and Russian grandeur? The answer, it seems, as displayed by conductor Enrique Bátiz the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in their latest Cadogan Hall concert, is a vibrant and exciting evening of music.
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| 13-Sep-2012 Wigmore Hall | Pierre Fournier Award Winner's Concert at the Wigmore Hall: Mikhail Nemtsov |
 The memory of Pierre Fournier is one not many would dispute as anything but an inspiration to even the most well-established cellists on the scene today: the highly acclaimed cellist was, among other things, known for his supreme tone quality and musicality; he sadly passed away in 1986. But following his death, his legacy most definitely continued, inspiring both those already well-integrated into the music scene and those fledgling young artists making their first tentative steps onto the concert career ladder.Read full review... | |
| 25-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 56: Knussen conducts Knussen |
 In days gone by, if you went to see a Mahler Symphony, you wouldn't feel you’d had the full experience unless Gustav himself was waving the baton. Nowadays the privilege of watching a composer conduct his own work is a somewhat rarer one, though fortunately not yet a completely extinct practice, and watching Knussen’s Symphony No. 3 with the composer himself at the helm was certainly a novel experience.Read full review... | |
| 29-Jul-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Beijing comes to London: Beijing Symphony Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall |
.jpg) Mention Beijing in London at the moment and some allusion to opening ceremonies, sports or medals will undoubtedly follow (with an optional grumble about the transport system tagged on the end). But at the Southbank Centre, a mention of Beijing would evoke an entirely more unique response, given the recent visit of the Beijing Symphony Orchestra in partnership with the Centre’s resident London Philharmonic Orchestra.
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| 17-Jul-2012 Westminster Abbey | Stephen Farr opens Westminster Abbey's Summer Organ Festival 2012 |
 It is often said that the concert hall is the sanctuary of musicians and music lovers alike: frequent concertgoers flock to their favourite venues as regularly as Sunday service, dressed in their finest and observing the sacred rites and rituals of the classical concert. What an interesting spin, therefore, to see the view switched and church turned concert hall at Westminster Abbey for a recital by organist and conductor Stephen Farr, the first of the abbey’s Summer Organ Festival 2012 concert series.
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| 7-Jul-2012 Wigmore Hall | Monteverdi meets Stravinsky: Old and new at the Wigmore Hall |
 It is not often you find Monteverdi and Stravinsky snuggled side-by-side on the same programme, but that was exactly what was packed into the latest instalment of The Bostridge Project: ‘Ancient and Modern’ series at the Wigmore Hall. Joined by mezzo-soprano Angelika Kirchschlager, the English Concert (directed by Harry Bicket) and a number of different guest singers and instrumentalists, Ian Bostridge constructed a programme set to be a feast of the old and new combined, a mix of musical offerings from madrigals to cantatas from the 1590s to the 1950s.
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| 19-Jun-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Valentina Lisitsa's Royal Albert Hall Debut |
 With more than 30 million YouTube channel views, there is simply no doubt that Valentina Lisitsa is already a classical music star to contend with. Not content with being any ordinary internet superstar, in the run-up to her Royal Albert Hall debut, the Ukrainian pianist uploaded videos of her practice sessions, announced her intention to stream the concert across the globe, and even went so far as to allow the audience to pick the programme via the internet.
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| 17-Jun-2012 Sutton House, Homerton High Street | Trotovšek and Misumi: A duo to watch out for |
 ‘Schubert’s A minor’ is a prefix that rolls off the tongue of concertgoers everywhere with the comfortable familiarity of a home-cooked meal.Read full review... | |
| 10-Jun-2012 Pushkin House | Conversation and Music with Karl Lutchmayer: Beethoven and his Legacy |
| Many musicians would be grateful enough to know that a concert would one day be held in honour of their music, let alone their shadow, but the legacy of the great Mr. Ludwig van Beethoven was deservedly the focus of the final Conversational Concert of this series with pianist and lecturer Karl Lutchmayer. Read full review... | |
