| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 22-May-2013 La Maison Symphonique de Montréal | Mahler's Fifth with David Zinman and the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal | Andrew Crust |
 The program this evening was quite significantly lopsided – though most programs containing Mahler symphonies end up being this way. Tonight’s juxtaposition was quite profound, perhaps even more than usual. Mozart’s Piano Concerto no. 18 in B flat major was poised like a pebble next to a mountain. It was a polished pebble, but minuscule in comparison nonetheless.
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| 19-May-2013 Roulette | Nick Didkovsky and PRISM bring Ice Cream Time to Roulette | Meg Wilhoite |
 It’s a rainy night and a little girl’s recorded voice sings out “it’s ice cream time”, triggering an outburst from sax quartet and electric guitar, a sort of warped chorale loosely based on her melody.
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| 19-May-2013 Birmingham Town Hall | Violins galore with Vivaldi, Bach and the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra in Birmingham | Katherine Dixson, katherinedixson.co.uk |
 Marco Borggreve.jpg) What a lovely way to round off a weekend, with some feel-good favourites from one of the world’s finest early music ensembles. Currently in their silver jubilee season, the Freiburg Baroque Orchestra actually began to emerge a couple of years earlier than their official 1987 launch. Several students from the College of Music in Freiburg, fortified and inspired by glasses of New Year sparkling wine, had decided to form a group to research, experiment and play on Baroque instruments.Read full review... | ||
| 19-May-2013 Sage: Northern Rock Foundation Hall | Exciting contemporary music for the North East: Ensemble 7Bridges' debut concert | Jane Shuttleworth |
 Ensemble 7Bridges, directed by Richard Rijnvos, Head of Composition at Durham University, and conducted by James Weeks, brings together some of the North East’s specialist professional performers of contemporary music, supported by Durham University, with the aim of contributing to the development of new music in the North East.Read full review... | ||
| 19-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | The return of the maestro: James Levine and the MET Orchestra | David Allen, unpredictableinevitability.com |
 With a gleaming, glistening chord of purest A major, the man New Yorkers love to call “the Maestro” returned to the concert stage. His last public performance was a Die Walküre in May 2011, one that took its searing emotional power by maintaining the constant impression that it was about to disintegrate musically, just as Wotan’s worlds fell apart on stage and the conductor’s body buckled. It was apt that it was Wagner with which the Maestro returned, in a shining evocation of the sacred land of the Holy Grail. With the prelude to Lohengrin, James Levine was back.
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| 19-May-2013 Chicago Symphony Center | Hamelin, the technician, at Chicago Symphony Center | Dan Wang |
 Anyone who knows the name Marc-André Hamelin will know him foremost for his technique. It is, to use a crude expression, what his brand is built upon. He is known to be able to handily dispatch the most taxing pieces in both the modern repertoire and the warhorse cabinet, the latter of which furnished much of his recent program at Symphony Center in Chicago – Ravel’s Gaspard de la Nuit and Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Sonata, for a start. Yet the fact of his technique obscures its place – in fact, its obscuring place – in his musicianship.
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| 18-May-2013 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Bach, Schumann and Schubert with Borletti-Buitoni Trust artists at Southbank Centre | Jack Smith, www.jdsmusic.co.uk |
 A series of three concerts over the course of one weekend, designed to reflect upon and champion the work of the Borletti-Buitoni Trust, which has supported a significant number of worthy performers in its first ten years, was always going to present an interesting range of repertoire – if not something of a conundrum for those planning the programming of the concerts. Originally, Saturday’s concert was to have drawn together rather neatly the ensemble works of Mozart and Schubert, contrasted with interlinking sets of songs by Brahms and Mahler.Read full review... | ||
| 18-May-2013 St John's Smith Square | Baroque on the high seas: Freiburg Baroque Orchestra and Carolyn Sampson at Lufthansa | Julia Savage |
 Marco Borggreve.jpg) The title reflecting a countertenor aria from Henry Purcell’s Ode to St Cecilia, “’tis Nature’s Voice” was the overall theme of this year’s Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, which drew to a spectacular close on Saturday. Attracting some high-calibre soloists and ensembles, this year has seen concerts by the Gabrieli Consort, the European Union Baroque Orchestra, and the Choir of Westminster Abbey, among others, all on a theme of nature.Read full review... | ||
| 17-May-2013 Dr Anton Philipszaal | Thrills and introspection from the Residentie Orkest with Santtu-Matias Rouvali and Wibi Soerjadi | Joanna Marsden |
 Under conductor Santtu-Matias Rouvali, the Residentie Orkest presented an exuberant programme of perennial favourites including Mendelssohn’s Hebrides Ouverture, Chopin’s Piano Concerto no. 1 with soloist Wibi Soerjadi, and Beethoven’s Symphony no. 7.
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| 17-May-2013 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Tchaikovsky, Strauss and Walton: Ashkenazy's favourites with Sydney Symphony | Oliver Brett |
 A concert entitled “Askenazy’s Favourites” is always going to be intriguing, but perhaps more intriguing are his choices. If asked to pick what symphony Ashkenazy would choose to go in this concert, I would have thought that most people would have chosen a large-scale Romantic symphony, maybe Brahms, Rachmaninov or Mahler. How many people would have thought that Ashkenazy would have chosen Walton’s First Symphony?Read full review... | ||
| 17-May-2013 National Concert Hall | An all-German Romantic programme at Dublin's NCH | Andrew Larkin |
 Though the visitation of the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra happened just over a week ago, we have a more permanent influence from that part of the world in the person of Alan Buribayev, the Principal Conductor of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland, who hails from Kazakhstan. He was joined for tonight’s performance by the young Milanese violinist, Edoardo Zosi who is something of a rising star.Read full review... | ||
| 17-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Brains and beauty: Barbara Hannigan, Sir Simon Rattle and Philadelphia Orchestra in New York | Amanda Keil, thousandfoldecho.com |
 The Philadelphia Orchestra was visibly enjoying their evening at Carnegie Hall with Sir Simon Rattle, their frequent guest conductor who nearly became their music director. In a program of early modern classics and a perennial Beethoven favorite, energy and spirits were high and in good supply.
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| 17-May-2013 Sage: Hall One | Agony and ecstasy from Northern Sinfonia | Jane Shuttleworth |
 It’s a slightly topsy-turvy world when a Shostakovich symphony lightens the mood and sends you home grinning, and when a work by Mahler is a filler rather than the main event. It’s also unusual to hear Northern Sinfonia playing full orchestral works by either of these composers, as most of their symphonic output requires much larger forces, so there was much that was new and enjoyable in tonight’s concert, even though there was no obvious connection between the works on the programme.
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| 17-May-2013 Usher Hall | Sir Andrew Davis and RSNO in Mendelssohn's oratorio Elijah | Alan Coady |
 RSNO concerts begin, for me and around 100 others, with the pre-concert talk. I'm especially glad of these when new to a work, such as Mendelssohn’s 1846 Elijah. A talk by those who have prepared the music for us adds something to even the most extensive “presearch”. Sir Andrew Davis, in conversation with RSNO principal trombonist Dávur Juul Magnussen, came across as extremely witty and erudite. One topic of interest was the decision to sing in German a work whose Birmingham première was sung in English.Read full review... | ||
| 17-May-2013 Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall | Crash Ensemble plays a spread of text settings and folkloric magics at Carnegie Hall | Joseph Pfender |
 On Friday night, the Irish new music group Crash Ensemble produced some sonic pyrotechnics to match the Scriabinian lights display at Carnegie Hall’s recently renovated Zankel Hall. Besides moving your reviewer to adjectives of dubious origin, Zankel managed to entertain and soothe the audience with soft reds and cool blue-greens during breaks and intermissions without distracting any attention from the music or musicians. Despite a range of works by the popular and vigorous composers Osvaldo Golijov and Donnacha Dennehy, the 6pm crowd only filled about two-thirds of the hall’s seats.
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| 16-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Rhythm in heels: Yuja Wang at Carnegie Hall | David Allen, unpredictableinevitability.com |
 Yuja Wang is all about rhythm. It would be easy to write about how her playing doesn’t have the profundity or architectural sense of more mature artists, but that would be to miss her considerable achievements – and with a young artist, it’s what’s achieved that should count. Jaw-dropping technical skill is unexceptional among pianists of Wang’s age, especially others in the first rank like Benjamin Grosvenor, Daniil Trifonov, and Khatia Buniatishvili.Read full review... | ||
| 16-May-2013 Queen's Hall, Edinburgh | Earthy tango from Mr McFall's Chamber in Piazzolla's María de Buenos Aires | David Smythe |
 Photo Credit - Andy Catlin.jpg.jpg) Mr McFall’s Chamber has a reputation for bringing surprise and delight to audiences, with a track record of unusual and compelling repertoire, often collaborating with both local and international artists. For this one-off concert performance of Astor Piazzolla’s “tango operita” María de Buenos Aires at the Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh, McFall’s forces were augmented with special South American guests to bring us an authentic Argentinian experience.
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| 16-May-2013 Colston Hall | Russians play Russian: The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in Bristol | David Fay |
 Everyone tells me that Russians play Russian music better than anyone else, but no-one seems to be able to put their fingers on the mysterious quality of Russianness Russians are meant to produce when playing Russian. Whatever its nature, it pulls in the punters, and I was among them for the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra and conductor Pavel Kogan’s all-Russian appearance at Bristol’s Colston Hall.
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| 15-May-2013 Chicago Symphony Center | Yo-Yo Ma and company entertain at Chicago Symphony Center | Dan Wang |
 Yo-Yo Ma, currently the Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant for the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, along with members from the same orchestra and the Civic Orchestra of Chicago, took the stage at Symphony Center for a single night last Wednesday.Read full review... | ||
| 15-May-2013 Queen's Hall, Edinburgh | Edinburgh Quartet play Haydn, Britten and Tchaikovsky at the Queen's Hall | Alan Coady |
 Inclement weather stalks the Edinburgh Quartet; at least, those concerts which I’ve attended in the past few months. On cue the early evening heavens opened unstintingly. By the time the concert approached it had “faired”, as the Scots sometimes say, but perhaps disinclination to venture out had been irreversibly embraced by some. That’s not to say that the attendance was poor. The central stalls were pretty full; less so the posture-punishing pews which frame the Queen’s Hall’s wooden horseshoe.Read full review... | ||
| 15-May-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | CBSO's all-American programme a triumph at Symphony Hall, Birmingham | Peter Marks |
 The reason for this all-American programme was ostensibly pragmatic: the concert was to coincide with the opening night of the British-American Business Council annual conference. In practice, the programme was a triumph. Significantly, dozens of schoolchildren were present to witness an evening of fine and involving music-making.
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| 15-May-2013 Southbank Centre: Purcell Room | Chess, leaves and eagles: New works at the Purcell Room | Paul Kilbey |
 This Richard Thomas Foundation concert at Southbank Centre’s Purcell Room introduced us to two completely new works, and presented two slightly older pieces too for good measure. All were beautifully played by a top selection of performers, making for an excellent demonstration of the power of new music.
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| 14-May-2013 St George's Bristol | An evening to remember at St George's Bristol: Philip Glass at the piano | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 From the moment I found out that Philip Glass was going to be playing at St George’s Bristol for his only completely solo performance in Britain this year, I knew it was bound to be a special event. I arrived at the venue to see people waiting patiently and hoping for returns at the box office – the hall was packed to maximum capacity with extra seating at the back. The stage setting was simple, and consisted of purple uplighting, a grand piano, a stool and a microphone. This more casual concert setting allowed for a more genuine approach to listening to Glass’ music.
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| 14-May-2013 Salle Pleyel | René Jacobs and the Akademie für Alte Musik Berlin triumph with Agrippina in Paris | Vesna Gerintes |
Marco Borggreve.jpg) One thing is for sure: whether you like Baroque opera or not, you will never be bored by an opera conducted by René Jacobs. By shaking up convention with his subtle readings, sometimes even rewriting the composer’s score, the Belgian conductor is the one of those rare few who always find an elegant way to bring the repetitive mannerisms of the Baroque to life.
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| 13-May-2013 St Andrew's Hall | Britten and Bridge with the Philharmonia in Norwich | Nathan Waring |
 The fourteen-year-old Benjamin Britten was already a prolific young composer, albeit without any formal training, when he heard Frank Bridge’s The Sea at the 1927 Norfolk and Norwich Triennial Festival. Hearing this performance and also meeting Bridge (who later became his composition teacher) were seminal events in the youngster’s life. In a letter written in 1963, Britten described himself as being “knocked sideways” by the effect of Bridge’s expressive tone-poem and was thrilled when Bridge agreed to look through his juvenile scribblings.
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| 12-May-2013 St George's Bristol | Five for the price of four: Lawrence Power joins the Takács Quartet for Brahms at St George's Bristol | David Fay |
 Johannes Brahms and his music have a reputation for being somewhat meaty, and so an English Sunday afternoon seems an appropriate time to hear two of his chamber works side by side. Served up by the Takács Quartet joined by violist Lawrence Power, this concert provided the St George’s Bristol audience with plenty to get their teeth into; Sunday roasts were not the only things being digested, as these world-renowned players performed Brahms’ two String Quintets, Opp. 88 and 111.
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| 11-May-2013 92nd Street Y, Lexington Avenue at 92nd | The Tokyo String Quartet in musical farewells of Schubert, Haydn, and Bartók at 92Y | Evan Mitchell |
 The Tokyo String Quartet played a kind of “meta-goodbye” concert this Saturday evening at 92Y. The performance, their last at this venue before the quartet is disbanded, featured three great composers’ own farewells, the final works written for string chamber ensembles by Schubert, Haydn, and Bartók. The Tokyo Quartet’s personnel has changed since its inception in 1969 – its current members are violinists Martin Beaver and Kikuei Ikeda, violist Kazuhide Isomura, and cellist Clive Greensmith – and the group has existed in its current form since 2002.
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| 11-May-2013 LSO St Lukes | A Scream and an Outrage: Session Two at LSO St Luke's | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
 The title for this Barbican event certainly threw up some interesting questions. Having failed to attend a riotous dinner party that was characterised by one attendee as “a scream and an outrage”, Nico Muhly set about curating a series of concerts under this title. However, no screams or outrages occurred this weekend. Instead the audience was greeted by the sandal-clad, ponytailed oracles of the New York’s fashionable downtown music scene, whose contributions were gently mesmeric rather than abrasive.
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| 10-May-2013 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Expertly crafted Beethoven by Ashkenzy and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Oliver Brett |
 There are only a handful of composers whose music can provide enough variety to last a whole program. Beethoven is one of those composers. Not only that, but even today, some 200 years after his lifetime, his music continues to inspire, delight and challenge modern audiences. That is part of Beethoven’s enduring genius and legacy.
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| 10-May-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Not an outrageous start to Nico Muhly's A Scream and an Outrage weekend at the Barbican | Paul Kilbey |
 Nico Muhly describes A Scream and an Outrage, the weekend of events he curated at the Barbican this weekend, as like a dinner party, “a gathering of friends and family new and old; loosely organised”. A wonderfully relaxed vibe was even present on entering the hall for the first concert on Friday: Muhly and a few pals were sat at the side of the stage, quietly and tastefully improvising around a drone. The sense of conviviality which ran throughout the evening was an unusual and welcome thing for a (basically) classical concert. The music, on the other hand, was very uneven.
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| 10-May-2013 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Quartet for the End of Time at Queen Elizabeth Hall | Frances Wilson |
 The fascinating Rest is Noise festival at Southbank Centre has now reached its mid-point, with the focus on music created out of oppression and war. In Friday night’s chamber concert at Queen Elizabeth Hall two pieces written in the most straitened circumstances during the Second World War were presented: Shostakovich’s Second Piano Trio, a haunting lament for the tragic victims of the war and conflict in general, and Messiaen’s extraordinary Quatuor pour la fin du temps (“Quartet for the End of Time”), composed and premièred in a German prisoner of war camp.Read full review... | ||
| 10-May-2013 Cathedral Museum | Les Bougies Baroques present some 18th-century secrets in Malta | Anthony Hart |
 Picture a warm May evening, walking the narrow, silent, cool streets of the ancient capital of Malta, then sitting amongst a magnificent collection of 17th- and 18th-century art with a promise of secrets!
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| 10-May-2013 Cadogan Hall | Raucous Tchaikovksy from the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in London | Renée Reitsma, ypgtcm.blogspot.com |
 The Moscow State Symphony Orchestra continued their European tour with three programs at the Cadogan Hall, all with works by Tchaikovksy. As far as programming goes, the MSSO played it safe, but when it comes to Tchaikovksy this is not necessarily a criticism. In fact, the three pieces played on the first evening are my three favourite by the composer; his Marche Slave, First Piano Concerto, and Fourth Symphony.Read full review... | ||
| 10-May-2013 St John's Smith Square | Lufthansa Festival opens with a ravishing Handel masterpiece | Nahoko Gotoh |
 After Friday’s sublime performance of Handel’s L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato at the opening concert of 2013 Lufthansa Festival of Baroque Music, I am puzzled why this ravishing masterpiece doesn’t enjoy wider popularity (although it was performed recently at the London Handel Festival). Perhaps it’s because the work doesn’t have a dramatic plot like Saul or Samson or it doesn’t have grand choral numbers like in the Messiah or Israel in Egypt.Read full review... | ||
| 9-May-2013 Severance Hall | Ton Koopman leads Cleveland Orchestra and Chamber Chorus in satisfying evening of Handel | Timothy Robson |
 Dutch keyboardist and conductor Ton Koopman this weekend completed his third and final season as artist-in-residence with The Cleveland Orchestra, leading an all-Handel program that also featured the Cleveland Orchestra Chamber Chorus. It was a musically satisfying program that showed the versatility of both orchestra and chorus.
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| 9-May-2013 Bridgewater Hall | The Rite of Spring with the BBC Philharmonic and Juanjo Mena | Rohan Shotton |
 Juanjo Mena concluded his season-long exploration of Stravinsky ballets with a sharp account of the most famous, The Rite of Spring, as part of a programme of unusually grand proportions.
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| 8-May-2013 National Concert Hall | Pavel Kogan and Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in Dublin | Andrew Larkin |
 “From Russia with love” might have been an apt title for this evening’s performance from the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra on the Irish leg of their tour, for this was a concert designed to showcase all that is best in Russian music both in interpretation and in composition. With one of Moscow’s leading orchestras performing Rimsky-Korsakov, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky under the baton of one of Russia’s most widely known and respected conductors, Pavel Kogan, it was a total immersion in Russian culture for the evening.Read full review... | ||
| 8-May-2013 BBC Hoddinott Hall | Britten and Poulenc with Adrian Partington and the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales | Philip May |
.jpg) On Wednesday evening the BBC National Orchestra and Chorus of Wales, conducted by Adrian Partington, presented a programme of choral music by the two musical friends Poulenc and Britten. Interestingly, most of the works also originated from a narrow three-year period in the late 1930s (Poulenc was, at this stage, in his late 30s, Britten in his mid 20s), making the juxtaposition of the composers’ works all the more pertinent.
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| 7-May-2013 La Maison Symphonique de Montréal | Itzhak Perlman plays Beethoven, Franck and Tartini in Montréal | Andrew Crust |
 Itzhak Perlman is certainly one of the most venerated recitalists alive today. Already at age thirteen he was making himself known to a wide American audience on the Ed Sullivan Show, and has since graced the stages of all the world’s greatest concert halls. He’s no stranger to Montréal, either. The violinist joked as he read a list of encores: “This is a computerized list of everything I’ve played in Montréal since 1912. In case you were here in 1912, I don’t want you to hear the same piece twice.”
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| 7-May-2013 Roulette | Brooklyn Youth Chorus with Kronos Quartet at Roulette | Rebecca Lentjes |
 Zoran Orlic.jpg) Roulette has never looked so snazzy: the usual dishevelled hipsters were replaced by well-dressed audience members of all ages, wearing heels rather than flannel, drinking from wine glasses rather than beer bottles. Ironically, the performers we were about to hear are not even old enough to drink: this was the Brooklyn Youth Chorus’ annual benefit concert, featuring collaborations with Kronos Quartet and other artists.Read full review... | ||
| 6-May-2013 Wigmore Hall | Eight extraordinary string players meet: The Arditti and JACK Quartets combine at Wigmore Hall | Paul Kilbey |
 The volume was that of a string quartet on steroids, but the sound was that of eight extraordinary string players each playing slightly different things. James Clarke’s 2012-S, for two string quartets, gave an explosive, subtle start to the Arditti and JACK Quartets’ joint Wigmore Hall recital this Monday. Combining extremes of volume with minute nuances of pitch and expression, 2012-S was a perfect showcase for these two virtuosic quartets, and a whirlwind listen in its own right as well.Read full review... | ||
| 4-May-2013 The Royal Conservatory of Music, TELUS Centre, Koerner Hall | A tribute to Dizzy Gilespie in Toronto: The Danilo Pérez Trio meets the Cecilia String Quartet | Stanley Fefferman |
 The Danilo Pérez Trio tribute to Dizzy Gillespie was many things, including an invitation to relax. It was also a showcase and world première for Camino de Cruces, Pérez’s contribution to the 500th anniversary celebration of the founding of Panama. His three-movement crossover work for piano and string quartet involved the collaboration of the Cecilia String Quartet currently in residence at the University of Toronto.Read full review... | ||
| 4-May-2013 Auckland Town Hall | A magical gala evening with Bryn Terfel in Auckland | Simon Holden |
 The New Zealand Symphony Orchestra really has the perfect Wagner sound. Their full, vibrant string tone and magnificent pealing brass were fully in evidence in a thrilling rendition of the concert version of the overture from Tannhäuser. Few moments in music are as exciting as the build-up to the Big Tune in this piece, and the orchestra’s performance here was barnstorming yet perfectly accurate.Read full review... | ||
| 4-May-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | "I'm in love with Vienna": Renée Fleming and friends at Carnegie Hall | David Allen, unpredictableinevitability.com |
 For the last concert of her Perspectives series at Carnegie Hall, Renée Fleming assembled one of the least coherent concept programmes imaginable. Billed as “Vienna: Window to Modernity”, it was never clear what was specifically Viennese about the music on show, nor what was particularly modern, nor what windows had to do with anything. If this was about the fin de siècle and the turbulent culture that accompanied the collapse of the Austrian empire, then historians are going to have to redefine what a siècle might be, let alone a fin.Read full review... | ||
| 4-May-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Birdsong in Birmingham: Mitsuko Uchida with Andris Nelsons and the CBSO | Katherine Dixson, katherinedixson.co.uk |
 It wasn’t only Mitsuko Uchida’s hands that were agile. Her arrival on stage was accompanied by the deepest bow imaginable, bending from the waist until she resembled a tuning fork. Such Japanese formality was paired with a warm, glowing smile and a real connection with players and audience alike.
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| 4-May-2013 Eyebeam | John Cage's HPSCHD: Living art at Eyebeam in NYC | Rebecca Lentjes |
 This past Saturday, I spent five hours in a great big room with a cold concrete floor that was brimming from end to end with sounds and images and people. Three of the four walls, as well as a screen hanging from the ceiling and winding in an angle above, were morphing and spinning ceaselessly with celestial and kaleidoscopic images that were projected from the row of “Lightcircus” artists along the fourth wall.Read full review... | ||
| 3-May-2013 Colston Hall | Bach meets Fats Waller: Nigel Kennedy at Colston Hall, Bristol | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 The ever-eccentric Nigel Kennedy entered on stage in trainers, combat trousers, a pirate shirt with a shiny black jacket, and his staple punk hairstyle. Dressed as a rebel, his cheeky-chap persona grabbed the attention of the audience at Colston Hall for a night of Bach and Fats Waller in one.
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| 3-May-2013 Sage: Hall One | Northern Sinfonia: Bradley Creswick's blazing fiddle | Jane Shuttleworth |
 As their contribution to The Sage Gateshead’s weekend-long “Fiddles on Fire” festival, Northern Sinfonia presented a selection of solo violin and string music that artfully blurred the distinctions between musical periods and genres, putting the emphasis firmly on the instrument itself, and on the spirited playing of their leader, Bradley Creswick.
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| 3-May-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | John Wilson conducts the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus in Vaughan Williams and York Bowen | Chris Garlick |
 An orgy of British music greeted an appreciative audience at the Barbican last night courtesy of the BBC Symphony Orchestra, conducted by British music enthusiast John Wilson. But it certainly wasn’t all Land of Hope and Glory, or indeed The Lark Ascending, with three contrasting pieces – all now sadly neglected in the concert hall.
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| 3-May-2013 Kings Place: Hall One | Bach unwrapped through brass: Onyx Brass at Kings Place | Julia Savage |
 I must admit that Bach through Brass, as this concert was entitled, filled me with a certain amount of trepidation. Bach, on instruments for which the music in the programme was not designed, on instruments which were not even around in Bach’s time (at least not in their modern-day form), did not sound immediately appealing; nevertheless, something drew me in, and I was pleasantly surprised.
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