| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 23-May-2013 Middlesbrough Town Hall | The depths of the famous Russian soul: Moscow State Symphony Orchestra in Middlesbrough | Jane Shuttleworth |
 A Russian orchestra playing big, soul-searching pieces of Russian music is always going to be a crowd-puller, and a full symphony orchestra visiting the North East is a rare treat, so it was no surprise that the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra had the cavernous Town Hall in Middlesbrough pretty much filled, with a very enthusiastic audience.
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| 22-May-2013 Bridgewater Hall | Neeme Järvi and the Orchestre de la Suisse Romande in Manchester | Rohan Shotton |
 Neeme Järvi brought his fine Swiss orchestra to Manchester for a deeply moving evening of Pärt, Grieg and Tchaikovsky, leaving a large audience very quiet as they left the Bridgewater Hall.
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| 21-May-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Orchestre de la Suisse Romande thrills with Neeme Järvi in Birmingham | Verity Quaite |
 The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande is as pleasing watch as to listen to. Under the directorship of the renowned Estonian conductor Neeme Järvi since 2012, the orchestra is clearly flourishing. From start to finish, it was apparent that the orchestra were deeply enjoying their performance and this only improved the performance itself.
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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... | ||
| 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 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... | ||
| 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... | ||
| 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... | ||
| 2-May-2013 İş Sanat | A family affair: Mischa, Lily and Sascha Maisky mesmerize Istanbul | Alain Matalon |
 Mischa Maisky, the de-facto romantic cellist, gave the Istanbul audience a triple treat of passionate cello playing in Brahms, Tchaikovsky and Bruch, but surprisingly enough he was in most uninhibited during the Haydn concerto.
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| 2-May-2013 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Loving Lang Lang: Heroic Tchaikovsky and Nielsen with Dudamel in Los Angeles | Ted Ayala |
 Among among certain classical music cognoscenti, few statements will probably cause one to lose more cred than saying this: “I love Lang Lang.”
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| 12-Apr-2013 Colston Hall | Natalia Lomeiko plays Tchaikovsky with the Bristol Ensemble at Colston Hall | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 Benedetti’s Beethoven was changed, at late notice, to Lomeiko’s Tchaikovsky. Sadly, the renowned violinist Nicola Benedetti was not able to make the performance, but her replacement was wonderful. Internationally established Russian violinist and professor at the Royal College of Music, Natalia Lomeiko stepped up to play the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto in D major instead of Beethoven’s concerto. Especially considering this was an incredibly last-minute replacement, it was undoubtedly the highlight of the evening.
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| 6-Apr-2013 National Concert Hall | Drama at Joseph Calleja's concert in Dublin | Andrew Larkin |
 There was more than a little drama at Maltese tenor Joseph Calleja’s sold-out concert recital in Dublin’s National Concert Hall this evening. He was joined by Irish soprano Claudia Boyle and the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra under the baton of Proinnsías Ó Duinn. Predictability was the order of the day in the choice of programme: familiar arias and duets from the Italian and French operas with a complementary sprinkling of overtures and intermezzi for the orchestra. This was as close one gets to popular classical music: songs that might feature on the classical charts.Read full review... | ||
| 20-Mar-2013 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Enchanting Russia: The RPO play Borodin, Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky | Sarah Reid |
 David Lindsay 2007.jpg) It took the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra a little while to settle into tonight’s performance – which was a shame, because Borodin’s overture to Prince Igor can be a fantastic programme opener. A slightly untidy brass chord began the measured introduction, which sadly lacked tension in the build-up to the sudden fanfare and breakneck main theme.Read full review... | ||
| 18-Mar-2013 Queen's Hall, Edinburgh | Brodsky Quartet spin the Wheel of 4Tunes in Edinburgh | Alan Coady |
 The Brodsky Quartet, named for violinist Adolph Brodsky (1851–1929), formed in 1972. Two founder members remain: second violinist Ian Belton and cellist Jacqueline Thomas. 2,000 concerts and 50 recordings later, they have been celebrating their 40th anniversary year by mixing their huge repertoire with an element of chance. Enter “The Wheel of 4Tunes”. Total indeterminacy might result in a bonsai-concert of bijou items, or an all-nighter of titans, and so a little constraint was devised.Read full review... | ||
| 16-Mar-2013 Usher Hall | Nicola Benedetti's Siver Violin tour at Edinburgh's Usher Hall | Jeremy Morris |
 Last night’s concert in the Usher Hall contained so many different strands, that it defies simple categorisation. One of a series of nine concerts in Scotland, its first objective was clearly to promote Miss Benedetti’s latest CD, The Silver Violin. This recording features tributes to many of the great composers who wrote film music for the silver screen, hence the title. A lavish and expensive tour brochure, with lots of photographs of Miss Benedetti looking by turns glamorous, alluring, pensive and so on, served as programme.Read full review... | ||
| 15-Mar-2013 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Fate and festivals with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Oliver Brett |
 Fate and Festivals was the rather bold title given to the latest Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert at Sydney Opera House in an evening which provided a great showcase for the full orchestra, demonstrating their great virtuosity, versatility and sensitivity as an ensemble. With such a demanding program, it must have been somewhat daunting for the guest conductor, Canadian-born Charles Olivieri-Munroe. However, he conducted with flair, clearly wanting to impress on his Australian debut.Read full review... | ||
| 15-Mar-2013 Usher Hall | RSNO: Lugansky plays Prokofiev in an all-Russian programme conducted by Mikhail Tatarnikov | Alan Coady |
 Who knew glaciers were so musical? Arensky Glacier, named for the composer of this all-Russian programme’s opener, flows south from Beethoven Peninsula into the north end of the Antartic’s Boccherini Inlet. There is nothing chilly, however, about the 1894 Variations on a Theme of Tchaikovsky by Anton Arensky (1861–1906). The teacher of Scriabin and Rachmaninov, Arensky drew his theme from “Legend”, the fifth of Tchaikovsky’s 1883 Sixteen Songs for Children, Op. 54, finding sufficient inspiration there for seven variations.
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| 11-Mar-2013 Royal Academy of Music, Sir Jack Lyons Theatre | An absorbing Eugene Onegin at Royal Academy Opera | David Karlin |
 For an opera school production, it's a good idea to choose a classic: something that will focus the audience on the quality of the singers and orchestra rather than on innovation in the piece or programming. It's better still if you can find a classic that was originally composed with a conservatoire performance in mind, and this is what Royal Academy Opera have chosen this term, in the shape of Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin, first performed in 1879 by students at the Moscow Conservatoire.
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| 7-Mar-2013 Sheldonian Theatre | Tchaikovsky, Shostakovich and a world première from the Oxford Philomusica | Katy Wright |
 Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre was nearly full for the concert on Thursday night. Billed “Russian Greats”, the programme mixed the familiar fare of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with a world première by the Oxford-based composer Chris Garrard. There was a tangible sense of anticipation before the concert began, and the audience’s encouragement throughout the evening surely encouraged the Oxford Philomusica to give such a spirited performance.
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| 28-Feb-2013 Chicago Symphony Center | Yo-Yo Ma and Esa-Pekka Salonen bring Lutosławski to the CSO | Dan Wang |
 This past Thursday and Friday, Yo-Yo Ma (the CSO’s Judson and Joyce Green Creative Consultant), Finnish conductor Esa-Pekka Salonen, and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra tackled the immensely challenging Lutosławski Cello Concerto. New music geeks hardly need be informed of what a rare opportunity it is to hear a musician of Mr Ma’s caliber in the performance of a difficult modernist work, and the hope I held out for the show was amply ratified.Read full review... | ||
| 20-Feb-2013 La Maison Symphonique de Montréal | Rozhdestvensky's Tchaikovsky a hit in Montreal | Nancy Berman |
 With the recent bout of Siberian weather in Montreal, last night’s evening of Russian music at the Maison Symphonique felt positively balmy. Under the baton of Russian conductor Gennadi Rozhdestvensky, and featuring his wife Viktoria Postnikova on piano, the OSM’s performance of two works by Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky brought a little warmth to our snow-frozen city.
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| 19-Feb-2013 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Dudamel and Paredes lead Colburn Orchestra in music by Revueltas, Copland, Tchaikovsky | Ted Ayala |
 Among the most memorable and exciting evenings of my concert-going experience have been some excellent performances by student orchestras. You would think there is a trade-off for this sort of experience and that often is the case: in exchange for that last degree of technical polish you’re recompensed with performances often more thrilling than those by their professional peers. A very fair price to hear music-making wrought boldly by musicians whose sensibilities have yet to be calloused by the dullness of age, routine, and careerism.
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| 15-Feb-2013 Usher Hall | RSNO: Valentine's Night with Christian Kluxen and Olga Kern | Alan Coady |
 The contention that black and white are not colours felt doubtful upon seeing the customary RSNO white tie and black tails reversed; the truly colourful array of dresses offsetting white tuxedos allowed one to see, more easily than usual, the gender balance of the RSNO – which, in this Valentine’s concert, seemed about 50–50.
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| 13-Feb-2013 St David's Hall | The Philharmonia play Beethoven and Tchaikovsky with Guy and Gardner in Cardiff | Philip May |
 There are times when a concert, even those featuring famous and oft-heard works, can be utterly rejuvenating.
Tonight’s performance presented a pair of grand minor-key works by two emotional heavyweights of the 19th century.Read full review... | ||
| 11-Feb-2013 Royal Opera House, Covent Garden | When Pushkin comes to shove: Kasper Holten's Eugene Onegin at the Royal Opera House | Roger Mortimer-Smith |
 BILL COOPER.jpg) Tchaikovsky’s Eugene Onegin is one of the most beautiful scores in the operatic repertoire, and I don’t blame people who come to it looking forward to immersing themselves in the warm bath of the familiar story and music. For many of the audience – and, it has to be said, critics – Kasper Holten’s deconstructed Onegin clearly felt as if nanny had taken teddy away and left a book on German Expressionist cinema in its place.
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| 8-Feb-2013 Kapelle Gstaad | Some memorable moments in a mixed cello concert | David Karlin |
 Reviewing concerts by young performers can be a tricky business, particularly when the material is highly varied and the way it is played even more so. Whenever I formed an opinion about the cello playing of Pablo Ferrández in today’s concert in Gstaad Chapel, I found myself contradicting it in the following piece. So here are some of the highlights of a concert by a young performer who has great promise but is some way off the finished article.
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| 6-Feb-2013 Église de Rougemont | Alexei Volodin at Sommets Musicaux de Gstaad | David Karlin |
 The fact that Schubert’s four D.899 piano pieces are called “Impromptus” can seem incongruous: after all, they are formally structured pieces which are carefully scored with great subtlety, and performing them has little to do with spur-of-the-moment improvisation. Still, they are less architectural constructions than many, seeming more to start with a theme and then take it for a walk to see where it goes, always being careful, after various highways and byways, to come back to the beginning.
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| 26-Jan-2013 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Lorin Maazel and the New York Philharmonic in Tchaikovsky, Lutoslawski and Shostakovich | Alan Yu, alanayu.wordpress.com |
 I often think of Lorin Maazel as the American equivalent of Sir Colin Davis – they are both in their eighties and they both deliver steady, reliable interpretations that let the music speak for itself. Maazel’s return performance with the New York Philharmonic on Saturday re-affirmed my view.
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| 24-Jan-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | A spendidly played, if rather curious, programme from Nelsons, Trpceski and the CBSO | Peter Marks |
 Tchaikovsky’s early symphonies are getting a fair bit of exposure at present, both in the concert hall and on disc, thanks to several complete symphony cycles being undertaken in the UK by the London Symphony Orchestra, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra and, here in Birmingham, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. Tonight’s concert featured the last instalment in their cycle: the third, also known as the “Polish”, chiefly because of the polonaise-like dance elements in the final movement.
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| 12-Jan-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | A Romantic night out: Dvořák, Tchaikovsky and Brahms at the Dallas Symphony | Evan Mitchell |
 Mirroring the January ritual of all who indulge in one final dessert-binge before dieting to honor ill-fated New Year’s resolutions, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra got plenty of Romanticism out of their system this weekend before their Mozart Festival, set to last the remainder of this month. They hosted two young guest artists, conductor Pablo González and violinist Nicola Benedetti, for works by Dvořák, Tchaikovsky, and Brahms.Read full review... | ||
| 15-Dec-2012 Holy Trinity Cathedral | Festive fare from the Auckland Philharmonia | Simon Holden |
 For this Christmas concert we were transported from the Auckland Philharmonia’s usual venue at the Auckland Town Hall to the Holy Trinity Cathedral in Parnell. It was interesting to compare the sound of the orchestra; the cathedral has a slight echo that seemed to boost the richness of the orchestra’s sound, at times (like at the climax of Bizet’s Farandole) becoming almost shockingly loud. The orchestra treated us to a potpourri of seasonal pieces, most well-known but some unfamiliar.Read full review... | ||
| 14-Dec-2012 Usher Hall | John Lill's Greig the highlight of RSNO's winter programme in Edinburgh | Jeremy Morris |
 Under the baton of Christian Kluxen, their young Danish Assistant Conductor, there was a distinctly Scandinavian flavour to the RSNO’s concert on Friday evening. While not sold out, the Usher Hall was reassuringly full, the audience no doubt drawn by the familiar names on the programme as well as undeterred by the novelties.
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| 8-Dec-2012 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Totally Tchaikovsky with Garrick Ohlsson and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Oliver Brett |
 Wojciech Grzedzinski.jpg) The Sydney Symphony concluded their mini Russian series with an all-Tchaikovsky concert featuring one of his lesser-known concertos and a most beloved symphony.
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| 7-Dec-2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Lutosławski centenary: The shadows of the night with the LA Phil | Ted Ayala |
 The haze of the surreal, somnambulistic nightscape of Witold Lutosławski’s Les espaces du sommeil cast its strange pall over the expanse of the Los Angeles Philharmonic’s December 7 concert at Walt Disney Hall with Esa-Pekka Salonen at the podium. It was appropriate – this was the second concert celebrating the centenary of the Polish composer’s birth – but it also seemed to react in unexpected ways that could be jarring, though no less absorbing.
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| 2-Dec-2012 The Royal Conservatory of Music, TELUS Centre, Koerner Hall | Thumbs up for Denis Matsuev's all-Russian concert at Koerner Hall | Stanley Fefferman |
 His build is blocky like the hockey defense-man he once was, but Denis Matsuev’s fingers can touch piano keys lightly as butterflies landing on begonias. The mood of his solo recital opened blissfully, like the January night by the fireplace described in Puskin’s poem “By the Hearth” which inspired the first of the twelve monthly miniatures Tchaikovsky published as The Seasons, Op. 37b. These are lyrical works that sing in folk and popular dance idioms of love and nostalgia for times gone by.Read full review... | ||
| 1-Dec-2012 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | The Sydney Symphony and a star cast perform The Queen of Spades | Oliver Brett |
 I have always been skeptical of concert performances of operas. Operas are written to be acted, and the staging is needed to complement the music. This is what I thought before I saw this performance of Ashkenazy conducting the Sydney Symphony Orchestra, Sydney Philharmonia Choirs and Sydney Children’s Choir in Tchaikovsky’s The Queen of Spades. Tchaikovsky’s opera is so intensely lyrical and so well written that it stands the test of being heard alone without any staging.Read full review... | ||
| 24-Nov-2012 Albertinum | The Dresden Philharmonic with Tzimon Barto and Alexander Liebreich | Matthew Lynch |
 The regular home of the Dresden Philharmonic, Dresden’s Kulturpalast, is currently being renovated, and as a result the orchestra is taking residence in a number of venues around the city, including the city theatre, and the renowned Frauenkirche. However, the majority of their concerts this season are taking place in the Albertinum, one of Dresden’s many art galleries. The large hall where the concerts take place is an interesting space for a concert, lacking the imposing 19th-century grandeur of most concert halls, having instead a very modern feel.Read full review... | ||
| 23-Nov-2012 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Russian masters with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Oliver Brett |
 All things Russian are the flavour of the month in Sydney at the moment. Last night, the Sydney Symphony Orchestra under chief conductor Vladimir Ashkenazy embarked upon a mini-series of three Russian concerts to end the year. Recently returned from their highly successful tour of China, the orchestra was in sparkling form and played with freshness and vitality all evening.
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| 17-Nov-2012 City Recital Hall Angel Place | Russian visions with the ACO in Sydney | Oliver Brett |
 A feast of Russian chamber music was what was on offer for the Australian Chamber Orchestra’s latest concert. Featuring music by Prokofiev, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky in a program entitled Russian Visions, the ACO with guest soloists Steven Osborne and David Elton provided an evening of music which was visionary, electrifying and intense in equal measures. The ACO’s programs are always carefully constructed and innovative, and tonight’s was no exception, beginning with an extremely effective reworking of Prokofiev’s Visions Fugitives.Read full review... | ||
| 6-Nov-2012 Cadogan Hall | Dances, variations and New Worlds with the RPO, Nowak and Julian Steckel | Madelaine Jones |
 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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| 2-Nov-2012 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Quirky Golijov and granitic Tchaikovsky from the LA Phil and Alsop | Ted Ayala |
 Kym Thomson.jpg) If there was any sense that the Marin Alsop was at the end of a particularly harried week for her, she displayed no signs of it at her “Casual Friday” concert with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on Friday 2 November. The Baltimore-based conductor found herself at the center of the headlines last week – albeit for reasons she probably would have preferred to have passed up on. Her home was caught in the sights of the fury of the devastating Hurricane Sandy that passed over the US East Coast that week, with the storm’s powerful winds knocking a large tree over her study.Read full review... | ||
| 1-Nov-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Nicola Benedetti and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall | Katy S Austin |
 For those who like their orchestral music Romantic, strident and generally unrelenting, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s concert on 1 November was just the job. Korngold’s Violin Concerto in D major, played by Nicola Benedetti, was sandwiched in between two emotionally charged pieces of Tchaikovksy as the RPO under Diego Matheuz played to a packed Royal Festival Hall.
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| 26-Oct-2012 The Royal Conservatory of Music, TELUS Centre, Koerner Hall | The sound of greatness: Valery Gergiev and the Stradivarius Ensemble at Toronto's Koerner Hall | Stanley Fefferman |
 The Mariinsky Orchestra are great, because Valery Gergiev arranges a schedule that only the great could sustain. In the two weeks before they arrived in Toronto, his musicians played six performances of Swan Lake in Berkeley, California. Then Gergiev took them back to St Petersburg (October 15–23) to play the operas Boris Godunov and Aida. Their current Canada/US tour brings 28 of the orchestra’s core strings, renowned as the Stradivarius Ensemble, to five cities in six days, beginning this Friday in Toronto’s acoustic wonder, Koerner Hall.
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| 20-Oct-2012 Roy Thomson Hall | Maxim Vengerov as violinist and conductor in Toronto | Patrick P.L. Lam |
 Four years ago, Maxim Vengerov suffered a shoulder injury that temporarily incapacitated him as a performing violinist. After four years of recuperation and in his one-night-only appearance in Toronto, Mr Vengerov took on a dual identity – as a violin soloist in the Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto and then as a violinist–conductor in Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, with the Toronto Symphony Orchestra.
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| 16-Oct-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Russian rue and revelry with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra | Madelaine Jones |
 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... | ||
| 11-Oct-2012 University of Southampton: Turner Sims | Borodin String Quartet: Tchaikovsky and Brahms in Southampton | Edward Whitney |
 The Borodin String Quartet has been playing serious, heavyweight programmes since 1945, making it the quartet world’s most senior ensemble, and giving it a global reputation for high technical standards and musicianship. Back in the immediate post-war period the group developed a close relationship with Shostakovich, which stimulated their particular affinity with the Russian repertoire that continues to this day. That affinity was clear for all to hear at their recent appointment at Turner Sims in Southampton, where they played two of Tchaikovsky’s early works for string quartet.
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| 5-Oct-2012 Usher Hall | Peter Oundjian launches his directorship of RSNO with Glinka, Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich | Alan Coady |
.jpg) If the presence of BBC Radio 3 and a huge audience occasioned any nervousness on the evening of Peter Oundjian’s first Edinburgh appearance as RSNO Music Director, it was well hidden. Weaving with boyish enthusiasm through the orchestra, a sporting spring in his step, he acknowledged the warm welcome before the orchestra dived into Glinka’s 1842 overture to Ruslan and Ludmilla.
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| 2-Oct-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Elina Garanča thrills in concert at the Barbican | David Karlin |
 As crowd-pulling operatic divas go, most of the attention goes to the sopranos. But a select number of mezzos have the same kind of following, and Latvia's Elina Garanča is high on that list. There are just a few roles where the mezzo is the main character of the opera (many of the others are "witches and bitches", as Garanča puts it), and the big one of those is Carmen.Read full review... | ||
| 29-Sep-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Russian Romantics: Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky in Dallas | Evan Mitchell |
 Kacper Pempel.jpg) The Dallas Symphony Orchestra have had a couple of high-profile guest performers in town for their most recent series of concerts. They presented works by Rachmaninov and Tchaikovsky, a piano concerto and a symphony respectively, in a program that, although disastrously designed, was redeemed by some stellar playing.
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| 29-Sep-2012 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Infectious Tchaikovsky and Bruch with Yossif Ivanov and the CBSO | Katherine Dixson, katherinedixson.co.uk |
 This concert exploded into life with Weber’s overture from Euryanthe. Guest conductor Walter Weller displayed economy of movement but set the orchestra off at a cracking pace, creating an upbeat mood that was sustained throughout the evening. Although the opera is rarely heard in its entirety, the overture encapsulates the hero’s two great themes, with the drama of martial music from woodwind and brass giving way to the lyrical eloquence of legato strings.Read full review... | ||
