| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 14-Jun-2013 Royal Opera House: Linbury Studio Theatre | Gerald Barry's The Importance of Being Earnest staged at the ROH Linbury Studio | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
 STEPHEN CUMMISKEY.jpg) Interviewed at the Barbican Centre last year, Stephen Fry described Gerald Barry’s score for The Importance of Being Earnest (2010) rather unfavourably as “taking a machete to a soufflé”. However, this zany opera based on Oscar Wilde’s classic play of 1895 has already emerged victorious from concert premières in Los Angeles and London. It has had audiences guffawing with abandon at its array of Second Viennese School parodies, plate-smashing at the tea table, and musical mash-ups of Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony and Auld Lang Syne.Read full review... | ||
| 3-Apr-2013 Wigmore Hall | Britten, Bridge and a co-commission: Britten Sinfonia at Wigmore Hall | Julia Savage |
 The centenary of Britten’s birth has seen a surge in performances of his music both in the concert hall and on the stages of many a noted opera house. Sensationalised biographies, radio and television programmes, and a number of Britten-centred festivals have helped to pique further interest in a composer whose music tends to attract a love-hate relationship with its listeners. Unsurprisingly, Britten Sinfonia is in the midst of a busy year of imaginative concerts and hotly anticipated collaborations.
Read full review... | ||
| 27-Feb-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Baltic music and Bach: Alina Ibragimova and Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican | Paul Kilbey |
 Alina Ibragimova barely glanced up from her score during her Bach concerto with Britten Sinfonia last night, and the result was some of the most intense, beautiful music-making I can recall hearing. With just six members of the orchestra providing her with impeccable support, this was a performance of a sort of off-the-cuff brilliance in which Ibragimova sounded like she was simply playing a favourite piece of hers in private. Every touch, every shift of style or mood, seemed spontaneous, born of an impulsive, powerful love.Read full review... | ||
| 22-Nov-2012 Wigmore Hall | Britten Sinfonia and Alice Coote celebrate Britten's birthday in style at Wigmore Hall | Evan Dickerson |
 22 November 2012 would have been Benjamin Britten’s 99th birthday. Wigmore Hall marked the occasion with the first concert in a series of nine events in November and December. However, rather than focusing exclusively on Britten’s music, it built towards the climax that saw Britten’s angst-ridden late masterpiece Phaedra searingly performed.
Read full review... | ||
| 3-Nov-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Knussen's Sendak operas at the Barbican | Paul Kilbey |
 While there’s no reason that a children’s opera should be simple or easy, there’s no real need for it to be difficult either. So I was a little confused going into the Barbican’s performance of Oliver Knussen’s brilliant brace of Maurice Sendak adaptations this Saturday, which was surrounded, despite the works’ subject matter, with a slightly unbecoming aura of seriousness.Read full review... | ||
| 27-Oct-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Looking Forward with Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican | Paul Kilbey |
 Rhydian Peters.jpg) Pleasantly enough, Britten Sinfonia went down a thoroughly unconventional route in celebrating their 20th birthday at the Barbican on Saturday, with a brilliantly varied range of new pieces mixing with chamber orchestra classics. With a stellar range of guests, they carried us along all the way from Purcell to Moondog, encapsulating the spirit of versatility and openness which makes the group what it is.
Read full review... | ||
| 31-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 65: Guy Barker and Martin Taylor's Spirit of Django | David Karlin |
 Friday's Late Night Prom was a bold venture into crossover. On the left and centre of the stage was a fully loaded symphony orchestra (the Britten Sinfonia); on the right, a jazz big band (the Guy Barker Jazz Orchestra); in front of them, virtuoso jazz guitarist Martin Taylor and his Spirit of Django ensemble; on the podium, conducting the whole lot, was Barker himself.Read full review... | ||
| 16-Mar-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Nico Muhly with the Britten Sinfonia and Friends | Paul Kilbey |
 To call last night’s Nico Muhly extravaganza at the Barbican a concert of two halves would not go far enough. It was more like two concerts, with a surprisingly short gap between them. The first was made up of three new classical works played by the Britten Sinfonia, and the second was a set of arty folk numbers and other chamber miniatures by Muhly and others. The whole evening was a provocative mixture of styles – if not always a successful one.
Read full review... | ||
| 8-Dec-2011 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Sir Mark Elder shows us the true meaning of L'enfance du Christ, Berlioz's own Christmas story | David Fay |
 Before attending Sir Mark Elder and the Britten Sinfonia’s performance of L’enfance du Christ, I could have claimed to be almost entirely ignorant of Berlioz’s music. The only exception – apart from an innocuous bucolic passage from Harold in Italy I ‘studied’ at A-level – was ‘The Shepherd’s Farewell’, which makes my Christmas chocolate box list annually.Read full review... | ||
| 3-Sep-2011 Cadogan Hall | David Hill and Nathalie Clein give energetic interpretations of 20th Century religious works | Ruth Mariner |
 Themes of spirituality and religion pervaded the fourth and final chamber music prom of this BBC Proms season. Cellist Nathalie Clein joined the BBC Singers and the Britten Ensemble under conductor David Hill to perform works by modern composers with an interest in the esoteric; Micheal Tippett, Sofia Gubaidulina, and – seated in the audience for the UK premiere of his Popule Meus – Sir John Tavener.
Read full review... | ||
| 24-May-2011 Southbank Centre: Queen Elizabeth Hall | Joanna MacGregor and Arve Henriksen bring Deep South blues and Scottish Reels to the Southbank | Hannah Gill |
 It's not often in classical music that the performers themselves are the main focus of our attention; more often than not they are at the service of the composer. But this evening was an exception to the rule, showcasing the multi-talented Joanna MacGregor and Arve Henriksen. In the absence of a conductor, the musicians performed with a great sense of rapport throughout, ably directed from the keyboard by MacGregor.
Read full review... | ||
