| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 13-Apr-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | LSO Futures Week at the Barbican: Symphonic sound worlds | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
.jpg) Following on from the Contemporary Chamber Works concert of the LSO Futures series, François-Xavier Roth was back less than an hour later with the Symphonic Sound Worlds programme. This formed the second part of his investigation into the nature of the orchestra, its traditional forms and generic makeup. The title “Symphonic Sound Worlds” hints not only at the expansion of orchestral sounds, but also at the effects of these sounds upon the more general “worlds” within which they are deployed.Read full review... | ||
| 7-Apr-2013 Mayo Performing Arts Center | New Jersey Symphony and Susanna Mälkki in Strauss, Debussy and Messiaen | Alan Yu, alanayu.wordpress.com |
 My last encounter with conductor Susanna Mälkki was her debut with the Los Angeles Philharmonic two and a half years ago. I was impressed with her crisp style of conducting that delivered near-seismic impact in Richard Strauss’ Also Sprach Zarathustra. I predicted she would go far in her career, and am delighted to discover that she has since been the first woman conductor to perform at La Scala, Milan.
Read full review... | ||
| 6-Apr-2013 St George's Bristol | Sea pictures and Enigmas (but no Elgar): Enigma Orchestra at St George's Bristol | David Fay |
 I doubt many of us have been to the seaside recently. Even if Bristolians had braved the cold and wet and wind, I’m sure that the mudflats of Brean or the arcades of Weston-super-Mare were a far cry from the visions of that mysterious body of saltwater conjured up by the Enigma Orchestra in their second ever concert at St George’s.Read full review... | ||
| 25-Mar-2013 Howard Assembly Room | Bavouzet plays Beethoven and Debussy in Leeds | Sam Wigglesworth |
 Paul Mitchell.jpg) Although this was ostensibly a recital featuring the music of two composers, a third, much less venerable one, also managed to leave his mark on proceedings. The figure in question is Carl Czerny, the one-time pupil of Beethoven’s whose banal piano studies proved to be the springboard for the first of Claude Debussy’s own, far more inventive forays into the genre. In contrast to Debussy’s constructive borrowing, Czerny’s impact upon his teacher’s legacy was far more problematic, his many anecdotes often obscuring rather than illuminating the music in question.
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| 24-Mar-2013 Institut Français (French Institute): Library | Traversing the globe: Ferenc Vizi at the Institut Français | Julia Savage |
 In a quiet backstreet just a couple of minutes’ walk from South Kensington underground station stands the Institut Français du Royaume-Uni. It is one branch of a global network that exists to promote cross-cultural dialogue and to showcase the best of French culture, be that through food, media, or music. The Art Deco building boasts a ciné lumière and a wood-panelled library, and it was the latter that formed the venue for an intimate piano recital given by the pianist Ferenc Vizi as part of the Institut’s recent festival It’s all about Piano!
Read full review... | ||
| 17-Mar-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Stupendously good: The LA Phil and Dudamel explore colour at the Barbican | Julia Savage |
 The Los Angeles Philharmonic Orchestra’s residency at the Barbican has been a huge success. Rather than churn out time-honoured family favourite pieces of classical music, the orchestra has seized the opportunity to showcase its prowess in the performance of new music – three European premières including John Adams’ powerful passion-oratorio The Gospel According to the Other Mary, as well as Claude Vivier’s colourful Zipangu were in the mix.Read full review... | ||
| 12-Mar-2013 Colston Hall | Perfect percussionist Dame Evelyn Glennie and the Bristol Ensemble at Colston Hall | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 Beethoven did not take precedence in this concert, but he stole the title. As part of the “Brilliant Beethoven” concert series, the Bristol Ensemble performed the Seventh Symphony of the well-known composer. It was programmed at the end of the evening alongside Debussy, Vivaldi and current composer Alexis Alrich. The theme connecting the different works was rhythm. A prelude, two concertos and a symphony later, Colston Hall was near to having its audience tap-dancing – well, at least on my row. The last three pieces of the evening were competitively catchy.
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| 8-Mar-2013 Cadogan Hall | Brussels Philharmonic Orchestra performs a pan-European programme at Cadogan Hall | Julia Savage |
 In its sixth season, the Zurich International Concert Series has attracted some well-known, but less-heard orchestral names to London. The series enables the full force of orchestras to be heard in the relatively intimate space of Cadogan Hall, which is otherwise famous for attracting chamber ensembles of the highest calibre.
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| 7-Mar-2013 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Woven Words continues: The Philharmonia and Truls Mørk play Lutosławski's Cello Concerto | Renée Reitsma, ypgtcm.blogspot.com |
 Continuing Woven Words, the Lutosławski festival, the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa-Pekka Salonen presented us with another evening of impressive music and impressive programming. Like featuring Ravael’s Daphnis et Chloé in the Lutosławski concert on 30 January, opening this evening with Debussy’s La mer proved an excellent decision.
Read full review... | ||
| 6-Mar-2013 The Morgan Library and Museum | A Parisian affair at the Morgan Library, New York | Kay Kempin |
 Regular concert-goers are used to hearing the harp on a church altar or mixed in with a large symphony, barely audible above the mass of strings, bass and brass. But the St Luke’s Chamber Ensemble put the harp center stage, in an evening of 20th-century French music, no less.
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| 23-Feb-2013 Kirche St Georg | Ensemble Vocalisa Variable perform works for female voices in Denzlingen | Nicholas Reed |
| The Ensemble Vocalisa Variabile presented a varied programme in the Kirche St Georg, Denzlingen, featuring eight different composers whose period of activity spanned no less than six centuries. In addition to a number of fine musical high-points, it was this versatility which proved to be one of the most impressive aspects of the performance.
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| 16-Feb-2013 Meyerson Symphony Center | Impressions: Debussy, Rodrigo and Prokofiev at the Dallas Symphony | Evan Mitchell |
.jpg) After a series of Pops concerts featuring John Williams’ film scores, the Dallas Symphony Orchestra returned to standard classical fare this weekend with Canadian guest conductor Julian Kuerti. Debussy’s Ibéria never really got off the ground, but Mr Kuerti and the DSO had better luck in music by Joaquín Rodrigo and Prokofiev. Pairing the Debussy with Rodrigo’s Concierto de Aranjuez made for an all-“Spanish” first half, a well-worn programming device.Read full review... | ||
| 16-Feb-2013 Birmingham Symphony Hall | Ballets Russes: 1913 with the CBSO, James Ehnes and Simone Young | Verity Quaite |
 It isn’t every day that you bump into a world-class virtuoso violinist. I bumped into one, James Ehnes as it happens, and in the literal rather than figurative sense, only minutes before he was to star in the CBSO’s concert celebrating the Ballets Russes in 1913 – a programme that brought together the delightful tranquillity of Mussorgsky’s prelude to Khovanshchina, Sibelius’ Violin Concerto in D minor, Debussy’s Jeux and finally Stravinsky’s The Firebird suite.
Read full review... | ||
| 10-Feb-2013 UC Berkeley: Hertz Hall | Pathos and power: Eric Owens recital in Berkeley | Jeffery S McMillan |
 Bass-baritone Eric Owens is no stranger to Bay Area voice aficionados. After making his local debut as Lodovico in Otello with San Francisco Opera in 2002, Owens memorably created the diet-regiment-reciting General Leslie Groves there in the world première of John Adams’ Doctor Atomic in 2005. Most recently he did yeoman's work with a smaller role in Bellini's I Capuleti e i Montecchi in October.Read full review... | ||
| 8-Feb-2013 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Legends by the Sea with the Sydney Symphony Orchestra | Oliver Brett |
 The latest Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert, entitled Legends by the Sea, was an intriguing mix of contrasting works by Sibelius, Fauré and Debussy.
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| 8-Feb-2013 Royal College of Music: Britten Theatre | Iain Burnside's Journeying Boys at the Royal College of Music | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
 “Bring it on”. This was the response of Nicholas Sears, Head of Vocal Studies at the Royal College of Music, when Iain Burnside sketched out his plan for a music theatre event that would almost certainly cross boundaries of taste. Using Benjamin Britten’s song cycle Les Illuminations as a point of departure, Journeying Boys traces the life of the 19th-century French poet Arthur Rimbaud, whose prose-poem suite Les Illuminations forms the basis of Britten’s composition.Read full review... | ||
| 7-Feb-2013 Kapelle Gstaad | Cello music romantic and modern in Gstaad | David Karlin |
| One of the more attractive features of the Sommets Musicaux festival is the series of concerts in Gstaad chapel, each given by a young musician who has been spending the week attending classes, with a mentor – in this case, Mario Brunello – and each including a world première written by the festival’s composer in residence – this year, it’s the turn of Nicolas Bacri.
This year focuses on the cello, and today’s concert featured Swiss cellist Sayaka Selina playing a mixed programme of Romantic and modern works, accompanied by German pianist Mathis Bereuter.
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| 29-Jan-2013 Sage: Hall Two | Northern Sinfonia in the cafés of Paris | Jane Shuttleworth |
 When I collected my ticket for this evening’s Late Mix concert in Hall Two of The Sage Gateshead, I was somewhat surprised to see it marked as unreserved seating. A computer glitch, I thought, until I walked into the hall and found that the usual rows of seats in this small, in-the-round auditorium had been replaced with café-style tables and chairs. The surprise of this novel seating arrangement immediately set up a relaxed and friendly atmosphere, as people brought drinks in and mingled.
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| 24-Jan-2013 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Frozen haze from Radu Lupu in a wintry New York | David Allen, unpredictableinevitability.com |
 Any solo recital from Radu Lupu comes with the baggage of a cult, and this Carnegie Hall concert was no exception. Lavish praise from the weeklies aside, there really is something to the aura that surrounds this exquisite pianist. He has a unique sound, seeming to breathe with the concert hall's very air. He no longer records, and what he plays live is rarely a repeat of what he has recorded in the past.Read full review... | ||
| 21-Jan-2013 Carnegie Hall, Zankel Hall | Nicolas Hodges performs virtuosic all-20th century piano recital at Carnegie Hall | Rebecca Lentjes |
 It’s pretty rare for a major concert hall to program more than ten minutes of music that was composed post-1900, and it’s even rarer to see an entire program of music that was composed post-1900. But at Carnegie’s Zankel Hall Monday evening, that’s exactly what the audience was treated to, courtesy of pianist Nicolas Hodges. Mr. Hodges, a versatile British musician, performed works from the turn of the 20th century and the turn of the 21st century. Mr.Read full review... | ||
| 19-Jan-2013 Walt Disney Concert Hall | Susan Graham and Renée Fleming stunning at Disney Hall | Matthew Richard Martinez |
 One would think that either Renée Fleming or Susan Graham alone would be reason enough to sell out a large venue such as Disney Hall. But everything is bigger in Hollywood, and the LA Phil brought both artists together for a one-night recital of French art song. But even that wasn’t enough. This was not an ordinary recital with neatly arranged sets of the typical repertoire finished off with a few predictable encores, concluded in two hours’ time. No, this was a thoughtful survey of French mélodies and their English-speaking muses, with slideshows, anecdotes, and stories.
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| 17-Jan-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Living music: John Adams with the London Symphony Orchestra | Paul Kilbey |
 January 2013 is turning out to be a pretty major month for 20th-and 21st-century classical music in London’s cultural mainstream, with Harrison Birtwistle’s The Minotaur roaring loudly at the Royal Opera House and the Southbank Centre’s The Rest Is Noise series, a year-long celebration of 20th-century music, launching currently. But the London Symphony Orchestra showed on Thursday night that it is perfectly possible to tell eloquent, provocative stories about the 20th century through classical music with nothing more than a single, conventional orchestral programme.
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| 15-Jan-2013 La Maison Symphonique de Montréal | Alain Lefèvre and Ludovic Morlot in concert with the OSM | Andrew Crust |
 Last night’s concert featured the Québec native pianist and frequent OSM guest Alain Lefèvre and the guest conductor Ludovic Morlot, Music Director of the Seattle Symphony. The program was dedicated to cellist, educator and founder of I Musici de Montréal Yuli Turovsky, who died yesterday.
Read full review... | ||
| 15-Jan-2013 Konzerthaus: Rolf Böhme Saal | Susanna Mälkki with the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg | Nicholas Reed |
.jpg) Susanna Mälkki, current Musical Director of the trail-blazing new music specialists Ensemble Intercontemporain conducted the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg in a concert showcasing two French impressionists’ love affair with Spain, Brice Pauset’s fascination with the symphony orchestra’s timbral spectrum, and Alexander Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy.
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| 9-Jan-2013 Wigmore Hall | Understated bravado: Leon McCawley at Wigmore Hall | Frances Wilson |
 Acclaimed British pianist Leon McCawley opened the Wigmore Hall’s 2013 London Pianoforte Series with a varied programme of piano music by masters of the instrument spanning two centuries, from Bach to Rachmaninov.
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| 11-Dec-2012 Konzerthaus: Mozart Saal | Pierre-Laurent Aimard plays Debussy's Préludes in Vienna | Zwölftöner |
| Having only heard Pierre-Laurent Aimard on disc for the last few years it was curious to experience something rather different in the flesh, by way perhaps of that phenomenon, so often invoked as to be meaningless, of the artist for whom two concerts are never the same. I can say with some certainty that it will be some time before we ever hear a piano sound quite the same in the Mozart Saal, a room that habitually bestows brightness and brilliance in unforgiving quantities regardless of model or manufacturer, but which on this occasion was filled with a plush and intimate roundness.
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| 26-Nov-2012 Kings Place: Hall Two | Inspired by Debussy: The Mercury Quartet presents new work | Paul Kilbey |
 Of the two major composers to have had anniversaries in 2012, maybe it’s ironic that it has been the 150-year-old Claude Debussy, rather than the 100-year-old John Cage, who has largely been celebrated with silence. But despite a fairly mild year of Debussy festivities (in London at least), Kings Place was host to a significant commemorative event on Monday night, with an evening of new works “Inspired by Debussy”, performed by the Mercury Quartet and guests.
Read full review... | ||
| 15-Nov-2012 Oslo Opera House, Main Stage | A celebration of sound: The Berlin Philharmonic in the Oslo Opera House | Aksel Tollåli |
 How very fitting that the Berlin Philharmonic, an orchestra that claims to be made up of 128 soloists, should start Thursday’s concert and their European tour with perhaps one of the most soloistic orchestral pieces ever written: Ligeti’s Atmosphères.
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| 15-Nov-2012 Vredenburg Leeuwenbergh | The Brodsky Quartet show their true musical colors at Utrecht's Vredenburg | Kristen Huebner |
 A pseudo-cinematic turn of events forced the world renowned Brodsky Quartet to pull out all the stops for their concert in Utrecht last Thursday evening. Continually in demand as interpreters of the standard string quartet repertoire as well as proponents of new music commissioned by living composers, the quartet has accumulated a wealth of original manuscripts for their personal catalogue. Prepared to showcase their range, the group created a “Wheel of 4Tunes”, a musical “Wheel of Fortune” which presents a program of four works with the possibility of 10 works per space.Read full review... | ||
| 15-Nov-2012 Carnegie Hall: Stern Auditorium/Perelman Stage | Pierre-Laurent Aimard honors Debussy and Elliott Carter at Carnegie Hall | Rebecca Lentjes |
 When I first settled into my red velvet seat at Carnegie Hall, my excitement was overtaken by a grim foreboding. The hall’s internationally celebrated acoustics were offering an all-too-dazzling earful of sneezes and sniffles – a fact I observed in a germaphobic panic. Flu season has arrived in New York, but that didn’t deter anyone from attending Pierre-Laurent Aimard’s solo piano recital last Thursday. In fact, the hall was packed full of diverse (if sickly) listeners anticipating this incredibly versatile performer’s concert.
Read full review... | ||
| 7-Nov-2012 Hong Kong Cultural Centre: Concert Hall | Krystian Zimerman plays Debussy, Szymanowski and Brahms in Hong Kong | Patrick P.L. Lam |
 Hong Kong has had the good fortune to present Krystian Zimerman several times in recent years, thanks to presenters at the Leisure and Cultural Services Department. Those who have been following Zimerman’s concert engagements will realize much of his activities today are focused in Europe and Asia. Flying in from Canada, in part for this occasion, Zimerman’s recital was one that I highly anticipated since his last appearance in Hong Kong in June 2010. Over 90% of the Culture Center seats were filled in this highlight recital of the 2012/13 concert season.
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| 14-Oct-2012 Art Institute of Chicago | Debussy and Impressionism at the Art Institute of Chicago | Dan Wang |
 Those who find that the words “complete works” hold a special allure will surely already know about the Debussy Chamber Music Festival taking place in Chicago this month, performed and organized by the Chicago Chamber Musicians, which offers the rare opportunity to hear the composer’s complete chamber works.
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| 1-Oct-2012 Wigmore Hall | Fleet fingers and sound showers: Noriko Ogawa at the Wigmore Hall | Frances Wilson |
 It was fitting that critically acclaimed Japanese pianist Noriko Ogawa should open her Wigmore Hall lunchtime concert with a work by one of her countrymen: Rain Tree Sketch II by Toru Takemitsu. Not only does this piece of late 20th-century impressionism draw direct influences from the music of Debussy, which formed the bulk of the programme, it was performed on a day when many people came into the Wigmore shaking rain from umbrellas, hats and raincoats.
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| 27-Sep-2012 La Maison Symphonique de Montréal | James Conlon and Gil Shaham with the Montréal Symphony | Andrew Crust |
 In recent seasons the Orchestre Symphonique de Montréal has had a tradition of crafting remarkably excellent programs which not only entertain, but suggest a dramatic or historical link between the featured works. Tonight was no exception: it was a program united by dances, by Spain and by Impressionism. Most strikingly, it was an evening featuring brilliant orchestrators.
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| 23-Sep-2012 St Mary's Parish Church | Lammermuir Festival: Fauré Requiem with Northern Sinfonia and NYCOS | Alan Coady |
 If three years is sufficient to constitute a tradition then, traditionally, a Lammermuir Festival ends with a sell-out concert in St. Mary’s Parish Church, Haddington. And if year three is sufficiently far along the line to break with tradition, then this year’s surprise was not box-office focused but based on choice of repertoire; not a Bach/Handel finish, but an all-French programme.
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| 15-Sep-2012 Meyerson Symphony Center | Dallas Symphony Orchestra season opens with van Zweden and Joaquín Achúcarro | Evan Mitchell |
 The fifth year of the Jaap van Zweden era at the Dallas Symphony Orchestra began this weekend with a program comprising audience favorites both flashy and serene. According to the printed program notes Mr. van Zweden, Music Director since 2008, selected “a program that demonstrates the superb technical and musical heights our orchestra has reached under his baton.” Modest, perhaps not, but warranted, definitely.Read full review... | ||
| 7-Sep-2012 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | Debussy, Takemitsu and Copland from Sydney Symphony and Spano | Oliver Brett |
 Upon entering the concert hall of Sydney Opera House, I was greeted by a plethora of percussion instruments positioned in all corners of the stage, along with multi-coloured ribbons, which were hanging down from the ceiling. They were in place for a performance of Toru Takemitsu’s From me flows what you call Time, for five percussionists and orchestra. However, before that, we were treated to Debussy’s much-loved Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune.Read full review... | ||
| 3-Sep-2012 Cadogan Hall | Proms Chamber Music 8: Overwhelmed by Debussy – Pierre-Laurent Aimard at Cadogan Hall | Frances Wilson |
 Pierre-Laurent Aimard is a pianist who really likes to get inside the music he performs, whether Liszt, Boulez, Messiaen, or, as in the case of his Chamber Prom at Cadogan Hall (the last of the 2012 season), Debussy. In a concert to celebrate the sesquicentennial anniversary of Debussy’s birth, Aimard demonstrated not only his tremendous technical facility, but also his artistry and profound understanding of his compatriot’s oeuvre, the result, as Aimard admits, of being “overwhelmed” by Debussy from a young age.
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| 30-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 63: Texture and atmosphere is all from the Berliner Philharmoniker | David Karlin |
 It was, truly, music from another world. Opening the concert with György Ligeti's 1961 Atmosphères, the Berliner Philharmoniker started with the gentlest of wafting string tones with clustered woodwind sounding almost organ-like, whereupon layer after layer piled in, an infinite variety of orchestral textures shifting and swirling. Mid way through this eight-minute piece, we jump from an ear-splitting, scary motif on the highest notes of a piccolo down to a thunderous passage on double basses, followed by the gentle swelling of strings, which morphs into a buzzing swarm.Read full review... | ||
| 27-Aug-2012 Cadogan Hall | Proms Chamber Music 7: The Nash Ensemble illustrate the musical contrasts of the 20th century | Matthew Lynch |
 The seventh of the chamber music Proms this year brought together two of the greatest composers of the early 20th century. Though Debussy was twelve years Schoenberg’s senior, of the two works performed it is Schoenberg’s Pierrot Lunaire which was written first, in 1912, with Debussy’s Sonata for flute, viola and harp following three years later in 1915.Read full review... | ||
| 25-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 56: Knussen conducts Knussen | Madelaine Jones |
 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... | ||
| 22-Aug-2012 Sydney Opera House: Concert Hall | A Romantic Symphony at Sydney Opera House | Oliver Brett |
| The latest Sydney Symphony Orchestra concert had everything from French impressionism to a world premiere, to a performance of a much-loved Romantic Symphony.
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| 20-Aug-2012 Cadogan Hall | Proms Chamber Music 6: Hugh Wood and Claude Debussy | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
 This year the Proms Chamber Music Series returns to the bright and spacious environment of Cadogan Hall to celebrate the 150th anniversary of Claude Debussy’s birth. At the sixth concert in the series an inspired programme given by BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artists, the Escher Quartet, paired two works exactly one hundred years apart in their composition: String Quartet No.Read full review... | ||
| 6-Aug-2012 Cadogan Hall | Proms Chamber Music 4: Limitless possibilities – Debussy and Ravel at Cadogan Hall | Frances Wilson |
 It’s rare to be at a concert, of any genre, and to experience a very profound sense of involvement on the part of the performers, combined with total commitment to the music, both in terms of fidelity to the written score and integrity of performance. But that is what we enjoyed at the fourth chamber music Prom of the season, in a concert by three young performers (two of whom were making their Proms debut) of music by Debussy and Ravel.
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| 26-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 16: BBC National Orchestra of Wales with Joanna MacGregor and Ryan Wigglesworth | Julia Savage |
 As the programme put it, Prom 16 had a "distinctly watery" theme. The BBC National Orchestra of Wales took its audience on a trip to the Italian and French rivieras, with a staycation in the form of Hugh Wood's thrilling Piano Concerto. It was a challenging programme, which showed in the orchestra's playing more than once, but it was nevertheless an enjoyable experience. It should be noted that the orchestra's originally billed conductor, Thierry Fischer, was unwell, and was replaced at very short notice by conductor Ryan Wigglesworth.
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| 23-Jul-2012 Hereford Cathedral | A window on the Three Choirs Festival: Debussy, Tabakova and Fauré | Katherine Dixson, katherinedixson.co.uk |
 After weeks of foul weather, this was more like it. Proper sunshine for a summer festival. Around Hereford Cathedral, watched over by a statue of Elgar draped in a fresh laurel wreath, Three Choirs Festival-goers enjoyed the warmth before venturing inside for equally sunny music. Even the yellow flowers framing the stage carried through the theme, setting off the golden centre-stage harp. This in turn shimmered in the sunlight streaming through the stained glass windows.
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| 15-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 3: Sir John Eliot Gardiner conducts Pelléas et Mélisande | Laura Kate Wilson |
 Opera at the 2012 Proms began with a performance of Debussy’s only completed opera, Pelléas et Mélisande. Conducted by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, the production celebrated the 150th anniversary of the composer’s birth, and marked the 24 years since Gardiner first brought the work to the Royal Albert Hall with the Opéra de Lyon. This time, he was conducting the Orchestre Révolutionnaire et Romantique, a period orchestra he formed in 1990 with the purpose of accurately performing music of the 19th century.Read full review... | ||
| 14-Jul-2012 Huntington Library, San Marino | Southwest Chamber Music pay tribute to the France of Debussy, Ravel, and Jolivet | Ted Ayala |
 Limpidity, elegance, sensuality, and charm: virtues that characterize the very best of modern French musical style. The listener, falling under the music’s spell, may find it easy to take its ravishing beauty for granted; unaware that this beauty came at the cost of earnest toil and experimentation of at least two generations of French composers.
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| 11-Jul-2012 Pittville Pump Room | Back to 1915: Kraggerud, Isserlis and more at the Cheltenham Music Festival | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 The concert opened with BBC newsreader Julia Somerville, summarising news from the year 1915 at an old-fashioned broadcasting desk complete with microphone. It was informative, and set the scene for this recital, one in a series of ‘time capsule’ concerts, solely featuring music composed in 1915 – including two of Debussy’s last chamber pieces.
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| 6-Jul-2012 Pittville Pump Room | Debussy in a Different Light: Jean-Efflam Bavouzet at the Cheltenham Music Festival | Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres |
 To perform so many of Debussy’s works in one sitting requires a certain amount of skill and understanding. The charismatic pianist Jean-Efflam Bavouzet opened our eyes to the impressionistic world of Claude Debussy in this special three-part concert for the Cheltenham Music Festival. The programme, entitled ‘The Essential Debussy’, was designed by Bavouzet to explore Debussy’s relationship with the piano and cover many of his major compositions, in a meticulous order and grouping.Read full review... | ||
