| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 22-Nov-2012 Oslo Concert Hall (Konserthus) | A somewhat Spanish evening with the Oslo Philharmonic | Aksel Tollåli |
 Last Thursday’s concert with the Oslo Philharmonic featured four pieces with little or no connection to each other, other than three of the pieces being either written by Spanish-speaking composers or actually being about Spain. Yet, apart from one piece, it all came together into a rather coherent whole.
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| 14-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 44: A pocket history of post-war music with the London Sinfonietta | Verity Quaite |
 To judge by the continued chatter, no-one noticed 100 metronomes on stage being set in motion, signalling the beginning of György Ligeti’s Poème symphonique (1962). Even when the lights were dimmed it only dawned on people slowly that the concert had actually already begun. And yet once the realisation hit home, the entire audience was drawn into the piece, the suspense palpable as one by one the metronomes, each set at a pre-fixed speed, dropped out, eventually leaving only three... then two... then one.Read full review... | ||
| 7-Aug-2012 Lincoln Center: Avery Fisher Hall | Getting into the heads of Schubert, Berio, and Beethoven at the Mostly Mozart Festival | Evan Mitchell |
 In their latest set of concerts, the Mostly Mozart Festival on Tuesday presented two works: one largely unknown, the other among the most beloved in the standard repertoire. The first, Luciano Berio’s 1989 Rendering, is fragmented and open-ended. The second, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto no. 5, “Emperor”, about as solid and decisive as they come. The MMF Orchestra and conductor Susanna Mälkki were convincing in the first half, and were joined by the extraordinary Garrick Ohlsson for the Beethoven.
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| 10-Jul-2012 Royal Albert Hall: Elgar Room | London Contemporary Orchestra Soloists at the Royal Albert Hall | Paul Kilbey |
 Contemporary classical music is happening in all manner of unexpected venues in London at the moment, from Peckham car parks to pubs. But it isn't just getting edgier – it's also getting more respectable, if last night's suave affair in the Royal Albert Hall's Elgar Room is anything to go by. Set in a relaxed, up-market bar lounge area with the performers having to squeeze their way past beer-sipping patrons to get to the stage, all that separated this recital from a debonair evening of light jazz was a rather reverential, attentive atmosphere and some intense lighting. Oh, and the music.
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| 28-Apr-2012 Herbst Theater | Eliot Fisk and Richard Stoltzman: Food for Thought | Brenden Guy |
 As I sat in Herbst Theater last night awaiting the appearance of clarinetist Richard Stoltzman and guitarist Eliot Fisk, my mind wandered to the analogy of food and wine. With an abundance of delectable cuisine and fine wine across the world, the combination of such pairings are endless. However, the choice requires special consideration, and can be the difference between a superb dining experience and an unsatisfactory one. Having never experienced such a unique program as that presented Saturday night by Chamber Music San Francisco, I wondered if this would prove to be a successful pairing.Read full review... | ||
| 24-Apr-2012 Royal College of Music: Inner Parry Room | ExplorEnsemble at the Royal College of Music | Paul Kilbey |
 rehearse Charlie Sdrauligs hush.jpg) Contemporary music ensembles can be rather nebulous entities, their repertoire often necessitating complete line-up changes between pieces and the "whole" of the ensemble rarely being needed at the same time. The aim should be a sort of family resemblance between pieces and performance styles, rather than the organicism often desired in more traditional recitals – but contemporary recitals can still be exciting and coherent wholes, as Tuesday night's debut from ExplorEnsemble proved.
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| 20-Apr-2012 Nasher Sculpture Center | Virtuosity of Gesture: Anthony Marwood and Aleksandar Madzar | Evan Mitchell |
 For its season finale, Soundings: New Music at the Nasher presented violinist Anthony Marwood and pianist Aleksandar Madzar in a program advertised as “a dialogue of caprice and masterpiece.” The evening featured works ranging from two or three minutes to half an hour in length, dating from the turn of the nineteenth century to the 1980s, all thoughtfully presented and – last but not least – played quite well.
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| 1-Mar-2012 Bridgewater Hall | The Hallé and Edward Gardner: Beethoven 8 | Rohan Shotton |
 By far the smallest audience yet for the Hallé’s Beethoven Symphonies cycle gathered for this eighth instalment, conducted by Edward Gardner, and the absentees missed an evening of supreme charm and playfulness.
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| 25-Jul-2011 Wilton's Music Hall | Alina Ibragimova at Wilton’s Music Hall | Andrew Benson-Wilson |
 Following Alina Ibragimova’s recent residency in the medieval Library of Chetham’s School during the Manchester International Festival, her programme of some of the most complex solo violin works has now transferred for a short spell at Wilton’s Music Hall as part of the Barbican’s summer Blaze festival. I used the word “spell” deliberately, for this was a spellbindingly magical and engaging musical evening.Read full review... | ||
| 3-Jun-2011 Kings Place: Hall One | Written Unwritten | London Sinfonietta with Matthew Bourne | Katy S Austin |
 Maverick improviser Matthew Bourne and London Sinfonietta’s reliable principal players created an extraordinary concert in this second of the Sinfonietta’s Written/UnWritten series. Despite the harmonics and echoes behind a diverse collection of twentieth-century pieces and irreverent improvisations, few risks were taken by anyone other than Bourne, but the result was an impressive and often hypnotic series of the most carefully crafted contemporary classical music of the last fifty years.
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| 16-Mar-2011 Younger Hall | Words and Music with the SCO | Rohan Shotton |
.jpg) The Scottish Chamber Orchestra’s concerts in St Andrews are usually full-house events in the University’s Younger Hall, with recent repertoire covering Mozart piano concertos and Haydn symphonies at some length. This evening’s programme promised something quite different: four works celebrating ‘words and music’, as part of the StAnza poetry festival. The first thing noticeable on arrival was the lack of audience, with the hall perhaps only two thirds full.Read full review... | ||
