| Date and venue | Title | Submitted by |
|---|---|---|
| 26-Apr-2013 Philharmonie: Großer Saal | Hope in adversity: The Berlin Philharmonic and Radio Choir perform Tippett and Dean | Matthew Lynch |
 Programming is a delicate art, and one which is difficult to get right. However, it is one of Simon Rattle’s fortes, and this was clearly evident in Friday night’s concert. Both works on the programme, Brett Dean’s The Last Days of Socrates and Michael Tippett’s A Child of Our Time are large-scale oratorios dealing with difficult subject matter, and it is highly unusual to pair such works. But they both share one overarching theme: hope in the face of adversity. Though full of despair and sorrow, it is hope that draws both works to a close.Read full review... | ||
| 16-Apr-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | A fitting tribute to Sir Colin Davis: LSO and a superb cast perform Britten's The Turn of the Screw | Julia Savage |
 Britten’s The Turn of the Screw, part of the London Symphony Orchestra’s contribution to the Britten 100 celebrations, was supposed to have been conducted by Sir Colin Davis; it was instead dedicated to his memory following his death last Sunday. Before the concert began, LSO Chairman and Sub-Leader Lennox Mackenzie and LSO Managing Director Kathryn McDowell delivered an eloquent and fitting tribute to the man they described as the “head of our family”.Read full review... | ||
| 30-Mar-2013 Barbican Centre: Hall | Gergiev and the LSO in Brahms and Szymanowski choral works | Paul Kilbey |
 I don’t think Valery Gergiev has ever been out to claim that Brahms and Szymanowski were particularly similar composers. I certainly hope he hasn’t, at any rate, on the basis of his final LSO programme pairing the two of them. But that’s not to say they don’t make an intriguing match, and this meeting of the Pole’s Stabat Mater (1925–26) and the German’s Requiem (1865–68) was provocative and worthwhile.
Read full review... | ||
| 27-Nov-2012 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | Strange meetings: Britten's War Requiem at the Southbank Centre | Ninfea Cruttwell-Reade |
 November continues to be a month of poppy art, despite Philip Larkin’s derisory account of “Wreath-rubbish in Whitehall”. As the only flower to survive the ravished soils of the trenches following the First World War, the poppy is replicated in the form of a paper badge to be worn yearly in commemoration of 11 November, the Armistice Day of 1918. It was deemed to be a symbol of hope and regeneration in the aftermath of devastating combat.Read full review... | ||
| 22-Sep-2012 Wigmore Hall | The Nash Ensemble: Dreamers of Dreams at the Wigmore Hall | Julia Savage |
 As I took my seat at Saturday’s concert by the Nash Ensemble, one in a series entitled “Dreamers of Dreams” put on as part of their residency at the Wigmore Hall, I wondered what I was about to let myself in for. That the Nash Ensemble had chosen to present the works of early 20th-century composers was not especially surprising – after all, they are known for unusual, inventive programming – but among the composers represented in Saturday’s concert were names such as Roger Quilter, Percy Grainger and Arthur Bliss, often regarded as second-rate.Read full review... | ||
| 28-Aug-2012 Royal Albert Hall | Prom 60: Glyndebourne's outstanding Figaro | Nahoko Gotoh |
 Every year, Glyndebourne brings an opera from their festival to the BBC Proms and adapts it to the Royal Albert Hall stage. This year they brought their hottest production of the summer, The Marriage of Figaro (directed at Glyndebourne by Michael Grandage and adapted for the Proms by Ian Rutherford), and it was wonderful to see the Albert Hall packed to rafters. Amusingly, some prommers in the Arena were in the proper Glyndebourne spirit, with black ties and evening wear.
Read full review... | ||
| 19-Apr-2012 Barbican Centre: Hall | Colin Davis conducts Weber's Der Freischütz at the Barbican | Capriccio, capricciomusic.blogspot.com |
| While Weber is widely acknowledged as being of historic importance as the link in the German operatic tradition between Beethoven and Wagner, his operas are rarely staged in England, and even in concert remain a relative novelty. Curious because this is music of the utmost vitality and beauty and at times he surely borders on genius. Not the same level of genius as those two masters that flank him, but an extraordinary ear for sonority, a very pleasing classical sense of form, and an unquestionable gift for vocal writing make him a very interesting and likeable composer. Read full review... | ||
| 28-Jun-2011 Barbican Centre: Hall | Mozart Mass in C Minor and Vesperae solennes de confessore | Katy S Austin |
 This was the second vocal concert of late (the last being Ariodante with Joyce DiDinato) to feature an exemplary female soloist caged inside an otherwise nondescript performance. Jérémie Rohrer tried in vain to force energy out of French chamber choir Les Elements and period ensemble Le Cercle de l’Harmonie. Ultimately though, despite moments of sudden verve from conductor and ensembles, the night belonged to soprano Sally Matthews.Read full review... | ||
| 17-Apr-2011 Southbank Centre: Royal Festival Hall | The Meaning of Life? | Andrew Benson-Wilson |
| I sometimes wonder what it must have been like to have been at the first performance of today’s well-known master works. Bach’s St John Passion, for example, or Beethoven’s Eroica and Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring – and Mahler’s second symphony, the Resurrection. Read full review... | ||
