Bachtrack Young Reviewer - List of reviews

When I arrived at Wigmore Hall, I was surprised at the size of it – I expected it to be really big, but it was much smaller than I had imagined. However, this in a way made the concert more personal.

The Matteo Quartet, formerly the Esher Quartet, started the concert with Beethoven’s String quartet in F minor. It started off with an opening unison bar, played together at their loudest, which proved to return later on in more sing-song parts. I think this loud and confident beginning really awoke the audience, and caught our attention bringing us along with them on the ride. I thoroughly enjoyed listening as well as watching all the players, including the incredibly enthusiastic 1st violin player! The second movement, started beautifully by the cello, continued to chop and change – with contrasting harsh fast passages next to song like lyrical parts which was brought alive throughout all the movements.

Entering Kings Place you are astonished by the white walls, high ceiling and sparkling glass windows. There is a sense of calm shadowing the place, as it is very open. Leading to the theatre is a long escalator with blue fluorescent lights on each step, which sets a mood of excitement even before you enter the concert hall. The concert hall was quite small. It had wooden walls with light grey panels that made it look like stripes. The ceiling was wooden with circular lights. The atmosphere was excited and expectant.

Quartet in D minor, Op. 76 “Fifths” Haydn
Quartet No. 8 in C minor, Op. 110 (1960) Shostakovich
Piano Concerto No. 14 in E flat major, K.449 Mozart

What a wonderful, warm, summer evening it was: the renowned Fitzwilliam Quartet performed Haydn, Mozart and Shostakovich in the beautiful Sutton House – with champagne and strawberries! The House was sold out, and there was a warm buzz amongst the audience, eagerly anticipating one of the last concerts of the season, at nearly the end of the quartet’s Shostakovich marathon.

On Sunday I went to the Southbank to hear the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra. They were playing Aaron Copland – Appalachian Spring Suite, George Gershwin – Rhapsody in Blue and Modest Mussorsky – Pictures at an Exhibition.

The first thing I thought when I walked into the auditorium was “wow this is big”. I was glad it didn’t take long to find the seats and I had a good view from where I was. I could see the whole stage.

As the orchestra came in I found myself feeling as excited as everyone around me. Everything went quiet as the orchestra came in, a sort of loud hush.

During my half term break I was given the opportunity to review my first concert. This was held at The Foundling Museum in association with the Beethoven Piano Society of Europe. Catherine Wright and Hazel Lee played two pieces each and looked smart for the occasion. I had pen and notebook to hand as the concert started and was looking forward to it! Both pianists are very talented.

On Thursday, the 12th of February, I went to a concert with my mum at the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham in which the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra played with Andre Litton as their conductor and soloist Leila Josefowicz.

When we entered the concert hall, it was buzzing with the loud voices of excited audience. I was pretty excited as well. I love the last movement of the Mendelssohn Violin concerto and could not wait to listen to it again. I noticed that the orchestra was already tuning up, but the excited murmur still lingered around me. Suddenly, a silence engulfed the murmuring audience and they started to clap as the leader and the conductor of the orchestra walked onto the stage.

The Wales Millennium Centre’s Donald Gordon Theatre was full last night (7th of February, 2009) for the opening night of WNO’s new production of Mozart’s Marriage of Figaro. The director was Lluis Pasqual and there was a distinctly Spanish feeling to this production, which is shared with the opera house in Barcelona. Mozart’s opera is full of dance and this production, updated to the 1930s, is certainly full of ‘flapper dancing’, arguably to the point of distraction.

On Friday 6th February, my mum and I went to Norwich Theatre Royal to attend a concert comprising of Webern’s five movements for string quartet Op.5, Haydn’s Symphony no.88 in G and Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.3 in C minor, Op.27.

On Saturday 17th January 2009, I went to see 'When Words Sing' the annual concert performed by the Birmingham Contemporary Music Group, because it was a family concert, I went with my dad who had accompanied me to the 'Music Maze' the previous weekend, which I really enjoyed. I loved the folk songs, because it mixed some classical music with all the new music, I loved the mythical creatures songs as they made me feel excited and were very good, but best of all was Stripsody which was different, brilliant and very cool.

On the 11th December 2008, I went with my Grandad to The Guildhall in Portsmouth to listen to The Lieutenant Kije Suite by Prokofiev and Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 17.

The first piece was 'The Birth of Kije' which used an instrument called a piccolo, a very high pitched, small flute which I was very impressed with. I liked it because it was small but made such a loud sound. The piece started with a few instruments and built up until it used all of the instruments. Overall I liked this piece because of the gradual build-up.