Concert Reviews

London Philharmonic Orchestra/Vladimir Jurowski – Tchaikovsky’s Polish Symphony, Zemlinsky’s Maeterlinck Songs with Anne Sofie von Otter, Szymanowski’s Stabat Mater
It was a neat choice of music (on the eve of Mothering Sunday) to combine two passionately expressive works exploring texts on love, loss and longing and prefacing this with...
English National Opera – Philip Glass’s Akhnaten; directed by Phelim McDermott
After the success of their collaboration with Philip Glass’s second opera Satyagraha in 2009 (and twice revived), Phelim McDermott’s Improbable company together with English National Opera have returned to Africa...
Cleveland Orchestra/Alan Gilbert – Manfred Overture & Inextinguishable Symphony – Stephen Hough plays Dvořák
If there is such a thing as a Carl Nielsen specialist in the United States, it would be Alan Gilbert, the music director of the New York Philharmonic. Along with...
Philharmonia Orchestra/Vladimir Ashkenazy – Rachmaninov’s The Rock & Symphony 3 – Esther Yoo plays Sibelius
The twenty-year-old Rachmaninov’s The Rock was inspired by two melancholy literary works – the title comes from a touching poem by Lermontov and the story was drawn from Chekhov’s somewhat...
Welsh National Opera at Birmingham Hippodrome – Elena Langer’s Figaro gets a Divorce, directed by David Pountney
Well! Welsh National Opera’s Figaro trio ended on an impressive note with strands brought together from what had gone before in the Rossini and Mozart operas. The principal characters had...
BBC Symphony Orchestra/Ryan Wigglesworth – Stravinsky’s Agon & Symphony of Psalms, Britten’s Peter Grimes Sea Interludes & Passacaglia with Tal Rosner’s films, and Wigglesworth’s own Violin Concerto with Barnabás Kelemen
The epically toxic relationship between Britten and Stravinsky – adolescent hero-worship on Britten’s part leading two decades later to downright hostility – is well documented. Yet the older composer had...
Orchestre de Paris/Paavo Järvi at Philharmonie de Paris – Sibelius 3 – Radu Lupu plays Beethoven & Vincent Lucas plays Nielsen’s Flute Concerto
Half a century ago, near enough, Radu Lupu won Leeds with Beethoven's Third Piano Concerto. I remember it well, it gripped the night, the imagination, our fantasies. William Mann, doyen...
Welsh National Opera at Birmingham Hippodrome – Mozart’s The Marriage of Figaro – David Stout, Anna Devin, Mark Stone, Elizabeth Watts; directed by Tobias Richter; conducted by Lothar Koenigs
How engaging The Marriage of Figaro can be when performed by a well-balanced cast, all attuned to the production and singing and acting with commitment and evident enjoyment. Once again...
Maurizio Pollini at Royal Festival Hall – Schoenberg, Schumann & Chopin
A week and a day later than planned, Maurizio Pollini, now recovered from the flu, was able to give his Royal Festival Hall recital of Schumann and Chopin: a nifty...
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Pinchas Zukerman – Ruslan and Ludmilla & Rachmaninov 2 – Olga Kern plays Tchaikovsky
This traditional programme was designed to pull in the crowds. The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and its principal guest conductor Pinchas Zukerman delivered secure but mixed results. The Overture to Ruslan...
Leon McCawley at Wigmore Hall – a Haydn Sonata, Rachmaninov Preludes, Mendelssohn Variations sérieuses, Chopin 24 Preludes
Every time in this excellent Wigmore Hall recital when I thought I’d nailed the main, generating aspect of Leon McCawley’s style, he’d confound expectations. His seemingly ascetic, self-contained persona would...
Handel’s Orlando – Harry Bicket directs The English Concert – with Iestyn Davies, Carolyn Sampson, Erin Morley, Sasha Cooke & Kyle Ketelsen
If Handel's operas generally contrast the outward political wrangling of their protagonists with their private grief and (often romantic) schemes, Orlando, unusually, focuses consistently upon the inner psychological conflicts of...
Welsh National Opera at Birmingham Hippodrome – Rossini’s The Barber of Seville – Nicholas Lester, Claire Booth, Andrew Shore; directed by Sam Brown; conducted by James Southall
The humour of Rossini’s Barber can be strangely tricky to bring over the footlights and many directors and designers have come a cropper by trying too hard. If the wit...
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Valery Gergiev at Carnegie Hall (3) – Parsifal and Manfred
This third of three concerts at Carnegie Hall with the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra and Valery Gergiev featured two late-romantic works that portray fabled literary heroes, Parsifal and Manfred.Wolfram von Eschenbach,...
LSO/Gianandrea Noseda – Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette – Janine Jansen plays Shostakovich
Part of the LSO’s Shakespeare 400 series, this was the second of Gianandrea Noseda’s concerts with the orchestra since the announcement of his appointment as its Principal Guest Conductor (alongside...
Philharmonia Orchestra/Tugan Sokhiev – Schubert’s Rosamunde Overture & Dvořák’s New World Symphony – Akiko Suwanai plays Beethoven’s Violin Concerto
The first chord of Schubert’s Rosamunde Overture (previously associated with The Magic Harp) boded well for the evening: precise and with a notably positive tone from the trombones. This dramatic...
Detroit Symphony Orchestra/Leonard Slatkin – Brahms Festival (6) – Haydn Variations, Berio’s Opus 120 No.1 with Ralph Skiano, and Piano Concerto 2 with Hélène Grimaud [live webcast]
This was the ultimate leg of the Detroit Symphony Orchestra and Leonard Slatkin’s three-week, six-programme, twelve-concert Brahms Festival – but there was to be a twist.Unfortunately, Hélène Grimaud’s performance of...
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Valery Gergiev at Carnegie Hall (2) – Khovanshchina, Masaot/Clocks Without Hands, Götterdämmerung with Heidi Melton
There were two New York premieres: Olga Neuwirth’s Masaot/Clocks Without Hands and Heidi Melton’s first Carnegie Hall performance of ‘Brünnhilde’s Immolation’.Valery Gergiev and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra opened their second...
Tamara Stefanovich at St John’s Smith Square – Aaron Copland, Elliott Carter, Charles Ives
For some years, Tamara Stefanovich has been building a reputation in the more radical domain of modern piano music, and this Southbank Centre International Piano Series recital was no exception...
Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra/Valery Gergiev at Carnegie Hall (1) – The Flying Dutchman, La mer, Pictures at an Exhibition
Those of us old enough to remember Otto Klemperer (1885-1973) will recall an added dimension to his concerts, a special frisson of excitement before he even started to conduct. Klemperer...
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