Concert Reviews

Deborah Voigt & Brian Zeger in New York
This recital by soprano Deborah Voigt and pianist Brian Zeger was rather slow getting started, but gathered momentum as the evening progressed.Voigt began with Mozart’s seldom-heard solo cantata "Die ihr...
The Royal Opera – Pelléas et Mélisande [Keenlyside & Kirchschlager]
How one presents Debussy’s “Pelléas et Mélisande” depends on how one conceives of its place in operatic history. Is it a reaction to the overkill of a grand-opera tradition that...
Hampstead & Highgate Festival 2007: Wihan Quartet
The Wihan Quartet was formed in Prague 22 years ago, in 1985. It is associated with the Cavatina Chamber Music Trust and is Quartet-in-Residence at Trinity College of Music, London....
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Janusz Piotrowicz – Beethoven Cycle – 4
Founded 60 years ago by Sir Thomas Beecham, handled with care by some of the greatest conductors of the last half century, and with a stated aim of offering “the...
Madcap’s Last Laugh: A Tribute to Syd Barrett
It was fitting that the life and, above all, the work of Syd Barrett be commemorated in this way – not least given a legacy as influential as his brief...
Philharmonia Orchestra/Mackerras Viktoria Mullova
Sir Charles Mackerras here led an uplifting concert. His layout of the orchestra was ideal – the double basses (six for the Mendelssohn, four for the rest of the concert)...
Grace Bumbry & Alexander Schmalcz
One can name one’s own examples of septuagenarian singers, but most, I suggest, will be men. Nevertheless, there have been ladies who have continued their career beyond the biblical three...
The Metropolitan Opera – Orfeo ed Euridice
When Gluck wrote “Orfeo ed Euridice” in 1762, he conceived the role of Orfeo for an alto castrato. In our time it is commonly sung by mezzo-sopranos, and Lorraine Hunt...
LSO/Harding – 4 – Rihm & Mahler
With the London Symphony Orchestra back on home turf after its recent marathon tour with Daniel Harding of the Far East (fourteen concerts in eight cities across only a little...
Absolute Beginners
Colin MacInnes was born in London in 1914 to professional singer James McInnes (sic) and popular novelist Angela Thirkell. When his parents divorced three years later he moved to Australia...
Hampstead and Highgate Festival 2007 – Opening Concert
This, the opening concert of this year’s Hampstead and Highgate Festival, was, too, a celebration of George Vass’s 50th-birthday. Vass is the Artistic Director of H & H.Divertimento is dedicated...
Philadelphia Orchestra/Eschenbach in New York – Mahler Resurrection Symphony
The Philadelphia Orchestra’s Music Director, Christoph Eschenbach, led the orchestra in a powerful performance of Mahler’s 'Resurrection' Symphony at a sold-out Carnegie Hall.The forces filled the stage completely. The symphony...
Alban Berg Quartett
The Alban Berg Quartett made its name championing music that is considered “difficult” (i.e. 20th-century!) and for some the musicians' style has always been remote and cold. But over the...
Schubert – Maria João Pires & Friends (2)
This, the second of three Schubert concerts involving the much sought-after Portuguese pianist Maria João Pires with her Friends, was an intense experience. With the audience under welcome orders not...
RPO/Michalakis John Lill (2)
It’s rare indeed that the peaceful all-passion-spent close of Brahms’s Third Symphony ends a concert (it’s more usually an end-of-part-one piece), so it was good to hear it properly placed...
Charles Lloyd Quartet & Bennie Maupin Quartet
Two US reeds-men who both cemented their reputations in the Sixties, Charles Lloyd and Bennie Maupin, led their respective quartets through a tantalising double bill served up at the Barbican...
BBCSO/Sinaisky Sarah Chang
This BBC Symphony Orchestra concert offered a well-balanced programme, typical of the imagination which Vassily Sinaisky has shown throughout his association with the BBC Philharmonic and on his rare London...
Beethoven: The Sonatas for Pianoforte and Violoncello – The Baillie/Lisney Duo
It was gratifying to see a substantial house for this generous programme. “The Baillie/Lisney Duo” is a partnership of real quality; and, interestingly, the piano is repositioned at a slight...
Schubert – Maria João Pires & Friends (1)
This was the first of three concerts in which the eminent Portugese pianist, Maria João Pires, brought together friends so they might recollect Franz Schubert with compassionate and rapt tranquillity....
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra/Janusz Piotrowicz – Beethoven Cycle – 3
This was the third programme in the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s complete Beethoven symphony cycle, the symphonies presented in numerical order.The RPO entrusted its survey of this range of symphonic mountain...
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