Concert Reviews

Henze Voices – Requiem
And so to the end of the South Bank’s ’Henze at 75’ retrospective, with one of the most original and absorbing of his recent works. As one might expect from...
LSO/Boulez Gala Concert with Cecilia Bartoli
Love was in the air. This Gala concert (played again the following night) in aid of the UBS and LSO Music Education Centre at St Luke’s, and the Children’s Hospice...
Mitsuko Uchida and Brentano String Quartet
Piano concertos are only rarely performed in chamber reductions and, however sensitively treated, such reduction is a problem. A concerto part is almost invariably heroic, the soloist challenges the orchestra,...
Colin Davis Má Vlast
I’ve now heard 'My Country' three times at a London concert. The LSO’s previous one under Jiří Bělohlávek was surprisingly sober for a Czech-born musician, and not helped by taking...
Hans Werner Henze: Voices – 29th March (Postscript)
Hans Werner Henze’s Fifth Symphony is particularly intriguing in its concentration of form, concise argument and individual orchestration. Perhaps writing it for the New York Philharmonic and Stravinsky-devotee Leonard Bernstein...
Hans Werner Henze: Voices – 29th March
This concert was part of the South Bank Centre’s Voices series of concerts – a tribute to Henze on his impending 75th birthday. The Fifth Symphony is nearing its fortieth...
Bohemian Spring Series – 25th March
Another concert in the Bohemian Spring series brought together the series’ most familiar composers – Dvorak and Janáček in a concert of fervent and enthusiastic music-making. The series has (quite...
Nash Ensemble: Henze concert – 22nd March
In a short but well-planned concert, the Nash Ensemble provided a window onto Henze’s chamber and vocal music. There could not be a better piece to illustrate the composer’s rapprochement...
Tan Dun: Concerto for Water Percussion and Orchestra (UK premiere)
An arbitrary choice of repertoire! Tan’s piece swells the ranks of percussion concertos – is there much left for a composer to do within this genre? As in Michael Daugherty’s...
Bohemian Spring Series – 21st March
A further instalment in this welcome series, and the only incidence of Martinu’s orchestral music. A pity none of the symphonies could be included - No. 3, in particular, urgently...
Hans Werner Henze: Boulevard Solitude
49 years and 31 days after its Hanover première (17 February 1952) Henze’s first opera received due recognition from the Royal Opera House. Not that Henze had been ignored by...
Concertgebouw Orchestra Concert – 19th March
A concert with potentially too much Brahms in it! I did wonder if Brahms 4 would have been the better choice – it closes with a passacaglia – and only...
Philharmonia Orchestra Concert – 15th March
The Philharmonia trotted out three magnificent war-horses and a delectable but unusual starter to a packed Royal Festival Hall under veteran Russian Yevgeny Svetlanov.Both the short mood-setting prelude to Tchaikovsky’s...
Music of Today – Smirnov & Firsova
What an innovative idea Music of Today is. Before the Philharmonia Orchestra’s main evening offering, the Royal Festival Hall opens its doors to all – this is a free, no-ticket,...
LPO & Thomas Hampson Concert – 14th March
I imagine Im Sommerwind comes as something of a surprise to anyone familiar with Webern’s 31 official opuses, a body of work re-defining compositional thinking; as such Webern might well...
English Chamber Orchestra – 14th March
I am usually sceptical of music inspired by birdsong; Messiaen’s use of it is often complex and pedantic. Hence my initial disappointment at reading the background to David Matthews’s new...
Voices – Henze at 75
As part of the South Bank’s “Voices – Henze at 75”, the BBC Symphony Orchestra made a relatively early return to what was (until last May) its winter-season home, the...
Hans Werner Henze: Voices
It is important that the current Henze retrospective includes representative work from the composer’s ’political phase’; more correctly, that period when his music was pervaded by the quality of commitment....
Royal Philharmonic Orchestra – 9th March
It’s some little while since I heard the RPO live; this concert suggested an orchestra in fine fettle. The RPO’s relatively few London appearances and its somewhat nomadic existence (with...
Bohemian Spring Series – 8th March
Following his welcome revival of Dvorák’s Stabat Mater to open the LSO’s Bohemian Spring series, Jiri Belohlávek conducted a rounded selection from the Czech orchestral repertoire, opening with the delectable...
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