Reviews

Andras Schiff/Philharmonia Orchestra, Royal Festival Hall (Rated 5/ 5 )

Some musicians become so much a part of the furniture that we take them for granted.

Inside Reviews

BBC Symphony Orchestra & Chorus/ Bychkov, Barbican Hall (Rated 3/ 5 )

Monday, 21 March 2011

Ask not for whom the bell tolls. Rachmaninov didn’t: he knew. Or rather he was convinced that they all tolled for him. His splendid choral symphony The Bells is full of ominous premonition with even the “Silver Sleigh Bells” of a lost youth - scintillating with some of the composer’s most expensive orchestration - promising only oblivion.

Rodelinda, Britten Theatre, London
La Clemenza di Tito, Arts Theatre, Cambridge

Sunday, 20 March 2011

How does a queen stand up to a two-headed predator? In a pair of killer heels ...

Album: Schubert, Fibonacci Sequence (Deux-Elles)

Sunday, 20 March 2011

Composed in 1824 between Death and the Maiden and the Ninth Symphony, the Octet, scored for string quartet plus clarinet, bassoon, horn and double bass, is a leisurely and sunny respite between demanding monoliths.

Orchestra of the Academia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia/ Pappano, Anvil, Basingstoke (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 March 2011

The Orchestra of the Academia Nazionale Di Santa Cecilia, Rome, brought a little something home grown on this their fleeting UK tour. While their counterparts at the Royal Opera in London were tracing out the ethereal opening measures of the Prelude to Verdi’s Aida, over at the Anvil in Basingstoke the self same music was about to spring a sizeable surprise.

Album: Charles Ramirez, Rodrigo (Signum Classics) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 March 2011

Guitar virtuoso Charles Ramirez is on supple, sensitive form on this collection of Rodrigo suites, accompanied on the "Concierto de Aranjuez" and "Fantasia para un gentilhombre" by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe, before closing with the solo piece "Elogio de la guitarra".

Album: Anna Netrebko, Marianna Pizzolato, Antonio Pappano, Stabat Mater: a Tribute to Pergolesi (Deutsche Grammophon) (Rated 4/ 5 )

Friday, 18 March 2011

When Anna Netrebko decided to dedicate a programme to Giovanni Battista Pergolesi, the choice of Antonio Pappano as conductor was a crucial masterstroke.

Album: Sonia Wider-Atherton, Vita: Monteverdi/Scelsi (Na�ve) (Rated 3/ 5 )

Friday, 18 March 2011

This is a strange combination of apparently contrasting composers' styles, the formal but highly emotional lines of Monteverdi's 16th-century madrigals, transcribed for cello trio, interspersed with the more austere, angular extemporisations of Scelsi's modernist "Trilogy" for solo cello.

Sergio Tiempo, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Wednesday, 16 March 2011

For a pianist as little-known in Britain as Sergio Tiempo, the packed-out hall was a surprise. But the programme, with its pop-star photo, explained everything. Born in Caracas, he gave his first concert at three, and made his professional debut at 14. More significantly, he has recently been picked up and championed by the great Martha Argerich. No wonder his young international fan-club had converged to cheer him on.

Rodelinda, Britten Theatre

Tuesday, 15 March 2011

Rodelinda Britten Theatre three stars Michael Church Transplanting Handel’s ‘Rodelinda’ from corrupt, fragmented, seventh-century Italy to corrupt, fragmented, twenty-first century Italy works neatly.