Sirje Viise: a commanding performance

By Stephen Crowe, 29 September 2016

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“too many intricate sounds to possibly describe in print”

Reviewed at BKA-Theater, Berlin on 27 September 2016

Neuwirth, Nova/Minraud

Globokar, Jenseits der Sicherheit

Kreuser, Homework no. 1: kitchen (UA)

Cage, Aria

Cage, Fontana Mix

Steen-Andersen, Difficulties putting it into practice (UA)

Schubert, Your Fox's A Dirty Gold

Sirje Aleksandra Viise, Performance Artist

Andris Nelsons and the BSO arrive in New York, with baggage in tow

Cameron Kelsall, 9th April

In his first New York appearance since the termination of his contract as BSO Music Director, Nelsons courts public sympathy and makes some thrilling music.

***11

Nelson Goerner shines with the CBSO and Rachmaninov's Rhapsody

Robert Gainer, 9th April

The CBSO present the work of three European émigré composers of the 1930s and 40s, who reimagined their musical influences with contrasting approaches and results.

****1

Chicago Symphony Orchestra music on death: whimper then bang

Graham Meyer, 9th April

Jakub Hrůša leads the CSO in pedestrian Janáček and Rachmaninov, but Strauss's Four Last Songs and Wagner's Tristan excerpts send audiences home deeply touched.

***11

Karabits and Szeps-Znaider carouse with the LPO

Christopher Woodley, 8th April

The sparkle of Max Bruch's Fecond Violin Concerto and the drama of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony overcome the gloom of Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s dark forebodings.

****1

Savall conducts Beethoven and Haydn at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 3rd April

Beethoven's Christus am Ölberge is paired with Haydn's Die sieben letzten Worte, a journey from agony to transcendence in which the agony proves the more honest companion.

***11

Portraits and pictures from Ibragimova, Gardner and the LPO

Roy Westbrook, 1st April

From Three Screaming Popes to Pictures at an Exhibition, a pair of works inspired by paintings frame a violin concerto by Béla Bartók at London's Southbank Centre.

****1

More reviews...

Stephen Crowe

Stephen Crowe is an English composer of operas and experimental music. He was born in Bolton, but grew up in Nottingham. Crowe studied Fine Art at John Moores University, Liverpool, and Composition at Goldsmiths College, University of London. He is a guitarist, and performs free improvisation on a regular basis in Berlin. He sings in 'StreisBAND', a hardcore Barbra Streisand covers band, which received warm praise from Henry Rollins.