A bazaar performance underscores Istanbul’s Unusual Music Festival

By Jonathan Sutherland, 08 June 2017

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“there is a surprisingly calming effect in this mystical, magical music”

Reviewed at Grand Bazaar, Istanbul on 4 June 2017

Şimdi Ensemble

Michel Godard, Serpent

Turangalîla underwhelms at the Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Roy Westbrook, 23rd April

Serious music ill-matched by filmic limitations as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Messiaen’s epic “symphony” as part of the Southbank’s cross-genre festival.

**111

Immersive OAE submerged at Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Mark Valencia, 22nd April

The road to immersion is paved with modish deflections as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs 20th-century English string music.

**111

A dream of a Gerontius from Pappano, the LSO and Chorus

Roy Westbrook, 21st April

Giving their 27th performance of the oratorio, the London Symphony Chorus excel as angelic angels and demonic demons.

****1

Benedetti ablaze with the Philharmonia

Christopher Woodley, 19th April

As gifts to the Philarmonia's 80th birthday season, Nicola Benedetti gives a barnstorming account of Elgar's Violin Concerto before Cristian Mӑcelaru gets emotionally drained by La Mer.

*****

Nicholas McGegan brings delicacy and elegance to Mendelssohn

Erica Miner, 18th April

The Seattle Symphony offers an enchanting evening immersed in the joy and brilliance of both the young and the mature genius of Felix Mendelssohn.

****1

Wrangling the octopus: Mahler’s Ninth with Sir Simon Rattle

Chanda VanderHart, 17th April

Less a symphony, more a force of nature, Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in a turbulent, yet spacious reading of Mahler's Ninth Symphony in the Musikverein.

****1

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Jonathan Sutherland

Jonathan Sutherland is a graduate of the Sydney Conservatorium of Music and the Hochschule Mozarteum in Salzburg. He is also an internationally renowned concert pianist specializing in the music of the 1930s. Jonathan’s first operatic experience was hearing Maria Callas sing Tosca in Covent Garden and he has since heard performances in all continents of the world including over 60 different productions at the Wiener Staatsoper. He has written for The Australian, Opera Today and The Opera Critic as well as Bachtrack. Jonathan speaks English, French, German and Italian fluently and is based in the south of France near Nice.