Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | Thomas Gould

Inventiveness, joyful performance and intuitive communication from Thomas Gould and the Britten Sinfonia in recompositions from Richter, Auerbach and Tippett.

This evening’s performance marked the next stop on the Aurora Orchestra’s Grand Tour, continuing a five-year journey through the complete cycle of Mozart’s piano concertos. 

Works by Locatelli, Hans Abrahamsen and Tom Coult accompanied Dmitry Sitkovetsky's arrangement of Bach's Goldberg Variations. 

In an evening entitled “Pulse: Steve Reich and his influences”, the Aurora Orchestra set out to give three examples of pieces that influenced American minimalist composer Steve Reich alongside performing two of his pieces.

The youthful duo, British Violinist Thomas Gould and Latvian accordionist Ksenija Sidorova took to the stage at the intimate St George’s Concert Hall for a more relaxed ‘Late Night Classical Café’.

John Woolrich is a publically undervalued contributor to British musical life. This evening’s concert attempted to celebrate as many of the man’s musical guises as possible.

“Imitation is the sincerest form of flattery”, goes the familiar phrase, and that can be applied in life to any number of things, including music. Were the father of harmony, Johann Sebastian Bach, still alive today, he would be beyond flattered.

You are sitting in the choir stalls of the Royal Festival Hall, watching the ceramic artist and writer Edmund de Waal address you, his back to an enormous sea of empty, grey, imposing seats. He is delivering a vivid narrative account of a day in the life of a young aristocratic Jewish boy in early 20th-century Vienna.

Pleasantly enough, Britten Sinfonia went down a thoroughly unconventional route in celebrating their 20th birthday at the Barbican on Saturday, with a brilliantly varied range of new pieces mixing with chamber orchestra classics.

“It is impossible to find anyone in the world today who is young and not ill,” muses André Breton in Chiaki Kawamata’s novel Death Sentences. “Youth itself is a kind of disease.” There is in youth something that exerts a powerful hold on the imagination. Its freshness, its arrogance, its promise – all of these building a magnetic aura that exerts a powerful hold on our consciousness.

Love may be a familiar feeling, but the passion Aurora Orchestra unleashed at LSO St Luke’s was enough to leave audiences wild with desire. Exploring the darkest undertones of love—anguish, jealousy, remorse and regret—Friday night’s programme, Jealous Guy, was woven together by tango music interspersed with tragic love stories from across musical history.

Part of the King’s Place Mozart Unwrapped series, the Aurora Orchestra delivered a spellbinding performance Thursday night.Due to Sir Colin Davis’ sudden illness, principal conductor Nicholas Collon stepped in at the last minute to conduct the concert. While it would have been a unique opportunity to see such an esteemed British conductor, Nicholas Collon was an exciting substitution.