Live, Video: Kritiken zu klassischen Konzerten, Opern, Ballett und Tanz finden | St George's Bristol

In Memoirs of a Pear-Shaped Life, Erik Satie, the eccentric French Normandy composer, was defined on stage in three different forms, each with a bowler hat, in a music theatre performance of Satie's life.

Two interlocking grand pianos, the front with its lid removed, centred the stage of pale pink lights at St George’s. The Labèque sisters, Katia and Marielle perform Ravel, Schubert, Bernstein and Glass. 

Laurence Cummings and the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment celebrate two anniversaries in a programmed of works by Johann Sebastian Bach and his sons. 

The fugue made an interesting subject for the Brodsky Quartet’s concert at St Georges. The programme delved into the fugue’s cross over between eras, from Baroque, all the way to early expressionism.

Richard Boothby gave a simple and informative evening’s concert of Telemann’s 12 fantasias at St Georges, Bristol.

To see three passionate ambassadors of their instruments performing together made a sensationally satisfying evening at St Georges, Bristol.

In the first of two performances of this concert, St. George’s welcomed Michael Barenboim and the Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, previously known as the Oxford Philomusica.

Having recently retired after a herniated disc weakened his bowing arm, Julian Lloyd Webber took to the stage last night at St George’s, Bristol as part of a tour he had created to tribute and reflect upon his performance career as one of the world’s leading cellists.

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’.

A select group of musicians provided a modest programme of chamber music at St George’s alongside renowned pianist, Paul Lewis.

The Aurora orchestra chose one of the most eclectic mixes of music that St George’s has seen in a classic music concert inspired by the home, opening the eyes of Bristol to a strange variety of pieces. 

After a successful visit to Bristol two years ago, Glass returns to St George's for a sell-out solo performance as part of Bristol Glassfest celebrating the American minimalist composer's music.

Can you imagine being a concertgoer in the early years of the 18th century, when Corelli, Vivaldi, Bach and Handel were all writing new music and performers were being pushed to find new ways of playing?

The Exultate choir played alongside His Majesties Sagbutts for an evening of music from St. Mark’s Basilica in Venice, some of which hadn't been heard for over 400 years.

In a rare appearance outside London in the UK, world-renowned Russian violinist Viktoria Mullova, harpsichordist Ottavio Dantone and the Italian ensemble Accademia Bizantina took to the stage at St George’s Bristol to perform four Baroque concertos by J.S. Bach.

Winter has struck Bristol pre-emptively this year, and finding a nice, warm place to hide on a Sunday morning is a good way to lessen the hold of its icy clutches.

On entering St George’s Bristol, we were given a sheet of paper with a biography and the names of a handful of composers – the programme hadn’t been announced beforehand, and was only revealed during the concert by John Williams himself. He introduced each piece with a little context, varying from a piece’s personal relevance, to its historical background.

The second of five concerts in the (deep breath) Autumn 2013 International Music Seminar Prussia Cove Open Chamber Music Tour saw the musicians giving their all for a BBC Radio 3 recording at the acoustically sensitive St George’s Bristol.It’s not often that you see such an age range among musicians taking to the stage.

The Bristol Classical Players and conductor Tom Gauterin normally focus their concerts around a series of works from a particular era or composer, but this time they did something a little different. We heard the rarely performed Piano Concerto in G minor by Dvořák, sandwiched between Beethoven’s Fidelio overture and his Fifth Symphony.

Embarrassing puns aside, the music of Arvo Pärt is hardly the staple fare of late-night revellers on Bristol’s Park Street, especially on a Friday. Tucked just around the corner, though, St George’s was celebrating the end of the long summer drought of live classical music courtesy of the Choir of Royal Holloway – fresh from their tour of the Balkan states – and the Bristol Ensemble.

Eight seasons were performed at St George’s Bristol by the Oxford Philomusica: in this different approach to Vivaldi’s Four Seasons, they added Ástor Piazzolla’s The Four Seasons of Buenos Aires. The concept behind the concert was to combine old and new worlds of classical music, comparing works from the 18th and 20th centuries based on similar structures, and four sonnets depicting the seasons.

Britten’s one-act opera The Little Sweep was a roaring success at St George’s Bristol this Monday. What better way for the venue to celebrate Britten’s centenary than with one of his most successful and educational children’s operas, and the first of his operas to be entirely conceived, composed and produced at Aldeburgh? One forgets that despite the innocence of the story, the musical side of the

Opera Project’s production of Verdi’s famous and arguably most-loved opera La Traviata was not lacking in impact, considering it was a small-scale production. This being the second time I have seen an Opera Project production, I am certainly not dissuaded from seeing what they come up with next. La Traviata is a chamber opera, in a way, well suited to the smaller venue of St George’s Bristol.

From the moment I found out that Philip Glass was going to be playing at St George’s Bristol for his only completely solo performance in Britain this year, I knew it was bound to be a special event. I arrived at the venue to see people waiting patiently and hoping for returns at the box office – the hall was packed to maximum capacity with extra seating at the back.

Johannes Brahms and his music have a reputation for being somewhat meaty, and so an English Sunday afternoon seems an appropriate time to hear two of his chamber works side by side.

In the week when Culture Secretary Maria Miller told arts organisations across the UK to show her the money, it seems inappropriate to begin this review by commenting on the length of concert intervals – they are, after all, vital for venues to make a few pounds selling drinks to a culture-thirsty clientele.

Five string quartets performed by four musicians – each musician with an intricate understanding of the world of new music. The Smith Quartet are well established as being the modern music quartet to hear in the United Kingdom – having commissioned over 200 new works and working with the likes of Reich, Nyman and Glass – if you are a fan of minimalism.

I doubt many of us have been to the seaside recently. Even if Bristolians had braved the cold and wet and wind, I’m sure that the mudflats of Brean or the arcades of Weston-super-Mare were a far cry from the visions of that mysterious body of saltwater conjured up by the Enigma Orchestra in their second ever concert at St George’s.

It can’t be often that one of the world’s pre-eminent Bach scholar-interpreters teams up with one of the world’s most famous period instrument ensembles to give a concert dedicated to one of the world’s most celebrated composers in one of the world’s most renowned acoustics.

On hearing about the concept of Mark Latimer’s The Imperfect Pearl or Perola Barroca, I wasn’t sure what to expect. This UK première told the tale and music history of Baroque composer Domenico Zipoli in a two-and-a-half-hour show. An open mind was certainly necessary for this Baroque musical fairytale.

I’ve had the great privilege and even greater joy over the last couple of months to have been totally immersed in Bach: I’ve been researching him, and particularly his Passions, since Christmas.

Choral concerts often have programmes that read like compilation CDs. I don’t mean this negatively: there are countless reasons why a greater number of contrasting pieces is required – timbral, textual, temporal, contextual, historical, and so on.

Freezing lunchtime weather made the golden uplighting on the stage a particularly welcome sight. The Badke Quartet played two pieces in this hour-long programme: Haydn’s Quartet in D major Op. 20 no. 4,, and Britten’s Quartet no. 3.

According to the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment, “Not all orchestras are the same”. I’m not sure who doubts this rather obvious statement; but I’m certain I’m not alone in thinking the OAE to be a unique ensemble, and not just for the eccentricity of its name.

Two musicians, pianist and cellist, entered on stage and started playing. After three or four minutes, the cellist stood up and spoke: “Thought that I had forgotten to talk, didn’t you?”Passionate about education, cellist Matthew Barley took the audience at St George’s through Beethoven’s Cello Sonata no. 3 in A major for an evening rush-hour concert after a cello masterclass in the afternoon.

This concert was a wonderful way to spend a Sunday morning. It was the first of the Sitkovetsky Piano Trio’s coffee-morning concerts – “Coffee Classics” – in which they gave a passion-fuelled performance of Brahms’ Piano Trio no. 2 in C major, and Smetena’s Piano Trio in G minor.

St George’s Bristol is an extraordinary venue. Renowned for its unbeatable acoustic amongst performers and listeners alike, there is something unique about it that cannot be attributed to its sonic qualities alone.

A brand new orchestra took to the stage on Sunday night to introduce themselves. The Enigma Orchestra, co-founded this year by Robert Weaver and Arian Aghababaie, is made up of high-standard amateur instrumentalists from in and around Bristol. The orchestral team had coordinated all the visual aspects of the concert with a theme of white, red and black.

Aren’t nicknames interesting! I’m sure there’ll have been hundreds of studies into the development, designation, and deployment of nicknames and the historical and sociological conclusions we can draw from the Daves, D-Diddies and Dangerous Dans alike. In fact, it wouldn’t surprise me if the nickname formed the basis of an entire field of academic enquiry.

Classical music is not cool. Most people who’ve come through secondary school with a love for it are well aware of that, having been frequently reminded of it by their peers. As a result of this, most of us probably couldn’t care less, though I’m sure we all question, when beholding some particularly awesome musical event, the premises on which this schoolyard assumption is based.

Turning his long-awaited aspiration into reality, musical director of Bristol Opera Arne Kovac conducted his favourite opera in concert in order to celebrate his 40th birthday. Beethoven’s masterpiece Fidelio is his only venture into opera and tells a story of love, happy marriage and freedom, complete with happy ending.

The more you read about music, the more you notice the word “authenticity” cropping up annoyingly frequently. The great raging musical arguments of the late 20th century still burn; performers, listeners, even composers find themselves having to take up quasi-moralistic stances on gut strings, vibrato, and whether trills should begin on the upper or lower note.

I’d been assured from friends who knew I was attending this concert that the Brandon Hill Chamber Orchestra is the finest amateur orchestra in Bristol and I was in for a treat. Despite the recommendation, I did not expect them to be one of the best amateur orchestras I’ve ever heard. The sound they produced under Ewa Strusinska’s baton belied their status as amateur.

Two encores, a virtuoso and a cracking orchestra. This concert truly celebrated the best of British music and musicians, as the first concert in St George’s “Best of British” concert season. The scene was set with an array of red, white and blue amongst the orchestra in several forms: bow ties, flags, ribbons and other accessories.

This charity concert (supporting the Cots for Tots appeal) filled St George’s Bristol with the sound of J.S. Bach’s Mass in B minor. There was passion in the performance of the St Michael’s orchestra and chorus, which was made up of a combination of doctors and volunteers.

If your ears happen to frequent the frequencies of the BBC’s classical music radio station, it’s highly possible that you’ll have been swamped by piano music this monsoon season. Piano notes have poured down upon us, flooding the airwaves with this extraordinary instrument’s capacity to evoke everything from orchestras to ocarinas, from tempestuousness to tranquillity, from Moonlight to Raindrops.

Ad Parnassum and L’Offerta Musicale di Venezia’s interpretation of Henry Purcell’s opera Dido and Aeneas was original and engaging, combining the traditional elements of music, singing and drama with dance and props.The story tells one of the most tragic tales of love and loss. Before founding Rome, Aeneas was a Trojan soldier and when Troy fell, he left with his followers by ship.

Baroque music is pretty old, isn’t it? But the great thing is, you don’t have to have the advanced years of a Brandenburg Concerto to put it on. The Oxford Philomusica has been active for little more than a decade – and they rushed through the pouring rain to play at the similarly young St George’s Bristol.

A classic opera, Rossini’s The Barber of Seville was displayed in a new light by Opera Project this Friday. The easygoing plot of this 19th-century rom-com never tires when given a fresh edge, despite being so frequently performed. Taken out of the context of an opera house and downscaled, this Barber of Seville came to life in an intimate setting with some new words.