Musical resilience from Pekka Kuusisto and Katarina Barruk at the Proms

Two big-boned Mozart piano concertos played by Leif Ove Andsnes formed the meaty filling in a concert by the Norwegian Chamber Orchestra that showcased their superb ensemble characteristics.

Leif Ove Andsnes offre à Genève deux concertos de Mozart très équilibrés qui ont succédé à une Suite Holberg de Grieg contrastée et palpitante. Le style énergique du Norwegian Chamber Orchestra a emporté l’adhésion du public genevois visiblement ravi par tant de jeunesse ! 

When one thinks of Haydn, opera really isn’t the first thing that comes to mind. It’s the symphonies, the string quartets, even his oratorios you think of first, not his operas. And yet he wrote 15 of them. L’isola disabitata is the eleventh of the bunch, written for the Eszterházy court in 1779, and it was this opera The Norwegian Opera and Ballet (DNO) chose as their 2012/2013 season opener.

The Helsinki Philharmonic’s winter visit to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie offers a vivid portrait of Finnish musical identity at its most compelling.

Textures, tensions and transformations across musical perspectives imbue the Tanglewood programme Thomas Adès inherited from Esa-Pekka Salonen. 

Leading his former orchestra and soloist Pekka Kuusisto, Esa-Pekka Salonen bookends his San Francisco commission with two crowd-pleasers from the standard repertory.