Leading five choirs, fine soloists and a glowing Netherlands Philharmonic, conductor Marc Albrecht emphasised the human struggle in a highly dramatic performance of Mahler’s mammoth eighth symphony.
It’s always a heart-warming sight to see so many young people at the Barbican as members of the National Youth Brass Band of Great Britain shared the stage with equal composure as the London Symphony Chorus and string players from the LSO.
Cast and choir snaked and kicked their legs through the aisles of the hall – picking up audience members along the way – leading to a riotous on-stage dance.
Nietzsche's Midnight Song is the stillest piece of music in all Mahler, and Treviño’s poise and Larsson’s rich voice cast a powerful and profound spell.
The combined forces of various LSO and Guildhall ensembles come together in an evening that was, in turns, poignant and thrilling to perform Peter Maxwell Davies's last work.
Simon Rattle and the combined forces of the London Symphony Orchestra and Chorus dazzled in a large-scale rendition of Haydn's oratorio that retained the speed, dexterity and precision of a period-instrument performance.
Daniel Harding's love for Schumann's genre-defying work brought some strong playing from the LSO and deeply moving singing from his soloists and chorus.
The music of John Foulds and Olivier Messiaen and their shared interest in Hindu philosophy and the music of India created an exciting and life-affirming programme for Prom 38
Sunday night's concert saw the LSO on top form, however their partnerships with Christian Tetzlaff and LSO Chorus on either side of the interval produced mixed results.
At very short notice David Hill stepped in to conduct an all-French programme with the London Symphony Orchestra where serenity, elegance and passion were all beautifully communicated.
Triumphant Mahler from Sir Simon Rattle and the Berliner Philharmoniker, strong performances from Kate Royal and Magdalena Kožená, and total commitment and energy from the London Symphony Chorus and the City of Birmingham Symphony Chorus.
The text of Das Paradies und die Peri may be unadulterated Victorian sentimentality, but Schumann's music cannot fail to bewitch in an evening with outstanding singing from Bernarda Fink and Mark Padmore and Simon Rattle leading the LSO on top form.
What is there to say about Hector Berlioz’s Roméo et Juliette? A “dramatic symphony” in seven movements, featuring small and large choruses, and three soloists (two of whom sing for around five minutes each and one who sings for around 30), as well as a treasure trove of unusual instrumental combinations and sounds, it is safe to say this is something of an odd bird.
Capitalising on their success with Verdi’s opera Rigoletto during the Aix-en-Provence Festival in the summer, the London Symphony Orchestra and conductor Gianandrea Noseda chose to open the 2013/14 season last night with the same work.
I don’t think Valery Gergiev has ever been out to claim that Brahms and Szymanowski were particularly similar composers. I certainly hope he hasn’t, at any rate, on the basis of his final LSO programme pairing the two of them.
The Salle Pleyel’s programmatic dichotomy between “memory” and “creation” continually seeks to promote the more established names in classical music, whilst also shedding light on lesser-known repertoires from all musical epochs.
It’s been a busy couple of months for Berlioz’s Requiem in London. First there was Sir Colin Davis’s June performance at St. Paul’s, with the reinforced London Symphony Orchestra’s brass bands arrayed around the dome.
Every now and then I like to experiment. Reviewing a concert in which I know none of the music can be frightening, but also exciting and – always – surprising. Thus I was slightly apprehensive but wholly enthusiastic about attending this LSO concert featuring works unknown to me by Bartók and Szymanowski.
While Weber is widely acknowledged as being of historic importance as the link in the German operatic tradition between Beethoven and Wagner, his operas are rarely staged in England, and even in concert remain a relative novelty. Curious because this is music of the utmost vitality and beauty and at times he surely borders on genius.
Famous for his operas, Benjamin Britten had been planning something new for some time when he was invited in 1958 to compose a work to celebrate the rebuilding of the bombed Coventry Cathedral. The composer saw the resulting War Requiem as a force for unification, choosing his three soloists from the UK, USSR and Germany, the countries he believed to have suffered the most during World War Two.
The BBC Philharmonic Orchestra and newly elected Chief Conductor Juanjo Mena began their season with a storming Mahler 2 which thoroughly deserved its lengthy standing ovation.Gustav Mahler’s Symphony No.
The last of this season’s Proms Choral Sundays featured one of the most complex of all choral works, Beethoven’s massive Missa Solemnis, written around the time of his 9th symphony.
Prom 15 given by Vladimir Jurowski and the London Philharmonic Orchestra was billed as a “Hungarian Prom” and featured music of Kodály, Bartók and Liszt.
A work scheduled to last nearly two hours could be excused for starting with a long slow build up, but Havergal Brian’s massive Gothic Symphony (the longest symphony ever composed) bursts onto the scene with a brisk and bustling march-like flourish, contrasted briefly with a delicate violin solo that reminds us that this is very much an English composition.
This was the showpiece concert of this year’s City of London Festival and took place in the spectacular surroundings of St Paul’s Cathedral. Three key French composers were featured, concluding with well-known 3rd Symphony of Saint-Saëns. The first performance of this work was conducted by Saint-Saëns in London in 1886 in the long-since demolished St James’s Hall.
This evening’s programme showed us two aspects of Prokofiev’s output – his serious concert works for the stage and on the other hand his more populist music composed for film. Both were highly exciting, colourful works, and both typical of Prokofiev in different ways.The First Violin Concerto was a curious mixture of the ethereal and rustic.
