Jakub Hrůša returned to Cleveland to conduct a rarity by Kabeláč and a warhorse by Shostakovich while joining forces with Emanuel Ax for an interlude of Stravinsky.
A polished Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto from Arabella Steinbacher preceded a forceful Shostakovich 5 from Michael Sanderling as the Dresden Philharmonic continue their UK tour.
Patricia Kopatchinskaja and the Tonhalle Orchestra Zurich under conductor Teodor Currentzis brought the audience to its feet with works by Alban Berg and Dmitri Shostakovitch.
A sumptuous, elegant rendition of Beethoven's Violin Concerto by Nikolaj Znaider, while exchanging violin for baton, Znaider conducts the NSO in a fascinating rendition of Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5.
Chinese-American pianist George Li is now all of 22 years old, and continues to accumulate awards for his remarkable playing, but could he find anything interesting to say about this particular warhorse?
I suspect that we seek out many of the world’s great soloists beacuse we know what we will get, but we might well seek out Buniatishvili because we don’t.
Pitch-perfect Bartók by Ibragimova and a boldly expansive reading of Shostakovich's Fifth by Hrůša made for an insightful evening's reflection on musical early modernity.
Denis Kozhukhin provided flowing intensity in Rachmaninov’s Second Piano Concerto while Yuri Temirkanov crafted a polished Shostakovich 5 with the Philharmonia.
The St Petersburg Philharmonic playing Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony – a work it premiered in 1937 as the Leningrad Philharmonic – was a highlight of a superb concert concluding its UK tour.
The RSNO’s latest concert was entitled “Dvořák Cello Concerto”, but it was Thomas Søndergård's brilliant direction of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony which proved the highlight.
Sergej Krylov makes a superb case for Andzej Panufnik's Violin Concerto; Søndergard and the LPO disappoint in Sibelius but thrill with Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5.
Fluidity and colour in Debussy's La Mer and hard-edged defiance in Shostakovich's Symphony no. 5 were combined with Philip Cobb's trumpet refined and bright in Haydn.
Marin Alsop nods to her mentor in Bernstein’s Chichester Psalms, challenges the Edinburgh Festival Chorus with Villa-Lobos' Chôros 10 and astonishes in a passionate enduring performance of Shostakovich's Fifth.
An engrossing performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony follows a slightly haywire interpretation of Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto in an evening of excitement and a few too many wrong notes.
A high impact performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony from Ilan Volkov and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, with striking and engaging Ravel from Ingrid Fliter – and a gem from Nikolai Roslavets.
Composed for Peter Pears and Dennis Brain, Britten's Sereande for Tenor, Horn and Strings presents fearsome challenges for performers. Mark Padmore and Katy Woolley met those challenges superbly.
The Dutch Concert Choir impressed surprisingly in the annual May 4th WWII memorial concert at the Concergebouw, offering an impressive rendition of Hans Kox's rarely performed Anne Frank Cantata and Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony.
For the third concert of their 2015 Premier Series, the Auckland Philharmonia Orchestra under Musical Director Eckehard Stier presented "Out of this World", a varied programme of Bach, Dutilleux and Shostakovich.
Each note from the Bavarian RSO was infused with a sort of insistent newness as the musicians poured forth adventurous interpretations of two familiar works.
Esa-Pekka Salonen’s Violin Concerto "Out of Nowhere" received its long overdue UK première by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Leila Josefowicz. Flanked by Sibelius’ Pohjola’s Daughter and Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5, this was an exciting programme played brilliantly under Sakari Oramo.
Lorin Maazel and the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra have a very close relationship. In fact, if they were a married couple they would have celebrated their golden anniversary in 2012, having survived and lived to tell the tale of a 50-year collaboration.
German bombast. French joie de vivre. Russian soul-searching. You could hardly ask for more contrast in the principal themes of last night’s Prom, with Philippe Jordan conducting the Gustav Mahler Youth Orchestra, from the military pomp of Wagner’s overture to Rienzi to the fairground whirl of Ravel’s Piano Concerto in G major.
Concluding their concert run in the Barbican, Michael Tilson Thomas, Yo-Yo Ma and the London Symphony Orchestra presented a programme of works by Copland, Shostakovich and Britten. The musicians’ partnership was undoubtedly a successful one, with a completely sold-out Barbican.
Oxford’s Sheldonian Theatre was nearly full for the concert on Thursday night. Billed “Russian Greats”, the programme mixed the familiar fare of Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich with a world première by the Oxford-based composer Chris Garrard.
I often think of Lorin Maazel as the American equivalent of Sir Colin Davis – they are both in their eighties and they both deliver steady, reliable interpretations that let the music speak for itself. Maazel’s return performance with the New York Philharmonic on Saturday re-affirmed my view.
In an interview with Charlie Rose a couple of years ago, Sir Simon Rattle made the startling comment that conductors only become “competent” after they turn 60.
Beginning with a work sprung from the minds of not one, but two great Russian composers, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra and Andrew Litton opened their latest distinctly Slavic programme at the Southbank Centre with Rimsky-Korsakov’s revised version of Mussorgky’s Night on Bare Mountain.
The Aldeburgh World Orchestra, made up of 119 youngsters with 32 different nationalities, only started playing together 3 weeks before this concert. Armed with this knowledge, the expectations of a concert understandably lessen: you expect it to still be good but not brilliant. But the orchestra did end up playing brilliantly, especially in Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5.
Manchester was very fortunate this week to host three fine orchestras: the Orchestre Nationale du Capitole de Toulouse did a wonderful job of Berlioz on Tuesday and the CBSO gave a towering Sibelius 2 on Thursday. Tonight, the St. Petersburg Philharmonic played a breathtaking concert to a packed hall in the final performance of their UK tour.
Russian was the theme and Russian the temperament in this concert, part of an ongoing series at the Barbican. This particular group of "Gergiev's Russians" consisted of Tchaikovsky, Prokofiev, and Shostakovich, in music spanning seventy years of compositional history.
