Review Wigmore Hall: John Williams

Looking at its past, its present and its future, the Boston Symphony returns to Symphony Hall after the Covid hiatus. 

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.

It is quite a daunting task to assess the performance of someone like John Williams. Certainly one of the finest and most famous living classical guitarists in the world, he seems something of a colossus of the instrument. Yet the manner he exuded as he entered the stage of St. George’s was of understated familiarity.

De Kurtág à Brahms en passant par Beethoven, le quatuor a montré l'étendue de sa technique, définie par une homogénéité parfaite et une écoute mutuelle attentive.

Premier Prix du Concours Reine Elisabeth de Belgique en 2024, le violoniste ukrainien bouleverse dans le Premier Concerto pour violon de Dimitri Chostakovitch, bien secondé par Oksana Lyniv et l'Orchestre National de France.

Fidèle à Toulouse, la lionne est de retour dans la saison des Grands Interprètes en deux pianos avec Dong Hyek Lim, pour un programme Mozart-Ravel-Rachmaninov passionnant mais inégal.