Wandering around Cage: Margaret Leng Tan plays Four Walls in the Barbican Art Gallery

By Paul Kilbey, 18 March 2013

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Reviewed at Barbican Centre: Art Gallery, London on 14 March 2013

Cage, Four Walls

Margaret Leng Tan, Piano

A birthday happening for Stephen Montague at St John's Smith Square

Frances Wilson, 12th March

It’s not every day that one goes to a dinner party at lunchtime, but this was a rather special dinner party – A Dinner Party for John Cage. It formed the centerpiece of a lunchtime “happening” at St John’s Smith Square to celebrate the 70th birthday of American-British composer Stephen Montague.

*****

Text and textures in New York premieres by The Crossing at Zankel Hall

David Wolfson, 24th March

Donald Nally’s much vaunted chamber choir The Crossing give a program of three New York premieres at Zankel Hall.

****1

Concertos – for violin and for orchestra – from the Hallé

Peter Connors, 22nd March

Viktoria Mullova is a superb soloist in Brahms' Violin Concerto, while an orchestra full of soloists play Bartók’s Concerto for Orchestra with Kahchun Wong presiding.

*****

Guitars, electronics and ancient treatises: the JACK Quartet at 92NY

Kurt Gottschalk, 20th March

At 92NY, the JACK Quartet performs four new works developed in their JACK Studio, including a commissioned premiere from the electrifying Tristan Perich.

****1

Chopin and Franck reframed with elegance and insight in Dublin

Andrew Larkin, 20th March

In Dublin, Jean-Luc Tingaud and Louis Lortie bring clarity and purpose to two composers often ill at ease with the orchestra.

****1

Kristiina Poska makes an exciting return to conduct the RSNO

Simon Thompson, 20th March

Kristiina Poska directs the RSNO in gripping Tchaikovsky and Pärt, but words and music only occasionally match in Elena Langer's new song cycle.

***11

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Paul Kilbey

Paul was Reviews Editor at Bachtrack from 2012 to February 2014. He has written on music and culture for publications including Culture Wars, the Huffington Post, the Independent and the Guardian. He holds BA and MPhil degrees in music from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and is particularly passionate about contemporary music of all types. His website is here.