Hidden gems at the New Life Festival in Berlin

By Sam Johnstone, 16 July 2017

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Reviewed at St Elisabeth Kirche, Berlin on 14 July 2017

Zemlinsky, Lustspiel-Ouvertüre

Ben-Haim, Pan: Sinfonisches Gedicht für Sopran und Orchester

Weill, Berlin im Licht

Weill, Youkali

Weill, One Touch of Venus: I'm a stranger here myself

Ben-Haim, Klavierkonzert, Op.41 (Deutschlandpremiere)

Toch, Peter Pan, Op.76 (Deutschlandpremiere)

Berliner Symphoniker

Lior Shambadal, Conductor

Mimi Sheffer, Soprano

Gila Goldstein, Piano

Mozart y Bruckner idiosincrásico por Shambadal y la OSN

Vishnu Bachani, 16th June

La Orquesta Sinfónica Nacional de México ofreció una competente versión de la poco frecuente Tercera sinfonía de Bruckner precedida, para lucimiento de cuatro estupendos solistas, de una Sinfonía concertante de Mozart.

***11

Jurowski marks Hans Werner Henze’s centenary at the Elbphilharmonie

Mengguang Huang, 31st May

Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk-Sinfonieorchester Berlin deliver a lean, razor-sharp exploration of captivity and survival, balancing Beethoven’s and Brahms’ structural clarity against the devastating, high-fidelity distortion of Henze’s Ninth Symphony.

****1

Kissin, Bell and Isserlis: remembrance and loss at Carnegie Hall

Edward Sava-Segal, 31st May

Solomon Rosowsky, Shostakovich and Tchaikovsky form a matinee programme whose deeper connections gradually came into focus.

****1

Mischievous Pan at Hong Kong Sinfonietta’s French May

Christopher Halls, 30th May

French clarinettist Raphaël Sévère unearths beauty in Nielsen’s concerto and the Hong Kong Sinfonietta impress in two settings of Pan’s antics at the French May Festival.

****1

Alsop conducts a substitute Marsalis symphony at Carnegie Hall

David Wolfson, 29th May

The premiere of Wynton Marsalis’ Symphony no. 5 is postponed, substituted by selections from his Jungle Symphony, along with a disappointing Beethoven’s Seventh at Carnegie Hall.

***11

It's a hero's life for Gustavo Dudamel at Disney Hall

Néstor Castiglione, 29th May

Dudamel closes in on the end of his Disney Hall tenure in heroic style with Richard Strauss' tone poem, Ein Heldenleben.

****1

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Sam Johnstone

Sam Johnstone is a musician and writer based in Berlin. He has written on classical, contemporary and world music for Sinfini Music, The Cusp and World Music Network, and about the influence of the avant-garde on contemporary music in Germany and Japan whilst studying at Oxford University and SOAS, University of London. Sam blogs at www.spljohnstone.com and tweets at @spljohnstone