Basque music in the Pays Basque: Ensemble Hegiak at the Festival Ravel

Ensemble Hegiak

By Roy Westbrook, 03 September 2024

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“this evening’s specialist Regional event was its quintessential piece of festival programming”

Reviewed at Couvent des Récollets, Ciboure on 2 September 2024

Various, Chants et musiques traditionnels basques

Ensemble Hegiak

Benedetti ablaze with the Philharmonia

Christopher Woodley, 19th April

As gifts to the Philarmonia's 80th birthday season, Nicola Benedetti gives a barnstorming account of Elgar's Violin Concerto before Cristian Mӑcelaru gets emotionally drained by La Mer.

*****

Nicholas McGegan brings delicacy and elegance to Mendelssohn

Erica Miner, 18th April

The Seattle Symphony offers an enchanting evening immersed in the joy and brilliance of both the young and the mature genius of Felix Mendelssohn.

****1

Wrangling the octopus: Mahler’s Ninth with Sir Simon Rattle

Chanda VanderHart, 17th April

Less a symphony, more a force of nature, Sir Simon Rattle conducts the Vienna Philharmonic in a turbulent, yet spacious reading of Mahler's Ninth Symphony in the Musikverein.

****1

Picture postcard Spain from the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia

Phil Parker, 17th April

Vibrant, colourful music is played with every last ounce of enthusiasm as the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia rounds off its UK tour at Sheffield City Hall.

****1

Tarmo Peltokoski conducts the Hallé in Mahler and Vaughan Williams

Leighton Jones, 16th April

Mahler’s Rückert-Lieder provide an apt, if somewhat unexpected, partner to Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony in Manchester’s Bridgewater Hall.

****1

Dependable Mozart and Mendelssohn from the RLPO

Glyn Mon Hughes, 16th April

Aurel Dawidziuk and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra explore darkness and light, although the drama does not always bringing the audience to the edge of its collective seat.

***11

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Roy Westbrook

Roy Westbrook gained a diploma in music history at London University (Morley College) and was for some years the head of music day schools at Oxford University, where he also led music summer schools. After some years leading the University's business school he has returned to music teaching and writing, and recently took part in the Arts in Residence courses on Bruckner, Mahler and Bach He is co-author (with Terry Barfoot) of a history of opera, and has taught day schools on Sibelius in Oxford and elsewhere.