Aloofness, sincerety, montage: Esposito Quartet plays Crane and Shaw

Laurence Crane

Caroline Shaw and the Esposito Quartet

By Lawrence Dunn, 19 June 2023

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“like Beethoven rewritten by Satie”

Reviewed at The Spirit Store, Dundalk on 17 June 2023

Crane, String Quartet no. 2 (World premiere)

Shaw, The Evergreen

Esposito Quartet

Caroline Shaw, Vocals

Sō Percussion goes placidly pop

Kurt Gottschalk, 4th February

If Sō Percussion isn’t precisely a pop band, they’ve certainly learned how to please a crowd, even while, at times, challenging expectations.

****1

More gold than corn: María Dueñas plays Korngold at the Barbican

Mark Pullinger, 22nd May

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

****1

Heavenly Mahler – and Strauss – from Lucy Crowe and the LSO

Roy Westbrook, 21st May

Songs and symphonies from Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, concluding with a vision of “heavenly life” from Gustav Mahler.

****1

The ears have it: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on the Cutty Sark

Mark Valencia, 21st May

Come away fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing! All board the Cutty Sark for a semi-staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

****1

Intimate colossus: Daniil Trifonov with the Rotterdam Philharmonic

Max Lima, 21st May

Late Brahms, early Schoenberg: under Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic draw tenderness from two monumental scores.

****1

Conviction, passion and clarity: Sir Stephen Hough at Wigmore Hall

Christopher Woodley, 19th May

Fragments by Brahms, Schoenberg and Schubert orbit Beethoven's Waldstein and Schumann's Carnaval in another masterful recital from Sir Stephen Hough.

****1

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Lawrence Dunn

Lawrence is commissioning editor at Bachtrack. He is a composer, improviser, pianist and writer. He has taught at Cambridge, Huddersfield and Sheffield universities. He has written music for, among others the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, Ensemble Modern, Slagwerk Den Haag, Philip Thomas, Juliet Fraser, Ilya Gringolts, Plus-Minus, Exaudi, Apartment House and Explore Ensemble.

Aloofness, sincerety and montage: Esposito Quartet plays Laurence Crane and Caroline Shaw