An unsettling Pierrot lunaire at the Munch Museum

By Aksel Tollåli, 18 November 2013

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Reviewed at Munch Museum, Oslo on 15 November 2013

Schoenberg, Pierrot lunaire

Jukka-Pekka Saraste, Conductor

Tora Augestad, Soprano

Musicians from the Oslo Philharmonic

Ketil Bjurnstad, Presenter

Saraste and the Helsinki Philharmonic in Hamburg

Mengguang Huang, 22nd November

The Helsinki Philharmonic’s winter visit to Hamburg’s Elbphilharmonie offers a vivid portrait of Finnish musical identity at its most compelling.

****1

Penthouse decadence for a shattering new Salome in Geneva

Mark Pullinger, 22nd January

The Grand Théâtre de Genève is certainly not risk-averse and Hungarian director Kornél Mundruczó controversially translates the action to a penthouse bar in New York.

*****

Tragic Sibelius, sparkling Ravel from Saraste and Pittsburgh Symphony

Sam Jacobson, 20th October

Jukka-Pekka Saraste’s Pittsburgh program makes a strong impression in coloristic works from the early 20th century, while pianist Tom Borrow has a memorable debut.

****1

Bruce Liu makes a spirited Singapore debut

Chang Tou Liang, 23rd November

The victor at the 2021 Chopin International Piano Competition is predictably brilliant in his Singapore Symphony Orchestra debut.

****1

Saraste finds beauty in tragedy with the Dallas Symphony

Sam Jacobson, 27th April

Jukka-Pekka Saraste conducts the Dallas Symphony in a Sibelius tone poem and a Shostakovich symphony, both works of great tragedy.

****1

Killer concerto, life-affirming symphony at the Barbican

Alexander Hall, 6th May

Two powerful, virtually contemporaneous statements from Prokofiev and Nielsen: Denis Kozhukhin is a commanding soloist in the concerto and Jukka-Pekka Saraste with the BBC SO convincingly ride the waves of the symphony.

****1

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Aksel Tollåli

Aksel is currently studying towards a degree in musicology at the University of Oslo. At the moment he is an exchange student at Goldsmiths College in London. He is also a choral singer and a trombonist. His musical interests include 20th-cenury French music, Baroque opera and the music of Richard Strauss.