Le Bœuf sur le toit: Roaring Twenties Paris

By Mark Pullinger, 02 April 2017

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Reviewed at Institut français (French Institute): Ciné Lumière, London on 2 April 2017

Saint-Saëns, Danse macabre

Poulenc, Élégie, FP 175

Poulenc, L'Embarquement pour Cythère, FP 150

Milhaud, Le Bœuf sur le toit (The Ox on the Roof), Op.58

Ravel, Pavane pour une infante défunte

Gershwin, 3 Preludes

Debussy, Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune

Piazzolla, Verano Porteño

Piazzolla, Libertango

Rachmaninov, Prelude in C sharp minor for piano, Op.3 no.2

Marcela Roggeri, Piano

François Chaplin, Piano

Alexandre Lory, Piano

Turangalîla underwhelms at the Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Roy Westbrook, 23rd April

Serious music ill-matched by filmic limitations as the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra tackles Messiaen’s epic “symphony” as part of the Southbank’s cross-genre festival.

**111

Immersive OAE submerged at Southbank’s Multitudes festival

Mark Valencia, 22nd April

The road to immersion is paved with modish deflections as the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment performs 20th-century English string music.

**111

A dream of a Gerontius from Pappano, the LSO and Chorus

Roy Westbrook, 21st April

Giving their 27th performance of the oratorio, the London Symphony Chorus excel as angelic angels and demonic demons.

****1

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

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Mark Pullinger

Mark has been a Bachtrack editor since 2014. He is also an experienced critic, writing hundreds of reviews for the site, as well as a freelancer writing for other magazines and newspapers. He also writes programme notes and blogs on Substack. Mark has a particular passion for the operas of Verdi as well as Russian and French repertoire. Outside the concert hall and opera house, Mark enjoys cooking and travel and is probably at his happiest let loose in a French patisserie or a Viennese coffee house.

Le Bœuf sur le toit: Paris in the Roaring Twenties celebrated at the Institut français