Between two worlds with Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan

By Matthew Rye, 15 August 2018

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“Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy... was a slow-burn affair, not so much lush as louche”

Reviewed at Royal Albert Hall, London on 14 August 2018

Tchaikovsky, Eugene Onegin: Polonaise

Tchaikovsky, Violin Concerto in D major, Op.35

Coleman, Looking for Palestine (London première)

Scriabin, The Poem of Ecstasy

Elgar, Enigma Variations, Op.36: Nimrod

Elsa Dreisig, Soprano

Lisa Batiashvili, Violin

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim, Conductor

Joy and hope from Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Chris Garlick, 4th November

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are on fire with the joy of music-making to the delight of a very sympathetic and enthusiastic audience at London's Southbank Centre.

*****

Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan return to the BBC Proms

Asher Rubenstein, 11th August

Marking 25 years of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim returns to the Proms with violin legend Anne-Sophie Mutter.

***11

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra shows its stars at the Salzburg Festival

Alexander Hall, 13th August

Daniel Barenboim offered an unusually Germanic take on César Franck, while section leaders Michael Barenboim and Kian Soltani pulled double duty as soloists in Brahms' Double Concerto.

****1

BTHVN 2020 celebrated in Bonn by Barenboim and the WEDO

Zoltán Szabó, 17th December

A mixed performance from Bonn, but there was magic from Barenboim's fingers in the Third Piano Concerto.

***11

Resounding: Barenboim brings music back to the Pierre Boulez Saal

Hugo Shirley, 14th August

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra presents a superb programme executed with power and urgency to herald the return of public music-making at the Pierre Boulez Saal.

*****

Bluster and conviction from Argerich and Barenboim

Mark Thomas, 12th August

There was vibrancy and subtlety in these cultured performances of Schubert and Lutosławski, with Martha Argerich still showing how it’s done with ‘that’ Tchaikovsky concerto.

****1

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Matthew Rye

Matthew read music at Oxford and worked in music journalism for 30 years as a writer, critic and editor. He wrote numerous programme and CD booklet notes, spent 13 years as a Daily Telegraph critic, worked at BBC Music Magazine and was reviews editor of The Strad. He also wrote for The Wagner Journal and Opera and blogged at ferneklang.blogspot.co.uk. He was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007) and was the author of a new series of eBooks, Masterpieces of Music (Erudition).

Prom 43: Between two worlds with Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra