What a night for the horns!

By Ken Ward, 23 June 2011

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Reviewed at Smith Square Hall, London on 21 June 2011

Strauss R., Don Juan, Op.20

Bruckner, Symphony no. 8 in C minor, WAB 108

Salomon Orchestra

Andrew Gourlay, Conductor

Tara Persaud, Oboe

Impressive CBSO open the Cheltenham Music Festival

David Truslove, 8th July

Well-honed performances from the CBSO under Andrew Gourlay are enjoyed by a packed Town Hall on the opening night of the festival.

****1

Time on her side: fairytale meets feminism in Tom Coult’s Violet

Sarah Noble, 18th July

A top notch ensemble brings Coult’s first opera luminously to life at the Buxton International Festival, finding renewed relevance in the post-pandemic era.

****1

Robust Brahms and vigorous Dvořák from Miura, Gourlay and the RPO

Alexander Hall, 20th April

How much classical restraint and how much Romantic feeling do you really want in 19th-century concertos and symphonies? With the RPO, Fumiaki Miura and Andrew Gourlay both choose to err on the side of the former.

***11

Just like 1913: CBSO YO taps into the shock of The Rite of Spring

Simon Cummings, 3rd November

The CBSO Youth Orchestra under Andrew Gourlay both succumb to and transcend imperfections in their performances of Prokofiev and Stravinsky.

****1

All Reich on the Night with the London Sinfonietta

Benjamin Poore, 12th February

Exemplary performances of classic works by the American minimalist from the London Sinfonietta

****1

BBC Philharmonic up close in Lancaster

Rohan Shotton, 7th February

Andrew Gourlay conducts the BBC Philharmonic in the inaugural concert of a new relationship with Lancaster University.

****1

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Ken Ward

Ken Ward spent most of his working life driving buses for Eastern National and London Buses. With a life-long enthusiasm for the works of Bruckner, he became editor of The Bruckner Journal in 2005 and was awarded The Bruckner Society of America 'Kilenyi' Medal of Honor in 2011.