Songs of Sunset and Dawn intonxicates at the Baltic Sea Festival

By Simon Cummings, 03 September 2018

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“a suspended sensibility, enabling the music to press on while floating”

Reviewed at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm on 30 August 2018

Salonen, Piano Concerto

Šerkšnytė, Songs of Sunset and Dawn

Lithuanian National Symphony Orchestra

Swedish Radio Choir

Giedrė Šlekytė, Conductor

Andrius Žlabys, Piano

Lina Dambrauskaite, Soprano

Justina Gringytė, Mezzo-soprano

Edgaras Montvidas, Tenor

Raimundas Juzuitis, Bass-baritone

Music, people, planet: a triumphant celebration in music for Yo-Yo Ma

Stephen Pritchard, 18th October

The celebrated cellist becomes the first instrumentalist to be presented the Birgit Nilsson Prize by His Majesty King Carl XVI Gustaf at the official Award Ceremony in Stockholm.

*****

Handel's Messiah streamed from the Baltic Sea Festival

Sandra Bowdler, 18th September

Reinhard Goebel conducts a perfectly fine, straight-down-the-line Messiah as Sweden re-engages with live audiences.

***11

A persuasively dark Don Giovanni from Swedish Radio

David Karlin, 14th June

Andrew Staples creates an austere, monochrome semi-staging that's strangely appropriate to the times; Peter Mattei and John Lundgren lead an excellent cast.

****1

Post-lockdown Sibelius from Daniel Harding and the Swedish RSO

Mark Valencia, 6th June

Although filled with beauty and sweetly played, the fragmentation of the symphony felt too disruptive.

***11

Eternal truths: Hillborg's film collaboration in Stockholm

Matthew Rye, 23rd August

A true audiovisual experience, Anders Hillborg's Aeterna, a collaboration with two Swedish film-makers, results in a compelling portrait of the fragility that underlies our relationship with our planet.

****1

A Mahler "Resurrection" which misses the mark

Jack Johnson, 29th August

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra gave an oddly-staged, at times erractic, performance of the “Resurrection” Symphony that failed to completely encapulsate Mahler's vision.

***11

More reviews...

Simon Cummings

Simon Cummings is a composer, writer and researcher based in the Cotswolds. He composes instrumental and electronic music, exploring aspects of algorithmic composition, and has recently completed a Ph.D. in composition at the Birmingham Conservatoire under the supervision of Richard Causton and Howard Skempton. His musical tastes are ludicrously broad but are focused most on contemporary/avant-garde classical and electronic music. When not composing, he writes regularly about new music; Simon is the author of the contemporary music blog 5:4 (5against4.com), and regularly contributes articles for a variety of books, journals and websites. Follow him on Twitter @5against4.

Šerkšnytė's Songs of Sunset and Dawn intoxicates at the Baltic Sea Festival