Sensitive Schreker and energetic Rachmaninov from the BBC SO

By Jason Weir, 18 February 2017

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Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 17 February 2017

Schreker, Der Ferne Klang (The Distant Sound): Nachtstück

LeFanu, The Crimson Bird

Rachmaninov, Symphony no. 3 in A minor, Op.44

Rachel Nicholls, Soprano

Ilan Volkov, Conductor

BBC Symphony Orchestra

More gold than corn: María Dueñas plays Korngold at the Barbican

Mark Pullinger, 22nd May

The young Spanish violinist proves an ardent advocate for a work originally dismissed as a “Hollywood Concerto” as the BBC Symphony Orchestra closes its Barbican season.

****1

Billy Childs' Saxophone Concerto sings a song of America

Eleanor Knight, 8th May

Billy Childs Diaspora receives its UK premiere at the Barbican, performed by saxophonist Steven Banks.

****1

Sakari Oramo, Yeol Eum Son and the BBC Symphony in Seoul

SangKwon Lee, 26th March

Yeol Eum Son’s Britten Piano Concerto formed the evening’s centre of gravity, played with lucid line, structural command and sudden fire. In Brahms’ Second Symphony, Sakari Oramo found conviction, proportion and a warmth that felt earned rather than applied.

****1

Sakari Oramo and Yeol Eum Son summon up vivid landscapes

Christopher Woodley, 13th March

Yeol Eum Son's superb performances of Bartók and Finzi are matched by intense and heady readings of Stravinsky and Weir by the BBC Symphony Orchestra under Sakari Oramo.

****1

From snow to sludge: Icelandic music at the Barbican Centre

Marat Ingeldeev, 22nd February

A bewildering evening at the Barbican, where ambitious Icelandic programming collapses under its lofty ambition of defying genres and making music more appealing to a wide variety of audiences.

**111

Fine Lindberg and Stravinsky double bill from the BBC Symphony

Roy Westbrook, 6th February

After a performance of Magnus Lindberg’s First Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili at the Barbican, Stravinsky’s Perséphone stands the test of time.

****1

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Jason Weir

Jason completed a PhD in music history at Oxford University in 2023. His research focused on the development of suburban folk and popular music in late 19th-century Vienna alongside a social and political history of noise. Jason gained his MMus degree from King’s College London, supported by the Arts and Humanities Research Council. He has taught and written about the history of the symphony in the 19th and 20th centuries, musical modernism in Vienna, and broader cultural trends in Europe around 1900. Jason is currently lead violinist for Sinfonia Tamesa and guest led Kensington Symphony Orchestra in their 2015-16 season.