Devilish downpour cannot dampen The Soldier's Tale at the EIF

By Roy Westbrook, 22 August 2021

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Reviewed at Edinburgh Academy Junior School, Edinburgh on 21 August 2021

Stravinsky, L'Histoire du soldat

Nicola Benedetti, Violin

Nicholas Bayley, Double Bass

Maximiliano Martín, Clarinet

Ursula Leveaux, Bassoon

Philip Cobb, Cornet

Peter Moore, Trombone

Louise Goodwin, Percussion

Anthony Flaum, Actor

Siobhan Redmond, Actor

Sir Thomas Allen, Narrator

Symmetries in Sound: Ensemble 360 explores music and maths

Phil Parker, 13th February

Forwards? Backwards? Upside down? All three at once? From Machaut to Pärt, Ensemble 360 considers the relationship between musical structures and varieties of mathematical pattern.

****1

Saint-Saëns, the Renaissance Man: Ensemble 360 and friends

Phil Parker, 21st May

Saint-Saëns’ music offers artistry and beauty without the intrusion of personal feeling – which he abhorred – as this mesmerising concert by Ensemble 360 confirms.

****1

A double act: Roderick Williams delivers Mahler two ways

Alexander Hall, 19th November

Robert and Clara were not the only two-composer family. So were Alma and Gustav. The Nash Ensemble's latest programme highlights Beethoven and the Romantics.

***11

Tim Horton's gripping Beethoven at Sheffield Chamber Music Festival

Steve Draper, 20th May

From Copland and Judith Weir to late Beethoven, a double bill of delights in Sheffield.

****1

Nash Ensemble: música contemporánea en el Wigmore Hall

Francisco Martínez Ramos, 27th April

El Nash Ensemble ofreció un gran concierto desde el Wigmore Hall con obras contemporáneas entre las que se contaban tres estrenos mundiales.

****1

Gnarly Buttons central to the SCO’s John Adams programme

David Smythe, 12th December

Andrew Manze conducts an all-Adams programme in Glasgow, Maximiliano Martín the fearless soloist in Gnarly Buttons, bookended by mesmerising Shaker Loops and exuberant Fearful Symmetries.

****1

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Roy Westbrook

Roy Westbrook gained a diploma in music history at London University (Morley College) and was for some years the head of music day schools at Oxford University, where he also led music summer schools. After some years leading the University's business school he has returned to music teaching and writing, and recently took part in the Arts in Residence courses on Bruckner, Mahler and Bach He is co-author (with Terry Barfoot) of a history of opera, and has taught day schools on Sibelius in Oxford and elsewhere.