Fire and ice: Víkingur Ólafsson performs at the Glasshouse

By Nick Butters, 08 February 2025

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“there was fire when there needed to be fire, tenderness and understanding elsewhere”

Reviewed at The Glasshouse International Centre for Music: Sage One, Gateshead on 6 February 2025

Saariaho, Ciel d'hiver

Bartók, Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta, Sz 106

Beethoven, Piano Concerto no. 5 in E flat major "Emperor", Op.73

Rameau, Les Boréades: The Arts and the Hours

Víkingur Ólafsson, Piano

Royal Northern Sinfonia

Dinis Sousa, Conductor

Patriotic angst with the Royal Northern Sinfonia and Thomas Zehetmair

Nick Butters, 24th April

Patriotic Sibelius and early Mendelssohn are served up at the Glasshouse in Gateshead.

***11

A new light on Mendelssohn at the Glasshouse

Nick Butters, 6th March

Nil Venditti arrives like a small, joyful bomb at The Glasshouse and lights up a familiar Mendelssohn symphony with new insights.

****1

Sir Bryn Terfel charms Glasshouse audience in reimagined Schubert

Nick Butters, 21st November

Terfel’s charismatic account of Schubert songs orchestrated by a variety of composers, Sofia Gubaidulina’s meditation on his Impromtu and the composer’s own longest symphony make a varied and rewarding evening at The Glasshouse, Gateshead.

****1

Ticket to ride: thrilling, moving witty Berio at the Glasshouse

Nick Butters, 11th October

Sophia Burgos and members of Royal Northern Sinfonia charm, amuse and astonish in a selection of Luciano Berio’s works at the Glasshouse.

****1

Hymn of Praise: thrilling Mendelssohn at the Glasshouse

Nick Butters, 26th July

As the BBC Proms visits Gateshead, Dinis Sousa and the Royal Northern Sinfonia excel in Mendelssohn, although David Fray's Bach underwhelms.

****1

Fray and the RNS offer challenging interpretations of Bach and Mozart

Nick Butters, 4th October

French pianist David Fray with the Royal Northern Sinfonia challenges orthodoxy in blisteringly fast Bach and darkly imagined Mozart.

***11

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Nick Butters

Nick studied under Denis Matthews at Newcastle University in the 1970s. He has had a busy and varied career, working in classical music, musical theatre and jazz. As an educator he taught on the staff of ArtsEd London, GSA and LCM, and has been a visiting tutor at RADA, Manchester Metropolitan University and the Oxford School of Drama. After working in London for many years he took up a teaching post at the Conservatoire de la Dordogne in 2007. On returning to the UK he settled in the north-east of England. He teaches and is an accompanist at the Centre for Advanced Training at The Glasshouse ICM, Gateshead (formerly Sage Gateshead), and has recently retired as a lecturer and musical director at the Institute of the Arts, University of Cumbria. He is in demand as a choral and instrumental accompanist across the region.