An International Composers Competition in St. Petersburg: Part 2

By Paul Kilbey, 22 April 2012

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Reviewed at Shostakovich Philharmonic Hall: Grand Hall, St Petersburg on 19 April 2012

Danilov, The Divine Liturgy for mixed choir

Larin, Calling for the Vigil

Zakharov, Eastertide

Belyaev, Three Russian Canticles

Popov, Come ye, we'll bow

Chernysheva, Gospel scenes

Opera Choir of the Mikhailovsky theatre

Vladimir Stolpovskikh, Conductor

St Petersburg Youth Chamber Choir

Yulia Khutoretskaya, Choirmaster / chorus director

New Orthodox music in a theatrical St Petersburg setting

Gavin Dixon, 7th July

Presenting new Russian Orthodox music in a theatrical setting suggests new possibilities for the tradition, most ambitiously in the field of opera.

***11

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

Intimate colossus: Daniil Trifonov with the Rotterdam Philharmonic

Max Lima, 21st May

Late Brahms, early Schoenberg: under Lahav Shani and the Rotterdam Philharmonic draw tenderness from two monumental scores.

****1

The ears have it: Purcell’s Dido and Aeneas on the Cutty Sark

Mark Valencia, 21st May

Come away fellow sailors, your anchors be weighing! All board the Cutty Sark for a semi-staging of Purcell's Dido and Aeneas with the Monteverdi Choir and English Baroque Soloists.

****1

Heavenly Mahler – and Strauss – from Lucy Crowe and the LSO

Roy Westbrook, 21st May

Songs and symphonies from Sir Simon Rattle and the London Symphony Orchestra, concluding with a vision of “heavenly life” from Gustav Mahler.

****1

Conviction, passion and clarity: Sir Stephen Hough at Wigmore Hall

Christopher Woodley, 19th May

Fragments by Brahms, Schoenberg and Schubert orbit Beethoven's Waldstein and Schumann's Carnaval in another masterful recital from Sir Stephen Hough.

****1

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Paul Kilbey

Paul was Reviews Editor at Bachtrack from 2012 to February 2014. He has written on music and culture for publications including Culture Wars, the Huffington Post, the Independent and the Guardian. He holds BA and MPhil degrees in music from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and is particularly passionate about contemporary music of all types. His website is here.