Romps, romance and risk at the Berwaldhallen

By Simon Cummings, 31 August 2016

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“for once, the birds in Messiaen’s garden could properly be heard to sing”

Reviewed at Berwaldhallen, Stockholm on 28 August 2016

Bartók, Piano Concerto no. 1, Sz 83

Messiaen, Turangalîla-Symphonie

Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen, Conductor

Yuja Wang, Piano

Valérie Hartmann-Claverie, Ondes Martenot

The Swedish RSO provides a flashy finish for Dvořák’s Prague

Frank Kuznik, 25th September

Daniel Harding and the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra bring their own fireworks to the festival finale.

****1

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 Baltic phoenix: Esa-Pekka Salonen brings Stockholm back to life

Tristan Labouret, 9th September

After hosting 18 months of concerts without audience, Berwaldhallen comes back to life with the Baltic Sea Festival and its phenomenal opening concert as intelligent as it is overwhelming.

*****

Elegant Mozart and monumental Schubert from Blomstedt in Stockholm

Cameron Kelsall, 20th November

The inexhaustible maestro shared the stage with Johan Dalene, an exciting violinist seven decades his junior.

*****

Mäkelä shapes Sibelius persuasively in Stockholm’s Berwaldhallen

Edward Sava-Segal, 13th November

Mäkelä brought out the harmonic inventiveness and the unexpected lyrical character of the music.

****1

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

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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.

Romps, romance and risk at the Berwaldhallen from the Swedish Radio Symphony Orchestra