Ian Bostridge and Dame Sarah Connolly at the Barbican

By Edward Sava-Segal, 02 November 2020

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Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 1 November 2020

Vaughan Williams, On Wenlock Edge

Chausson, Poème de l'amour et de la mer, Op.19 (arr Franck Villard)

Julius Drake, Piano

Ian Bostridge, Tenor

Dame Sarah Connolly, Mezzo-soprano

Carducci String Quartet

A Shostakovich tasting menu with the Carducci Quartet

David Truslove, 10th March

A tasting menu of string quartet movements interspersed with readings made for an absorbing afternoon.

****1

A candle for Shostakovich: the Carducci Quartet’s marathon

Mark Pullinger, 9th August

Performed chronologically in the Sam Wanamaker Playhouse, The Globe’s candlelit Jacobean theatre, the 15 Shostakovich string quartets made an astonishing impression in such concentrated form.

*****

Raskatov's Monk's Music in Drogheda

Gavin Dixon, 3rd May

Russian composer Alexander Raskatov visits Ireland for a concert of his own works, including the epic string quartet cycle Monk's Music. A fascinating cross-section of the composer's work, well played to a sizeable and enthusiastic local audience.

****1

The Carducci Quartet over coffee in Oxford

Katy Wright, 10th November

The Carducci Quartet’s appearance in the Holywell Music Room marked the halfway point in the Oxford Coffee Concert’s Autumn series. This late-morning concert saw the ensemble pair two D major quartets, from 1781 and 1949. It was the latter which received the more convincing performance, with the quartet clearly more engaged with Shostakovich’s troubled utterance than Haydn’s lean textures.

***11

Britten's Noye's Fludde at Tewkesbury Abbey as part of the Cheltenham Music Festival

Alexandra Hamilton-Ayres, 3rd July

The Benjamin Britten centenary has inspired many groups into performing his works. The opera Noye’s Fludde was written to give amateur children a chance to perform and engage in operatic music alongside a smaller group of adult professional soloists. This performance was part of the Cheltenham Music Festival as their nod to Britten in the composer’s special year.

**111

El Cuarteto Carducci cierra el ciclo Shostakovich en Bogotá

Julián Montaña, 23rd August

La celebración en Colombia de los 40 años de muerte del compositor ruso estuvo marcada por interpretaciones en las que la planeación de las ideas musicales era tan clara que cada nuevo pasaje redactaba en su avance una historia.

*****

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Edward Sava-Segal

Edward has been living in New York for the last 25 years, one of the reasons being the extraordinarily rich cultural life in this city. He has studied piano and classical music in his early years. He switched later on to computer science and data architecture but he kept an unwavering interest in following the classical music phenomenon here in New York and in his travels. Edward occasionally reviews fine arts events for the most prestigious literary magazine in Romania, his home country.

From Wenlock Edge to the sea: Ian Bostridge and Dame Sarah Connolly at the Barbican