Resounding: Barenboim brings music back to the Pierre Boulez Saal

By Hugo Shirley, 14 August 2020

Loading, please wait...

See full listing

“the Schoenberg burst into existence as if desperate to get out”

Reviewed at Pierre Boulez Saal, Berlin on 14 August 2020

Wagner, Siegfried Idyll

Schoenberg, Chamber Symphony no. 1 in E major, Op.9

Boulez, Mémoriale

Beethoven, Grosse Fuge - fugue for string quartet in B flat major, Op.133 (for orchestra)

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Daniel Barenboim, Conductor

Joy and hope from Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra

Chris Garlick, 4th November

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra are on fire with the joy of music-making to the delight of a very sympathetic and enthusiastic audience at London's Southbank Centre.

*****

Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan return to the BBC Proms

Asher Rubenstein, 11th August

Marking 25 years of the West-Eastern Divan Orchestra, Daniel Barenboim returns to the Proms with violin legend Anne-Sophie Mutter.

***11

West-Eastern Divan Orchestra shows its stars at the Salzburg Festival

Alexander Hall, 13th August

Daniel Barenboim offered an unusually Germanic take on César Franck, while section leaders Michael Barenboim and Kian Soltani pulled double duty as soloists in Brahms' Double Concerto.

****1

BTHVN 2020 celebrated in Bonn by Barenboim and the WEDO

Zoltán Szabó, 17th December

A mixed performance from Bonn, but there was magic from Barenboim's fingers in the Third Piano Concerto.

***11

Bluster and conviction from Argerich and Barenboim

Mark Thomas, 12th August

There was vibrancy and subtlety in these cultured performances of Schubert and Lutosławski, with Martha Argerich still showing how it’s done with ‘that’ Tchaikovsky concerto.

****1

Between two worlds with Barenboim and the West-Eastern Divan

Matthew Rye, 14th August

The West-Eastern Divan Orchestra’s Prom with Daniel Barenboim went in search of identity and found ecstasy

****1

More reviews...

Hugo Shirley

Hugo Shirley is a Berlin-based writer and musicologist. He has written widely as a critic in the UK, including for The Spectator, the Financial Times and Daily Telegraph, and has held editorial posts at both Opera and Gramophone. He was editor of 30-Second Opera (Ivy Press, 2015) and has a PhD in musicology from King's College London, where his thesis focused on Strauss and Hofmannsthal’s Die Frau ohne Schatten.