Work: Double Concerto for two string orchestras, piano and timpani, H 271

Our writer is dazzled by the venue, but the music that the Hamburgers play in it proves pretty dazzling too; Martinů’s Double Concerto is a showcase for both the players and the hall. 

A firecracker performance by Vladimir Jurowski and the Rundfunk Sinfonieorchester Berlin giving urgency to music composed at a time that echoes our own.

Tonight’s concert was a prime example of the solid programming of Southbank Centre’s The Rest is Noise festival. The concert, titled “Music from Dark Times”, included pieces by Webern, Berg, Bartók and Martinů, written between 1934 and 1941, which were indeed dark times for all these composers.