When the fiery chariot finally arrived to transport Elijah aloft and the antiphonal trumpets and drums and assorted ophicleides of Paul McCreesh’s mightily augmented Gabrieli Players Consort and Players were rent asunder by the open-stopped thrust of the Royal Albert Hall organ you suddenly realised why the Victorians became damp with ecstasy at the very … [Read More]
Edward Seckerson
Reviews, Blogs, Podcasts
Reviews, Podcasts and Blogs
Classical music, Opera and Musical Theatre reviews
Monthly Archives: August 2011
Prom 58: Mendelssohn “Elijah”, Gabireli Consort & Players, McCreesh, Royal Albert Hall
Tagged with: elijah, gabrieli consort and players, mendelssohn, paul mccreesh, proms, robert murray, rosemary joshua, sarah connolly, simon keenlyside
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Prom 53: Mahler Youth Orchestra, Davis, Royal Albert Hall
Sir Colin Davis’ vim and vigour has always seemed so eternal, so unaffected by the advancing years, that it was strange, not to say difficult, to discover him conducting now from a chair. You could see and hear how that compromised the transference of energy from his now familiar body language to the players before … [Read More]
Tagged with: gustav mahler jugendorchester, ravel, sir colin davis, stravinsky, susan graham, tachaikovsky
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Prom 52: London Symphony Orchestra, Gergiev, Royal Albert Hall
Two Prokofiev symphonies for the price of one – the First and Fifth, the little and large of the canon – and surprisingly it was the bantam weight First that yielded Valery Gergiev’s biggest surprises and tiniest revelations. Rarely has it sounded so tantalisingly Haydnesque.
By no stretch of the imagination could you have described … [Read More]
Tagged with: dutilleux, leonidas kavakos, london symphony orchestra, prokofiev, valery gergiev
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Proms 30 & 31, National Youth Orchestra, Jurowski/ Nigel Kennedy, Royal Albert Hall
The building had barely cooled down after the Simon Bolivar Mahler the previous night but youth still ruled at the Proms with the arrival of our own National Youth Orchestra and that eternal wild child Nigel Kennedy promising and delivering astonishment in a not quite solo Bach gig in the evening’s late spot.
And just … [Read More]
Tagged with: bach, britten, dj switch, gabriel prokofiev, national youth orchestra of great britain, nigel kennedy, prokofiev, vladimir jurowski
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
Prom 24: BBC Symphony Orchestra, Davis, Royal Albert Hall
The Royal Albert Hall can be an intimate place, mysteriously transforming on occasions from monster auditorium to private salon. There’s something about a small group of players, or in this case singers – the BBC Singers – in close harmony that effects that transformation and so it came to pass that the short vocal preface … [Read More]
Tagged with: andrew davis, bbc symphony orchestra, elgar, percy grainger, proms, tasmin little
Posted in Reviews
Posted in Reviews
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