April 2011

Falla/Daugherty/Stravinsky - Kristjan Järvi/Vadim Gluzman

Thu 17 Apr 2011 7.30pm

Sunday Times, 24 Apr 2011
Vadim Gluzman powerfully projected the all too violinistic rhetoric, and the work had a thunderous ovation.
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The Guardian, 20 Apr 2011
With its triple stops and left-hand pizzicatos, the solo violin writing is flashily virtuosic, and dispatched with great panache here by Vadim Gluzman.
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The Daily Telegraph, 19 Apr 2011
The soloist Vadim Gluzman’s energy was heroic, and the imitation of lachrymose mariachi-style trumpeting by two LSO trumpeters was enjoyable
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classicalsource.com, 19 Apr 2011
Vadim Gluzman was exceptional, his generous romantic style, incredible and nonchalant technique and powerful singing tone marking him out as a major-league player. He was quite stupendous in the moto perpetuo finale, almost to the point of making me believe in the music. The LSO coped with the passages of brightly coloured mariachi music in great style.
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Nielsen/Grieg/Sibelius - Kristjan Järvi/Roman Simovic

Thu 7 Apr 2011 7.30pm

The Independent, 8 Apr 2011
Simovic is nothing if not an assertive, uninhibited, presence and his reading of this most elemental of concertos was big on trenchancy and a smouldering intensity in the chest register of the instrument. It was, in a word, masculine.
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classicalsource.com, 9 Apr 2011
This display of music from Northern Europe found the LSO at its very best, and in Kristjan Järvi (the youngest conductor of the Järvi clan) the orchestra has a conductor with a strong feel for the distinctive sound of this region.
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Seen and Heard, 9 Apr 2011
... overall, and graced with intensely committed playing from the LSO, this was a fascinating experience and a satisfying performance.
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Prokofiev Ivan the Terrible - Xian Zhang

Sun 3 Apr 2011 7.30pm

The Guardian, 6 Apr 2011
Furious orchestral virtuosity was balanced by singing of monumental splendour from the London Symphony Chorus ... This was an exemplary, terrifying and close-on definitive performance.
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The Times, 4 Apr 2011
[Xian Zhang] relished some of Prokofiev’s more startling orchestral combinations and kept the rhythms as crisp as possible; the LSO rattled, thundered and charged along to her precise beat.
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Evening Standard, 4 Apr 2011
It hung together superbly, at least under Zhang's fortright direction.
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classicalsource.com, 4 Apr 2011
... the LSO’s concert performance was a triumph on its own terms and brought the house down ...
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bachtack.com, 5 Apr 2011
... this was an intensely theatrical performance, enhanced by the impassioned Russian prologue from narrator Rob Heaps.
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Seen and Heard, 9 Apr 2011
The LSO was in sparkling form, the choir, if not always sounding quite “Russian,” was suitably lusty, and the Chinese conductor Xian Zhang managed her gigantic forces with absolute authority.
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