December 2010

Weber/Beethoven/Mendelssohn - Sir John Eliot Gardiner/Viktoria Mullova

Tue 21 Dec 2010 7.30pm

The Independent, 22 Dec 2010
It was a cracking performance which kept everything on its toes – literally – and made it hard for those of us seated to remain so during the whirling saltarello of the finale. Never was music in the minor mode more intoxicatingly sunny and rarely have its rhythms sounded fresher.
Read full article

classicalsource.com, 22 Dec 2010
Mullova’s focus was always on the music (her virtuosity its servant), with Gardiner and the LSO lively and vivid accompanists.
Read full article

Evening Standard, 22 Dec 2010
[Mullova] had complete control of the concerto’s shape, its nuances and tensions. There was no exaggerated pushing for volume; her sound has a vocal quality that is by turns tough, breathy or sweet, and she clearly felt no need to fight against the orchestra, which, with Gardiner’s insistence on reduced vibrato and taut rhythms, provided supple and alert accompaniment.
Read full article

Ligeti/Bruch/Rimsky-Korsakov - Antonio Pappano/Midori

Wed 15 Dec 2010 7.30pm

Evening Standard, 16 Dec 2010
In Rimsky-Korsakov’s Scheherazade, Simovic once again shone, while in Bernardo Verde’s bassoon solos we could almost imagine the opening of Stravinsky’s The Rite of Spring taking shape, decades before the event: an object lesson in individual virtuosity serving the team ethic.
Read full article

classicalsource.com, 16 Dec 2010
Roman Simovic once again featured, affable and seductive in his solo passages representing the storyteller of the title; this Scheherazade found the LSO playing at the peak of its powers.
Read full article

bachtrack.com, 17 Dec 2010
Pappano and the LSO thoroughly succeeded in mixing a high level of technique with all the dynamism of an orchestra playing the pieces for the first time.
Read full article

The Guardian, 18 Dec 2010
[Scheherazade is] finely and flashily orchestrated, allowing Pappano to turn it into a showpiece of considerable brilliance, and giving Simovic plenty of Gypsy-style passage work that he dispatched with terrific dexterity.
Read full article

Dukas/Rachmaninov/Pärt/Debussy - Antonio Pappano/Simon Trpceski

Thu 9 Dec 2010 7.30pm

The Times, 13 Dec 2010
Pappano’s powerful reading of Debussy’s La Mer was overwhelming in its passion and grandeur.
Read full article (subscription required)

classicalsource.com, 10 Dec 2010
[Debussy La mer was] a pastel-shaded version that glowed with personality, rigorously etched but never at the expense of suggestion and fluctuation, the three movements played virtually attacca, the music’s impressions dappled with a generous brush, climaxes achieved seamlessly, the LSO’s response alive to pregnant anticipation, ripples and tempest.
Read full article

Beethoven orch Mahler/Alma Mahler - Marin Alsop/Sarah Connolly

Sun 5 Dec 2010 7.30pm

Financial Times, 7 Dec 2010
It is difficult to imagine [Alma Mahler's songs] sounding better, sung by mezzo Sarah Connolly with a radiant warmth that made them glow and inspirationally scored by the Matthews brothers.
Read full article

The Guardian, 7 Dec 2010
[Alsop] gave Leonora No 3 a terrific dramatic charge, and the LSO's outstanding playing ensured that the extra tonal power really counted.
Read full article

The Times, 7 Dec 2010
Alsop's conducting of Mahler's orchestration of Beethoven's Seventh Symphony shone with conviction, from the delicacy of the counterpointing strings in the second movement to the truly Dionysian frenzy of the finale.
Read full article (subscription required)

The Independent, 6 Dec 2010
The songs themselves ... crested on melodic lines of abiding generosity and Sarah Connolly’s ever-evolving voice (so free and even now throughout her wide vocal spectrum) opened most impressively to them.
Read full article

classicalsource.com, 6 Dec 2010
Alsop was totally immersed in this ‘alternative’ version of a time-honoured classic ... the LSO playing magnificently as if all the changes to the score were an everyday affair.
Read full article