July 2011

Haydn, Mozart/Nielsen - Sir Colin Davis/Nelson Friere

Sun 17 Jul 8pm, Aix-en-Provence Festival

Gramophone Magazine, 22 Jul 2011
... the LSO had relished this strange and compelling work [Nielsen Symphony No 6]. Thanks to Davis, originality was held together with a strict sense of the great symphony's architecture.
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Mozart La clemenza di Tito - Sir Colin Davis/Gregory Kunde et al

7–21 Jul 2011, Aix-en-Provence Festival

International Herald Tribune, 20 Jul 2011
With the London Symphony again in the pit, Colin Davis set unusually broad tempos, yet they underscored the nobility and beauty of this incomparable opera.
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Gramophone Magazine, 16 Jul 2011
In the pit, Sir Colin Davis and the London Symphony Orchestra (newly resident here) found character in abundance. Although notably slower than on his old recording of this work, it never sounded it.
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Daily Telegraph, 11 Jul 2011
Sir Colin Davis’s wise, lively conducting was an unalloyed joy, and the LSO reacted with urbane virtuosity.
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Financial Times, 8 Jul 2011
David McVicar's lazily conventional staging is saved by glorious singing from Sarah Connolly (Sesto) and Anna Stephany as Annio.
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Verdi La Traviata - Louis Langrée/ Natalie Dessay et al

6–24 Jul 2011, Aix-en-Provence Festival

International Herald Tribune, 20 Jul 2011
Charles Castronovo sang Alfredo with a robust yet flexible tenor, but it was the baritone Ludovic Tézier’s idiomatically accented Germont that brought an ideal match of voice and music. Louis Langrée led the London Symphony in a handsomely polished performance, but the real drama onstage was supplied by Ms. Dessay.
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Gramophone Magazine, 17 Jul 2011
... the London Symphony Orchestra were on top form, blending exquisite detail with true operatic punch. Their conductor Louis Langrée, in apparently his first Verdi opera, found darkness in the score without sacrificing elegance. A magnificent evening.
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Sunday Telegraph, 17 Jul 2011
From the silky strings of the opening bars, the LSO’s sound is warm and elegant.
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Financial Times, 8 Jul 2011
The core tragedy, acted out brilliantly in modern dress on a bare stage with minimal props, seems to emerge stronger from this dissection.
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Daily Telegraph, 11 Jul 2011
Nor could Louis Langrée’s lithe conducting, the LSO’s detailed playing, Ludovic Tézier’s strongly sung but blunt Germont, or Charles Castronovo’s excellent Alfredo do much to help this resolutely unaffecting Traviata.
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