June 2012

City of London Festival: Berlioz Requiem - Sir Colin Davis/Barry Banks et al

Mon 25 & Tue 26 Jun 2012, St Paul's Cathedral

Sunday Telegraph, 1 Jul 2012
Launching the festival’s golden jubilee programme, Colin Davis conducted a shattering performance, showing again why for the last half-century he has been unchallenged as Berlioz’s representative on earth. From the solemn mysticism of the opening invocation to the tumultuous upheavals of the Last Judgement, this account overflowed with a veteran’s wisdom and affection for the music.
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The Guardian, 28 Jun 2012
The London Symphony Orchestra played with the kind of brilliant concentration only loyalty and love can command, and the 150-strong choir, drawn from the London Symphony Chorus and the London Philharmonic Choir, sang with controlled power and beauty. Whomever you chose to thank and praise for it, this was an awesome night.
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New York Times, 28 Jun 2012
[Sir Colin Davis] exuded authority and stamina and drew a radiant, angelic and at times terrifying account of this challenging score from the orchestra and chorus.
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The Times, 27 Jun 2012
Opening and closing sections displayed unusually concentrated gravity and a sculptural poise. Davis respected the echo, gave it space and cherished the austere as much as the dramatic, like those woodwind chords intoned in the Agnus Dei — so solemnly gorgeous that my spine tingled. A special occasion, definitely; I declare the City of London Festival well and truly open.
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Daily Telegraph, 26 Jun 2012
... as the ear became accustomed to the sound world, the genius of the piece and the eloquence of the performance gradually became clear. There was fine playing from the woodwind, particularly in the plaintive cor anglais and bassoon opening of the Quid sum Miser. The repeated choral sighing phrases in the Offertorium had a pleading weight, and the slowly unfolding vocal fugue built up with a sense of inexorable weight.
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Classical Source, 26 Jun 2012
Unforgettable moments stand out: the fractured figures that accompany the ‘Recordare’; the immaculate a cappella singing of the combined London Symphony Chorus and London Philharmonic Choir in ‘Quaerens me’; the serrated-edge sting of the strings beneath the ‘Lacrimosa’.
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Wagner/Berg/Beethoven - Gianandrea Noseda/Angela Denoke

Thu 21 Jun 2012, Barbican

Classical Source, 25 Jun 2012
[Three fragments from Wozzeck was] beautifully played (maybe too much so) with all the many instrumental solos venerably taken.
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Bachtrack, 25 Jun 2012
I can't help but admire the risk-taking and gutsy attitude to try this, and certainly I wish as many performances [of Beethoven 5] that I attended of the standard orchestral fare held this many surprises.
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Purcell/Mozart/Bruckner - Bernard Haitink/Maria João Pires

Thu 14 Jun 2012, Barbican

Classical Source, 15 Jun 2012
The LSO played wonderfully for Haitink. Bruckner and Haitink: a combination not to be missed.
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Seen and Heard, 16 Jun 2012
The LSO strings were on top form, and their playing was a particular treat in the Bruckner.
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Purcell/Mozart/Schubert - Bernard Haitink/Maria João Pires

Sun 10 Jun 2012, Barbican

The Times, 12 Jun 2012
a humane and memorable performance from a conductor and orchestra whose blessings seem without end.
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Seen and Heard, 12 Jun 2012
Silky strings and ravishing woodwind showed the LSO on Mozartian form as fine as that which they display for Sir Colin Davis.
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Classical Source, 11 Jun 2012
this was a perfectly proportioned performance within itself, persuasive and inevitable, the LSO (woodwinds exceptional, brass glowing and antiphonal violins dialoguing with meaning) inexhaustible in its finesse and thrust. 
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Mozart/Mahler - Michael Tilson Thomas/Gil Shaham

Sun 3 Jun 2012, Barbican

Classical Source, 4 Jun 2012
this was the LSO on jaw-dropping form, its familiarity with this score never contemptuous and always meticulous to the many demands made by Michael Tilson Thomas at the service of the music.
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Seen and Heard, 6 Jun 2012
together the conductor and his impeccable orchestra gave a compellingly convincing account of this somewhat quixotic symphony.
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