October 2010

Britten/Stravinsky/Bartók - Kristjan Järvi & Viktoria Mullova

Thu 28 Oct 2010 7.30pm

classicalsource.com, 29 Oct 2010
Mullova shone in ‘Aria II’, her tone rich and expressive, capturing fully the mood of anguish. Orchestra and soloist were really swinging by the finale, both at last on the same wavelength. Mullova breezed her way through the trickiest of passages but nonetheless imbuing them with sparkle and wit to bring the work to a rousing conclusion.
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Bartók/Prokofiev - Gianandrea Noseda & James Ehnes

Tue 26 Oct 2010 7.30pm

The Guardian, 28 Oct 2010
Ehnes, despite taking some time to get going, brought some wonderfully distinguished touches to the solo part, but even his exquisite turn of phrase failed to impart more than a fleeting sense of purpose to the work.
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classicalsource.com, 27 Oct 2010
... the LSO responded with playing of a slow-burning intensity that brought out the anguish within the opulence of the main theme as well as the wrathfulness of its introduction and coda, which latter brings the only genuine repose during the whole work.
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Viktoria Mullova: The Peasant Girl

Tue 26 Oct 2010 8pm, LSO St Luke's

The Times, 28 Oct 2010
The warm hug of [Tim Hugh's] tone was gorgeous. And Mullova fielded her own delights, inflecting the violin line with earthy folk colours and rhythms before winding down to a pensive close. You couldn’t call her the peasant girl incarnate; but in this well-behaved night she was still a girl worth hearing.
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Evening Standard, 27 Oct 2010
With an ensemble such as this, genres like classical, jazz and world become meanlingless, which is exactly the point.
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Eric Whitacre: Songs from America

Sun 24 Oct 2010 7.30pm

The Independent, 25 Oct 2010
[Eric Whitacre's music] is grateful to sing, scrumptious to listen to, and rejoices in those ecstatic harmonic suspensions that turn dissonance into consonance and make something highly seductive of the thoroughly chaste. Most of all, he is a natural melodist with a touch of Broadway in every hook.
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UBS Soundscapes: LSO Artist Portrait - Viktoria Mullova Recital

Fri 22 Oct 2010 8pm

classicalsource.com, 23 Oct 2010
... crunchy fortepiano bass added a propulsive rhythmic edge to the first movement's climaxes and the musicians precisely located the brief moment of stillness before close.
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BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert at LSO St Luke's: Benjamin Grosvenor

Thu 14 Oct 2010 1pm

The Observer, 17 Oct 2010
If Grosvenor had any nerves as a result of the live microphones – he is a BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist – he kept them hidden, with only a few splashed notes and, always, a sharp, imaginative energy.
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The Independent, 15 Oct 2010
... the impression we were left with was of the sweetest physical symbiosis between this player and his instrument. Grosvenor may not be a teenage Kissin, but he’s undoubtedly a major pianist in the making.
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Dvorak/Janacek - Sir Colin Davis & Anne-Sophie Mutter

Sun 10 Oct 2010 7.30pm

Financial Times, 15 Oct 2010
The opening “Kyrie eleison” was mightily imposing. The closing fanfares resounded with regal splendour.
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classicalsoure.com, 12 Oct 2010
It is no exaggeration to say that I have never heard a performance of Janáček’s remarkable “Glagolitic Mass” given with a power and directness that was as positively Pagan as this one.
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theartsdesk.com, 11 Oct 2010
Davis did an excellent job on the abrupt cut-offs in the orthodox amens of Gloria and Credo, and there was the right sort of rough-edged agony in the vivid orchestral interlude depicting the Crucifixion
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Ker/Mendelssohn/Elgar - Sir Colin Davis & Sarah Chang

Tue 5 Oct 2010 7.30pm

The Guardian, 8 Oct 2010
[Sarah Chang] settled into a performance of fierce lyricism, shaped the andante with great beauty and attacked the finale with superb wit.
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The Times, 6 Oct 2010
What a rollercoaster Davis makes of it! The first movement is marked “vivace a nobilmente”, yet its majestic tone soon dissolves into something much more mysterious and complex ... The fourth star is all Davis’s.
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classicalsource.com, 6 Oct 2010
As for Sir Colin’s conducting of Elgar 2, it could simply be said that here was a great and glorious performance, and adding that the LSO was devoted in its response.
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