October 2012

All-Brahms (2) - Valery Gergiev

Wed 24 Oct 2012, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York

Classical Source, 26 Oct 2012
Gergiev attacked the scherzo with full force, but the strings were as light as air and the piccolo and triangle topped them off with delightful sparkle.
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New York Arts, 14 Nov 2012
Gergiev brought out the piece’s grandeur and gravity, giving the same careful attention to delicate, poignant passages as to arching, architectural phrases. The driving dotted rhythms of the first movement positively crackled under the baton of the conductor, and one felt swept along by the compelling, inexorable sequence of musical ideas.
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All-Brahms (1) - Valery Gergiev/James Ehnes

Mon 22 Oct 2012, Avery Fisher Hall, Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts, New York

New York Times, 23 Oct 2012
In the “Tragic Overture,” the Violin Concerto (with the probing Canadian violinist James Ehnes) and the Second Symphony, Mr. Gergiev revealed a fascinating approach to Brahms, one that favored broad tempos and dark colorings, thick textures and organic shaping of the score. And the London players were with him all the way.
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New York Arts, 14 Nov 2012
Under Gergiev’s inspired direction, the London Symphony Orchestra filled the hall with expansive, sumptuous sound and spine-tingling rhythmic precision, ranging from lush, rich, full resonances to crisp staccato winds and string pizzicati.
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Bachtrack, 25 Oct 2012
What a sound, though. In contrast to the usual inhabitants of this stage, the LSO astonish with their depth of resources in the strings, their roiling vibrato, and their rounded brass.
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Classical Source, 25 Oct 2012
The conductor and pianist Hans von Bülow once remarked that Brahms’s Violin Concerto was written not for but against the violin. Fortunately nobody told that to James Ehnes, who played the solo part with remarkable technical ease.
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Beethhoven/Elgar - Vasily Petrenko/Simon Trpceski

Thu 18 Oct 2012, Barbican

The Independent, 22 Oct 2012
in the Allegro Trpceski’s muscular virtuosity was a pleasure in itself, with pearlised power in the quiet passages and molten intensity at the climaxes. Thanks to his eloquent simplicity, the Adagio’s dialogue between piano and orchestra flowed sweetly, and the Rondo swung brilliantly to its close.
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Evening Standard, 19 Oct 2012
Quiet moments seemed to reach us across a chasm of longing, and even the most ravishing passages had the quality of energy barely contained. This was a performance both draining and exhilarating, for Petrenko, orchestra and audience alike.
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Classical Source, 19 Oct 2012
None of Elgar’s blasts of decisiveness or diffident disappearing acts could have been achieved without the LSO’s superb playing, which found a differentiation of timbre, colour and weight to suit every emotional nuance, and Petrenko’s layering of the orchestration shone yet more light on this great music.
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Edward Seckerson, 19 Oct 2012
Undoubtedly one of the great symphonic performances of 2012.
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UBS Soundscapes: Eclectica - Susanna Wallumrød

Tue 16 Oct 2012, LSO St Luke's

The Guardian, 17 Oct 2012
It was music created for the sake of it, without a hint of calculation beyond the honing of an inimitable craft.
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Brahms Tragic Overture/Szymanowski Symphony No 2/Brahms Symphony No 2 - Valery Gergiev

Sat 13 Oct 2012, Barbican

The Guardian, 15 Oct 2012
The Szymanowski was given first-rate advocacy, Roman Simovic's opening violin solo setting the heady tone, and the orchestra following suit.
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Classical source, 15 Oct 2012
Securing playing that did full justice to the music’s potent synthesis of Regerian counterpoint and Scriabinesque harmony, Gergiev handled the finale’s initial half with unassuming rightness.
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Bachtrack, 17 Oct 2012
Gergiev crafted the motif with characterful attention to detail; short fragments of theme that would normally be lost in the swathe of orchestral sound stood out with resonance and clarity, the mellifluous yawning of mellower incarnations of the theme handled with poise and dignity, cheekier staccato entries bouncing across the wall of sound like a pebble skimming on a lake.
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Szymanowski Violin Concerto No 1 & Symphony No 1/Brahms Symphony No 1 - Valery Gergiev/Janine Jansen

Thu 11 Oct 2012, Barbican

Classical Source, 12 Oct 2012
A performance, moreover, that was well-nigh flawless in the stratospheric harmonics that suffuse the later stages with a tangible radiance.
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Mozart/Mahler - Manfred Honeck/Dorothea Röschman/Ian Bostridge

Thu 4 Oct 2012, Barbican

One Stop Arts, 4 Oct 2012
The first desk of strings were playing so enthusiastically that they were barely sitting on their seats, meaning that I found the performance exhilarating to watch as well as hear.
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Classical Source, 5 Oct 2012
Manfred Honeck...here stood in for an indisposed Sir Colin Davis, and drew from the LSO an account of Mozart’s ‘Jupiter’ Symphony that the knight would have greatly appreciated: this was a bold and thrilling reading that made few concessions to the period-informed brigade.

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Imogen Cooper & Friends/BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert

Thu 4 Oct 2012, LSO St Luke's

Classical Source, 5 Oct 2012
There was an intense musical chemistry between the three performers, and their use of rubato was uniform, the phrasing of one of Schubert’s very finest melodies united.
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Elina Garanca/Karol Mark Chichon

Tue 2 Oct 2012, Barbican

The Guardian, 3 Oct 2012
The London Symphony Orchestra accompanied her, conducted by her Gibraltarian husband, Karel Mark Chichon, who proved a perfect accompanist not only for his wife but also for the LSO's leader, Gordan Nikolitch, whose subtly understated realisation of the Meditation from Massenet's Thaïs was another highlight.
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The Times, 4 Oct 2012
a sequence of arias from the opera, interwoven with entr’actes played delectably by the London Symphony Orchestra conducted by Karel Mark Chicon (of the Latvian National Symphony Orchestra), reminded us of just what makes her artistry so distinctive.
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Bachtrack, 3 Oct 2012
There was a huge ovation at the end, and we got a generous set of encores, most notably Mexican composer Agustín Lara's nostalgic Granada. When I next get the chance to see Garanča in an opera house, I'll be grabbing it.
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