Noseda and the LSO met him more than halfway in a magnificent performance that made the brilliant scoring sizzle with life and played up the work’s emotional strengths and ambiguities.
Read full review
The LSO was on pungent form, tucking into Shostakovich’s youthful score with relish.
Read full review
Then Haitink stood up, his left hand supplementing his vigorous right-hand beat, with detailed gestures to the orchestra to enhance expression. If anything, this gloriously vivid and vigorous performance was even more edgy than that recording from 1968. At 90, Bernard Haitink is still at the top of his game. Amazing.
Read full review
Iron rhythmic control, a no-slow policy for treacherous passages that tax even the greatest and a real sense of cumulative energy meant the finale was the perfect blend of intellect, emotion and excitement.
Read full review
It was awesome and voluptuous, and as she pushed ‘I got rhythm’ into the stratosphere, it was clear she would take no prisoners, a plan predictably greeted with a standing ovation. What a girl!
Read full review
It was nonetheless a sometimes electrifying and for many deeply affecting experience – looking around at the closing, swelling heights of the piece, many had been brought to tears.
Read full review
On the chutzpah scale this knew no bounds. What next at the LSO? How about an opera duets evening with Simon Rattle, hopefully in his best voice?
Read full review
The rest of the evening was more conventional – an LSO programme conducted by François-Xavier Roth that ended with a diaphanous account of Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy with exactly the slow-burn quality the piece needs
Read full review
Not surprisingly, the LSO was in its element, displaying its long pedigree in musical theatre, effortlessly translating the vibes coming from Hannigan’s gently swaying body into the most beguiling rhythmic diversions, and then, for the penultimate stanza of “Embraceable You”, adding with its own collective voice suitable reinforcements to the vocal line.
Read full review
The final hurrah was Scriabin’s purple-hued Poem of Ecstasy, beautifully controlled by Roth and the LSO’s coruscating woodwind until David Elton’s trumpet finally let rip and a flood of sound was unleashed.
Read full review (subscription required)
The capacity Barbican Hall audience gave Hannigan an ecstatic reception, leaping instantly to their feet. It was impossible not to smile.
Read full review
Boldly going where (almost) no orchestra has gone before, the London Symphony Orchestra last night shattered the concert format in the most thrilling and enjoyably anarchic way.
Read full review
When Hannigan spun around on the podium in the third movement of Berg’s Lulu Suite and began to sing, her intonation and diction pristine, the impact was electrifying.
Read full review (subscription required)
