At the heart of the movement is the monumental solo horn part (earning principal Timothy Jones a huge ovation), complemented by Mahler's extraordinary ingenious ensemble writing for that instrument. It was simply some of the best horn playing I have ever heard live, recklessly melodic, endlessly colourful, sometimes pillow-soft.
Read full review
...if you wanted perfection you would have heard it earlier in an astoundingly played and magnificently cogent interpretation of Britten’s early Sinfonia da Requiem.
Read full review (subscription required)
Another new signing by the orchestra, the principal trumpeter David Elton, was outstanding in his dreamy but perilous solo in the second movement. The exhilarating climax, however, was a team effort.
Read full review (subscription required)
On the eve of Europe Day, with Ukrainian and Maltese violinists on the front desk (the superbly communicative Roman Simovic and Carmine Lauri), it was vital to be reminded that music-making at the highest level is truly international.
Read full review
You couldn’t want for a more convincing performance. Every department fizzed and there was palpable sense of joy in the uninhibited orchestral fireworks, perhaps after the effort to deliver the trickier Birtwistle sound world. It was clear here that Rattle knows every note of the piece inside out and also knows how to make it swing gloriously.
Read full review
Throughout, Rattle made every moment of this mesmerising work tell: his direction was absolutely authoritative and the LSO demonstrated yet again, both in individual contributions as well as in its corporate virtuosity, why it is such a force to be reckoned with.
Read full review
Rattle has the ability to draw us in to such an epic score and time seemed suspended for half an hour as Birtwistle’s imagination seeped into ours.
Read full review
The string lines towards the end of the ‘Requiem aeternum’ had maximal emotional clout, articulated with a Bernstein-like fervour
Read full review
The London Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle’s direction give this three-movement work everything they’ve got
Read full review
The opening movement’s pounding E-minor chords recall the energy of Nielsen’s ‘Espansiva’ Symphony and it was immediately clear that Rattle had the measure of the piece, played with polish and finesse.
Read full review
It’s a score that perfectly suits Rattle’s ability to focus musical energy with pinpoint accuracy, and the LSO responded with a performance of irresistible immediacy, just as they had laid out the intricacies of The Shadow of Night with astonishing clarity.
Read full review
Rattle kept the 27-year-old firebrand composer in view and his model of Beethoven at bay – at least until the juiced-up finale, where bass recitatives set the scene as they do in the Ninth Symphony before throwing back the curtain not on an ode to joy but a witches’ rave, artificial stimulants courtesy of Berlioz.
Read full review
The sharp slap of percussion, the mocking trombones, yawning bassoons, grazing, pinching, winking strings and swooning waltzes were impeccably balanced and shaped by Roth.
Read full review (subscription required)
