'... the half-hour selection from the Offenbach ballet score Gaîté Parisienne found the LSO enormously polished and brisk, crackling with electricity.'
'From the twinkling piccolo roulades from Mesdames de la Halle to the riotous percussion in La Vie parisienne, the LSO seemed to have every bit as much fun as the audience.'
'Rattle and the LSO turned [Blumine] into a thing of sensuous beauty, the saccharine, mawkish trumpet melody, now taut and lean, played superbly by the orchestra’s new principal trumpet, James Fountain.'
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'Noseda and the LSO were on fine form as they continued their impressive Shostakovich series.'
'Before a large and enthusiastic audience on a dismal early January night, [Chin's] piece and the performance felt like a booster shot of sunlight.'
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'... the playing was beautifully focused, the all-important woodwind solos elegantly honed.'
'Arguably it’s [Blumine] better heard on its own, especially when given as magically as by the LSO players under Rattle.
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'The LSO was not only buoyant, it was positively on fire. Noseda exuded enthusiasm and demanded a suicidal pace, bringing out some terrific accenting and detailing, and knowing just when to build up and die down. This was definitely not the LSO on autopilot, but real teamwork and commitment.'
'Rattle and the LSO sounded on top form, happily back to business after so much disruption.'
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'No wonder many of the young people in the audience shot to their feet at the end; there’s no better introduction to orchestral not-too-heavy metal than this. And yes, those final torrents always set the pulses racing. But this was a performance in a thousand, no doubt about it.'
'Kavakos proved a tireless soloist, engaged in an almost constant dialogue with the orchestra.'
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'[Ibragimova's] characterisation of the phrases often turned them into virtually a conversation between different characters; and with a magically soft first entry, burnished tone, gleaming incisiveness and an unusually rhapsodic twist to the finale’s so-called ‘Turkish’ section, this was a performance to treasure.'
'[Blumine's] moonlit mood and shimmering spirit were beautifully realised by Rattle and his players, on superb form throughout the evening.'
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