Prom 16: BBC Philharmonic/Storgårds review – Shostakovich’s impact is blunted
Lawrence Power was the spellbinding soloist in Cassandra Miller’s intimate viola concerto, and the BBC Philharmonic played superbly in a somewhat muted reading of Shostakovich’s fourth
July 2024
Prom 9: BBC Scottish SO/Wigglesworth review – meticulous making of unexpected connections
Holmès: Symphonic Poems album review – Francis underscores Wagner’s influence on this rediscovered female composer
Gerhard: Don Quixote; Suite from Alegrías; Pedrelliana album review – deft, exuberant work from the BBCPhil
John Eliot Gardiner’s departure could usher in generational change for period-instrument performance
Andrew Clements
Prom 5: BBCNOW/Bancroft review – full-blooded return to the birth of modernism
Breaking Glass Ceilings: Music by Unruly Women album review – a celebration of defiant female composers
Jan Lisiecki review – titanic moments in one man’s fight to free the prelude
Lang: Composition as Explanation album review – Gertrude Stein set to music
Sonata for Broken Fingers review – chamber opera of Stalin’s terror fails to grip
Beethoven: Complete String Quartets album review – up there with the best
Brahms: The Symphonies album review – less is more for Nézet-Séguin and the COE
Hebrides Ensemble/Lamprea review – Schoenberg’s Pierrot is pushed to extremes
London Sinfonietta/Paterson review – bespoke instruments and microtones in all-Mexican programme
June 2024
Goldscheider/Dawson review – the horn is plenty
Songs for Peter Pears album review – wide-ranging and lucid collection
Stradella: Mottetti album review – flair and style, brilliantly executed
Zemlinsky: Eine Florentinische Tragödie album review – adultery and murder in Renaissance Italy
Chamayou: Cage² album review – each piece is a brightly coloured gem
Katia and Marielle Labèque review – Glass’s Cocteau trilogy perfumes the air, literally
