Category: Music
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Yunchan Lim takes on the Goldberg Variations
I still cannot believe the pianist I saw at Wigmore Hall today is only 21 years old! Yunchan Lim took on Bach’s Goldberg Variations, a monumental piece in piano literature stigmatically branded with a “Touch but do not perform until mature” label in the classical world, with a confidence and assuredness such as I have…
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Mao Fujita playing Mozart with the Philharmonia: delicate as bubbles
In the third movement of Mozart’s final piano concerto, he quotes a popular children’s song, Longing for Spring, using it as his rondo theme. Quite a fitting theme for yesterday’s programme with the Philharmonia Orchestra, since after much back and forth I have decided that spring had indeed finally arrived in London. A bold statement…
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Nobuyuki Tsujii at Royal Festival Hall: Fearless
Despite being a pianist myself, and having (struggled) through the Chopin First Concerto, nothing prepared me for the unbelievable feat that Nobuyuki Tsujii pulled off right before my eyes tonight at the Royal Festival Hall. The evening began with the Philharmonia Orchestra performing Tchaikovsky’s Capriccio Italien, which under Principal Conductor Santtu Matias-Rouvali’s baton had a…
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Bayerische Staatsoper’s “Lucrezia Borgia”: Minimalist, modern, melodrama
I’m happy to report that my first experience at a German Opera House was a very good one! Last night the Bayerische Staatsoper (Bavarian State Opera) put on Donizetti’s “Lucrezia Borgia”, a two-act musical melodrama about Italian families at war, illegitimate children and murderous, cheating wives. Oh, and just casual incest when we realize the…
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Leif Ove Andsnes at Wigmore Hall: a Deep respect for sound
Programme Edvard Grieg Piano Sonata in E minor, op. 7 Geirr Tveitt Piano Sonata No. 29 “Sonata Etere”, op. 129 Fryderyk Chopin 24 Preludes, op. 28 I was lucky to snag a last-minute return ticket to Leif Ove Andsnes’ sold out Wigmore Hall recital last night. I had to pay a little more than the…
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Sir Stephen Hough at Barbican Hall: a brilliant showman
Programme: The programme Sir Stephen Hough presented at the Barbican Hall last night was almost exclusively Romantic; even his own composition, Sonatina Nostalgica–commissioned by his alma mater Chetham’s School of Music and written for British pianist Philip Fowke–was, as he told his audience, steeped in the language of English Romanticism. Nevertheless, it was a mixed…
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Daniel Kidane at Wigmore Hall: a new voice drawing from the past
Programme: Interval In the final concert of the Daniel Kidane Focus Day at Wigmore Hall, the Manchester Camerata presented works by the British composer which highlighted his creative dialogue with Ye Olde Grand Master of classical music, Johann Sebastian Bach, as well as his affinity for the string sound. The programme juxtaposed Daniel Kidane’s compositions–the…
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Alexandra Dariescu’s “The Nutcracker and I” at Milton Court
A full house at Milton Court Concert Hall sits waiting as little Clara walks to the upright piano and begins playing her first chords. Then her image disappears, replaced by graceful snowflakes whirling around, and behind the gauze screen on which a digital animated story would unfold before our eyes for the next 45 minutes,…
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Martín García García at Westminster Cathedral Hall for the Fryderyk Chopin Institute
This afternoon I was invited to a promotional event put on jointly by the Chopin Society UK and the Fredyryk Chopin Institute of Poland during which I got to hear Martín García García, 3rd Prize Winner of the most recent Chopin Competition, perform an hour-long all-Chopin recital. I had wanted to hear Martín play for…
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Review: Dmitri Alexeev at the Penderecki European Centre for Music
On Tuesday evening I had the great fortune of hearing a recital the likes of which are rare–if even possible–to hear in concert halls today. Dmitri Alexeev, in a rare public appearance, performed three Chopin nocturnes followed by Rachmaninoff’s monumental First Piano Sonata. I say public; it was still a rather exclusive event. I am…
Literally Left-handed 