The Independent Online | Clasical Music News, Features & Reviews

Nikolai Demidenko, Wigmore Hall

24 January 2012 10:33 AM

Schubertiads were what Franz Schubert’s friends called the soirees at which he played his works on the piano, and by all accounts they were joyous occasions.

The Enchanted Island, Everyman Belsize Park

23 January 2012 10:19 AM

Our new-style night at the opera took place in a cinema with five-star comfort, drinks being brought as we lounged on our sofas.

Mozart, Don Giovanni, Royal Opera House

22 January 2012 06:13 PM

There is hell-fire enough at the close of Francesca Zambello’s 2002 staging of Don Giovanni to consume not just the Don but the entire production.

Tolomeo (James Laing) with Achilla (Jonathan Best) in a serious, simple production of Giulio Cesare

Giulio Cesare, Grand Theatre, Leeds
Prokofiev: Man of the People? Royal Festival Hall, London

22 January 2012 12:00 AM

This serious, simple production of Handel's opera is strong on storytelling and character, but suffers from musical hiccups

Album: Dvorak/Rachmaninov/Tchaikovsky etc, Slavic Heroes – Mariusz Kwiecien (Harmonia Mundi)

22 January 2012 12:00 AM

Handsomely accompanied by the Polish Radio Symphony Orchestra under Lukasz Borowicz, Kwiecien's debut recital opens with a reprise of the role that made him famous, Eugene Onegin.

Album: Sofia Gubaidulina, Canticle of the Sun

20 January 2012 12:00 AM

Featuring unorthodox showcases for violin and cello, this album is testament to the sensitive individualism of Sofia Gubaidulina. Performed by Gidon Kremer's Kremerata Baltica, "The Lyre of Orpheus" proceeds via a series of discrete violin flourishes and glissandi, until coaxed into the open under cover of the ensemble. Its inclusion of sleighbells is one example of Gubaidulina's characteristic use of unusual percussion, which reaches further extremes in her setting of St Francis's "Canticle of the Sun" when cellist Nicolas Altstaedt, having de-tuned his instrument to its lowest possible note, eventually abandons it to bow first a drum, then a flexatone device. Strange, but beautiful.

Album: Peter Howard Jensen, Vivaldi

20 January 2012 12:00 AM

Vivaldi never wrote specifically for the guitar, but since he often recycled parts for different instruments, there's nothing wrong in Danish guitarist Peter Howard Jensen's transposing of these concertos and trios for guitar and strings. The only problem is that the guitar sometimes struggles within the ensemble setting, particularly during passages of gusto, when it occasionally disappears completely. But in the quieter sections its clarity of timbre brings a freshness to the lines, contrasting with the modern tendency towards over-rich interpretations of Vivaldi. While the lute pieces incorporate a more natural balance of elements than those where the guitar is playing violin parts, they suffer from a slightly plodding formality.

Album: Mikhail Simonyan, Two Souls: Khachaturian/Barber

20 January 2012 12:00 AM

Mikhail Simonyan was born in Russia, of Russian/Armenian extraction, but has lived in America for several years – hence the Two Souls reflected in these performances of violin concertos by Khachaturian and Barber. Recorded with the LSO under Kristjan Järvi, Simonyan's intention was to bring out the qualities that embody the cultural roots of each composer: thus, he commissioned a new cadenza for Khachaturian's concerto by Artur Avanesov, to emphasise the Armenian flavour, and treated the dashing final movement of Barber's concerto in a looser manner than usual, suggestive of rustic American fiddling. The first movement of the Khachaturian is especially impressive.

London Philharmonic Orchestra/ Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall, London

19 January 2012 09:45 AM

As curator of the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s ongoing Prokofiev series, Vladimir Jurowski has striven to highlight the paradoxes which serve to make him the most contradictory of composers. He's fielding oddities, he’s bowling googlies – none more so than Symphonic Song Op.57. When did anyone last hear this curiosity, if ever, and was there ever a piece which more perversely stretched the credibility of its title?

Jonathan Biss, Queen Elizabeth Hall, London

18 January 2012 04:27 PM

The American pianist Jonathan Biss prefaced his Southbank appearance with the release of a Kindle ebook called ‘Beethoven’s Shadow’, in which he discusses the challenge of Beethoven’s piano music.

Park Lane Group, Purcell Room, London
National Youth Orchestra, Barbican Hall, London

15 January 2012 12:00 AM

Emerging musicians get a welcome platform, but please change the record

Album: Donizetti, Maria di Rohan – Orchestra of the Enlightenment / Elder (Opera Rara)

15 January 2012 12:00 AM

Donizetti's taut, dark opera of stifled desire in 17th-century France is handsomely presented and performed in the 1843 Vienna version under Mark Elder. There is little wastage. Musky period brass and woodwind intensify the sense of entrapment.

London Philharmonic Orchestra / Vedernikov, Royal Festival Hall, London

14 January 2012 12:34 PM

The London Philharmonic Orchestra’s intriguing new Prokofiev series is entitled “Man of the People?” and the enigma is all in the question mark.

Survivor, Barbican Theatre

13 January 2012 10:10 AM

We all know what a Gormley looks like: gazing straight ahead with his arms limp by his sides, he’s been placed by his creator on bleak seashores, on the roofs of high buildings, and anywhere else you’d least expect to find him, so it was no surprise to be confronted by the back view of a Gormley who remained motionless at the front of the Barbican stage for so long that one was driven out of boredom to read the programme.

Album: Anthony Hopkins, Composer (Classic FM)

13 January 2012 12:00 AM

Sir Anthony Hopkins' muse, judging by this debut selection of his compositions performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra, is rooted in impressionism.