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28 April 2010
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Prokofiev and Myaskovsky
Once again Vladimir Jurowski demonstrates the essence of creative programming bringing us two highly contrasted but musically well-complemented pieces and one genuine rarity – Myaskovsky’s 6th Symphony … by encouraging our inquisitive natures Jurowski and the London Philharmonic are doing us all a favour and the good news is that there was a decent turn out in support of his enterprise.
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 30 April 2010
14 April 2010
Gianandrea Noseda conducts Verdi, Dvorak and Richard Strauss
But such was the quality of playing in this performance by the London Philharmonic under Gianandrea Noseda that the result was sumptuously enjoyable. Rarely does a British orchestra produce such glamorous string playing, a flawless amalgam of silk, silver and steel. The brass, woodwind and percussion contributions, too, were immaculately realized and coalesced into a gloriously rich and finely balanced soundscape.
George Hall, The Guardian 18 April 2010
10 April 2010
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Handel, Prokofiev, Stravinsky and Beethoven
Marrying his instinctive understanding of phrasal ebb and flow to thrilling rhythmic impetus Nézet-Séguin willed the LPO to an almost delirious dynamism … Stunning.
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 11 April 2010
If this bold, stylistically diverse programme was an audition, Nézet-Séguin has got the job. … This was an outstanding performance from the LPO: virtuosically detailed in articulation and colour, engaged to a level beyond professionalism, with a triumphant final movement performed at Beethoven’s whirlwind metronome marking.
Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday, 18 April 2010
24 February 2010
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Shostakovich
The opening item was a suite of vocal and orchestral numbers from the farcically surreal opera The Nose. Conducted by Vladimir Jurowski with his customary forensic clarity, this reached such decibel levels in the ferocious percussion interlude that my teeth were set on edge. This was followed by the Symphony No.1, a work of prodigious technical assurance written while Shostakovich was still in his teens. Under Jurowski’s baton, it exploded with colour and energy as the LPO pulled out a magnificent full throttle.
Rupert Christiansen, Daily Telegraph, 4 March 2010
20 February 2010
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Janacek and Suk
… another of Vladimir Jurowski’s beautifully crafted programmes for the London Philharmonic …
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 21 February 2010
Jurowski’s commitment was visible; audible too in the orchestra’s sculptured beauties and glowering power.
Geoff Brown, The Times, 23 February 2010
13 February 2010
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Ravel, Debussy, Fauré and Poulenc
Georgeous oboe playing from Ian Hardwick seemed to extend the upper reaches of the instrument’s range. The penultimate movement, Menuet, was close to perfection, its trio unlocking the amazing sonority of muted trumpet over drone bass with clarinets and double-bass harmonics really deceiving the ear in magical ways.
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 14 February 2010
10 February 2010
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Ravel, Poulenc and Debussy
Passion and commitment gripped Nézet-Séguin and his players as never before. Among the swirling, constantly mutating textures woodwinds glinted, trumpets zinged and waves heaved; details radiant, but the structure firm. The LPO was on top again.
Geoff Brown, The Times, 12 February 2010
5 February 2010
Osmo Vänskä conducts Sibelius: Tapiola, Cantique and Devotion, Symphonies 6 and 7
… the LPO, sleek and alert, caught every fleck of colour and texture … much soulful quivering from Kristina Blaumane, the LPO’s excellent principal cellist.
Geoff Brown, The Times, 9 February 2010
3 February 2010
Osmo Vänskä conducts Sibelius: Luonnotar, Symphonies 4 and 5
Another five-star triumph for the London Philharmonic Orchestra, its ingenious Finnish conductor – and Sibelius … The Fourth Symphony, in particular, was the week’s triumph … London is unlikely to hear Sibelius like this for quite some time. Cancel everything to catch Vänskä’s final concert tonight.
Hilary Finch, The Times, 5 February 2010
Excuse me while I calm down. After a concert like this you need a stiff drink and a long lie-down in a darkened room to get your pulse back to normal … The London Philharmonic … was on superlative form, with the darkly powerful massed double basses deserving a special mention. When the muted violins suddenly played pianissimo in the third movement, it was as if the sound had come across hundreds of miles of Finnish tundra.
Paul Gent, The Daily Telegraph, 5 February 2010
30 January 2010
Osmo Vänskä conducts Sibelius: Symphony 3, Songs and Symphony 2
With the LPO playing their hearts out for Vänskä, just a few moments of the opening of the Third Symphony were enough to underline how special his approach is: textures are bright and incisive, detail charged with energy and dramatic potential.
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 1 February 2010
27 January 2010
Osmo Vänskä conducts Sibelius: The Wood Nymph, 6 Humoresques and Symphony 1
Throughout the programme, the LPO was expertly attuned to the conductor’s intentions, nowhere more so than in a tightly controlled yet apparently spontaneous account of the First Symphony. In a performance as immaculately realised as this, its status as Sibelius’s first masterpiece of concentration was reaffirmed.
George Hall, The Guardian, 29 January 2010
With an orchestra on tip-top form like the LPO here, he’s able to realise some truly startling effects: for example, the hair-raising gallop of the Scherzo, oboes and clarinets clucking away like demented ducks … Any remaining seats should be snapped up by lovers of Sibelius – it doesn’t get better than this.
Barry Millington, Evening Standard, 28 January 2010
The foundation of this series is, of course, the seven symphonies in more or less chronological order and Vänskä began that journey here with the most desolate sound in the world – the distant rumble of timpani and hazy clarinet (beautifully taken by Robert Hill) which opens the First Symphony. … It promises to be a compelling odyssey.
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 29 January 2010
This pulsating concert was the best possible advertisement for the rest of Osmo Vänskä’s Sibelius cycle. If he and the stunningly vitalised London Philharmonic can produce this degree of excitement in such supposedly inessential works as the First Symphony and The Wood Nymph, what might they achieve in the masterpieces ahead? The Second and Third Symphonies follow tomorrow; the rest next Wednesday and Friday. If any musical event this season has a better Finnish than this, I’m a Norseman.
… The ferocious string writing in, say, the First Symphony’s scherzo — taken at a blistering pace — was delivered with thrilling assurance, cohesion and power. And the textures throughout were wonderfully layered and refined, so that those quintessential Sibelius passages where themes pile up like rocks on rocks never sounded clogged or ponderous.
Richard Morrison, The Times, 29 January 2010
The key, as Vänskä clearly understands, lies in sustaining intensity. He also knows how to rattle the bones of the First Symphony, taking the first and third movements at a ferocious speed and inspiring the LPO to playing of rapturous virtuosity and sensitivity.
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 1 February 2010
The central work was the Symphony No. 1, with that haunting opening beautifully played by the LPO’s principal clarinet. Vänskä, quickstepping across the rostrum with infectious, mercurial energy, put the orchestra to the test with brisk, edge-of-seat tempi. … this is a series to cherish.
Fiona Maddocks, The Guardian, 1 February 2010
January 2010 – Canary Islands Music Festival
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Turnage, Prokofiev and Beethoven
Its [the Turnage] slow, swaying languor builds accumulated tension and there is little contrast to provide relief; the air clears briefly near the end, before those opening chords return, and in Vladimir Jurowski’s gripping performance with the LPO they were driven home forcefully … In the Prokofiev, Jurowski conducted with warmth and drive, turning what can seem like a patchwork of material into something strongly cohesive … The other highlight was Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No. 3 with Mitsuko Uchida as soloist. In the long orchestral introduction, Jurowski’s precision ensured that every part emerged in detailed focus. Matching the refinement and body of the LPO’s sound, Uchida’s pianism had poetry and brilliance.
John Allison, The Daily Telegraph, 29 January 2010
25 November 2009
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Webern, Lindberg, Berg and Schnittke
Is there a better concert programmer than Vladimir Jurowski? The Russian conductor is currently climbing a mountain for the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s continuing exploration of the composer Alfred Schnittke, whose brazen eclecticism takes you to a musical hinterland that practically requires its own visa … you couldn’t have asked the LPO for more powerful renditions of the Berg, Lindberg and, particularly, the coruscating Passcaglia.
Neil Fisher, The Times, 27 November 2009
With Jurowski conducting like one possessed, the Schnittke was wonderful and a tour de force for the LPO.
Tim Ashley, The Guardian, 27 November 2009
18 November 2009
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Haydn, Wagner and Schnittke
… the Wagner showed off the excellence of the LPO’s strings and brass.
Rupert Christiansen, The Daily Telegraph, 19 November 2009
18 November 2009
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Haydn, Wagner and Schnittke
… the standard of execution by the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Chamber Choir of the Moscow Conservatory, magnificently corralled by Jurowski, was exemplary.
Andrew Clark, Financial Times, 19 November 2009
24 October 2009
Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts Bruckner’s Symphony 8
The piece makes huge demands on the orchestra’s stamina, especially the brass, but the LPO rose to the challenge magnificently.
Ivan Hewett, Daily Telegraph, 26 October 2009
At times, like the first violins’ homage to Parsifal in the closing pages of the finale, it was revelatory, and the LPO played tremendously, the brass especially rich and fine.
Martin Kettle, The Guardian, 26 October 2009
On the first anniversary of his appointment as principal guest conductor of the London Philharmonic, the young Montreal-born conductor Yannick Nézet-Séguin directed a performance of Bruckner’s Eighth Symphony that exuberantly confirmed what an asset he is to London’s musical life … The LPO, too, seemed to be relishing newly minted music — imagining those plangent and elemental bird cries, experiencing that sense of rising sap as never before.
Hilary Finch, The Times, 27 October 2009
25/26 September 2009
Vladimir Jurowski conducts Kurtag’s Stele and Mahler’s Symphony 2
… Vladimir Jurowski’s spellbinding concert on Saturday with the London Philharmonic … Jurowski’s handling of the opening funeral march brushed against the ordinary, but the fluid transitions from mood to mood, the clarity of the Orchestra’s textures, still made the ears stand up.
Geoff Brown, The Times, 29 September 2009
… when the chorus finally stood up and let rip in the closing moments, it set the seal on a masterful performance from a world-class orchestra-conductor team.
Erica Jeal, The Guardian, 27 September 2009
Reviews from previous seasons are in the Archive section >
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