London Symphony Orchestra/Zhang ***
Barbican, 18th January 2015
Xian Zhang
© Nora Roitberg
Sunday night is fiesta night, or so it seemed at the Barbican, where the London Symphony took us on a whirlwind tour from Seville in Andalucia to the Asturias. There’s nothing especially Spanish about Verdi’s Overture to La forza del destino, although the opera is largely set in Spain, but the second half was stuffed with genuine local colour, courtesy of Manuel de Falla, and artificial colour, courtesy of that great orchestrator, Rimsky-Korsakov. Spurred on by Xian Zhang’s dynamic presence on the podium, the LSO gave some lively performances.
Read the full review on Bachtrack.