Tag Archives: Shostakovich

Sun-kissed idylls and sinewy Shostakovich in Singapore

Kahchun Wong/Singapore Symphony Orchestra Esplanade Concert Hall, Singapore, 26th September 2020 What goes through the mind of an orchestral musician when they only have a few notes to play? Are they compiling a mental shopping list for the homeward supermarket … Continue reading

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Anglo-Russian repertoire as the Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra closes its first tour

Latham-Koenig/ Britten-Shostakovich Festival Orchestra Cadogan Hall, 25th September 2019 Although political relations between Britain and Russia can still be chilly, The Cold War is long past. Even during that deepest frost, musicians reached out across the divide. One of the … Continue reading

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Poetic Rachmaninov in Seong-Jin Cho’s LSO debut

Noseda/ London Symphony Orchestra 28th March 2019 An exploratory trumpet peeps over a wall. A bassoon hesitantly waddles into view. A cheeky clarinet offers a leering response. Within just a few bars at the start of Dmitri Shostakovich’s First Symphony, … Continue reading

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Ghostly remembrances: Mieczysław Weinberg championed in Birmingham

CBSO/ Gražinytė-Tyla **** Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 24th November 2018 Has Mieczysław Weinberg’s time come? With 21 completed symphonies, 17 string quartets, 70 film scores and seven operas (including The Passenger), he was as prolific a composer as his close friend Shostakovich, but Weinberg … Continue reading

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Chameleon colours from Batiashvili, Capuçon and Thibaudet at the Barbican

Batiashvili–Capuçon–Thibaudet Trio **** Barbican Hall, 12th November 2018 It’s always interesting to watch star soloists making sweet chamber music together: musicians you’re used to seeing in the concerto spotlight thrown together as equal partners in the recital room. But when … Continue reading

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