Freezing festivals, Joshua Bell and the latest essential CDs all feature
in this week’s classical music coverage on The Arts Desk.
|
Vinterfest - Nikolai Lund |
Braving the sub-zero temperatures of Sweden in mid-winter, Kate Connolly
found herself in Dalarna for the Vinterfest festival. Egos and snowboots were
left at the door for this no-nonsense chamber music festival held in a variety
of unusual venues (churches, gyms, museums) across the province. Highlights
this year included Fröst and Friends – a classical jamming session complete
with candlelit dinner, where clarinettist and Vinterfest artistic director
Martin Fröst teamed up with Swedish soprano Kerstin Avemo for a breathtaking
rendition of Eden Ahbez’s Nature Boy - and Polish ensemble
Apollon Musagete Quartett, who particularly impressed with their show-closer,
Stravinsky’s Tango. With plenty of skiing and skating to break up the
concert-going, it’s a festival with a difference that looks set to be just as
great next year, with Anne Sofie von Otter and Leif Ove Andsnes already booked.
|
Edward Gardner credit Jillian Edelstein Camera Press London |
Graham Rickson, meanwhile, was sifting through the latest classical CD releases, and selected his three must-haves. Lisa Smirnova’s
dazzling, life-enhancing Handel: The Eight Great Suites came
highly recommended, making Rickson want to skip around the room with its
unshowy clarity and uplifting rhythms. Lutoslawski: Orchestral Works II was
another brilliant and generous disc, with the BBC SO in fine fettle playing
some of the earliest and latest of the 20th-century composer’s
works. Together with pianist Louis Lortie and Edward Gardner’s faultless
conducting, they showed Lutoslawski’s orchestral writing in its best light. And
lastly, Alexander Melnikov bravely pairs Shostakovich’s two piano concertos –
the first more optimistic here than usual, the second more sinister and edgy –
with his later, rather haunting Violin Sonata, here invested with great
humanity by Isabelle Faust. Wise decisions all round.
Star violinist Joshua Bell was the big draw at the Royal Festival Hall
on 22 February, where he was joined by Jurowski’s London Philharmonic Orchestra
to grapple with a curious hotch potch of Zemlinksy, Mozart, Szymanowski and
Brahms. Brahms’s Violin Concerto was the main attraction, yet it turned out to
be the most uneven performance of the night, leaving Alexandra Coghlan
impressed but emotionally underwhelmed. Whereas Mozart’s Symphony No 32 in G
major made a great curtain raiser, Zemlinksy’s Psalm 23 had a bucolic charm
before the composer’s tendency towards bombast took over, and Szymanowski’s
Symphony No 3, though occasionally tipping over into a cacophony which swamped
soloist Jeremy Ovenden, was wonderfully textured. Whether by accident or
design, it was certainly a thought-provoking concert.
No comments:
Post a Comment