May 2021 reviews for The Times

Alice Coote, Philharmonia/John Eliot Gardiner
10 May 2021

Alice Coote singing Britten’s Phaedra is a remarkable thing to behold. It’s hard to imagine a more fearless performance of this one-woman cantata based on Racine, telling the tragic, transgressive tale of a woman who lusts after her stepson, then seeks absolution through suicide by poison. There’s nowhere to hide: the composer’s final vocal work is an intense, compact drama. And every note and word the British mezzo-soprano sang was utterly clear.

Full review: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/philharmonia-gardiner-review-alice-coote-is-a-remarkable-phaedra-sf6tw0w2q

London Symphony Orchestra/Simon Rattle

10 May 2021

More than a year has passed since the London Symphony Orchestra last performed in its Barbican home, when Antonio Pappano conducted Britten and Vaughan Williams that spoke of sorrow and war. So much has happened since then. The LSO’s chief conductor, Simon Rattle, is off to Munich and Pappano is to take over his LSO post. The ambitious London concert hall project has been shelved. And the pandemic has sharpened our focus when it comes to music exploring the meaning of life and death, works such as Mahler’s Das Lied von der Erde.

Full review: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/lso-rattle-review-song-of-the-earth-finds-real-power-at-the-end-g7zfmscnq

City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra/Nicholas Collon

27 May 2021

Until its summer series began last week, the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra hadn’t played to a live audience in Symphony Hall since the start of the pandemic, save one concert in November. For the orchestra’s second programme back home the conductor Nicholas Collon kept those patient concertgoers in mind. The “deep connection” struck by Shostakovich’s Fifth Symphony with the Soviet audience at its 1937 premiere inspired him, he explained in an affable introduction.

Full review: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/cbso-collon-review-emotions-run-high-for-shostakovich-gc6hhrfmh

Ensemble Marsyas

31 May 2021

In reality, a trip to Italy may be tricky for a while yet, but there’s nothing stopping musical flights of fancy abroad. Ensemble Marsyas gave us a flavour of Rome with its Handel programme at the Wigmore Hall, culminating in the delicious cantata Amarilli Vezzosa (Il Duello Amoroso), written during the composer’s formative Italian sojourn. Just imagine the Roman palace in which it had its premiere in 1708 (or google Palazzo Bonelli); no quarantine necessary.

Full review: https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/ensemble-marsyas-review-delightful-musical-flights-of-fancy-from-handel-sg2w0x3lh