Classical CDs Weekly, Grainger, Mahler, Piazzolla
Rousing Antipodean choral music, a downbeat symphony and lots of tangos
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Mozart, Vaughan Williams
Mozart from Norway and a trio of symphonies
Classical CDs Weekly: Mahler, Joby Talbot, American Mavericks
An unorthodox Mahler cycle, a belter of a ballet score and some extraordinary sounds from San Francisco
Bell, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Jurowski, Royal Festival Hall
Death and transfiguration from Grisey and Mahler in the LPO's latest only-connect programme
Why so much of Vladimir Jurowski and the LPO on theartsdesk, you may ask, when other concerts pass unremarked? The answer is simple: quite apart from the immaculate preparation and the most elegant conducting style in the business, Jurowski programmes with an imagination matched by none of London’s other principal conductors – unless you like lots of Szymanowski served up by Gergiev with lumpy Brahms – and, more important, always finds connections.
theartsdesk Q&A: Conductor Markus Stenz on Mahler
Let's make a symphony - a very big one. Live-wire German interpreter explains his own special approach
Never mind the huge interpretative challenges; Mahler’s Eighth, dubbed the "Symphony of a Thousand" owing to the gargantuan forces the composer marshalled as conductor of its 1910 Munich premiere, needs an even greater mastery of logistics. Markus Stenz (b 1965), who has been chief conductor of Cologne’s 500-year old Gürzenich Orchestra since 2003 in addition to major posts at the Hallé and Hilversum's Radio Philharmonic Orchestra, had so far wielded a Mahler cycle of terrific impetus and fresh approach to detail.
Classical CDs Weekly: Lutosławski, Mahler, Salonen
Colourful Finnish contemporary music, an important symphony from the 1960s and some very loud Mahler
Piemontesi, Karnéus, Reiss, Guildhall Symphony Chorus, BBCSO, Bělohlávek, Barbican Hall
Immaculately prepared Mahler Resurrection and Schumann just miss the heights
Now the BBC Symphony Orchestra’s second Conductor Laureate, Jiří Bělohlávek was always going to deserve a hero’s welcome for taking his players to the finishing line of their six-year cycle through Mahler’s symphonies. As more superficially brilliant Mahler series like Gergiev’s, squeezed into a single anniversary season, seem a distant memory, many of Bělohlávek’s slow burn, deep vein interpretations live on in the mind and soul.
Kavakos, London Symphony Orchestra, Bychkov, Barbican Hall
From austerity to rambunctiousness all the way to triumph in a memorable outing for the LSO
Leonidas Kavakos was originally meant to be premiering a concerto by Argentinian composer Oswaldo Golijov, which had also been scheduled for Berlin in 2011 and subsequently for Los Angeles in May this year. The composer missed both those deadlines and the work apparently remains uncompleted – it was replaced on the programme by the Berg concerto.
Coote, BBCSO, Saraste, Barbican Hall
Open-razor Shostakovich and transcendent Mahler hit the mark in a classy season launch
Somehow the manic cry of “Scooby-Doo man!” from the back of the stalls didn’t seem too incongruous. We were in the thick of Shostakovich’s craziest symphony, the Fourth, composed in the mid 1930s when such maverick Russian talent was about to be stamped on and potentially quite a sledgehammer of a season opener for the BBC Symphony Orchestra.
BBC Proms: Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, Chailly
Reverberating Messiaen and uplifting Mahler make for a spectacular concert
If you’re going to bash a tam-tam for six, the Albert Hall is the perfect place to do it. The reverberation lasts for ages; and everyone in the audience can see you bashing. That must explain in part why Messiaen’s hieratic, gong-crazy Et expecto resurrectionem mortuorum has notched up 10 Prom performances in 45 years. Sunday’s was the first, though, to be performed by the historic and wonderful Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra, an outfit previously associated more with Bach and Mendelssohn than Messiaen’s idiosyncratic altar cloths in sound.