Douglas, Estonian NSO, Elts, Cadogan Hall review - perfect ebb and flow from conductor and pianist

★★★★★ DOUGLAS, ESTONIAN NSO, ELTS, CADOGAN HALL Perfect ebb and flow

Four glorious works, Thea Musgrave rarity included, plus three encores

Until last night, I’d only heard the Estonian National Symphony Orchestra (ERSO at home, “Riiklik” standing for “National”) live in unfamiliar contemporary epics, with Kristiina Poska and Anu Tali respectively conducting Lepo Sumera’s Fourth and Sixth Symphonies, and Olari Elts just before his 2020 appointment as Music Director championing an Erkki-Sven Tüür triptych. This was a test of how they'd fare in more familiar repertoire. They passed with flying colours.

Grosvenor, Kanneh-Mason, Park, Hallé, Stasevska, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - the factors that make for a full house

★★★★ GROSVENOR, KANNEH-MASON, PARK, HALLÉ, STASEVSKA, BRIDGEWATER HALL Solo fireworks from a starry line-up and a very fine conductor in action

Solo fireworks from a starry line-up and a very fine conductor in action

What makes a classical box office draw these days? If there were a simple answer to that question, a lot of concert givers would be laughing all the way to the bank.

LPO, Adès, RFH review - tempests and infernos

★★★★ LPO, ADES, RFH Stormy passion abounds in Adès, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky

Stormy passion abounds in Adès, Sibelius and Tchaikovsky

I was really looking forward to hearing music from Thomas Adès’s ballet The Dante Project again, after being so excited by it at the Royal Ballet last year. By contrast, I was seriously disappointed by his opera of The Tempest in 2003, and hoped to like it better in a new symphonic version.

Total Immersion: Sibelius the Storyteller, Barbican review - a feast of sagas and psychic masterpieces

★★★★★ TOTAL IMMERSION: SIBELIUS, BARBICAN A feast of sagas and psychic masterpieces

Orchestral, choral, song and melodrama: the gamut of the Finn's utterly individual world

If there’s a dud or a dullard among Sibelius’s 116 official opus numbers, I haven’t heard it. Yet catching even many of the outright masterpieces live in concert isn’t easy; the brevity that can show us a world in under 10 minutes makes some difficult to programme.

All hail, then, to the BBC and scholar/biographer Daniel Grimley for mapping the Finn’s legendary universe in three concerts of wall-to-wall Sibelius and another placing his two main pupils’ choral music alongside his own.

Classical CDs: Dragonflies, harmoniums and folded paper

CLASSICAL CDS Harmoniums, Gallic winds, fearless percussionists & Finnish songs

Gallic winds, fearless percussionists and Finnish songs

 

ColouriseColourise London Choral Sinfonia/Michael Waldron, with Roderick Williams (baritone), Andrew Staples (tenor), Elena Urioste (violin) (Orchid)

Denk, RSNO, Macdonald, Lammermuir Festival review - dark Sibelius and mighty Brahms

★★★★ DENK, RSNO, MACDONALD, LAMMERMUIR FESTIVAL Dark Sibelius and mighty Brahms

Top Scottish orchestra joins forces with major pianist in its debut at St Mary’s Haddington

Once the shock of Queen Elizabeth’s death has faded, attention will surely turn to the many organisations and institutions of which she was patron. This concert not only marked the Royal Scottish National Orchestra’s debut at the Lammermuir Festival, but it was also the first the orchestra had played since the departure of Her Majesty.

Prom 34, Soltani, BBC Philharmonic, Ollikainen review - journeys into inner worlds

Nordic and English colours blend in musical landscapes of the heart

Proper music tells stories just about itself, the stern pedagogues insist; it doesn’t (or anyway shouldn’t) paint descriptive pictures of places and people. Well, maybe not – but it was hard to banish all thoughts of geography, even of biography, at the Proms as the BBC Philharmonic under Eva Ollikainen travelled from Anna Thorvaldsdottir’s chthonic Iceland to Sibelius’s composite Italy-Finland by way of the intensely subjective journey embodied in Elgar’s Cello Concerto.

Davidsen, Oslo Philharmonic, Mäkelä, Barbican review - full workout for the nervous system

★★★★★ DAVIDSEN, OSLO PHILHARMONIC, MÄKELÄ, BARBICAN Tearjerking moments and electric shocks, but always a sense of the whole

Tearjerking moments and electric shocks, but always a sense of the whole

It could have been the most electrifying week of the musical year. Alas, Heathrow meltdown kept me from two of Klaus Mäkelä’s Sibelius concerts with his Oslo Philharmonic in Hamburg. But there was still what should have been the grand finale, the heavenstorming Fifth Symphony following Mahler and Lise Davidsen in Berg (and more Sibelius). The euphoria I’d experienced in one live Oslo concert and the Sibelius symphonies on Decca was rekindled.

Bournemouth SO, Karabits, Lighthouse, Poole – let there be light and joy

★★★★★ BOURNEMOUTH SO, KARABITS, LIGHTHOUSE, POOLE Let there be light and joy

Ukrainian principal conductor takes Sibelius's symphony of liberation to the edge

Returning to his Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra for the first time since the crisis began in his home country, Kirill Karabits’ arrival on stage was greeted by the entire Lighthouse audience rising to their feet with loud applause and cheers of support.

Philippens, BBCSSO, Wigglesworth, Usher Hall, Edinburgh review - peace and triumph side by side

★★★ PHILIPPENS, BBCSSO, WIGGLESWORTH, USHER HALL, EDINBURGH Peace and triumph

Encore is too much, and Wagner misfires, but Sibelius triumphs

Mark Wigglesworth is a semi-regular guest with the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra, and he’s hugely experienced in the opera world, which might explain why my expectations were so high for his Wagner in this concert. In the event, though, I didn’t love his take on Tristan’s Prelude and Liebestod.