Philharmonia, Salonen, RFH review – cosmic perspectives

★★★★ PHILHARMONIA, SALONEN, RFH Unsuk Chin explores man’s relation to the universe in new oratorio

Unsuk Chin explores man’s relation to the universe in new oratorio

Space is big – that seems to be the message of Unsuk Chin’s new oratorio Le Chant des Enfants des Étoiles. The work sets texts, ranging from the Baroque to the present day, concerned with space and scale. The work’s cosmic aspirations are reflected in its performing forces, a huge orchestra with augmented percussion, chorus, children's choir, and, for good measure, a suitably Gothic organ part.

Chineke!, Parnther, QEH review - a joyful re-building of the house

★★★★★ CHINEKE!, PARNTHER, QEH A joyful re-building of the house

Not so Brutal: the South Bank's concrete palace reopens in jubilant style

Even after the venue’s 30-month refurbishment, you still would not choose the sprawling foyer of the Queen Elizabeth Hall as the prime site for a pre-concert speech. By the time, last night, that Heritage Lottery Fund chair Sir Peter Luff got to say his piece – after Southbank Centre luminaries Jude Kelly, Elaine Bedell and Gillian Moore – the ambient din from a full house gathered to celebrate the QEH re-opening almost drowned his words.

Bernstein's MASS, RFH review - polymorphousness in excelsis

★★★★★ BERNSTEIN'S MASS, RFH Polymorphousness in excelsis

Vibrant diversity in this ever-topical 'theatre piece for singers, players and dancers'

Live exposure to centenary composer Leonard Bernstein's anything-goes monsterpiece of 1971, as with Britten's War Requiem of the previous decade, probably shouldn't happen more than once every ten years, if only because each performance has to be truly special. It's been nearly eight since Marin Alsop last conducted and Jude Kelly directed MASS at the Southbank Centre.

Gerhardt, RPO, Payare, RFH review - personality muted by faceless conducting

Cellist-knight can't completely rescue an evening more about sound than expression

Former Royal Philharmonic Orchestra principal conductor Charles Dutoit has been exposed, to little surprise from musicians, as something of a roué whose apparent refusal to take "no" for an answer has rubbed up against the new #MeToo world. So his place in last night's concert was taken by Venezuelan Rafael Payare, not yet 40.

Donohoe, LPO, Orozco-Estrada, RFH review – wit aplenty in rare Stravinsky

★★★ DONOHOE, LPO, OROZCO-ESTRADA, RFH Wit aplenty in rare Stravinsky

Creative programming deserved a better audience turn-out

I left this concert a bit depressed, but not because of anything I heard: rather, by the conservatism of London concert-goers. As London orchestras focus on programming the usual wall-to-wall Brahms, Beethoven and Mahler, the LPO was rewarded for their excursion from the well-trodden path by the punters staying away in droves from this imaginative programme.

Brantelid, LPO, Petrenko, RFH review - orchestral excesses redeemed by graceful Elgar

★★★ BRANTELID, LPO, PETRENKO, RFH Young cellist offers valuable balance in a hard-driven programme

Young cellist offers valuable balance in a hard-driven programme

The London Philharmonic, conductor Vasily Petrenko and cellist Andreas Brantelid are just back from a tour of China, so they’ve had plenty of time to get to know each other. That affinity is apparent in the ease with which Petrenko (pictured below by Chris Christodoulou) marshals the orchestral forces, directly transmitting his trademark energy to every section.

Baráti, Lyddon, LPO, Jurowski, RFH review - Stravinsky's bright but derivative beginnings

Fine programme in principle, but lacking a significant core

"You have to start somewhere," Debussy is reported to have said at the 1910 premiere of The Firebird. Which, at least, is a very good "somewhere" for Stravinsky, shot through with flashes of the personality to come. The Symphony in E flat of two years earlier, however, is little more than a theme park of all the ingredients amassed in Russian music since Glinka forged its identity less than a century earlier.