Theresienstadt-Terezin 1941-1945, Nash Ensemble, Wigmore Hall review - memorial music of stunning impact

★★★★★ THERESIENSTADT-TEREZIN 1941-1945, NASH ENSEMBLE, WIGMORE HALL Memorial music of stunning impact

Masterpieces from composers murdered by the Nazis in a rich day of offerings

Towards the end of his book Killers of the Flower Moon, David Grann deploys a cogent expression: “chasing history, before it disappears”.

Scottish Ensemble, Glasgow Royal Concert Hall New Auditorium review - making a move

★★★★ SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE, GLASGOW Music & motion combine for engaging performance

Music and motion combine for an engaging performance

Continuing the relationship with choreographer Örjan Andersson – who choreographed their landmark project Goldberg Variations Scottish Ensemble gave the first of their latest movement-inspired performance, Impulse: Music in Motion in Glasgow on Friday evening.

'Migrations' String Quartet Weekend, National Concert Hall, Dublin review - memorials and masterpieces

MIGRATIONS STRING QUARTET WEEKEND, DUBLIN Memorials and masterpieces

Five of the best respond magisterially to a programme focused on war and displacement

It was chance that the National Concert Hall’s weekend of quartet events featuring responses to war and refugees should coincide with the second anniversary of Putin’s Invasion of Ukraine. By late Saturday morning thousands of Ukrainians and friends had processed beneath our windows on Merrion Square with the usual array of flags and heartfelt banners; at 2.30pm we were listening to a Syrian poet’s words about devastation and displacement as set to music by Jonathan Dove.

Grosvenor, Park, Ridout, Soltani, Wigmore Hall review - chamber music supergroup in perfect accord

★★★★★ GROSVENOR, PARK, RIDOUT, SOLTANI, WIGMORE HALL Chamber-music supergroup

Thoughtful programming puts quirky novelty alongside big beasts

Frank Bridge’s Phantasie Piano Quartet was astutely described by his student Benjamin Britten as “Brahms tempered with Fauré”, so it made a lot of sense to programme it alongside the first piano quartets of those other composers. A “supergroup” of brilliant young soloists came together as an ensemble as tight as any that plays together every day, and made a committed case for each piece.

Louise Alder & Friends, Wigmore Hall review - magic carpet rides with soprano, strings and woodwind

★★★★ LOUISE ALDER & FRIENDS, WIGMORE HALL Levitational joy in all-French programme

Levitational joy in an all-French programme, with modified rapture over two arrangements

Sometimes all the stars align in musical performance. There’s no soprano more alive to the expression of musical joy and rapture than Louise Alder, no composer more levitational in his strange later adventures than Fauré, no instrumentalists strings better than pianist Joseph Middleton, the Doric String Quartet and double-bass player Laurène Durantel at being supernatural companions throughout his song-cycle La bonne chanson.

Les Égarés, London Jazz Festival, Cadogan Hall review - a wondrous musical conversation

★★★★ LES EGARES, LONDON JAZZ FESTIVAL A wondrous musical conversation

Singular talents make collective magic

Combine four super-talents, masters of their instrument, and you might well expect a battle of egos or a clash of modi operandi.  Not least, as in the case of Les Égarés, a quartet made up from two seasoned duos – the virtuoso jazzers Vincent Peirani (accordeon) and  Émile Parisien (soprano sax) on the one hand, and the entrancing creative partnership of Ballaké Sissoko (kora) and Vincent Ségal (cello) on the other.  And yet…

Degun, Scottish Ensemble, Queen's Hall, Edinburgh review - fusion of east and west, ancient and modern

★★★★ DEGUN, SCOTTISH ENSEMBLE Fusion of east and west, ancient and modern

Strings and sitar soar in imaginative collaboration

In a fusion of musical traditions both eastern and western, old and new, Scottish Ensemble were joined by virtuoso sitarist and composer Jasdeep Singh Degun for an evocative performance of Degun’s own work plus reimagined music by Terry Riley and Hildegard von Bingen at Edinburgh’s Queen’s Hall.

The Ossianic Ballads, Edinburgh Quartet, Màiri MacMillan, National Library of Scotland review - good ingredients get lost in the mix

New life given to ancient Gaelic songs results in a less than lively performance

To coincide with the National Library of Scotland’s first bi-lingual exhibition Sguel/Story, an exhibition in English and Scottish Gaelic which celebrates stories and storytelling, the library presented a performance of newly reinterpreted Gaelic ballads with string quartet arrangements from composer Ned Bigham.

Denk, Danish String Quartet, Wigmore Hall review - metaphysical strings, the piano as chameleon

★★★★★ DENK, DANISH STRING QUARTET, WIGMORE HALL Metaphysics and sheer brilliance

Programming disorded by delayed flight, but the effect was still dizzyingly brilliant

Few pianists manage stylistic perfection in both Mozart and Ligeti, but to Jeremy Denk it seems to come naturally. We should have heard the riveting contrasts in quick first-half succession, but European air traffic control had wasted much of the Danish String Quartet’s day and they hadn't arrived by the start of the concert. So perfect programming went out the window and Ligeti had to stand alone before the interval.