Elephant, Menier Chocolate Factory review - subtle, humorous exploration of racial identity and music

★★★★ ELEPHANT, MENIER Subtle, humorous exploration of racial identity and music

Story of self-discovery through playing the piano resounds in Anoushka Lucas's solo show

This charmingly eloquent semi-autobiographical show – which first played at the Bush Theatre in 2022 – tells the story of a girl whose life growing up in a council flat is transformed by the arrival of an upright piano. Lylah – like the show’s creator, Anoushka Lucas – is the daughter of an Anglo-Indian father and a French Cameroonian mother, and her subtle, often humorous, exploration of her racial identity becomes intertwined with who she is as a musician.

Jean-Efflam Bavouzet, Wigmore Hall review - too big a splash in complete Ravel

★★★ JEAN-EFFLAM BAVOUZET, WIGMORE HALL Too big a splash in complete Ravel

Panache but little inner serenity in a risky three-part marathon

It was a daring idea to mark Ravel’s 150th birthday year with a single concert packing in all his works for solo piano. Jean-Efflam Bavouzet knows them by heart, has bags of charisma and energy, so why not? I could give more than one reason, but the main problem was that while Bavouzet perfectly embodied Scarbo, the monster-Puck of Gaspard de la nuit, and other nocturnal flitters, he seemed careless with Undine and her watery companions, of which there were many.

Karim Said, Leighton House review - adventures from Byrd to Schoenberg

★★★★ KARIM SAID, LEIGHTON HOUSE The Jordanian pianist ventures from Byrd to Schoenberg

The Jordanian pianist presents a magic carpet of dizzyingly contrasting styles

William Byrd, Arnold Schoenberg and their respective acolytes go cheek by jowl, crash into one another, soothe, infuriate and shine in their very different ways This is all in a typical programme of pianist, conductor, composer and all-round pioneer Karim Said, and last night in the studio of Leighton House, it nearly all worked (when it didn’t, that was the nature of the beast, not the pianist).

Philharmonia, Alsop, RFH / Levit, Abramović, QEH review - misalliance and magical marathon

★★★ PHILHARMONIA, ALSOP, RFH / ★★★★★ LEVIT, ABRAMOVIC , QEH - Kentridge’s film for Shostakovich 10 goes its own way, but a master compels in his 13th hour of Satie

Kentridge’s film for Shostakovich 10 goes its own way, but a master compels in his 13th hour of Satie

“Let the music guide your imagination” was never going to be the slogan of the Southbank Centre’s Multitudes festival. Its 13 events offer parallel visions, intended in the case of Ravel’s Daphnis et Chloé (a shared project between the LPO and Australian dance company Circa I regret missing), not so in Shostakovich’s Tenth Symphony: as that masterpiece begins to be freed of its Soviet-era load, William Kentridge shackles it again on his own brilliant terms.

Goldberg Variations, Ólafsson, Wigmore Hall review - Bach in the shadow of Beethoven

Late changes, and new dramas, from the Icelandic superstar

Víkingur Ólafsson had something to prove at the Wigmore Hall. And prove it he did, even if, this time, his Goldberg Variations left a few features of Bach’s inexhaustible keyboard panorama at the edge of his pianistic picture. The much-loved Icelandic chart-topper had promised Beethoven’s final three sonatas for this concert. His last-minute reversion to the familiar Goldbergs – which he played on 88 occasions around the world last season after a supremely successful DG recording – had disappointed a portion of his vast fan-base.

Biss, National Symphony Orchestra, Kuokman, NCH Dublin review - full house goes wild for vivid epics

Passionate and precise playing of Brahms and Berlioz under a dancing master

On paper, it was a standard programme with no stars to explain how this came to be a sellout concert. But packed it was, an audience of all ages which sat with concentrated awe through the spellbinding slow movement of Brahms’s First Piano Concerto and went wild at the end of Berlioz’s Symphonie fantastique. Both works were groundbreaking at the time, sounding absolutely fresh here with the passion and precision awesomely well balanced by conductor Lio Kuokman.

Batsashvili, Hallé, Wong, Bridgewater Hall, Manchester review - a star in the piano universe

★★★★ BATSASHVILI, HALLE, WONG, BRIDGEWATER HALL, MANCHESTER  A star in the piano universe

The Georgian pianist brings precision and freedom to Liszt’s warhorses

Mariam Batsashvili, the young virtuosa pianist from Georgia, is a star. No doubt about that. Trained at the Liszt Academy in Weimar and winner of the International Franz Liszt Competition for Young Pianists in that city in 2015, she should know something about how to play Liszt’s music.

Bavouzet, BBCSO, Stasevska, Barbican review - ardent souls in mythic magic

★★★★ BAVOUZET, BBCSO, STASEVSKA, BARBICAN Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček

Vivid realisation of fantastical masterpieces by Bartók, Ravel and Janáček

Not to be overshadowed by the adrenalin charges of the Budapest Festival Orchestra the previous evening, the BBC Symphony Orchestra and its Principal Guest Conductor Dalia Stasevska gave a supercharged triple whammy of masterpieces. They even had a pianist to match the Budapesters’ Igor Levit, Jean-Efflam Bavouzet. He seemed as delighted with Stasevska and the players as they were with him; the post-performance embraces spoke volumes about communicative kindred spirits.

Levit, Budapest Festival Orchestra, Fischer, RFH review - anger unleashed, fantasy finessed in Prokofiev

★★★★ LEVIT, BUDAPEST FESTIVAL ORCHESTRA, FISCHER, RFH Instant communication from Berlin-based pianist and Hungarian army of generals

Instant communication from Berlin-based pianist and Hungarian army of generals

A showstopper for starters followed by dark depths, a quirky compilation after the interval: it’s what you might expect from Iván Fischer and his 42-year-old Budapest Festival Orchestra. All Prokofiev, too: the sort of thing we used to get from Valery Gergiev and visiting Petersburgers. Yet while Gergiev’s alliance with Putin means he’ll not be here again, Fischer has balanced criticising Orbán and keeping his Hungarian orchestra on the road.

Argerich, Oxford Philharmonic Orchestra, Papadopoulos, Barbican review - the great pianist as life and soul

★★★★ ARGERICH, OXFORD PHILHARMONIC ORCHESTRA, PAPADOPOULOS, BARBICAN The great pianist as life and soul

Her delivery of the Beethoven made it clear that she still merits legend status

At the age of 83, Martha Argerich contains more personality in her little finger than many people do in their entire bodies.