The classical calendar in the UK continues to be dominated by the BBC Proms and a visiting American orchestra stole the limelight this week.
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis was on the menu for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis. Davis is a conductor determined to conquer it and attacked it at this Prom with ambition and scope. The chorus faced their challenging task with unfailing bravery and energy, while soloist Sarah Connolly was fully in charge of her vocal colours.
Young cellist Nathalie Clein confidently guided the audience through Gubaidulina's modernist, Russian-tinged music, with beauty and ugliness in controlled balance at Saturday's Matinee concert at Cadogan Hall, where there was an otherworldly experience of contemporary classical music. Saturday Matinee's showcase just how diverse and broad the programming for the Proms really is as the pure sound of the BBC singers was brought out by the Renaissance pastiche of the Tippet.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra were in fine fettle on Tuesday night, with conductor Manfred Honeck delivering a typically idiosyncratic version of Mahler Five which was bright, brash and bracing. The result was riveting and they proved that they could also do meek and mild when it suited them in the spectral Lohengrin Overture and Wolfgang Rihm's ethereal violin concerto Gesungene Zeit.
A well-chosen curiosity by Walter Braunfels, a vivid orchestral variation of a Berlioz song was performed by the same orchestra the previous night and had its own swaggering charm in this cut-down version. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5 again leaned too far towards the strident however, as the drama and urgency was pushed out by conductor Honeck at the expense of coherence.
Yuri Bashmet's outstanding pairing of Brahms and Tchaikovsky and an intriguing collection by contemporary composer Leonid Desyatnikov make up the best classical CD releases of the week. Also impressive was the bargain box set of the flamboyant, entertaining and yet neglected Russian composer Rheingold Glire.
Beethoven's Missa Solemnis was on the menu for the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Sir Colin Davis. Davis is a conductor determined to conquer it and attacked it at this Prom with ambition and scope. The chorus faced their challenging task with unfailing bravery and energy, while soloist Sarah Connolly was fully in charge of her vocal colours.
Young cellist Nathalie Clein confidently guided the audience through Gubaidulina's modernist, Russian-tinged music, with beauty and ugliness in controlled balance at Saturday's Matinee concert at Cadogan Hall, where there was an otherworldly experience of contemporary classical music. Saturday Matinee's showcase just how diverse and broad the programming for the Proms really is as the pure sound of the BBC singers was brought out by the Renaissance pastiche of the Tippet.
The Pittsburgh Symphony Orchestra were in fine fettle on Tuesday night, with conductor Manfred Honeck delivering a typically idiosyncratic version of Mahler Five which was bright, brash and bracing. The result was riveting and they proved that they could also do meek and mild when it suited them in the spectral Lohengrin Overture and Wolfgang Rihm's ethereal violin concerto Gesungene Zeit.
A well-chosen curiosity by Walter Braunfels, a vivid orchestral variation of a Berlioz song was performed by the same orchestra the previous night and had its own swaggering charm in this cut-down version. Tchaikovsky's Symphony No 5 again leaned too far towards the strident however, as the drama and urgency was pushed out by conductor Honeck at the expense of coherence.
Yuri Bashmet's outstanding pairing of Brahms and Tchaikovsky and an intriguing collection by contemporary composer Leonid Desyatnikov make up the best classical CD releases of the week. Also impressive was the bargain box set of the flamboyant, entertaining and yet neglected Russian composer Rheingold Glire.
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