clive-paget

LPO/Jurowski review – conflict and loss power Russian-Ukrainian concert

Timely take on pieces by Prokofiev, Mussorgsky and Lyatoshynsky masterfully encapsulated the continuing struggle between war and peace

Clive Paget

04, Apr, 2025 @11:01 AM

Tales of Apollo and Hercules review – Handel double bill channels Don Draper and Hollywood musicals

An imaginative melding of a 1710 Handel cantata and a 1751 oratorio results in a nifty two-act opera-ballet – and a dazzling cornucopia of images

Clive Paget

28, Mar, 2025 @1:16 PM

LPO/Edusei review – devastating Wijeratne and Martinů meet zany fun with Zappa

London Philharmonic programme brought together aching music of exile and displacement with kooky excursions by the pop fusion guru

Clive Paget

13, Mar, 2025 @3:54 PM

L’Allegro, il Penseroso ed il Moderato review – dazzling opening to London Handel festival

Jonathan Cohen and his crack baroque ensemble Arcangelo seized upon the colourful pastoral with relish, lighting up Handel’s own parish church

Clive Paget

09, Mar, 2025 @2:16 PM

LPO/Guggeis review – Wagner and Strauss touches both body and soul

Renée Fleming brought her communicative gifts to Strauss’s Four Last Songs in a programme dominated by Wagner. Making his LPO debut, Thomas Guggeis was an urgent presence

Clive Paget

06, Mar, 2025 @2:57 PM

Järvi conducts Tüür and Stravinsky’s The Firebird review – brutality and balance from the Philharmonia

Estonian conductor Paavo Järvi kept the orchestra on its toes through the UK premiere of his countryman Erkki-Sven Tüür’s new cello concerto

Clive Paget

28, Feb, 2025 @3:33 PM

LSO/Pappano review – salty breezes and a balmy Mediterranean sunset

An all-British programme – of Maconchy, Walton and Vaughan Williams – brought vivid colours and plenty of atmosphere

Clive Paget

10, Feb, 2025 @1:29 PM

BBCSO/Oramo review – Kaija Saariaho’s final work receives poignant UK premiere

The Finnish composer’s spectral four-movement Hush was the centrepiece of a programme based on themes of death and transcendence – a moving eulogy to her genius

Clive Paget

26, Jan, 2025 @11:01 AM

The Indian Queen review – musical wit, fratricide and crested adders as the Sixteen play Purcell

Rollicking orchestral hornpipes and vigorous trumpet tunes accompany a sterling vocal cast for Purcell’s final – and unfinished – semi-opera

Clive Paget

14, Jan, 2025 @5:59 PM

National Youth Orchestra Illuminate review – Jaime Martín coaxes characterful performances

The young players delivered atmospheric Ravel, edge-of-seat Nielsen and powerful Thorvaldsdottir with full force

Clive Paget

06, Jan, 2025 @12:12 PM

London Contemporary Music festival review – anarchic and provocative, sublime and ridiculous

Cutting-edge composers and sound artists converge for a festival packed with curious works, from scatological panto scores to futurist noise opera, on the theme of tricksters

Clive Paget

16, Dec, 2024 @1:11 PM