Concert Reports by our own reporters 

Brilliantly familiar music played with great passion and feeling along with connection to the orchestra , despite Andje W being a visiting violinist from Germany , she was fabulous being a virtuosowithout loosing the music itself

We blasted through it

Fireworks all round . Attended with Christopher Andrew and Frances and made excellent use of the members bar but disappointing that there ts not really time to use it at the inteval and its closed before the end of the concert. Food is minimal so its not good for pre concert meal either ! Great for a cocktail though

Another great night at the RFH. Unfortunately I missed the world premier Sphinx by British composer David xxx but heard it on the monitor in the friends area on green side level 3 , quite a good alternative as the bar is also open. The violin concerto followed by the world's most frequently appearing violinist Augustine Haderlich ( See BachTrack statistics: https://bachtrack.com/classical-music-statistics-january-2025) . And it was powerful stuff. After the interval the amazing fireworks of the story based symphony Fantastique. Don't think I have seen it live before. 4 harps too ! Can't say I noticed them though. Excellent programme notes made the story easy to follow.

Yasmine sits on a small stage. I'm the only unattached older male which is a bit strange but she is very open and chatty talking about her upbringing ,father from Iran and mother from belgium, going to the Richmond ballet school, being the only one to graduate straight to the Royal Ballet, her dream company. And very young to be appointed aged just 18 And how she moved through the five levels She explains her hyperactivity , always moving and fidgety hence her desire to do ballet .she asked The children which ballets they had heard of. Many average age 5 ? Had already seen some (good parents ) The two books are cowritten by children's author Chitra Soundbar. And the first book is based on Sleeping Beauty. No2 is.. now Dante She talked about the importance of strong men being able to lift the ballerinas ! She bought her ballet flats split soles and others , her block from the ballet shop in covent garden for ankle strength. A costume from Romeo and Juliet. Night dress from the balcony scene. On from 4th march at the royal ballet , rose e darge , point shoes, toe pads. With silicone . But pain still there. . she put her point shoes on. ! For the children to see . Tying them as taught on the inside. Criss cross elastics and double knot tie . She actually goes on to demonstrate different steps. Kuru. Then gets us to do the five positions. She takes questions. Fav ballet part Juliet. In r and j. Ballet she hadn't done. Nokia in buyada. Fav book. She likes both and looking forward to the third and 4th books . Each does a different ballet. Starts every day 1030 am ballet class. Rehearsals start 1230 till 6pm. Keeps me on my toes !! Today I'm off to the opera house full rehearsal at the studio. Swan lake I did Odette and X you do both roles. Do 32 spins. And it's exhausting. And persuade the audience you are not tied. Like most about ballet. In the first place. Gave me outlet for my energy and to express myself. Also being able to take on different characters. Advice to children who are starting. Listen to your body. Injuries. Work through or take a rest. Boys knee pain. Girls ankles knees and hips. Ballet gives you great posture. My sister did ballet for ages. Did naughty toes good toes aged 3 started lessons age 6. Such excellent questions from the 5 years old. She also did jazz Scottish and Irish dancing. She took my question! How is it like being the principle ballerina. Do the other ballerinas love you or hate you she explained this so well. And how the royal ballet as a company is nice compared to some others. How long does it take you to get ready. She explained she always eats risotto at 2 pm. Goes through the music and the choreography . Then warm up in the studio advice to young children auditioning. Smile. Show you can learn . Don't give up. I didn't get into the royal ballet even I to summer school first time

This was the first exposure to Shostakovich ( I note no 't' in the last syllable) and the first time we have visited the Barbican since I took out an annual membership whcih gives 20 % off ticket prices and access to the members lounge. Well that was a treat - see the venue page for more details. Shostakovich is a huge mouthful for a classical amateur like myself. Not only is he Russian with all of todays implications, he also lived and survived ,unlike many of his Jewish friends and fellow artists ) throughout the Stalin era of purges, and the war with Germany ( his 7th Symphony written in the siege of Stalingrad/Leningrad and famously played there during the bombardment - like Beethovesn 5th piano concerto writen as Napoleon was shelling Vienna ). Basically Shostakovich was a musical prodigy who was a pianist and a conductor as well as a composer of new world rather than classical / romantic works, and he produced a huge amount of work - 15 symphonies and a lot of choral and film work as well as celebrated chamber works ( see composer page but not written yet - ( wikipedia is a good first resource and also lists all his works ) Last nights concert was special -, even if not fully sold out My friend Ari is a great Evgeny Kissin fan and in awe of his 'forceful confident piano chords'. He wlked confidently onto the stage with the Bass singer Alexander Roslavets both dressed in tight black suits and very much the 1930s gangster look and reinforced later with the same sharp image on arrival of the string quartet and again after the inteval with the viola soloist Maxim Ryanov. So what about the music - the scene was special to start with. I wondered how it woud be if it was played in the drawing room at home , but this was the barbican and the audience were expectant. The guys on stage were the best and also Russian . I think the audience may have been largely Russian as well. Given that when we sing at the Barbican with Westminster school choir the place is jammed packed with the school orchestra on the stagge and the choir stacked up non the steps behind it was a brave act to appear on stage with just a piano ( albeit a grand one of course ) and one solo bass singer. But he carried it off - just Though I couldnt understand a word -

Amazing combination of the Lewisham and Hackney choral societys under the baton of Dan Ludford-Thomas who conducted the famous Lewisham and Greenwich NHS choir Bridge Over You that won the 2015 Christmas No 1 slot. the music was fabulous from the Mozart Players and I wish Jazzy and Clara might play with them one day ( my gifted musical daughters) . THe choirs had only rehearsed together twice before the dress rehearsal and they really pulled it off, despite having almost no Blackmembers despipte coming from Lewisham and Hackney ?! THe sopranos were particularly impressive soaring ahead and above the choir , Initially the music is scored more slowly and Ihad images of a German ironclad struggling to crest each wave in advere conditions in the North Sea, and then as the music developed becoming more and more confident - tossing the spray over her bows ! A great evening.

Very interesting concert that I only heard about this morning on Radio 3 was able to attend lunch time the cellist was Sol Gabetta and the pianist was Kristian Bezuidenhout - neither of whom I'd heard of before but they played beautifully and the hall was absolutely packed with only about one seat left full stop the Brahms was less accessible than the Brahms as the concert notes noted rope this at the peak of his career but it was not well received initially because it's not that melodic especially in the early phases it has four movements and ended up beautifully. The mandelson was much more accessible and more melodic with again four movements the third and the fourth being particularly interesting

My absolute favorite piece of the evening, one I hadn’t heard before, was Saint-Saëns' Tarentelle in A minor, Op. 6, for flute, clarinet, and piano. The way the flute, piano, and oboe wove together layers of magical sound was simply mesmerizing. Each instrument danced, copied, and teased the others, moving in and out of the spotlight, leading the exquisite dance of sound before fading into the background to give precedence to the next voice. If you ever have the chance to hear this piece, you simply must go. The world-famous Nash Ensemble, resident at Wigmore Hall, delivered the performance with expert precision. They played works by Stravinsky, Debussy, and Ravel with such passion and perfection, but the finale—The Carnival of the Animals, also composed by Saint-Saëns—was utterly delightful. Simon Callow was a wonderful choice for the narrator; he brought the humor of the accompanying poem to life with his rich, bass voice that was full of fun. The "Fossils" section, featuring the crazy xylophone, was absolutely bonkers, while the grace of "The Swan" captivated everyone in the hall. The finale of the piece, so well-known and loved, left the audience in high spirits. It was truly a wonderful evening!

Delightful concert because Alice Sara Ott not only plays the piano but also speaks in a very engaging and intimate night club sort of way with her audience by speaking about the music the background and how she comes to play it as well as its connections with other artists and the periods so she's mainly focusing on John fields and relatively unknown composer from Ireland who showed musical talented the very young age but in fact his family will not able to afford lessons with a grand piano teacher who also sold piano so we end up being a piano salesman in exchange for his lessons in London and then he discovered somehow Saint Petersburg and spent the rest of his life there, dying quite young aged 53, probably of alcohol excess, as he couldn't resist expensive champagne and brandy said Alice! Anyway he's credited for inventing the nocturne and although it's not known whether he met Beethoven he was alive at the same time, being born and dying 10 years before Beethoven. Obviously it was Chopin who took the nocturne to its current fame. John Fields nocturnes were beautifully played by Alice Sara Ott. She noted the similarities and also the development, particularly the stormy development of Beethoven's sonatas, and she was very interesting about the moonlight sonata which everyone thinks is romantic. In fact it's dotted rhythm is based on a funeral march dump t' dum dum, dum. and she played it to demonstrate this and it takes on a much more sinister air when you know that. She also said it was based on Mozart's Don Giovanni's murder scene, showing how the music was very similar in three pieces: the John Fields noct turne and in Beethoven's moonlight sonata. Its very good the way she drew these parallels and played them all together. She had a lot of applause and after she was signing copies of her new CD release - John Fields nocturnes. rather annoyingly for her (?! ) they sold out before she even appeared for the signing so all she could do is sign CDs that people had already bought. There was a huge queue - and unfortunately the light was so poor that photographs of her close up did not come out very well. I look forward to seeing her again she's appearing mainly in Germany in march this year maybe a trip to Utrecht or Hamburg would be a treat. After the concert I ate at the Cote Brasserie next to the Royal Festival Hall but I noticed there is a pizza express and a steak restaurant that I used to go to with my father across on the other side of Belvedere Road as well as a new place called The Green Room nearer the National Theatre. See my venue pages for more details on the Southbank complex.

Really good event. Modern poets presenting short pieces after an introduction by the compare , with a DJ playing the music that had inspired the poetry.

Woderful piano playing from a man who clearly knows his stuff.As he cannot see the conductor he gets to know his conducting signals through his breath sounds and other expressions !

First listening to piano sonata concert . Some of Mozarts best known and a great concert leaflet was so educational at the beginning of this journey

a complex but beautiful set of cello and piano pieces from 3 composers including Janacek and Gabriel Faure More about them to follow, I am sure, in the year ahead

Diane Says: "The Rite of Spring" (Le Sacre du Printemps), composed by Igor Stravinsky, is a groundbreaking piece in the world of music and dance. When it premiered in 1913, it caused such a stir that the audience almost rioted! People were shocked by the bold, loud music and the unconventional choreography by Vaslav Nijinsky for the Ballets Russes, led by Sergei Diaghilev. Critics didn't know what to make of it at the time, as it broke away from the traditional sounds of classical music. Stravinsky’s composition introduced complex rhythms and unexpected musical structures that were totally new for that era. The music is filled with dissonance and uses different tonalities, creating a raw and powerful sound. The ballet itself is based on Russian pagan traditions and tells a dramatic story about a young girl who is chosen as a sacrificial victim to celebrate the arrival of spring. Her intense dance ultimately leads to her tragic fate. Over the years, "The Rite of Spring" has become a landmark work that shaped modern music and dance. You can hear its influence in many genres, and it’s been recorded countless times. What makes it so special is how it stirs deep emotions and explores themes like sacrifice and the wild power of nature. Stravinsky's unique mix of rhythm, melody, and orchestration still captivates audiences and artists today, making it a true classic of the 20th century. Jeremy Says: We had an amazing time at our first 'website concert' this afternoon. stravinsky's right of Spring was far more powerful and simply incredible heard live. what I hadn't realized was that they were also playing Beethoven's fifth piano concerto which, is or also certainly will, be on the hit list for concerto's. it is probably his most famous one. what was also amazing was that the pianist who was due to play had been hit by a car the day before. he was fine but he couldn't play the piano, and so they drafted in no other than Boris Gitsberg whose one of 'hit list' pianist stars and I think I've got tickets to see him later this month . It was an unexpected bonus!! And I was sitting about 1 m away from the keyboard! It was like being in heaven. There was also a work by Berg who I think is less known but it was very moving with deep double bass and cello sections. I think he's on our symphonies list of top composers. Did you know that Mozart's 41 symphony is the most played piece of classical repertoire. Year after year it beats anything by Beethoven . Interesting.

One of the best in the world See String quartets on our site for more details Great concert

Great to see the Royal Phil Orchestra in action and conducted by their principle conductor Edward Gardener - see a profile on our performers page under Conductors ! He was really enthusiastic and there was a great feeling of fellowship. Infact the RFH does this really well The atmosphere is at once grand in scale but so friendly I always find the people at the entrance doors checking the tickets so informal and welcoming.