Freaky Party

Music Reviews and more

Main menu

Skip to primary content
Skip to secondary content
  • Pop/Rock
  • Metal
  • Indie
  • Electronic
  • Folk
  • Jazz
  • Classical

Post navigation

← Older posts

Elgar: The Dream of Gerontius album review – Gardner and the LPO’s reading is bold and dramatic

Recorded live at the BBC Proms, Edward Gardner and the London Philharmonic Orchestra’s propulsive performance, with soloists Allan Clayton, Jamie Barton and James Platt, is one to cherish

Last Night of the Proms review – star turns, good-natured flag waving and a rich Rule, Britannia!

Bill Bailey played a mean typewriter, Brian May and Roger Taylor raised laughs with Bohemian Rhapsody and trumpeter Alison Balsom bid a poignant farewell at just 46

Sinfonia of London – weapons-grade energy and contagious dynamism

Conductor John Wilson has made this orchestra one of the best in Britain, and violinist James Ehnes was the ideal soloist in a performance that took flight instantly

Vienna Philharmonic/ Welser-Möst review – mighty ensemble strike gold with Bruckner

The Austrian legends glided through Mozart and Tchaikovsky but found grand and powerful direction in Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony

Chineke! Orchestra/Heyward review – kaleidoscopic concert combines energy and complexity

The ethnically diverse orchestra played with vigour and spirit in a programme that included Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, Shostakovich and Valerie Coleman

BBCSO/Adès review – Adès held the orchestra as if under a spell

A Proms programme of the UK premiere of Gabriella Smith’s Breathing Forests, Sibelius, and Adès’s own music (Five Spells from The Tempest) was atmospheric and engaging

Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District review – semi-staged Shostakovich is vivid and claustrophobic

With Nicky Spence and Amanda Majeski the striking leads, the nastiness in Shostakovich’s ‘tragic satire’ was disturbing and powerful in an impressive Proms performance

Norwegian Chamber Orch/ Kuusisto/Barruk review – Proms first as Ume Sámi songs take centre stage

Pekka Kuusisto and his world-class NCO brought a programme blending classical, folk and pop with Sámi vocalist Katarina Barruk, in this thoughtful Prom

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra/ Martín review – soloist and players gather strength after protesters disrupt Prom

A rattled Khatia Buniatishvili delayed her driven rendition of Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto No 1 to the second half of a Prom overshadowed by Palestine protests, yet the orchestra found buoyancy in Dvořák to lift the mood

Leipzig Gewandhaus/ Nelsons review – poignancy, poetry and powerful Sibelius in wide-ranging Prom

The venerable orchestra – among the world’s oldest – brought Pärt, Sibelius and Dvořák to the Proms. Isabelle Faust’s sensitive reading of the latter’s Violin Concerto was sleek and organic; the Sibelius well-paced and weighty

Royal Concertgebouw / Mäkelä review – Proms showcase legendary orchestra and its star signing

The masterly Amsterdam ensemble were at the Proms for two concerts with their Chief Conductor Designate Klaus Mäkelä. In works by Berio, Mahler, Mozart, Prokofiev and Bartók there was dazzling playing and immaculate attention to detail

Danish National Symphony Orchestra review – punchy Prom reaches a triumphant conclusion

There was plenty to admire as a fine lineup of soloists stirred the emotions on a night that paired Beethoven’s Ninth with Anna Clyne’s subtle meditation on time

A Mass of Life review – magical and ecstatic Proms performance of Delius’s magnum opus

Mark Elder and the BBC Symphony Orchestra make such an outstanding case for Delius’s setting of Nietzsche that its 37-year absence from the Proms is baffling

Le Concert Spirituel review – a sumptuous musical journey to late Renaissance Florence

Striggio’s mass, lost for 400 years, was the centrepiece of this imaginative concert of 16th- and 17th-century music that possibly worked best for radio listeners

BBCNOW/Bancroft/Grosvenor review – from the brilliantly bonkers to heavyweight Shostakovich

Sofia Gubaidulina’s Revue Music for Symphony Orchestra and Jazz Band was an eccentric and joyful delight and Benjamin Grosvenor dazzled in Ravel’s bluesy Piano Concerto in this BBC National Orchestra of Wales prom

Post navigation

← Older posts
  • Danish String Quartet review – captivating performance from a world-class group
  • Manchester Camerata review – mental torments build up to a royal meltdown
  • The Marriage of Figaro review – Danielle de Niese’s deft direction weds finery with fun
  • St Vincent review – majestic orchestral transformations of jagged art-pop
  • BBCNOW/Bancroft review – conductor takes final bow in imaginative programme of vivid colours and emotions
  • Krishna review – the mystery of John Tavener’s ‘mystic pantomime’ is why it has been staged
  • Taylor Swift: I Knew It, I Knew You review – giddy up! Song for Toy Story cowgirl Jessie is Swift’s best in years
  • Zoh Amba: Eyes Full review – raw, rugged country rock also has real tenderness
  • Gintė Preisaitė: Instruments of Forgetting and the Singing Bone review – atmospheric, unsettling ambience
  • Hourglass album review – Simone Dinnerstein gives Glass room to breathe
  • Lizzo: Bitch review – a spirited star who just can’t rediscover her groove
  • Beethoven: The Violin Sonatas Vol 1 album review – fresh-as-a-daisy performances from a duo with a gift for storytelling
  • Mike D review – ex-Beastie Boy’s first UK gig in two decades, in a Tyneside bingo hall, is uproarious fun
  • Saint Levant review – Palestinian pop star makes Australian debut to an ecstatic, sold-out crowd
  • Vespers review – haunting clash of cultures conjures Vivaldi’s Venice
  • Jack White review – former White Stripe’s art is like a 12-year-old visiting Tate Modern for the first time
  • Lise Davidsen and James Baillieu review – superstar soprano unleashes her inner Valkyrie
  • Orlando review – a confident romp through Handel’s flimsily plotted opera
  • Take That review – stadium redux of Circus tour has maximal razzle-dazzle
  • Hampson and Sidorova review – style over substance with a whiff of the cruise ship
  • Matías Aguayo: Anenoa review – the funkiest, freest singer in the business hits the dancefloor
  • Violet Grohl: Be Sweet to Me review – alt-rock arriviste aces the part
  • Dvořák: Symphony No 9 album review – Shani brings a natural freshness to a familiar work
  • La Traviata review – gripping and genuinely moving staging opens Garsington’s summer season
  • Colin Matthews: Seascapes album review – the songs teem with detail
  • Iceage: For Love of Grace & the Hereafter review – Danish punks ace sixth stellar album on the trot
  • La Fanciulla del West review – insightful staging reveals the power of Puccini’s maverick masterpiece
  • 125th anniversary gala concert review – back to 1901 as Wigmore celebrates birthday playing to its strengths
  • Sugar review – Bob Mould’s reunited band still in a sweet spot between noise and melody
  • Paul McCartney: The Boys of Dungeon Lane review – at 83, his gift for melody still astounds

Contact www.freakyparty.net   Terms of Use