Bruckner Orchester Linz – Four stars
Press review Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 29th April 2018: Having recently taken up the post as Chief Conductor, Markus Poschner directed the Bruckner Orchester Linz in an invigorating performance of Mahler’s sensational second symphony, Resurrection, at the Usher Hall on Sunday afternoon. Opening with a rustic, golden hued timbre, the orchestra gave an animated interpretation of the work.
Assertive Mahler Resurrection from Bruckner Orchester Linz
Press review Usher Hall, Edinburgh, 29th April 2018: I guess it is probably a shrewd marketing move to brand your orchestra after the name of your town’s most famous musical son, but that can sometimes lead to a mistaken view of what you do. On their UK tour, the Bruckner Orchestra of Linz are doing almost no
Any fool who doubts good music is being made outside the M25 needs to hear the Leeds Philharmonic
Press review Leeds Town Hall, Saturday 25th November: There is a tendency among those in the Home Counties to imagine that music-making outside the London area is in some way inferior. What rot. The BBC, notably, maintains first-class orchestras in Cardiff, Edinburgh and Manchester. Sir Mark Elder’s tenure of the Hallé, also in Manchester, has been remarkable,
Leeds Philharmonic Chorus and Orchestra of Opera North
Press review Leeds Town Hall, Saturday 25th November: Malcolm Arnold’s Peterloo Overture sounds more like the incidental music for a docu-drama, but is no less compelling for that. The composer’s portrayal of the events surrounding the ‘Peterloo Massacre’ at St Peter’s Fields, Manchester, in August 1819, was played with a degree of swagger by the Orchestra of Opera
Exhilarating performance of Verdi’s Requiem
Press review Leeds Town Hall, Saturday 20th May 2017: Well over 300 singers and musicians were involved in this exhilarating performance of Verdi’s Requiem given as the grand finale to the 2016-17 Leeds International Orchestral Season. Conductor David Hill directed with an unerring sense of pace and balance the combined forces of Leeds Philharmonic Chorus, Leeds Festival Chorus
Authentic baroque style for a seasonal classic
Press review Handel’s Messiah, Leeds Town Hall, Saturday 10th December 2016: Ever since the premiere of Handel’s Messiah at the Great Music Hall in Fishamble Street, Dublin on 13th April 1742, performances of this beloved work have veered between modesty of scale and overblown grandeur. The crispness of groundbreaking recordings conducted by Colin Davis and Charles Mackerras in
