Category Archives: In concert

In concert – Zlatomir Fung, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Ariane Matiakh: Debussy, Laurence Osborn & Brahms

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Zlatomir Fung (cello), Royal Philharmonic Orchestra / Ariane Matiakh

Debussy Prélude à l’Après-midi d’un faune (1894)
Osborn Sun Sundered Head (2026) [World Premiere]
Brahms Symphony no.1 in C minor Op.68 (1876)

Cadogan Hall, London
Wednesday 21 October 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse

The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s latest concert at Cadogan Hall paired two very different classics, just 18 years apart, with a new work by one of the UK’s most significant younger composers and what proved a notable debut with this orchestra by one of France’s leading conductors.

Laurence Osborn’s profile has grown incrementally this past decade and Sun Sundered Head is among his most significant premieres. Inspired by one of Guillaume Apollinaire’s typically oblique poems, the trajectory of his nocturne for cello and orchestra (to quote the composer) ‘‘from dusk, to the dead of night, to dawn’’ is one of a mounting anticipation and dissipating activity, to a central cadenza that is eventful for all its inwardness, then rapidly accumulating energy as makes ever more virtuosic demands before the most heart-stopping of conclusions.

The sheer intricacy and dexterity of orchestral writing would be a challenge for any soloist to negotiate, but from which Zlatomir Fung duly emerged with keen appreciation of his being a focal-point in proceedings. Music, moreover, that reinforces Osborn’s involvement with the musical past as often provocative while always engaging to a degree communicated to those present. Following on from the TOMB!, the first album dedicated to this work, this has been an auspicious year for a composer with a great deal to say and resourceful ways of saying it.

Something similar may well have been said about Debussy after the premiere of Prélude à l’ Après-midi d’un faune, his musical evocation of a poem by Stéphane Mallarmé, that opened tonight’s programme. Relatively slow if never sluggish in unfolding, with its sensuous allure never in doubt at climactic moments, this was an approach that played to the strengths of the RPO (not least among them flautist Emer McDonough) and reminded one of just how game-changing this music felt as the 19th century drew – not a little uncertainly – towards its close.

Not too long before, Brahms’s First Symphony must have seemed the vindication of a very different aesthetic and it was to Ariane Matiakh’s credit that this performance evolved with unforced conviction and not a little spontaneity. Suitably implacable, the first movement’s introduction segued into an Allegro trenchant but never dogged in forward motion with no lack of impetus in its development or repose in its coda. Eloquently rendered, the ensuing Andante drew felicitous playing from the RPO woodwind as not the least of its attractions.

Poised unerringly between a wistful intermezzo and a playful scherzo, the third movement afforded ideal breathing-space before a finale that carried all before it. From its speculative introduction then radiant horn melody, Matiakh had the measure of a movement which can easily become discursive or even prolix, but here never lost focus through to an apotheosis whose resplendence never felt overbearing. Whether or not Brahms consciously emulated Beethoven in this work, his re-energizing of the symphonic genre could hardly be denied. A memorable evening which ought to lead to a continued association between the RPO and Matiakh. She is currently recording the symphonic works of Charles Koechlin for Capriccio, and it is to be hoped that one of these impressive pieces may yet achieve a UK performance.

To read more about the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra’s 2026/27 season, visit the RPO website. Click on the names to read more on cellist Zlatomir Fung, conductor Ariane Matakh and composer Laurence Osborn

Published post no.3,056 – Friday 23 October 2026

In Concert – Mark Padmore & Jonathan Biss @ Wigmore Hall: Schubert & Schumann

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Mark Padmore (tenor, above), Jonathan Biss (piano, below)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September (lunchtime)

Schubert Der Wanderer an den Mond D870 (1826), Im Freien D880 (1826), Der Einsame D800 (1825), Der Winterabend D938 (1828)
Schumann Kerner Lieder Op.35

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Photo credits Marco Borggreve and Benjamin Ealovega

Storytelling is of course an essential part of any Lieder recital, but the extent to which Mark Padmore and Jonathan Biss brought the seventeen songs of this BBC Radio 3 Lunchtime Concert to life was a joy to behold.

Padmore is one of Britain’s finest tenors, a versatile artist at ease in contemporary music as he equally is in Bach or Britten, for instance, with one of his strongest qualities an elegance to the delivery that suited these brighter examples of Schubert’s song output. So, too, did the pianism of Jonathan Biss, finding and projecting all of the composer’s countermelodies with consummate ease.

The pair began in the moonlight – naturally – Der Wanderer an den Mond beginning in strident fashion before the brighter light of its major key second half. Biss then led the phrasing for a beautifully poised account of Im Freien, before the chirpy crickets of Der Einsame raised a smile. In a magical account of Der Winterabend, from the early part of Schubert’s final year, time was taken to evoke the long evening and the slowly falling snow, with a memorable turn towards blissful peace, as tenor and pianist found themselves in easy, slow moving alignment.

The calm repose cast by this song was rudely broken by Schumann’s arresting Lust der Sturmnacht, the switch from sonorous B flat major to turbulent E flat minor something of a jolt. In his Kerner Lieder, Schumann writes less of a thematically linked cycle, but a common thread to the songs are their capture the feverish passions, good and bad, of his new marriage to Clara. Though there is union and delight in the potential happiness ahead, some of the songs are fraught and wracked with worry, making the group ripe for dramatic concert performance.

Padmore and Biss (above) homed in on the drama of Justinus Kerner’s verse, the tenor allowing his voice to fray a little when the emotion of the song demanded it. Such moments occurred towards the top of the register in Stille Liebe and Stirb’, Lieb’ und Freud’!, where earlier in the song he had clasped his hands in reverent prayer.

Auf das Trinkglas eines verstorbenen Freundes was a captivating centre piece of the cycle, majestic and sombre in equal turn, while the rousing Wanderung had the musical effect of putting on boots and coat for a long walk. Heights of expression were found in the devotional love expressed in Sehnsucht nach der Waldgegend, a Christmas present for Schumann’s new wife in the year of composition.

The extremes of movement made the stillness of Alte Laute all the more affecting, Padmore’s control held to perfection while Biss ensured once again that the phrases of Schumann’s countermelodies were beautifully sculpted.

As Padmore said, few encores could be entertained in the light of such a moving musical paragraph, yet one fitted perfectly – Schubert’s Frühlingsglaube, D686, lightening the mood without changing the tonality or elegance of delivery.

Padmore and Biss continue to finish each other’s sentence in this ideally matched partnership, at ease in each other’s company to forego obvious gestures other than the musical – which in this case resulted in a very special hour of music indeed.

You can listen back to this concert until 4 November on BBC Sounds

Published post no.3,039 – Tuesday 6 October 2026

In Concert – Chiara Skerath & The Mozartists / Ian Page @ Wigmore Hall: Sturm und Drang

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Chiara Skerath (soprano), The Mozartists / Ian Page

Kraus Symphony in C minor VB142
Gluck Dieux puissants que j’atteste…Jupiter, lance la foundre (from Iphigénie en Aulide)
Jammelli Ombre che tacite qui sede (from Fetante)
Mozart Vorrei punirti, indegno (from La finta giardiniera K196)
Traetta Ombra cara, amorosa…li resti sempre a piangere (from Antigona)
Haydn Amore nel moi petto (from Lo Speziale)
Haydn Symphony no.45 in F# minor ‘Farewell’

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September 7:30pm

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood Pictures (c) Bertille Cascio

Ian Page and The Mozartists continued their remarkable and revealing turning over of scores from the 18th century at the Wigmore Hall. Their exploration of Sturm and Drang marked 250 years’ use of the phrase, since title of a play by the German Friedrich Maximilian von Klinger – and also the Mozartists’ fourth album exploring music written in this feverish mood.

Three of the composers here are virtually unknown today, while Haydn – whose Farewell symphony closed the program – is the one most associated with the phrase. More of him later, for the early part of the concert belonged to Joseph Martin Kraus. The Frankfurt-born composer, who relocated to Sweden in 1778, wrote a Symphony in C minor of some stature five years later, its power sufficient for me to check there were only 20 players on the Wigmore Hall platform. Page marshalled a performance with poise and drama, the lean tones of the Mozartists’ strings complemented by wonderfully grainy woodwind and a fulsome horn quartet who stood to play, two either side of the stage. The solemn counterpoint of the introduction harked back unexpectedly towards the slow movements of Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, before the urgent Allegro raced ahead in dramatic fashion. The striking Adagio was initially pared-back but blossomed in the wind section, before the sharply defined third movement returned to the cut and thrust of the first. With lively dialogue and fierce energy, this was a performance to savour.

So, too, was the Haydn with which the concert ended, though at times Page appeared to be pressing too hard on the accelerator, with some phrases in the first movement of the Farewell needing more time to breathe. There was considerable tension here though, as there was in the second movement, albeit expressed through austere colours and stretched phrases. The Minuet was lightly defined but offered little relief, while the finale, surely one of the first examples of instrumental protest music, was brilliantly done. The players left the stage incrementally as Haydn requested of his Esterházy musicians, so at the end we were left with just violinists Matthew Truscott and Daniel Edgar. Typically Haydn’s humour was retained, but this time with a darker edge.

Between the symphonies lay five well-chosen arias, themselves a history lesson – in excellent performances from soprano Chiara Skerath (above), standing in for the indisposed Alexandra Lowe. She immediately seized the audience’s attention with Clytemnestre’s aria from Gluck‘s Iphigenie et Aulide, her horrific realisation that her husband Agamemnon was thinking of sacrificing his own daughter. This was a dramatic a, a dramatic affair, with appropriately sharp interjections from the orchestra. The aria Ombre che tacite qui sede, from Niccolò Jammelli’s Fetante, breathed much cooler air, the soprano low in her range at times, before the concert’s only fleeting reference to Mozart himself. Here we returned to the minor key for an aria from composer’s first mature opera, La finta giardiniera. Skerath’s communication with both orchestra and audience was captivating, revealing the extent of Arminda’s anger at the arrival of her fiancée’s former lover.

The next composer to prove his worth as a dramatic scene setter was Gluck’s Italian contemporary Tomasso Traetta, the cold introduction to Ombra cara balanced by beautiful control from Skerath. We then had a rare outing for the stage music of Haydn himself, keeping the theme of G minor tonality. The humour on show in Amore nel moi petto may not have been as immediate as his wit in the symphonies, but Skerath’s expression gave it the best chance.

As ever, Ian Page deserves enormous credit for an imaginative and entertaining program, balancing education and entertainment. By bringing fresh insight to the familiar repertoire and a chance to shine for the lesser-known names, he has made the ensemble’s Wigmore Hall series an unmissable date in the calendar. The players clearly enjoy it, too, as their encore – a palette cleansing major key slow movement from English composer Carl Friedrich Abel – was wreathed in smiles.

Published post no.3,029 – Saturday 26 September 2026

In Concert – Zee Zee @ Wigmore Hall: Schubert & Liszt

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Zee Zee (piano)

Schubert arr. Liszt Der Müller und der Bach from Die schöne Müllerin S565/2 (1846); Liebesbotschaft from Schwanengesang S560 (1839)
Schubert Piano Sonata no.19 in C minor D958 (1828)
Liszt Les jeux d’eaux à la Villa d’Este (from Années de pèlerinage, troisième année S163) (1877-82) ; Tarantella (from Venezia e Napoli S162) (1859)

Wigmore Hall, London
Thursday 24 September (lunchtime)

Reviewed by Ben Hogwood

Facing the end of his life at the age of just 31, Schubert dug deep to deliver a series of remarkable late works, with a speed of composition whose quality and quantity was truly remarkable. Among the celebrated works delivered were three large scale piano sonatas, the first of which – the Piano Sonata no.19 in C minor D958 – formed the centrepiece of this lunchtime recital.

Zee Zee (the stage name for Chinese-American pianist Zhang Zuo) delivered a commanding performance, stern in expression but always allowing room for the dance that is never far from the surface of Schubert’s music. Even before the sonata began she established the atmosphere, taking a minute for performer and audience to fully settle before the first notes were delivered. It was a highly effective tactic, typical of a deeply felt and carefully planned account that has matured over time since Arcana last reviewed her interpretation in 2015. Zee’s left hand was notable for its melodic clarity, the right delivering the second theme of the first movement with attractive, balletic phrasing. The turbulent development section often chased the restless right hand but Zee Zee was sure in her direction, contrasting the warmth of the second theme when in C major with the chill wind as things turned sour in the minor key.

The Adagio was intimate, yearning for the lighter moments that appeared like shafts of light in Schubert’s unexpected switches of tonality, though these were ultimately snuffed out and earthbound by the ideally paced closing pages. The serious Menuetto – its trio dancing in spite of the musical weight upon it – was fluently played, leading without a break into the finale. Here Zee Zee’s definition of the repeated notes was crystal clear, the agile left hand ably supporting the Tarantella theme at every turn, before an emphatic signing off to seal a most impressive account.

The Schubert was framed by four watery Liszt pieces – beginning with well-studied accounts of two of his many Schubert song transcriptions. The temptation with Liszt is often to show virtuosity at the expense of musicality, but here the blend between the two was perfect. Zee Zee told the story through the wordless singer’s lines, dressed with exquisite accompaniment.

The first of the two Liszt originals brought the Fountains of the Villa d’Este to life, the rush of water evident in the brilliant right-hand figurations, adding colour but leaving room to define the left-hand melody through the spray. Again the technique was impeccable, with well-chosen ‘rubato’ ensuring the music breathed as it should. The sparkling Tarantella was a study in pace, poise and power, delivered with the minimum of fuss but with no mean virtuosity. Zee Zee’s octave work – so critical in Liszt – was without blemish; equally her quiet playing was also beautifully rendered.

This was a superb recital, with one more feather in its cap in the shape of a beautifully flowing encore, the Intermezzo from Schumann’s Faschingsschwank aus Wien. Zee Zee will hopefully return to the Wigmore Hall before long, for as this healthy lunchtime audience appreciated, pianist and venue are a great match.

Published post no.3,028 – Friday 25 September 2026

In concert – Alice Sara Ott, CBSO / Kazuki Yamada: Grieg, Bax, Clyne & Debussy

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Alice Sara Ott (piano), City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra / Kazuki Yamada

Bax Tintagel (1917-19)
Grieg Piano Concerto in A minor Op.16 (1868)
Clyne Restless Oceans (2018)
Debussy La mer L109 (1903-05)

Symphony Hall, Birmingham
Tuesday 22 September 2026

Reviewed by Richard Whitehouse Photo (c) Hannah Blake-Fathers

The sea, in various manifestations, was a dominant factor in this evening’s concert by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra. One which began with Tintagel, long the most familiar (if not the only one now being revived) of Bax’s tone poems, where Kazuki Yamada showed a sure grasp of music more a reflection of its composer’s involvement with the pianist Harriet Cohen than of Arthurian times or places. Its ‘love music’ lacked nothing in rapture, yet it was the seascape from which it emerges then to which it returns that made the lasting impression.

Grieg’s Piano Concerto might not convey any overt maritime associations, but its expressive ambience is audibly that of the outdoors (unlike that of the Schumann concerto that provided its model in many particulars) and Alice Sara Ott – CBSO Collaborative Artist these next two seasons – responded with playing as impetuous and soulful as its opening movement requires. Fleeting hesitancies aside, there was no mistaking the rapport between her and Yamada; with its cadenza an emotional culmination in every respect. Soulful while never inert expressively, the central Adagio exuded inward warmth as found ideal contrast in the bracing energy of the finale – its poetic middle section artlessly rendered, and its apotheosis opulent with no undue bathos. Ott’s limpid rendering of John Field’s Ninth Nocturne made for an appealing encore.

The second half got off to a short if by no means sweet start with Restless Oceans, a compact yet eventful celebration of female identity from Anna Clyne – CBSO Composer in Residence for the current season – that lacked little in presence. Rhythmically incisive and harmonically expressive ideas, alternating purposefully on their way to the tersely unequivocal conclusion, were offset by vocal and gestural contributions from the musicians that added a layer of vivid theatricality. Further and more extended instances of Clyne’s music will follow in due course.

Bax can only have been too aware when writing Tintagel of Debussy’s La mer – this latter a game-changer in terms of orchestral composition, whose influence continues to radiate some 120 years on. Right from the opening of From dawn to midday on the sea, it was apparent Yamada had found the balance between the placing of detail within an overall structure that, if not symphonic per se, has a formal integration and expressive sweep as feels nothing if not symphonic – witness the majestic peroration with which this opening movement culminates.

Much the most elusive of these symphonic sketches, Play of the Waves yielded a lightness of touch and deftness of motion that only emphasized its emotional ambivalence. Unerringly phrased, its coda prepared ideally for Dialogue of the Wind and the Sea, a finale where the combative and alluring are brought together for what proved a thrilling culmination (though Yamada might have dispensed with those trumpet entries which Debussy subsequently and unwisely added). Certainly it brought this concert to its unequivocal and impressive close.

Yamada returns to Birmingham just before Christmas and Ott does likewise next May, while the CBSO is back in a week’s time with a programme featuring Elgar’s Enigma Variations as well as a second hearing for the co-commissioned Saxophone Concerto by Gwilym Simcock.

To read more about the CBSO’s 2026/27 season, visit the CBSO website. Click on the names to read more on pianist Alice Sara Ott and conductor Kazuki Yamada, and more on composer Anna Clyne

Published post no.3,027 – Thursday 24 September 2026