Page 70 - FINAL_The Sixteen Coverage Book 40th Anniversary Year

30 December 2019

2019 in concert and opera reviews

Labels: concert review, opera review

Our 2019 concert selection:

• Mass for Christmas Morning: the richly imaginative music of Michael Praetorius performed by
an ensemble ranging from nine-year-olds to seasoned professionals at St John's Smith
Square
• A bleakly haunted journey: Alice Coote and Julius Drake in Schubert's Winterreise at
Wigmore Hall
• Monteverdi's Vespers of 1610 from The Sixteen at Temple Church
• 'The first great example of British exceptionalism' - Purcell's King Arthur re-thought in an
engaging performance and accompany CDs from Paul McCreesh and Gabrieli at St John's
Smith Square
• An intoxicating concert - that is the magic of song: Walt Whitman's bicentenary celebrated at
London Song Festival
• A Night at the Museum: the Oxford Lieder Festival at the Ashmolean Museum
• The Outsiders Fight Back: London Song Festival's imaginative commemoration of the 1969
Stonewall riots
• Final of the Queen Sonja International Music Competition in Oslo
• Intimate and highly engaging: Mari Eriksmoen & Sveinung Bjelland in recital at Oscarshall
Palace, Oslo
• Prom 34: Schubert, Tchaikovsky, Lutoslawski from Daniel Barenboim, Martha Argerich and
West-Eastern Divan Orchestra at the BBC Proms
• Chineke! Chamber Ensemble in Saint-Saens, Wallen & Coleridge-Taylor at Wigmore Hall
• Focus, concentration, engagement and enthusiasm: Gabrieli Roar in An English Coronation
• Musicianship & sheer engagement: Brixton Chamber Orchestra's Live Lounge at the
Department Store, Brixton
• Thrilling pianism: Igor Levit in Ronald Stevenson's Passacaglia at Wigmore Hall
• Remarkable revival: the Academy of Ancient Music presents Handel's Brockes Passion in a
new critical edition at the Barbican
• A very human St John Passion: Solomon's Knot in Bach without conductor and from memory
at St John's Smith Square
• A stirring revival: Hubert Parry's Judith in a triumphant performance from William Vann, the
Crouch End Festival Chorus and London Mozart Players at the Royal Festival Hall
• Dame Emma Kirkby's 70th birthday concert at the Wigmore Hall
• Sung Poetry: Kitty Whately & Simon Lepper - From the Pens of Women
• Strong, muscular yet tender and very direct: Haydn's The Seven Last Words of Christ
alongside Colm Tóibín's The Testament of Mary at Milton Court

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