The Nottingham Classics season ends with a Mahlerian showpiece spectacular  

Nottingham   Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment   May 16 2019   Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham   5*****   Review: William Ruff @ReviewsGate   Brightly gleaming Bach infused with grandeur and gaiety   It was quite hard to sit still during the OAE’s performance on Thursday of Bach’s four Orchestral Suites.  Feet were itching to get onto the dance floor as if an 18th century version of Strictly was in full swing. If you ever think of Bach as …

Sonic thrills abound in Verdi’s Technicolor opera  

Nottingham   City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra   May 3 2019   Royal Concert Hall, Nottingham   5*****   Review: William Ruff @ReviewsGate   Magical worlds made real with probing intelligence and acute sensitivity   Just imagine: a horrible, dragon-clawed monster has pinned you against a tree and is about to turn you to stone.  But then you remember you’ve been given a magic feather, so you wave it in the air and a dazzlingly beautiful bird swoops down to …

The stuff of musical legends as youth and deep experience combine  

Mullova’s masterful Sibelius and some Technicolor French showpieces

Sumptuous sound and unbuttoned emotion from Norway

A perfect 18th century marriage of music and dance

Witty brilliance mixed with soulful melancholy - totally engaging

Music which pulses in the brain long after it has stopped  

Pianist Steven Osborne in music of intense stillness and supercharged energy

The RLPO finds plenty of life in two concert hall warhorses

Schubert’s Winter Journey in a vivid English translation

Sensitive, virtuosic, atmospheric playing from a young, cosmopolitan pianist

A Heroes and Adventures Family Concert that ticks all the boxes

Operatic excerpts plus super-virtuoso concerto-playing equals an evening of high drama

Exciting repertoire, high-octane energy and prodigious talent on an epic scale