Thursday 9 June 2011

Top Rite at RFH


No violin concertos, I know, but a brilliant Rite of Spring to report on.  Dutoit and the RPO produced a Rite to rival Jurowski's 2008 LPO performance in the same hall, but this was totally different.  Proof, if proof be need be, that there's no one way of playing a masterpiece.

You can read my full review at Classicalsource, but here’s an extract:

“It was to have been Martha Argerich in Schumann’s Piano Concerto; another cancellation and a change of work ensured some of the shine faded on this Royal Philharmonic Orchestra concert before it had even started. Argerich’s replacement, Nikolai Lugansky, was immaculate but dull in Beethoven’s Fourth Piano Concerto; but delight lay elsewhere, in a stunning performance of The Rite of Spring that grew inexorably in power as it progressed.”

The concert was broadcast live and can be heard (in the UK and before next Tuesday) here.

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