Weather Tonight: 9°c Light showers Morning: 14°c Overcast

Critics' Choice

Film

Andrew O'Hagan

quoteNew Moon is nothing if not an international advertisement for the hungry virtues of virginity and young people can’t get enough of itquote

Andrew O'Hagan The Twilight Saga: New Moon Theatre

Henry Hitchings

quoteA smart, prickly and rewarding view of sexual and emotional confusionquote

Henry Hitchings Cock Restaurants

David Sexton

quoteKitchen W8 is a bargain for this area, if such sophistication is what you crave quote

David Sexton Kitchen W8

Reader reviews

Film

Adam, Harrow

quoteToo long and drawn out but very entertaining with excellent special effectsquote

2012 Theatre

Rob, London

quoteThis is a peculiar play and does not work for me. Some of it is very funny but there are real flawsquote

The Habit Of Art Music

Bernard, London

quoteAlex has a strong powerful voice and was faultless, she is far better now than she was on the X-Factorquote

Alexandra Burke

Music reviews London,

Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra/Haitink

Your rating
one startwo starthree starfour starfive star
Click on a star to rate
Barbican Hall, Barbican Centre
Silk Street, EC2Y 8DS

Evening Standard rating Barry Millington's rating
Evening Standard rating Reader rating
 Add your review

Description: The Dutch ensemble presents three popular pieces, Mozart's Symphony No 35 In D, Beethoven's Symphony No 7 In A, Op 92 and Debussy's La Mer.


Phone: 0845120 7500
Website: www.barbican.org.uk
Email: info@barbican.org.uk

Trains: Tube/BR: Moorgate/Barbican Overground network

Opening hours: Mon-Sat 9am-8pm, Sun 11am-8pm

Extra info: Pub, Food, Parking

 
Please wait the page is loading extra content
  • Show details
  • Hide details
  • Show map
Close X

Directions

 

Solid blocks from Haitink

By Barry Millington, Evening Standard  16.03.09
 
Haitink

Outstanding performance: Haitink conducts

Look here too

The weekend visit of the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra came hard on the heels of the welcome announcement that the Amsterdam-based ensemble would be spending more time at the Barbican in occasional residencies.

It is always an instructive pleasure to hear this world-class orchestra, with its perfectly blended brass and wind — not to mention the richly endowed strings.

In the second of their two concerts under Bernard Haitink they offered the magnificent torso of Bruckner’s Ninth Symphony, prefaced by Schumann’s Piano Concerto. The soloist for the latter was an artist who can be relied on to bring a musical quality as immaculate as that of the Concertgebouw: Murray Perahia.

Haitink’s Bruckner is very much a known quantity, carving great edifices of sound out of solid blocks. The cliché that Bruckner’s symphonies are like vast cathedrals is never truer than when Haitink is in charge.

If the first two movements provided the bricks and mortar and the overarching structure, the Adagio finale flooded the space with light and provided the spiritual dimension. Velvet-toned, superbly controlled brass, not least the normally intractable Wagner tubas, made their invaluable contribution.

It’s not the only way to do Bruckner, but Haitink, in being true to himself, is irrefutably persuasive. As the imposing architecture takes shape in response to his unerring baton, one is inclined to think: this is how it should be.

That, after all, is the mark of an outstanding performance. Let us hope the residencies bring us many more.

Related articles

More


Details are correct at the time of publication - please check with venue before booking.

 

Reader reviews (0)

 Add your review

No comments have so far been submitted.


Add your comment

 

Your email address will not be published

Terms and conditions make text area bigger You have  characters left.


 
 


 
 
London's Weather
Tonight
Light showers
9°c
Morning
Overcast
14°c
5 day forecast
 
 

Daily Mail Mail on Sunday Travel Mail This is Money Metro

Loot | Jobsite | Homes & property | London jobs | FindaProperty.com | Primelocation.com | Educate London | Holiday Villas