Royal Philharmonic Orchestra

'Beautifully supported by Ms Lovell and the Royal Philharmonic'

Die Fledermaus with London Lyric Opera, Cadogan Hall, 16/19 June 2009

‘The real stars of the night though, were...Strauss’s music and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, who delivered an excellent performance, under Madeleine Lovell's baton. She is a young, graceful and exciting conductor who led the orchestra and the chorus into an intelligent, expressive and elegant rendition of this popular work. Ms Lovell had an intuitive understanding of Strauss’s witty score and ensured that the music made its full impact on a delighted audience.’

‘…beautifully supported by Ms Lovell and the Royal Philharmonic who delivered the score with meaningful insight.’

RPO PUTS SPOTLIGHT ON BEETHOVEN'S BRILLIANCE

'Beethoven Gala' with Dirk Joeres and Freddy Kempf, Cadogan Hall, 26 May 2009
Rumon Gamba and Julian Lloyd Webber, Cadogan Hall, 9 June 2009

'Basking in an evening of Beethoven last month, it was easy to forget that anyone else ever wrote music...the high was Freddy Kempf's virile playing of the 'Emperor'; his heart-stopping passion and hair's-breadth timing gripped the hall.'

'The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra is deservedly one of today's most accessible and popular British orchestras...'

'The Royal Philharmonic is on sensuous form'

Khachaturian: Violin Concerto; Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra (Koeckert / RPO / Serebrier), Naxos

‘Khachaturian's Violin Concerto [is] an immensely attractive work, full of his trademark Armenian folk flourishes, and the swaying, hypnotic Andante is notably beautiful. But the unforced optimism of the outer movements now seems unthinking when we realise it was composed at a time when Stalin was giving Prokofiev and Shostakovich hell. The performance is terrific, though. Nicolas Koeckert is the glamorous, devil-may-care soloist and the Royal Philharmonic is on sensuous form for José Serebrier.’

'A lucid reading full of musical abandon'

Khachaturian: Violin Concerto; Concerto-Rhapsody for Violin and Orchestra (Koeckert / RPO / Serebrier), Naxos

‘The more familiar Violin Concerto in D Minor (1940), cast for legendary David Oistrakh, has solo Koeckert (b. 1979) frolicking in vivacious, oriental, languorous colors in the outer movements, singing a love song in the Andante sostenuto. Huge pedal points and vigorous rhythms, along with etched timbres from horns, woodwinds, strings, and tympani make the Concerto a naturally fascinating study in royal colors. Serebrier’s harpist exerts much effort to provide a damask background for the violin’s flights of fancy, a step away from Borodin’s Polovtsian Dances. In the quieter passages, Serebrier’s excellent capacity for subito provides a chamber music transparency to the proceedings. Typical of Serebrier’s color-vision, that innate gift augmented by his work with Stokowski, the second movement overflows with erotic motion, any number of veiled suggestions arising from the composer’s low woodwinds. The last movement, the ultimate Khachaturian whirling dervish, flutters, breezes, and sizzles by in due acrobatic virtuosity - a lucid reading full of musical abandon.’

'Golden performance of Brahms' Second Symphony'

Andrew Litton and Nicola Bendetti, Perth Concert Hall, 31 May 2009

'The concluding golden performance of Brahms' Second Symphony [was] a magisterial interpretation of immense richness and breadth by conductor Andrew Litton, played with big-boned sonority and some wonderfully suave texturing by the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.'

'Andrew Litton remains, for me, a major figure and energiser in the black art of orchestral conducting. Every theme, texture, counterpoint, sonority, and, above all, rhythm...confirmed that stature.'

Click here to see Andrew Litton LIVE with the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra.