London Coliseum, Monday 11 February 2019

ENO and Philip Glass have become a powerful partnership, and in a time when audiences can be thin on the ground his works are immensely popular – and rightly so. Phelim McDermott’s immersive production of Akhnaten returned to the Coliseum last night in all its splendour and visual appeal.

When it first opened in 2016 the jugglers seemed like an interesting idea but possibly additional to the narrative. Seeing them again I was far more aware of the visual impact they make as a whole. Time and again they are like fountains, as if the Pharaoh is surrounding himself with light and life. The parallel with Louis XIV is subtly drawn and creates a stronger link with the ancient past that was at first obvious.

Musically this is as secure as ever, under Karen Kamensek’s deft work in the pit, controlling not only the large orchestra but the many choral groups scattered both on and off stage. Anthony Roth Costanzo returns as Akhnaten, his virile counter-tenor easily riding the large orchestral forces, but finding the gentle intimacy for his prayer at the end of Act Two. Rebecca Bottone returns as Queen Tye but Katie Stevenson is new to the role of Nefertiti, bringing a relaxed regality to her performance.

Tom Pye’s designs are as fine as I recall them to be and are persuasively lit by Gary James.

I wonder when we might see Einstein on the Beach?

Mote Hall, Maidstone, 2 February 2019

Three big works meant an enlarged orchestra (85 players) which included four percussionists, piano, celeste and harp as well as big string sections. And they were all in pretty good form despite the off-puttingly cold weather (which had cost the orchestra a rehearsal, Brian Wright informed us at the beginning) and the sparser than sometimes audience.

The star of the evening was American soprano April Fredrick who sang Wagner’s gut-wrenching Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde followed by Richard Strauss’s Four Last Songs. She is an unusually charismatic performer, engaging herself emotionally from the first bar of that arresting Wagnerian string passage – nicely played here by MSO players rising in a body to the occasion. By the time Fredrick actually began to sing (off-book) I was mesmerised by the power of her voice, her control and her communication of musical passion. She had me on the edge of my seat and in tears.

Strauss’s Four Last Songs is a very special valedictory work and it was quite a treat to hear (and see) this final homage to the composer’s soprano wife and their long marriage performed so well. Fredrick sang Fruhling (Spring) with smiling eyes and joy in every note before finding mellow melodiousness in the lovely low register, sostenuto notes of September. She then gave us poignant assertion of that beautiful tune in Beim Schlafengehen (Going to Sleep) which she sang through tearful smiles. Finally came a resolute, immaculately sung, sombre Im Abendrot (At Sunset) with Andy Bridges doing a splendid job with muted tuba and Wright managing the pianissimo ending with adept tenderness as it dies away.

And so to Shostakovich’s magnificent fifth symphony. Wright provided masses of D minor mystery in the opening movement and made sure we heard lots of orchestral colour including drama from the xylophone and fine flute and clarinet solos. Also noteworthy was the crisp pizzicato work in the allegretto and the sensitivity the orchestra achieved in the largo. Shostakovich, of course, knew a thing or two about contrast and Wright took the loud, rhythmic, grandiloquent finale at a suitably cracking pace. This striking movement is always a field day for the timpanist whose part is anything but subtle and Owain Williams was clearly enjoying himself. No wonder he looked exhausted at the end.

Susan Elkin

Steinway Hall, 29 January 2019

Haydn’s piano music is much less well known than his symphonies, choral works and chamber music but they’re well worth listening to especially in an intimate space such as Steinway Hall which sits behind the Steinway showroom in Marylebone Lane.

Roman Rabinovich is working with The Haydn Society of Great Britain to promote a wider knowledge of Haydn’s piano sonatas by recording them all for CD. This showcase was designed to draw attention to the project and to launch Haydn Piano Sonatas Vol 1 (First Hand Records) which was on sale at the event.

We began with Sonata in D Major Hob XVI: 37 which Rabinovich told the audience he would personally nickname “The Chicken.” He then stressed that clucking (as it were) motif on a rising triplet. In the middle movement he leaned quite heavily on the contrasting sober chordal D minor section before treating us to chirpy, witty finale.

Then we got Sonata in C Major Hob XVI.48 written 15 years later for the “newfangled” fortepiano. Rabinovich observed the difference in mood which is thoughtful until the finale, which he played at high speed like a rather jolly race. Later he played – with verve – the two-movement Sonata in B Minor (unusual key!) Hob XV1:34.

It was more than a piano recital, however. Sandwiched in with the sonatas was a short film by Ruth Schocken Katz documenting Rabinovich’s life, background and music. The son of two pianists he moved, aged 10, from Uzbekistan where opportunities were very limited to Israel where they weren’t. He is also an accomplished artist and a series of his drawings called “Imaginary Encounters with Haydn” has been animated by Adam McRae – fun to see pianist and composer enjoying a beer together, taking a selfie, going on a flight and more.

We were also treated to a very short (I’d have liked more) Q/A with music journalist Jessica Duchen who, among other things, got Rabinovich to talk about different sorts of pianos then and now. In the recording he plays a Steinway model D.

It was an enjoyable and informative 75 minutes. It’s just a pity that Steinway – of all companies and on its own premises – couldn’t find a creak-free piano stool for an internationally acclaimed virtuoso to sit on. The noise was both loud and distracting.

Susan Elkin