BBC - Concert Orchestra

Elgar/Walker Piano Concerto (realisation by Robert Walker of the sketches) CD (Dutton Epoch CDLX 7148)

The themes are authentic, but what seems to have been missing is continuity, which Walker has imaginitvely provided...Elgarians will want the disc, which is fleshed out with other Elgar orchestrations and comes with excellent documentation of Walker's sources and methods.
Guardian, 4 March 2005

Walker has spent years on working out what might have been and has been successful in producing an Elgarian sound....David Owen-Norris is the excellent soloist, with Daivid Lloyd-Jones collaborating superbly with the BBC Concert Orchestra...Dutton Laboratories are to be congratulated on the enterprising disc and on this crystal-clear recording, made in Abbey Road Studios.
Michael Kennedy, Sunday Telegraph, 6 March 2005

Dedicated Elgarians will find this irresistible...The sound of the piano is grand indeed - testimony to the pianist [David Owen-Norris], to the engineers and the instrument...the crackling blaze and bark of the brass desks impresses...This is a fascinating project and well worth your hard-pressed listening time.
Rob Barnett, MusicWeb International, 22 February 2005

Nordic Adventures: Norway, Wednesday 16 February, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Most of the night's sweetest sounds emerged during Okland's solos...The conductor Arvid Engegard, new to Britain, join Okland on violin for some spirited fiddling himself. But his chief task was using his hands to steer the hard-working BBC Concert Orchestra through unfamiliar music from Norwegian nationalists other than Grieg...In Anne Dudley's Northern Lights, the last new piece to emerge from her term as the orchestra's composer in association, the players did something more...glints from the harp and celesta led towards the aurora borealis, conjured up in brilliant orchestrations. For 13 minutes you felt yourself in Norway itself.
Geoff Brown, The Times, 22 February 2005

The mix was classic and folk...a notably obscure repertoire, but the programme gelled and the orchestra played like a snow tiger let out if its cage...more please, would have neen the feeling of many listeners...The surprise treat of the concert was its premiere, a Radio 3 commission from Anne Dudley. The end , with timpani and string chords, had a quiet, compelling atmosphere that rounded out the sense of subdued wonder.
Robert Maycock, The Independent, 22 February 2005

An enjoyable miscellany brought a UK debut for conductor/violinist Arvid Engegard: his lively and demonstrative approach was well suited to Johan Svendsen's Norwegian Artists' Carnival, which got the proceedings off to a suitably rumbustious start...Engegard's attention to detail and the orchestra's general livliness of response ensured that the evening concluded in engaging fashion.
Richard Whitehouse, classicalsource.com, 16 February 2005

Candide, Friday 11 and Saturday 12 February 2005, Royal Festival Hall

How timely of the BBC Concert Orchestra to revive this wonderful work in concert on the South Bank, with a terrific team of soloists led by Thomas Allen...The title role was sung with eloquent conviction by the young, suitably innocent-looking Michael Slattery...conductor Rumon Gamba kept this performance going with all the swing this piece needs.
Anthony Holden, The Observer, 20 February 2005

The night belonged to Bernstein's audaciously inventive score. An outstanding chorus (Maida Vale Singers, Trinity College of Music Singers) romped through the delights of the Auto-Da-Fe.
Edward Seckerson, The Independent, 17 February 2005

The conductor, Rumon Gamba, led off a sparky account of the overture by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Richard Fairman, Financial Times, 16 February 2005

I have come to regard Candide as an outstanding piece. It is an impression reinforced by an excellent concert performance given at the Festival Hall by a gifted team of soloists led by the distinguished baritone Sir Thomas Allen as Pangloss and the Narrator, and the BBC Concert Orchestra, deftly directed by Rumon Gamba.
David Mellor, Mail on Sunday, 20 February 2005

Rumon Gamba and the BBC Concert Orchestra gave evrything to a big and brash performance of the overture...the orchestra had a riot with Bernstein's brilliantly colourful pastiche and musical travelogue. The crowd loved it and so did I.
Robert Thicknesse, The Times, 16 February 2005

John Mauceri's version for the Scottish Opera staging in 1988 is as near definitive as one gets...it was used by Rumon Gamba and the BBC Concert Orchestra for these well-prepared concert performances, with Thomas Allen' delivering the linking narration...sardonic and well-judged...Carla Huhtanen's Cunegonde predictably brought the house down with Glitter and Be Gay and conjured the right kind of brittle optimism.
Andrew Clements, The Guardian, 14 February 2005

Carla Huhtanen rose to its [Glitter and Be Gay] challenges quite splendidly...she presented a feisty character and was strong in projection throughtouit the wide-ranging tessitura. Huhtanen was also effective in duet with Kim Criswell's Old Lady in We Are Women, which came off unusally well in this performance...the choral contributions were first-rate...the BBC Concert Orchestra played with spirit and there was some notable wind playing - the distinctive timbres of cor anglais and bas clarinet came over most tellingly.
Timothy Ball, classicalsource.com, 14 February 2005

Song of the Birds CD (ASV CD WHL2153)
Here are four attractive British offerings for cello and orchestra spanning just 15 years, fully deserving of rescue from almost total oblivion...throughout this nicely engineered collection, [Raphael] Wallfisch and [Vernon] Handley are in their element; the BBC Concert Orchestra too respond with enthusiasm, and Lewis Foreman's knowledgable notes are a boon...well worth tracking down.
Andrew Achenbach, Gramophone, January 2005

Released: Verdi Les Vepres Siciliennes CD (Opera Rara, ORCV303)
This version, made by the BBC CO in front of an invited audience in 1969, presents the opera in its original French guise...a must for serious Verdians.
Hugh Canning, Sunday Times, 2 January 2005

Flashmob - The Opera, screened 26 December, BBC TWO
A first terrestrial broadcast for this extraordinary opera programme which was screened earlier this year on BBC THREE...it's an ambitious project which turned out remarkably well given the spontaneity of the event.
Mike Bradley, The Observer, 19 December 2004

Kit & The Widow - Punch Drunk, Tuesday 21 December, Queen Elizabeth Hall
The old chestnut The Christmas Song was...stylishly performed by the BBC Concert Orchestra.
Kit & The Widow's double act remains a richly rewarding anachronism, Noel Coward banter adapted to the age of Chris Moyles...silly, but irresistible.
Clive Davis, TheTimes, 23 December 2004

Christmas Classics, Monday 13 December, Royal Festival Hall
If you're thinking of limiting your Christmas-themed concert-going this year to just one event, then you may want to make it this one. The BBC Concert Orchestra is perhaps the best ensemble in the country at putting these sorts of splashy shows together, and this bonanza should be a real cracker - mainly because under the BBC CO's light music exterior lurks a beast of great precision, discipline and flexibility. It's equally at home in the opera pit and the world of soft-pop classics and, unlike so many of its higher-brow rivals, can do both extremely well.
Warwick Thompson, Metro, 13 December 2004

Lambert 'Horoscope' / Walton 'The Wise Virgins' CD (ASV CD DCA1168)
Barry Wordsworth draws warm and brilliant performances from the BBC Concert Orchestra, helped by a clear, full-bodied recording.
Edward Greenfield, Gramophone, December 2004

Listen Up! Festival of Orchestras 2004 - closing gala concert, Friday 5 November, Royal Festival Hall
"Barry Wordsworth and the BBC Concert Orchestra unleashed in Malcolm Arnold's Electra a concentrated, powerful and sometimes stark ballet score...this was a performance of terrific panache."
Colin Anderson, classicalsource.com, 5 November 2004

Alistair Cooke memorial service, Friday 15 October, Westminster Abbey
"A great professional was remembered in an aching Concert Orchestra performance of the second movement of Bach's Concerto in A minor, with Cooke's granddaughter Jane Byrne Kittredge playing violin."
John Ezard, The Guardian, 16 October 2004

One Night with Rod Stewart, Wednesday 13 October, Royal Albert Hall
"All was cool, calm sophistication as Stewart was joined after the interval by the full [BBC Concert] Orchestra."
David Sinclair, The Times, 14 October 2004

"The BBC Concert Orchestra provides elegant support."
Tim de Lisle, Mail on Sunday, 17 October 2004

Flashmob - The Opera, Wednesday 6 October, Paddington Station
"The sight of the BBC Concert Orchestra in full formal dress setting up between Yo Sushi and CafÃ© Ritazza at Paddington Station last night stopped a fair few commuters in their tracks"
Zoe Kleinmen, Ariel, 7 October 2004

Nordic Adventures: Finland, Thursday 30 September, Queen Elizabeth Hall
"The concert ended with Sibelius' Seventh Symphony...in which the BBC CO demonstrated a grip that was never in doubt."
Richard Whitehouse, classicalsource.com, 1 October 2004

"It [Sibelius' Seventh Symphony] had imposing concentration...Kuusisto had positive ideas...and he won the orchestra's applause."
Robert Maycock, The Independent, 5 October 2004

BBC Proms, Friday 20 August, Royal Albert Hall
"The BBC Concert Orchestra was on very good form, with Humperdinck's varied orchestration coming vividly to life...this was a thoroughly convincing and satisfying performance."
Timothy Ball, classicalsource.com, 20 August 2004

"The BBC CO...repeatedly showed what a good orchestra they can be."
Martin Kettle, Guardian, 23 August 2004

"This hugely enjoyable performance, sung in German, was conducte with terrific panache by Jane Glover...the dramatic structure and perspective were beautifully shaped."
Daily Telegraph, 21 August 2004

BBC Proms, Saturday 14 August, Royal Albert Hall
"Under the watchful eye of leader Cynthia Fleming the violins of the BBC CO made light work of the opening fortissimo scales."
Chris Caspell, classicalsource.com, 14 August 2004

"In the second half, the playing was individual and infectious. Wordsworth used his experience of the ballet repertoire to bring a winning and idiomatic lilt to a range of familiar works...The capacity audience took he [Yvonne Kenny] to their hearts and the evening was set up for a fine performance of the Blue Danube to conclude."
Martin Kettle, The Guardian, 18 August 2004

"This is where the BBC Concert Orchestra and its conductor Barry Wordsworth are thoroughly at home. They drank liberally from the bottomless well of the Strauss oeuvre and came up with a cracker of an encore, a Bicycle Galop by a composer whose name I did not catch but who certainly knew how to dazzle with xylophones."
Geoffrey Norris, The Daily Telegraph, 16 August 2004

Reviews