CONCERT REVIEW | Schumann | London Symphony Orchestra/Faust & Gardiner | Barbican, London | "The woodwinds gliding through the lean, lyrical strings were special, yet the highlights were in the clarity of the contrapuntal and chorale-like sections of the Finale, where Gardiner rose to his credential as early music specialist"

United Kingdom: London Symphony Orchestra, Isabelle Faust (Violin), & Sir John Eliot Gardiner (Conductor). Reviewed at Barbican Hall, London on 15 March 2018.

Schumann, Genoveva, Op.81: overture
Schumann, Violin Concerto in D minor
Schumann, Overture, Scherzo and Finale in E major, Op.52
Schumann, Symphony no. 4 in D minor, Op.120

Sir John Eliot Gardiner, © Sim Canetty-Clarke

It is too much of a good thing to have Sir John Eliot Gardiner return to the podium of the Barbican Hall with an all-Schumann concert, just few days after a laureled performance there with the London Symphony Orchestra. Yet such auspicious expectations were set aside – specifically for 20 minutes – due to timpanist John Chimes’ fashionably late arrival for his duties.

With the full regiment in disposal, Gardiner and the LSO settled seamlessly into the Overture, Scherzo and Finale. In a work that can give the impression of a symphonic sketch, Gardiner found an ideal balance between lilt and nobility...

Read the full review on Bachtrack

Young-Jin Hur

@yjhur1885