CONCERT REVIEW | Grieg, Brahms, & Dvořák | Philharmonia Orchestra/Shoji & Ashkenazy | Royal Festival Hall, London | "the performance felt like music-making from an old world”
United Kingdom: Philharmonia Orchestra, Sayaka Shoji (Violin) & Vladimir Ashkenazy (Conductor). Reviewed at Royal Festival Hall, London on 28 November 2019.
Grieg, Holberg Suite, Op.40
Brahms, Violin Concerto in D major, Op.77
Dvořák, Symphony no. 9 in E minor, "From the New World," Op.95
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| Sayaka Shoji, © Norizumi Kitada | UMLLC |
Incredibly, it is almost 45 years since Vladimir Ashkenazy first conducted the Philharmonia Orchestra from the podium. Such a long-standing partnership easily invites thoughts as to whether Ashkenazy may conjure up an old soul from the orchestra, excavating sonorities that once famed the ensemble under the batons of Klemperer, Giulini and Maazel. Yet in an exceptional performance such as this, guesses hardly mattered.