Classical music and jazz: Latest news
Published 4 February 2010
RUSSIAN conductor Valery Gergiev has a reputation for an abrasive yet passionate, conducting style, often with a toothpick rather than a baton.
Just how that goes down with London Symphony Orchestra members can be seen at an open rehearsal at St Luke’s, Old Street on Wednesday.
Works being rehearsed include Bela Bartok’s Music for Strings, Percussion and Celesta and Henri Dutilleux’s Mystere de l’instant.
On Thursday, Gergiev and the LSO will perform the Bartok work in the Barbican, following with the Dutilleux on Saturday at the same venue.
Modern music buffs should also note that Schoenberg’s extraordinary Pierrot Lunaire will be played at the free Monday lunchtime concert held at the Royal Opera House’s Linbury Studio.
Concerts devoted to Chopin’s music are getting underway ahead of the bi-centenary anniversary of his birth on February 22, 1810. At Kings Place on Wednesday, pianist Martino Tirimo is launching Chopin Unwrapped, the first of a series of three four-day recitals devoted to playing all of the composer’s piano music.
There are some interesting jazz pianists on the ivories in Soho too.
Ronnie Scott’s on Monday and Tuesday has New York jazz pianist Robert Glasper and Pizza Express has Czech jazz pianist Najponk on Tuesday.
Next Thursday evening, Pizza Express will have jazz band Empirical, which is winning plaudits for its intelligent, spacey, graceful music with absorbing solos.