Paul Kilbey

Paul is Reviews Editor at Bachtrack and One Stop Arts. He has written on music and culture for publications including Culture Wars and Huffington Post UK. He holds BA and MPhil degrees in music from Sidney Sussex College, Cambridge, and is particularly passionate about contemporary music of all types. His website is here.
Not an outrageous start to Nico Muhly's A Scream and an Outrage weekend at the Barbican

The first session in Nico Muhly's A Scream and an Outrage weekend at the Barbican saw the BBC Symphony Orchestra, BBC Singers and conductor Jayce Ogren perform works by Muhly, David Lang, and Paola Prestini. A very uneven concert, it was not outrageous.

Monday 13th May 2013 Read more...
Eight extraordinary string players meet: The Arditti and JACK Quartets combine at Wigmore Hall

Two specialist new music quartets, the Arditti and JACK Quartets, joined forces at Wigmore Hall on Monday for four pieces all new to London. The music came first in this concert, in both the pieces for one quartet and those for both combined.

Friday 10th May 2013 Read more...
International Contemporary Ensemble at Kings Place

US contemporary music group International Contemporary Ensemble came to Kings Place for a recital curated by composer Dai Fujikura mostly featuring works from New York City. It was a well played concert, but I'd like the opportunity to hear more from these talented players.

Monday 29th April 2013 Read more...
Sir John Eliot Gardiner at 70 with the LSO and Stravinsky

In a 70th birthday concert with the London Symphony Orchestra, Sir John Eliot Gardiner brought two contrasting neoclassical works by Stravinsky to the Barbican Hall:  Apollon Musagète and Oedipus Rex. It's hard to imagine finer performances of either piece.

Friday 26th April 2013 Read more...
Ringing true: John Tilbury performs Beckett on a piano

Pianist John Tilbury performed an instrumental version of Samuel Beckett's late novella Worstward Ho in Dalston's Cafe OTO on Tuesday night. Beckett's impenetrable text was given a sincere and very personal interpretation in a performance at once thrilling and bizarre.

Thursday 25th April 2013 Read more...
Première of Michel van der Aa's Sunken Garden at the Barbican

Michel van der Aa and David Mitchell's new 3D occult mystery opera Sunken Garden, an ENO–Barbican co-production, is a trippy, perplexing experience, brilliant on occasions. This may not quite be the future of opera, but it's still probably your only chance for a while to see a vertical pond.

Saturday 13th April 2013 Read more...
Brahms meets Schoenberg: Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra in London for The Rest is Noise

A rare London performance from the esteemed Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra saw them in a concert of works by Schoenberg and Brahms, conducted by Michael Tilson Thomas and featuring Yefim Bronfman as soloist. While the programming was questionable, the performance was superb.

Thursday 11th April 2013 Read more...
BCMG's Into the Little Hill on George Benjamin Day at Wigmore Hall

On Wigmore Hall's "George Benjamin Day", Birmingham Contemporary Music Group presented his first opera Into the Little Hill alongside works by Francesco Antonioni and David Sawer, with the featured composer conducting. The first ever contemporary opera at Wigmore Hall has set a very high standard.

Monday 8th April 2013 Read more...
Gergiev and the LSO in Brahms and Szymanowski choral works

The final programme in Valery Gergiev and the London Symphony Orchestra's series pairing Johannes Brahms with Karol Szymanowski, this concert coupled the former's German Requiem with the latter's Stabat Mater: a different but intriguing pairing.

Tuesday 2nd April 2013 Read more...
Kurtág's Kafka Fragments staged at the Linbury Studio Theatre

György Kurtág's absorbing composition Kafka Fragments sets a number of short phrases by the writer to music for soprano and violin. Though brilliantly performed by Claire Booth and Peter Manning, Netia Jones' staging at the Royal Opera House Linbury Studio was not a necessary addition.

Saturday 30th March 2013 Read more...
David Matthews' 70th birthday celebration with the Nash Ensemble at Wigmore Hall

David Matthews' 70th birthday was celebrated at Wigmore Hall by the Nash Ensemble and last-minute substitute soprano Gillian Keith. The concert also featured works by Julian Anderson and James Francis Brown.

Friday 22nd March 2013 Read more...
The Gospel according to Peter Sellars: The LA Phil bring a European première to the Barbican

The Los Angeles Philharmonic's second concert in their Barbican residency was the European première of John Adams and Peter Sellars' The Gospel According to the Other Mary. Gustavo Dudamel conducted a superb cast. Musically this was very strong, but dramatically it seemed flawed.

Tuesday 19th March 2013 Read more...
Wandering around Cage: Margaret Leng Tan plays Four Walls in the Barbican Art Gallery

Part of the Barbican's Dancing Around Duchamp season, this performance from Cage authority Margaret Leng Tan took place within their Bride and the Bachelors exhibition. Four Walls is a hugely striking Cage composition, though its connection to the exhibition was remote.

Monday 18th March 2013 Read more...
Donizetti re-done: The Siege of Calais with English Touring Opera in Hackney

Gaetano Donizett's The Siege of Calais is not among his best-known works, and English Touring Opera are currently presenting the first ever professional British production. They began their tour at Hackney Empire last week, in impressive style.

Tuesday 12th March 2013 Read more...
Serially fascinating: Karim Said plays Schoenberg at The Rest is Noise

This Rest is Noise recital offered the rare chance to hear some early serialist music performed in public, and Karim Said's rendition of these pieces by Schoenberg, Eisler and Webern was exemplary. While this music can be rather opaque, it can still tell brilliant, vivid stories.

Tuesday 5th March 2013 Read more...
Baltic music and Bach: Alina Ibragimova and Britten Sinfonia at the Barbican

Britten Sinfonia were joined at the Barbican by violinist Alina Ibragimova, Britten Sinfonia Voices and choirmaster Eamonn Dougan for a programme which spanned music from the 12th century to the 21st. Some remarkable Bach playing was the highlight.

Friday 1st March 2013 Read more...
Bach stays wrapped up: The Art of Fugue with Fretwork

Bach's final, unfinished work, The Art of Fugue, was beautifully realised by viol consort Fretwork at Kings Place, part of the Bach Unwrapped festival. But a very straight concert presentation meant that the work stayed rather mysterious.

Monday 25th February 2013 Read more...
Wagner done proud in Fulham: Siegfried from Fulham Opera

You have to sit on a pretty uncomfortable chair and listen to a load of opera singers warbling about dwarves and gold and stuff. But somehow – and I’m still not entirely sure why – Fulham Opera's Siegfried is a completely brilliant evening’s entertainment, which absolutely does Wagner proud.

Monday 18th February 2013 Read more...
The Magic Flute gets metatheatrical with the Merry Opera Company

The Merry Opera Company's Magic Flute at the Riverside Studios featured a new translation and production masterminded by Kit Hesketh-Harvey. But an overly complicated dramatic conceit stood in the way of this classic comedy.

Friday 8th February 2013 Read more...
Turnage, Harding and Hardenberger with the London Symphony Orchestra

Mark-Anthony Turnage's short residency with the London Symphony Orchestra began on Tuesday with his trumpet concerto played by the legendary Håkan Hardenberger, in between works by Sibelius and Beethoven. Daniel Harding was the impressive conductor.

Friday 8th February 2013 Read more...
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