This post is one in a sequence which lists (mostly) live music I have heard, as best as memory allows. I write to have a record of my musical experiences and these entries are intended as postcards from me to my future self. All opinions are personal, although music historians from the 25th Century may find some of them of interest.

Other posts in this collection can be found here. The most recent prior post in this sequence is here.

• The Rite of Spring, original 4-hands version, played by 14 pianists in relay as part of the Royal College of Music Keyboard Festival, Rituals and Dances, Sunday 2 March 2025.

  The performers were:

  • Part 1: Adoration of the Earth
  • I Introduction: Knox Oakey and Markus Sadler
  • II Augurs of Spring and III Ritual of Abduction: Ho Ming So and Ruiqi Fang
  • IV Spring Rounds: Jack Wong and Steven Yeung
  • V Ritual of the Rival Tribes – Procession of the Sage and VI The Sage – Dance of the Earth: Sofia Berdnik and Alicja Kojder
  • Part 2: The Sacrifice
  • I Introduction: Teodora Stanković and Claire Dowdell
  • II Mystic Circles of the Young Girls and III Glorification of the Chosen One: Josh Milton and Nico Varela
  • IV Evocation of the Ancestors – Ritual Action of the Ancestors and V Sacrificial Dance: Alexander Doronin and Jiaxin Min

  Two Steinway pianos were deployed, as if we were to hear a 2-piano version. Each pair of pianists sat at one piano, with the two pianos alternating through the seven sections. As one pair of pianists played, the next pair would seat themselves at the other piano. These were all very good performances and tightly co-ordinated between the seven pairs of pianists. What a great experience it was to witness this event! Bravo to all 14 players!

• Carducci Quartet in Concert #2 of their Shostakovich Quartet Cycle, Milton Court Concert Hall, Guildhall School of Music, London, Friday 28 February 2025.
  • Shostakovich: String Quartet No 12
  • Shostakovich: String Quartet No 6
  • Sofia Guibaidulina: Reflections on the Theme B-A-C-H
  • Shostakovich: String Quartet No 3

  I was only able to stay for the first two works. This was a very good performance. Despite the programme note and the words of the first violinist to the audience as the players took their seats, I don’t think Quartet No 6 is at all “light”. The music is moving and profound.

• Kasparas Mikužis in a recital at St George’s Church, Hanover Square, London on Friday 14 February 2025. The program was:
  • Beethoven: “Moonlight” Sonata, op. 27, no. 2
  • Chopin: Nocturne op. 55 no. 2
  • Chopin: Ballade no. 3, op. 47
  • Chopin: Preludes op. 28, no. 17-24
  • Interval
  • Rachmaninoff: Sonata op. 28, no. 1

  This concert was promoted as an event for Valentine’s Day, and many of the 250 or so people present seemed to be tourists or people who did not normally attend classical music concerts, or even visit churches very often. Consequently, there was a lot of movement and noise, phones ringing, talking, etc, especially at the start of each half of the evening. Perhaps one-third of the audience had left before the end.

  The performance by Mr Mikužis in Handel’s church was wonderful, as his performances always are, and he played with great ease and confidence. As he said in introduction to the Rachmaninoff, this Sonata is deeply about the meaning of life and love, and so perhaps was fitting for Valentine’s Day. Its representation of a demonic struggle gave the feeling of a hellfire-and-brimstone sermon when played in this famous Church.

• Carducci Quartet and Sonoro Quartet and Guildhall School musicians in the first in a sequence of concerts of all Shostakovich’s Quartets, at the Milton Court Concert Hall, the Guildhall, London on 29 January 2025. The programme:
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet #1 (Carducci Quartet)
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet #5 (Sonoro Quartet)
  • Galina Ustvolskaya: Trio for violin, clarinet and piano (Matteo Cimatti (v), Kathryn Titcomb (cl), David Parlmer (p))
  • Dmitri Shostakovich: String Quartet #9 (Carducci Quartet)

  The hall was close to full and the performances were intense and powerful. In his 5th Quartet, Shostakovich quoted from the clarinet trio of his student Galina Ustvolskaya (1919-2006), so the inclusion of her trio alongside the 5th was a very nice idea. These were all exceptional performances. I have often heard the Carduccis, but the Sonoros were new to me. They are definitely an ensemble I will try to hear again.

  Strangely, the website of the Sonoro Quartet nowhere appears to give the names of its members. That is an odd oversight. For the historical record, the names recorded in the programme booklet are: Marley Erickson (v), Jeroen de Beer (v), Seamus Hickey (va), and Isaac Lottman (c).

• The London Orlando Orchestra under Claudia Jablonski with soloist
  Ugnė Liepa Žuklytė (violin) in a concert in St Cyprian’s Church, Clarence Gate, London on Sunday 19 January 2025. The programme:
  • Sibelius: Concerto for Violin
  • Prokofiev: Symphony No. 1 “Classical”

  About 35 people attended this free concert in St Cyprian’s Anglican church. The Orlando Orchestra comprises mostly student musicians and was founded by Ms Jablonski in 2023. As with their second performance in June last year, this performance was again outstanding. The acoustics of the church are excellent, and the orchestra filled the space completely. Ms Žuklytė played the Sibelius superbly, and the third movement, with its dark, northern winter energy, was sublime.

  I heard the Southbank Sinfonia play Prokofiev’s Classical Symphony last February. I still find Prokofiev’s melodic and harmonic spikiness mostly alien to my musical thinking, but the work is growing on me, as I hear it again. Ms Jablonski’s interpretation was lighter and more humorous than I recall the Sinfonia version being. More power to her elbow!

• Kasparas Mikužis in a recital at St Mary’s Perivale, London, on Tuesday 14 January 2025. The program was the same as Mr Mikužis’s recent Wigmore recital:
  • Rameau: Suite in G
  • Rachmaninoff: Sonata No 1 in D minor, Op. 28

  The recital was live-streamed, and is available to view here.

• Jan Liebermann in a streamed performance of Marcel Dupré’s Trois Préludes et Fugues Op. 7 & Op. 36 on the modern two-part organ of the Evangelische Stadtkirche St Reinoldi in Dortmund, Germany on Friday 10th January 2025. This was an outstanding performance from memory of two superb sets of three preludes and fugues. A video recording of the recital is here.
  

  And here is Mr Liebermann’s virtuoso performance of Tchaikovsky’s Dance of the Little Swans from Swan Lake, in Mr Liebermann’s own thrilling arrangement (influenced by the piano arrangement of Earl Wild).