Category: gig reviews
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RSNO/Iwabuchi review – robust Brahms upstaged by frosty Sibelius adventures
Resident RSNO violinist Maya Iwabuchi’s Brahms showed impressive attention to detail without ever grandstanding, but it was a second half of Finnish delights that brought out the best from an in-form Emilia Hoving.
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Samuelsen/SCO review – Vivaldi remix remains Richter’s gorgeous masterpiece
A vivid rendition of Richter’s ingenious tribute to the Four Seasons was the clear highlight of this forward-thinking programme of living composers in Glasgow’s City Halls. Before the interval, self-assured conductor David Brophy sounded most at home animating John Adams’ colourful The Chairman Dances.
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Turandot review – let no one sleep on this ravishing production
Think Puccini’s swan song is just a vessel for opera’s megahit Nessun Dorma? Think again. Scottish Opera’s latest Turandot revival is sumptuous from start to finish, delivering both intimate anguish and knock-your-cotton-socks-off awe in equal measure.
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Tommy Lefroy live at Assai Records review – a little too precarious
Performing for the first time in nearly two years, Tommy Lefroy sounded a little rusty for this low-key set in Edinburgh. Still, given the content of their promising new album The Precariat, maybe human imperfection was the whole point.
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Madra Salach live at The Grove review – Irish sextet seek pleasure and pain
Irish folk merchants Madra Salach delivered on the promise of their excellent debut EP with an evening of age-old songcraft and atmospheric experimentalism, adept at finding beauty in the midst of adversity.
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Eleanor Moss live at SWG3 Poetry Club review – crystalline classical guitar songs dazzle up close
Eleanor Moss’s quietly fascinating songs about tenderness and violence inspired a stunned silence in the crowd for this powerfully intimate set at the Poetry Club. A full backing band is all that’s needed to elevate her already transfixing compositions.
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Wednesday live at O2 Ritz review – embattled country rockers leave it all on the mosh pit floor
She may have been “sick as a dog” and visibly shaken by the fresh news of Dolly Parton’s death, but Karly Hartzman and her band still summoned a laudably committed performance in Manchester, masterfully shifting gear from glorious country crooners to vicious smash-and-grab punk in a flawless final 20 minutes.
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Vulfpeck live at the O2 review – panto funk collective have the key to your heart
Performing a vanishingly rare UK arena show, the lovable funk group offered plenty of light-hearted musical delights for a bouyant O2 crowd, even in the absence of founding member Theo Katzman.
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Imogen Cooper/Lewis/RNS live at the Glasshouse review – a fitting send-off
Returning to the same composer that started her career over five decades ago, Imogen Cooper’s farewell concerto was an uplifting Mozart masterclass. A nuanced 27th Concerto highlighted Cooper’s talent as one of Britain’s finest concert pianists.
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The Lemon Twigs live at Brudenell Social Club review – they just don’t make pop like this any more
Playing to a packed room on a glorious May evening in Leeds, the Twigs seemed perfectly at ease on stage for this faultless set. The grand orchestration of their new album was necessarily dialed-back, but no bother: these are some of the best-written pop rock songs this side of 1970.
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Max Cooper live at the Glasshouse review – high-tech light show beguiles and befuddles
Music plays second fiddle to visual art in Max Cooper’s impressive 3D/AD Live show, the performer partly obscured behind a screen of dazzling technicolour projections. When the shapeshifting art is the right fit for Cooper’s cerebral electronica, the result is transfixing, but this meandering show seems to be missing its guiding light.
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Florence Road live at NUSU review – viral Irish rockers are stadium bound
The buzzy Wicklow rock group have only released a handful of songs, but have already received support from a staggering array of the global music industry’s big names. This set of largely unreleased songs in Newcastle mostly justified the hype, although Flo Ro’s live offering still has plenty of room for improvement.
