Richard Wagner’s Das Rheingold - an epic of gods and monsters - brought to the 21st century at the Deutsche Oper Berlin.
Das Rheingold
Opera

london philharmonic orchestra
At the Royal Festival Hall, Karina Canellakis conducts the London Philharmonic in Rachmaninov's Second Symphony, a work whose reputation for unapologetic Romanticism conceals the architectural precision required to sustain it. A somber cello-and-bass figure unfurls into expansive string melodies; woodwinds answer before the cor anglais sings over hushed brass. The Scherzo's chattering counterpoint turns suddenly ominous. Then the Adagio arrives: a long clarinet line, unhurried above glistening arpeggios, before the Finale's carnivalesque energy gathers into a majestic violin theme that returns in full. Rachmaninov retreated to Dresden in 1907, writing this symphony in secret, not even telling friends. It carries the weight of a composer with everything to prove. Canellakis lets the London Philharmonic Orchestra glow, holding tension until the strings finally unfurl in full-throated release and the symphony surges into flight.