Published: 20 March 2012
Category: Artists

March 2012 saw Renaud Capuçon perform at London’s Royal Festival Hall and Barbican Centre, receiving unanimous critical acclaim. His Royal Festival Hall concert with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and Ivan Fischer received five-star reviews from the Guardian and the Times:

“...the temperature rose further in Lalo’s Symphonie espagnole, an old concert favourite, now a rare visitor in Britain. Any gathering dust was blown away in this gorgeous performance from violin soloist Renaud Capuçon (laidback in manner, but so nimble, so fiery) and Fischer’s terrific band. Colourful musicianship, happy tunes, a furious encore. I came out singing in the rain.”
The Times

“There were wonders in the first half, too... Lalo's Symphonie Espagnole with Renaud Capuçon as soloist. The work is considered fluff in some quarters; here we had the full measure of the seriousness behind its grace and wit. Capuçon played with virile agility and tremendous nobility of tone. Fischer teased out the beauties of Lalo's orchestration with immense subtlety. A great concert.”
The Guardian

Two weeks later Capuçon returned to London to give the UK premiere of Brett Dean’s Violin Concerto “The Lost Art of Letter Writing” at the Barbican with the BBC Symphony. Again the reviews were superb:

“...The 2006 violin concerto The Lost Art of Letter Writing won Dean the 2009 Grawemeyer award, and the only mystery is why such a vividly engaging work, already having been taken up by so many violinists, should have taken so long to get here. Its four movements take 19th-century letters (by Brahms, Van Gogh, Hugo Wolf and Ned Kelly) as their starting points, and they seem to evoke more than one lost art: the solo writing seems to distil a whole virtuoso-concerto tradition, and the exceptional soloist Renaud Capuçon clearly relished its soaring, wonderfully idiomatic violin lines...”
The Guardian

“...each movement is inspired by a significant letter (the writers being Brahms, Van Gogh, Hugo Wolf and Ned Kelly) and Dean’s music skilfully captures the sense of passionate thoughts struggling to articulate themselves. Renaud Capuçon was the superbly adroit soloist.”
London Evening Standard

Renaud Capuçon returns to London in October to make his debut with the Philharmonia Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall.

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