[Wigmore Hall, 4 December, 'Britten Anniversary Concert']
"Tuesday's grand finale brought masterpieces and unmissable performances… the Nash Ensemble and their starry soloists - Lawrence Power, Sandrine Piau, John Mark Ainsley and Richard Watkins, playing his distant horn solos with magical control - demonstrated that orchestral pieces such as Lachrymae, Les Illuminations and the Serenade for tenor, horn and strings can be easily, excitingly accommodated in the Wigmore's intimate surroundings. The rest of the Britten centenary celebrations will have to be very good indeed to surpass this."
The Sunday Times, December 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 4 December, 'Britten Anniversary Concert']
"Lawrence Power played it [Lachrymae] with great dignity, technical prowess and beauty of tone. Brabbins's taut conducting brought home the full force of its austerity … Sandrine Piau's silvery sound, at once chaste and sensual, fitted the music [Les Illuminations] like a glove, and her understated way with Rimbaud's innuendos was matchless: being a native French speaker doubtless helped. It's impossible to imagine the work better done. The soloists in the intensely felt performance of the Serenade, meanwhile, were John Mark Ainsley and Richard Watkins. Ainsley took a couple of minutes to settle, then did extraordinary things with the Nocturne and Elegy. Watkins's burnished, beautifully focused playing was second to none. The Nash strings were exquisite."
The Guardian, December 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 18 November, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"It should be obligatory for music critics to point out that this group has commissioned more than 175 new works since its foundation in 1964. It plays the old ones pretty well, too. On Sunday, at a sell-out Wigmore Hall, its performance of Mendelssohn's Octet had me holding my breath for the entire 35 minutes' duration. That's only a slight exaggeration."
The Observer, November 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 18 November, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"For all that the second of the Nash Ensemble’s Saturday programmes had English Pastoralism written across its heart, it was never in danger of exemplifying the melodious meandering that characterises the genre at its weakest. The reasons were twofold. First, astute programming brought together a sequence of works possessed of undeniable originality and inspiration. Second, the collective efforts of the ensemble members — many of whom are soloists in their own right — resulted in a robust vigour that was anything but pallid.
Conductor Paul Watkins seemed reluctant to restrain their enthusiasm and the Sentimental Sarabande of Britten’s Simple Symphony throbbed with a neurotic urgency worthy of Tchaikovsky. The viola featured prominently in Frank Bridge’s Three Songs for voice, viola and piano and William Alwyn’s Pastoral Fantasia for solo viola and strings. The viola and its executants are favourite butts of jokes in the musical profession but the nobility and rich lyricism of Lawrence Power’s playing banished any such ideas as unworthy. The deeply elegiac tones of the Heine setting (Where is it that our soul doth go?) were reflected in the eloquent line of the baritone Roderick Williams, while the final Shelley movement (Music when soft voices die) was suitably valedictory.
The Alwyn is a too little known gem, its gratifying, heart-warming harmonic language frequently darkened by undertones of anguish not entirely surprising in a work dating from the inauspicious year of 1939. Though Gerald Finzi’s Dies Natalis dates from the same year, the mood of these settings of the 17th-century mystic Thomas Traherne is more visionary, more spiritual. Ailish Tynan, stepping in at very short notice for Susan Gritton as the soprano solo (an authentic alternative to the more usual tenor), caught to perfection the breathless rapture that characterises text and music alike.
Roderick Williams returned as a soloist in Vaughan Williams’s Five Mystical Songs, bringing by turns ecstasy, tenderness and the strength of moral conviction."
The Guardian, November 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 17 November, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"Britten's Simple Symphony opened the latest instalment of the Nash Ensemble's "Dreamers of Dreams" series, a refreshingly programmed survey of English music from the first half of the 20th century. As in Little Music, it looks back to Baroque forms, and Paul Watkins's bracing direction also revealed hints of folksiness, connecting it with much else in this enjoyable concert. The fare included Vaughan Williams's Five Mystical Songs, in the version for baritone and piano quintet, where Roderick Williams brought a wonderful variety of vocal colour to George Herbert's words. It was also good to hear William Alwyn's Pastoral Fantasia for solo viola and strings, which opens like a tenorial Lark Ascending but finds its own voice when played with such rapturous warmth as the soloist Lawrence Power supplied here."
The Sunday Telegraph, November 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 17 November, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"A transcendental connection continued in William Alwyn's rarely performed Pastoral Fantasia for solo viola and strings (1939), which begins in similar vein to Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending before staking out its own territory. As in his obbligatos in the Bridge songs, violist Lawrence Power conveyed the music's inner landscape in playing of rapt concentration, charting its course with glowing tone and the subtlest shifts in colour; like Williams, he has become an artist of exceptional expressive power.
Pianist Ian Brown and other Nash stalwarts made significant contributions, with the Sentimental Sarabande in Britten's precocious Simple Symphony providing yet another spiritual high in a performance under conductor Paul Watkins that soared above the music's urbane and brilliant surface."
The Guardian, November 2012
[Bath Mozartfest, 9 November]
"…the Mozartfest had opened with masterpieces performed by the Nash Ensemble: a rapt account of the lovely andante cantabile from Tchaikovsky's First String Quartet, followed by Mozart's String Quintet in C, K515 - a peak of his chamber musical output - and the second "Razumovsky" Quartet, Op.59/2, by Beethoven. The ensemble was founded 48 years ago by the artistic director of Mozartfest, Amelia Freedman, but I wonder if it has ever comprised such patrician players as it does today: Marianne Thorsen (violin), Lawrence Power and Philip Dukes (violas), and Paul Watkins (cello), all have substantial solo careers, but when they come together, you would think they played with each other every day. With Laura Samuel, former second violin of the Belcea Quartet, these players epitomise Goethe's stimulating conversationalists, always listening to each other, yet combining as one to convey the essence of Mozart and Beethoven's ever-astonishing musical ideas. This opening concert was so fine, I was sorry to miss the Nash's large-scaled, mostly French programme two nights later, which included Ravel's String Quartet and Saint-Saëns's Carnival of the Animals."
The Sunday Times, November 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 22 September, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"The Nash Ensemble has proved itself to be one of the foremost chamber groups of its time, and this concert did not disappoint. In this concert in particular, its flexible approach enabled it to tackle a variety of pieces by composers who are not always held in the highest regard, and to turn preconceptions about them completely on their head through its excellent and often amusing playing. The remaining concerts in this series at Wigmore Hall are a must-hear (and -see!)."
bachtrack.com, September 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 22 September, 'Dreamers of Dreams']
"The Nash players brought out the rigour and intensity of his [Vaughan Williams's] Phantasy String Quintet of 1912; their tight ensemble;e and shared sense of musical commitment were equally exciting in Elgar's String Quartet, whose outer movements' restless volatility was as vividly realised as the wounded nostalgia of its central andante."
The Guardian, September 2012
[Nash Inventions, 13 March 2012, Wigmore Hall]
"The heavyweights of British contemporary music were out in force to hear their music performed at this 'Nash Inventions' concert. Mark-Anthony Turnage's 'Returning' for string sextet was lean and thrilling, with not a gesture wasted. The Nash cherished every line, the players delighting in the music's building intensity. Alexander Goehr's Quintet for clarinet and string quartet also brought impassioned and lovely string textures, shot through with influences from Masses by ]osquin and Ockeghem, the clarinet soaring eloquently over the top. Colin Matthews's 'The Island' (with soprano Claire Booth)
was fun of richness and power, its delicate ensemble writing intricately outlined by the Nash players.
Peter Maxwell Davies's beloved Orkney was the inspiration for his piece 'The Last Island' for string quartet, evoking the 'ever-changing light of sea and sky'. Moments of calm were interrupted by menacing interjections. The ending was particularly gripping. Over a static drift from the rest of the players, the first violin spun a creeping melody that ended on surely the world's scariest note to perform, at (he very top of the fingerboard - performed by a fearless David Alberman.
Then came the premiere of Birtwistle's 'Fantasia Upon All the Notes', for flute, clarinet, harp and string quartet, written at the behest of the Nash's artistic director, Amelia Freedman, as a companion piece to Ravel's Introduction and Allegro. Gritty intensity took hold with gestures that spilled out across the ensemble, building to a claustrophobic climax before dying away. Jonathan Harvey's beautiful Song Offerings (soprano and ensemble) made an evocative finale."
The Strad, May 2012
[Turina CD for Hyperion CDA67889]
"Everything here is performed with great warmth and a real sense of belief in the music - especially Marianne Thorsen and Ian Brown's eloquent and characterful account of the Sonata Espagnola for violin and piano. There are other performances of the masterful Piano Trio No.1 and the evocative Escena Andaluza for the unusual combination of solo viola and piano quintet, but I rate these as the very best I've heard, with Lawrence Power's viola an eloquent principal voice in the latter. Even the popular Oracion del torero, given here in its string quartet version, receives a performance of rare distinction, without any hint of sentimentality."
BBC Music Magazine, May 2012
[SCHUMANN Chamber works, Hyperion CDA67923 ]
CD OF THE WEEK
"Apart from the A minor Violin Sonata, Op 105, the collections of small pieces that make up the contents of this wonderful Schumann disc usually struggle to assert themselves in the concert hall and on disc. So it's good to have the Adagio and Allegro for Horn, Op 70, the Marchenbitder (Fairy-Tale Pictures), for viola, Op 113, the Fantasiestücke (Fantasy Pieces), for clarinet, Op 73, the Three Romances, for oboe, Op 94, and the Märchenerzählungen (Fairy Stories), for Mozart's unusual combination of clarinet, viola and piano. The Nash players are British chamber-music royalty, but it.is always an especial pleasure to hear the voluptuous viola sound of Lawrence Power (pictured) in such an eloquent dialogue with Ian Brown's piano in the too rarely heard Märchenbilder. They are joined by Richard Hosford's melifiuous, virtuoslc clarinet in the late trio pieces - once dismissed as a product of Schumann's mental decline, but never more persuasive-sounding than here. Marianne Thorsen and Brown are passionate advocates for the Violin Sonata, sweeping the listener along with the urgency of their playing in the outer movements and warmly expressive in the central allegretto. Richard Watkins's horn is exemplary in the seldom-heard Adagio and Allegro, and Gareth Hulse's plangent oboe makes exquisite songs without words of the Romances. A gorgeous, unmissable disc of great, too infrequently heard chamber music."
The Sunday Times, April 2012
[Russian CD for Onyx 4067]
"…all gorgeously played by the Nash Ensemble… delivered with such energy and relish…"
The Guardian, April 2012
[Russian CD for Onyx 4067]
"The Nash Ensemble's superior string players make a beautiful case for these not overfamiliar 19th-century Russian works… "
The Sunday Times, April 2012
[Turina CD for Hyperion CDA67889]
"This disc of some of his [Turina's] melodious and atmospheric chamber music is very welcome and contains one of his best-known scores, 'La Oración del Torero' ('The bullfighter's prayer') for string quartet. Folksy, imploring and suggestive, this fragrant piece is played with relish and sensitivity. Also included in this beautifully recorded and presented release is a succession of shapely and alluring pieces - for piano quartet, violin and piano trio. This is music that paints pictures and is imbued with Spanish sunshine and sensual nocturnes, the listener serenaded with expressive warmth and a wide palette of colour, all lovingly played. Maybe señor Turina is making a comeback. This disc should help."
Time Out, April 2012
[Queen's Hall, Edinburgh: 5 March 2012]
"The Nash Ensemble, in any of its formations, has become one of the great musical communicators.
In this week's New Town Concert, we heard it as a quintet for horn and strings, as a horn-violin-piano trio, and as a piano quintet – three concerts in one. Who could ask for more?
The first and shortest concert was the most sensational. James MacMillan wrote his Horn Quintet for the Nash Ensemble five years ago and the players have been right to keep it in their repertoire.
It's not just that Richard Watkins plays the horn part so well, delivering what MacMillan described as the work's hunting and battle exclamations with verve. What he does with the recurring five-note motif – making it sound heroic, poetic, hectic, and at one point manic – is a study in brilliant obsession, ending with him stealthily playing his way off the platform, leaving the rest of the ensemble (including that prince of violists Lawrence Power) looking bereft.
After this, in Brahms's Horn Trio, written in mourning for his mother, Watkins caught not only the desolation but also the false jollity Brahms drew from the instrument. The genuine jollity came later in Dvorák's Piano Quintet, Op 80, where it pierced the veil of melancholy Dvorák cast over the slow movement. The scherzo's lift-off and the comedy of the finale were deftly handled, maintaining the versatility of this big work right to the end.
Though it left no space for an encore, in a concert like this no encore was needed."
The Herald, 8 March 2012
[Queen's Hall, Edinburgh: 5 March 2012]
"Many chamber groups whose members don't play together permanently have trouble finding a convincing corporate sound. But as the London-based Nash Ensemble players demonstrated in this concert, they manage to retain their individual voices while merging in a radiant tone that combines impeccable technical assurance with a versatile musicality.
They breathed as one in their supple reading of the sunny A Major Piano Quintet by Dvorak that finished the programme, bringing the piece's almost orchestral textures to vivid life with often breathtaking energy.
Cellist Paul Watkins stood out for the effortless simplicity of his opening melody, and for his gently swelling tone in the quizzical slow movement, based on a lament from the composer's Czech homeland.
The autumnal colours of Brahms's Horn Trio were perhaps a touch too subdued, though, and the performance could have done with some of the sheer élan that characterised the Dvorák. But violinist Stephanie Gonley had just the right burnished sound for Brahms's rich harmonies, and pianist Ian Brown played with a sparkling brilliance that could subside into glowing mellowness.
But it was horn player Richard Watkins who really stole the show, both in the Brahms Trio and in the arresting 2007 Horn Quintet by leading Scottish composer James MacMillan, who was there to introduce his work.
Watkins's heartfelt playing and remarkable ability to shape a melody put him firmly in the spotlight, and when he rose from his seat to walk into the audience at the quintet’s solemn conclusion, it only added a theatrical note to what was already a hugely dramatic performance."
The Scotsman, 7 March 2012
[Turina CD for Hyperion CDA67889]
"The near-masterpieces here, none longer than 20 minutes, are the splendid Piano Trio, Op 35 (the best-known of the selection), the A minor Piano Quartet, Op 67, and the Violin Sonata, played with searing tone and rhythmic dash by Marianne Thorsen and Ian Brown, mainstays of the wonderful Nash Ensemble. Lawrence Power's viola and Paul Watkins's cello shine in, respectively, the Escena Andaluza and the songful trnor/bass melodies of the trio. It would be hard to imagine more compelling performances."
The Sunday Times, March 2012
[Berlin Konzerthaus, 21 February 2012]
"[In Bartok's Contrasts] Their playing struck exactly the right note. Percussive, with no vibrato and great virtuosity, Stephanie Gonley played her cadenza as if she had learnt to play the violin on a Hungarian farm… [In Dohnanyi's Sextet Op.37] Both the presence of mind and the infectious joy of communication with which these players perform revealed the complexity of the work in a vivid and exciting manner: this is chamber music at its finest… There was also a superb performance of Liszt's "La Lugubre Gondola."
Berlin Tagesspiel, February 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 14 January 2012]
"Sometimes the very opening bars of a concert tell you it's going to be a good evening. As the wonderful Ian Brown matched his first notes precisely with the Nash wind-players - Gareth Hulse, Richard Hosford, Richard Watkins and Ursula Leveaux - in the slow introduction to Beethoven's Quintet, you could sense a glow of anticipation spreading through a packed Wigmore Hall. … It was a beautiful performance, bespeaking careful preparation and spontaneous execution. … Schubert's Octet created exactly the right impression: it seemed to be expansively phrased, with plenty of room for individual enterprise; but if you focused on the basic tempo, it was never merely being indulgent. Movement after movement passed by in the pleasantest way, until suddenly we were at the end of the Minuet and Paul Watkins and Duncan McTier were launching the Andante molto to begin the finale. Then the strings went spinning away into the Allegro and we experienced that typically Schubertian feeling - pleasure in the passing moment, regret that it would soon be over and we would be facing the chill of a wintry Wigmore Street. Stephanie Gonley and Richard Hosford must be given special mention but every member of the Nash Ensemble played his or her part with grace and equanimity. This was a lovely concert in every way."
ClassicalSource.com, January 2012
[Wigmore Hall, 15 October 2011]
"This concert began with Mozart's great Piano Quartet in G minor, a key associated in his music with proto-romantic intensity: the performance was a quiet wonder, graced by Ian Brown's serenely intelligent pianism, and charged with the luminous force of Lawrence Power's viola. Bernarda Fink was the eloquent mezzo-soprano in arrangements of Zemlinsky songs and Mahler's Kindertotenlieder, conducted by Martyn Brabbins; and the Adagio, standing alone, from Bruckner's String Quintet in F revealed depths unplumbed by a Shostakovich."
The Sunday Times, October 2011
[Ottawa Chamber Music Festival - 28 July 2011]
"An ensemble of the highest quality… Nash group brings audience to its feet… The Nash Ensemble performance of this masterwork [Schumann Piano Quintet] was a wonder. From the stern logic of the first movement through the dark magic of the fugue and the towering fury of the scherzo to the sad little smile of the last few measures, everything was totally in focus and phenomenally effective. The concert had a nearcapacity audience that came to its feet just seconds after the musicians lowered their bows."
Ottawa Citizen, July 2011
[Nash Inventions concert - Wigmore Hall, 23 March 2011]
"Where would British music have been without the Nash? Artistically poorer, for since its foundation in 1964, this world-beating ensemble has commissioned 160 new works, including major ones from Elliott Carter, Harrison Birtwistle, Mark-Anthony Turnage, plus a catalogue of now-prominent others."
The Independent, March 2011