Orchestral bookings (since September 2007)

ORCHESTRAS
• Academy of St Martin In The Fields
• BBC Concert Orchestra
• Brandenburg Sinfonia
• Chamber Ensemble of London
• English Chamber Orchestra
• English Classical Players
• English Sinfonia
• Guildford Philharmonic Orchestra
• London Sinfonietta
• Sinfonia Verdi
• Urban Soul Orchestra
• Wired Strings
• World Orchestra for Peace

SESSIONS
• Cool Music Ltd
• Hilary Skewes
• Isobel Griffiths
• John Wilson

EDUCATION WORK
• Academy of St Martin in the Fields Education
• Masterclass

     Reviews

• Richard Todd, Friday, October 01, 2004 © The Ottawa Citizen 2004

  " Let's face it, Giovanni Bottesini (1821-1889) was not a great composer. He wasn't even a very good one, and would be entirely forgotten today had he not written a good bit of the double-bass's basic repertoire. He was, by some accounts, the Liszt and Paganini of that instrument. Sometimes, however, a banal piece such as his showy Gran Duo Concerte for violin, double bass and orchestra can be a lot of fun to hear if the soloists can meet its extravagant technical demands. Violinist Donnie Deacon and bass player Leon Bosch performed the duo Wednesday evening with the National Arts Centre Orchestra. They definitely have what it takes, though Bosch's performance was the more impressive. It's not that he was better than Deacon per se. The violin part is exceedingly difficult, but no more than in, say, a Paganini concerto. Deacon played it brilliantly. Yet Bosch's rendition of the exceedingly showy bass part was thrilling in a way no violinist's could be. It wanders well into the range of the violin and is full of false harmonics and other string techniques that bass players are seldom required to use. The fact that he did it all with nearly perfect intonation is a major achievement in itself. Conductor Pinchas Zukerman opened the program with Haydn's six-movement Symphony no. 60 in C major. It was a pleasing performance, blemished only now and then by instances of imperfect ensemble playing. Taste can be a funny thing. Haydn and Mozart were contemporaries and they wrote in similar musical languages. Yet, for this listener at least, Zukerman's Mozart is usually too plush and artificially elegant, whereas his Haydn is robust and engaging, albeit a little anachronistic. The big work on the program was the Brahms Symphony no. 4 in E minor, op. 98. Brahms is another composer that Zukerman conducts well. His interpretations are thoughtful and relatively easy-going. Some listeners may miss the punch that others bring to the score, but these are qualities that too often wander into hysteria. Zukerman avoids that altogether, most notably in the symphony's final movement. The rest was equally pleasing. This symphony may have its share of dark clouds, but the sun shines through often enough under the direction of conductor Zukerman. The fact that the orchestra played well didn't hurt either. "