Orchestra of the Swan and Peter Donohoe review
WONDERFUL MOZART FROM PETER DONOHOE
PETER DONOHOE PLAYS MOZART
Orchestra of the Swan at the Stratford Play House ****
Renowned for his prowess in the biggies of the piano repertoire, Peter Donohoe is currently spending a lot of time with Mozart, far less spectacular but just as technically demanding, not least because of the unforgiving exposure with which his writing spotlights the soloist's musicality.
And there was plenty of that in a wonderful account of the C major Concerto, no.25 K503 which Donohoe shared with an alert and enthusiastic Orchestra of the Swan under the elegant baton of Jason Lai.
After a portentous opening tutti (the Prague Symphony would be the very next Kochel number) with a full, rich sound from numerically a small-scale orchestra, Donohoe's entry was magisterial, shapely in his phrasing, gorgeously rippling in his own special subject, and endearingly thumping out bass lines to reinforce those of the orchestra.
This was music-making which s