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Classical Concert chat...

A delightful evening yesterday at the Royal College of Music Britten Theatre for a double bill of Respighi's La Bella Dormente Nel Bosco and Ravel's L'Enfant et les Sortileges.
Puppetry, extravagant costumes, wonderful singing & playing from the professionals of tomorrow.
 
I hope some of you heard the Radio 3 concert from Symphony Hall tonight... the Prokofiev R&J was stunning live (I was in the Choir seats this time) - almost literally so, it was so powerful up close.

Mirga seemed quite drained by the end...

I'll be grabbing this one from the radio to hear again - when I've recovered :)
 
marshanp said:
I hope some of you heard the Radio 3 concert from Symphony Hall tonight... the Prokofiev R&J was stunning live (I was in the Choir seats this time) - almost literally so, it was so powerful up close.

Mirga seemed quite drained by the end...

I'll be grabbing this one from the radio to hear again - when I've recovered :)
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If it’d on streaming I’d love to hear the Romeo & Juliet.

ah found it,

https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m001jtjc?partner=uk.co.bbc&origin=share-mobile
 
Last night, Nikolai Lugansky:


RACHMANINOV: Preludes, Op. 23

RACHMANINOV: Variations on a Theme of Corelli, Op. 49

RACHMANINOV: Études-tableaux, Op. 39

Thunderous dynamics. What a let down listening to the Etudes on the Hifi today!
 
Festival Theatre for Scottish Opera last night - Puccini's Il Trittico

Superb production for all three one-act operas, and great signing - and acting too. However.... The bottom line is that two out of the three are well below par by Puccini's standards!

Il Tabarro has some good music but its very stark and simple verismo plot of unhappy marriage, doomed love and murder on a French canal boat doesn't do very much. Suor Angelica - manages to both sentimentalize convent life while highlighting its cruelty. It has nice music but nothing great. Not even a superb set and acting here could redeem it.

However, Gianni Schicchi..... luckily its a small masterpiece, played here for slapstick laughs, updated setting to 1970s, and of course it has very good music including "Oh my beloved father". I would pay to see it alone, or maybe paired with another one-acter (Bluebeard's castle for a complete contrast).

So overall.... 10/10 for Scottish Opera and everyone involved in the production. 7/10 for Puccini. 5/10 for his librettist Giovacchino Forzano... but I'd give the pair of them 10/10 for Gianni Schicchi alone.

Critics have been wowed - a bit of a triumph for Scottish Opera.
https://www.theguardian.com/music/2...s-vivid-new-staging-has-humour-and-heartbreak
https://www.scotsman.com/whats-on/a...era-il-trittico-theatre-royal-glasgow-4061823
https://www.telegraph.co.uk/opera/w...sh-opera-review-puccini-triptych-unmitigated/
https://www.spectator.co.uk/article...-ticket-scottish-operas-il-trittico-reviewed/
 
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Yesterday to ENO at the Coliseum to see "Die tote Stadt" by Korngold.
Wonderful, luscious score played by large orchestra, great singing & staging.
 
Wenger said:
Could a classical live concert recording ever match studio quality?
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I reckon they offer a different listening experience. I've got a live audience recording of Das Lied with Janet Baker and Waldemar Kmentt on vocals and with Kubelik at the helm and it's a wonderful recording as somehow it manages to capture a great sense of intimacy. Whether that intimacy has to do with the performance or the recording, or both, I don't know. But it really feels like an intimate performance all the same and the end listener has been cordially invited.

I've owned and heard Mahler 3 by Ivan Fischer-Budapest FO and although it sounds as crisp and clear as anything, I always ended up playing Maher 3 by Abbado-Lucerne FO, another live audience recording. That said, there will no doubt be other occasions when I'd prefer a studio performance more so than a live performance. I think you just have to decide on a case-by-case basis.
 
Wenger said:
Could a classical live concert recording ever match studio quality?
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Yes... from a purely sound quality viewpoint there is no reason it shouldn't as long as microphone placement is good, and the audience noise low and edited out when necessary. It wouldn't surprise me if more than 60-70 % of orchestral recordings from last 10-15 years are taken from live concerts, especially due to the growth in "own label" recordings by major institutions.

And there is also the extra live "frisson" of a live realtime performance that doesn't consist of edited & spliced takes.
 
..... And right now I'm listening Martha Argerich playing Mozart's 20th piano concerto, at the 2011 Lugano Festival.... Sound is sublime.
 
Dudamel’s score from last night’s Nixon in China. Oddly, on the way in, a large contingent of riot police at Place de la Bastille but no disruption of the performance which I was half expecting. An interlude before the last act was a projection of a filmed interview with professor of violin at Shanghai describing his arrest and incarceration in a cupboard above a sewage pit for 18 months during the ‘Cultural Revolution’ and footage of him with Isaac Stern on a visit to the school.

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Akhenaten 2 April, ENO:

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Rosenkavalier, Staatsoper Berlin last night:

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As a replacement for Barenboim’s cancellation with the Staatskapelle , next week the Gewandhaus with Blomstedt conducting ( god willing, he’s now 95!)
 
Herbert Blomstedt conducting Schubert Symphony No.6 and Berwald Symphony No.2 at the Gewandhaus tonight:

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…here he is feeling the love at 95.
 
^ Blomstedt might be my favourite conductor. May he have another 20 years.

Last night - Piano Royalty at the Usher Hall: Leif Ove Andsnes played Rachmaninov 3rd Concerto withe the RSNO and Thomas Sondergard. Just wonderful. Says something for Sondergard's tenure with the RSNO that he can attract the calibre of soloists we've been getting - Francesco Piemontesi a few weeks ago for Beethoven Emperor, and now Andsnes. Also, if Leif had a crew cut, he'd look quite a lot like Rachmaninov himself :)

2nd half was an equally good performance of Shostakovich's 10th symphony, his best IMO. Lots of excellent solo sections from RSNO principals - especially horn and flute. As I've thought before, I can't believe how well the RSNO are playing for Sondergard.
 
They are a terrific orchestra - and more evidence (along with the CBSO) that London no longer holds sway over British musical life :)
 
On Friday (12th May), Rachel Podger and BBC Phil, playing JS Bach (Orchestral Suite #5), WF Bach (Sinfonia for two flutes), Mozart (Violin Concerto), Mozart (Rondo in C) and Haydn (Symphony #6).

Excellent, she directed from the violin, very lively performance, almost too expressive.

The Malvern space is an OK acoustic rather than a great one, but the balance was excellent and I felt I could hear almost every part, although the harpsichord occasionally got drowned out.

And I had a nice ice-cream in the interval!

Looks like it was being recorded for Radio 3, so coming to your wireless set soon.
 
Monday afternoon Crucible Sheffield Ensemble 360 Chamber music festival - Bach Art of Fugue Contrapunctus 14 (the unfinished one) played without applause into Brahms Piano Quintet Op.34 - stupendous piano from Kathryn Stott (also curator for festival) - clever way to segue the Bach in a string quartet arrangement (thankfully not on the piano) into Brahms. Second half the ever popular Beethoven Septet with a slightly revised line up (different double bass and viola player) from Doncaster a few weeks ago. The very beautiful clarinet playing of Robert Plane was much more blended in a more cohesive way. Tier 1 seats dreadful - had I know where they were I would have booked anything else - no leg room and effectively a single row of 50 to 60 seats with only two entrances/exits lots of shuffling and pissed off patrons who like us didn't know that Tier 1 wasn't the first rank of seat in the new Crucible Studio. Wonderful playing - sad we didn't stay for the evening...DGP
 
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