TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Mariam Batsashvili recital at the EIF. Thunderous Liszt- reworkings of Schubert and the Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde.
Classical Concert chat...
- Thread starter windhoek
- Start date
eisenach
pfm Member
Heard the Heath Quartet in a programme of Webern and Britten last night, part of the Presteigne Festival.
https://presteignefestival.com/
Absolutely stunning music making. There was breathtaking playing; supreme confidence and elan, but the icing on the cake was their unisons. Absolutely spot on perfect.
Going to hear them again tonight. http://www.heathquartet.com/shows/gig-1133/in
https://presteignefestival.com/
Absolutely stunning music making. There was breathtaking playing; supreme confidence and elan, but the icing on the cake was their unisons. Absolutely spot on perfect.
Going to hear them again tonight. http://www.heathquartet.com/shows/gig-1133/in
I heard the celebrated Anna Federova play Chopin at St Alkmund's, Shrewsbury, last Sunday. It was very good... and paled into insignificance compared with today's lunchtime recital at St Chad's.
Patrick Townsend, from Chetham's School, played the whole of Debussy's First Book of Preludes. He is 13 years old, small for his age, and replaced the intended player at three days' notice.
It was utterly astonishing. Note perfect, powerful playing. This could not be happening... cognitive dissonance throughout. And it was an interpretation, not just a reproduction of the score.
I stood to applaud (something I never do) and staggered out, feeling in need of a drink. One of my most shattering musical experiences for years.
Patrick Townsend will be famous. You heard it here first. I was privileged to have been there... and I'm keeping the programme
Patrick Townsend, from Chetham's School, played the whole of Debussy's First Book of Preludes. He is 13 years old, small for his age, and replaced the intended player at three days' notice.
It was utterly astonishing. Note perfect, powerful playing. This could not be happening... cognitive dissonance throughout. And it was an interpretation, not just a reproduction of the score.
I stood to applaud (something I never do) and staggered out, feeling in need of a drink. One of my most shattering musical experiences for years.
Patrick Townsend will be famous. You heard it here first. I was privileged to have been there... and I'm keeping the programme
Another excellent concert at Symphony Hall tonight, possibly the best of our four so far this season: both Ravel concertos, Daphnis 2nd suite, l'apres-midi d'un Faune and the UK premiere of a colourful, powerful work by Samy Moussa, his Nocturne.
Tonight's conductor, Kevin John Edusei, is a German of Ghanaian extraction and did a fine job. A tall man with very long arms, he studied percussion, conducting and sound engineering.
The piano, to my ears, sounds much better from the left-hand side of the front stalls than the right - plus you get to see the pianist's hands. Kirill Gerstein particularly impressed in the Left Hand concerto. Right hand on right knee throughout!
We are experimenting with seats all over the hall at the moment (mine is free, because I organise the coach trips from Shrewsbury). We have yet to try the rear stalls, which I think might be the sweet spot for now given that our usual favourite, the Choir seating, is unavailable and not coming back any time soon...
Tonight's conductor, Kevin John Edusei, is a German of Ghanaian extraction and did a fine job. A tall man with very long arms, he studied percussion, conducting and sound engineering.
The piano, to my ears, sounds much better from the left-hand side of the front stalls than the right - plus you get to see the pianist's hands. Kirill Gerstein particularly impressed in the Left Hand concerto. Right hand on right knee throughout!
We are experimenting with seats all over the hall at the moment (mine is free, because I organise the coach trips from Shrewsbury). We have yet to try the rear stalls, which I think might be the sweet spot for now given that our usual favourite, the Choir seating, is unavailable and not coming back any time soon...
alanbeeb
pfm Member
First concert since March 2019.... RSNO conducted by Elim Chan and a very contrasting programme.
1st up - Divertimento for Strings by Grażyna Bacewicz (Polish contemporary of Shostakovich - 1909-1969) - never heard this before, nice and some serious dark stuff going on in the 2nd movement, composed in 1965, the same year as....
Shostakovich Cello Concerto no.2 - Sheku Kanneh-Mason (BBC Young Musician winner 2016). Superb performance. Would love to hear him play it again and hope he records it sometime. But this is still a rarely performed piece and I think its the first and only opportunity I have had to hear it live in 32 years of concert-going!
After the interval, what a huge contrast - Faure's Requiem. The RSNO Junior Chorus joined, and the Usher Hall Organ was deployed too. The Chorus is (I'm guessing) aged about 10 - 16 and so they are really only soprano, treble and alto voices - so no baritones or bass but they were superb and so clear voiced you could actually hear the words properly. All very crisp and again beautifully played by the orchestra.
It is the first time I've seen Elim Chan conducting, she is tiny on the the podium in front of the orchestra but got superb results. Looking forward to hearing more from her.
1st up - Divertimento for Strings by Grażyna Bacewicz (Polish contemporary of Shostakovich - 1909-1969) - never heard this before, nice and some serious dark stuff going on in the 2nd movement, composed in 1965, the same year as....
Shostakovich Cello Concerto no.2 - Sheku Kanneh-Mason (BBC Young Musician winner 2016). Superb performance. Would love to hear him play it again and hope he records it sometime. But this is still a rarely performed piece and I think its the first and only opportunity I have had to hear it live in 32 years of concert-going!
After the interval, what a huge contrast - Faure's Requiem. The RSNO Junior Chorus joined, and the Usher Hall Organ was deployed too. The Chorus is (I'm guessing) aged about 10 - 16 and so they are really only soprano, treble and alto voices - so no baritones or bass but they were superb and so clear voiced you could actually hear the words properly. All very crisp and again beautifully played by the orchestra.
It is the first time I've seen Elim Chan conducting, she is tiny on the the podium in front of the orchestra but got superb results. Looking forward to hearing more from her.
alanbeeb
pfm Member
Looks like he performed it again during the week with the LPO and Edward Gardner.... Headline of review in The Times was a bit negative but I can't see behind the paywall. If anyone can give the gist of it I'd be grateful.
adamdea
You are not a sound quality evaluation device
Anyone else at RFH last night? FWIW jurowski said at the beginning it was the best attended concert since Jan 2020. Mitsuko Uchida on Beethoven 4th concerto very precise, restrained satisfying performance, met with rather OTT ovation. Unresolved edgy (ie about right) Bruckner 6. Lachenmann March fatale was new to me.
No, not at the RFH... but we will hear Bruckner 6 played by the CBSO under Mirga at Symphony Hall on May 11th, and are taking 75 other people with us from Shropshire. Who says our Anton's music is a minority taste? Not round here, it ain't
We also get Gabriela Montero playing Tchaikovsky's First concerto. Oh, and the Choir seats are available to group bookers again. Yay, should be a cracking gig!
We also get Gabriela Montero playing Tchaikovsky's First concerto. Oh, and the Choir seats are available to group bookers again. Yay, should be a cracking gig!
alanbeeb
pfm Member
The Russian regime should cease their claim that Russian culture is being cancelled in the west...An all-Shostakovich programme at the Usher Hall last night, RSNO conducted by Andrey Boreyko, a late stand in for James Conlon. Boreyko was available at short notice as he has cancelled a series of engagements in Russia. No complaints about the substitution.
First of all a short tribute "Prayer for Ukraine" By Mikolay Lysenko, had never heard this before, fairly typical late C.19th national anthem material, but the sentiment was appreciated.... Then straight into the Passacaglia from Shostakovich's Opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk Region.
Then Simon Trpeski performed the 2nd Piano Concerto....clearly he really enjoyed it and so did everyone else. As an encore he teamed up with the orchestra's leader and first cello to give us the scherzo from Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Trio. What a nice touch to share the encore.
After the interval "A Soviet artist's response to just criticism" - the 5th Symphony. Solid powerful performance of the symphony that really set the template for Soviet era music.
I hope Boreyko gets invited back, he seemed to get good results.
First of all a short tribute "Prayer for Ukraine" By Mikolay Lysenko, had never heard this before, fairly typical late C.19th national anthem material, but the sentiment was appreciated.... Then straight into the Passacaglia from Shostakovich's Opera Lady Macbeth of the Mtensk Region.
Then Simon Trpeski performed the 2nd Piano Concerto....clearly he really enjoyed it and so did everyone else. As an encore he teamed up with the orchestra's leader and first cello to give us the scherzo from Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Trio. What a nice touch to share the encore.
After the interval "A Soviet artist's response to just criticism" - the 5th Symphony. Solid powerful performance of the symphony that really set the template for Soviet era music.
I hope Boreyko gets invited back, he seemed to get good results.
windhoek
The Phoolosopher
Nooooooooooo! If I'd known that that line up was on in Glasgow tonight I'd have gone to hear it for sure. Piano Concerto 2 and Symphony 5 are as good as it gets from Shostakovich imo. Alas my GF has booked tickets for us to go and see The Northman at the cinema tonight up in East Kilbride so there's no chance of making both. Damn, damn, damn!
I was at the WNO Don Giovanni at Birmingham Hippodrome last night. Pretty good, if a bit outside my usual fare. I think a film producer would tell da Ponte to trim the libretto by 40 minutes...
The Leporello (Simon Bailey) and Donna Anna (Marina Monzo) were both outstanding - the best voices, and good actors too. I have no idea why Don Ottavio wore modern-looking glasses in what was a generally period-correct production, though
That Scottish Shostakovich programme sounds good - I'd love to hear the Passacaglia live. The RSNO easily bore comparison with any orchestra in the UK when I last heard them, pre-pandemic.
The Leporello (Simon Bailey) and Donna Anna (Marina Monzo) were both outstanding - the best voices, and good actors too. I have no idea why Don Ottavio wore modern-looking glasses in what was a generally period-correct production, though
That Scottish Shostakovich programme sounds good - I'd love to hear the Passacaglia live. The RSNO easily bore comparison with any orchestra in the UK when I last heard them, pre-pandemic.
adamdea
You are not a sound quality evaluation device
Act 1 is pretty faultless but IMHO Act 2 just reprises the fun until you get to the commendatore. That said the music is good enough to forgive anything.
Now on the coach home...No, not at the RFH... but we will hear Bruckner 6 played by the CBSO under Mirga at Symphony Hall on May 11th, and are taking 75 other people with us from Shropshire. Who says our Anton's music is a minority taste? Not round here, it ain't
And Mirga, 6 months pregnant, passed the Bruckner test - the hardest one of all, as far as I am concerned. A coherent performance, with things brought to the fore which even I, a lifelong Brucknerian, had not registered so clearly before. She came close to being becalmed in the last movement - was perhaps a little self-indulgent - but (just) got away with it.
The CBSO will be off to the Continent tomorrow with Gabriela Montero, whose encore was an improvised fantasy on a theme given to her from the audience right there and then. Most impressive - I wish more virtuosos would develop the skill of improvisation. Our Anton, one of the greatest improvisers on his instrument, the organ, would certainly have approved
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Heads up. ENO doing Akhenaten again Spring 2023. I’ve booked. That’ll be 38 years since I saw it there the first time.
https://www.eno.org/whats-on/akhnaten/
since I saw it there the first time.https://www.eno.org/whats-on/akhnaten/
Dancer_not
pfm Member
Parsifal - Opera North visiting RFH yesterday.
Brindley Sherratt as Gurnemanz
Katarina Karneus as Kundry
Toby Spence as Parsifal
Concert performance that enraptured!
Brindley Sherratt as Gurnemanz
Katarina Karneus as Kundry
Toby Spence as Parsifal
Concert performance that enraptured!
Dave H.
Revolutionary relativist
Went to Symphony Hall the other night for Shostakovich’s violin concerto no. 1, with Patricia Kopatchinskaya as soloist. Very enjoyable stuff, both the Shostakovich and a new piece by Anna Thorvaldsdottir called Catamorphosis which was excellent. Some frankly less interesting Britten too, but more than balanced out.
Teh Graun was apparently there too, and has now published a pretty good review.
Teh Graun was apparently there too, and has now published a pretty good review.
PsB
Citizen of Nowhere™
Last night: Esa-Pekka Salonen and Orchestre de Paris in a staged production of Mahler's Resurrection symphony, part of the Festival d'Aix-en-Provence.
The venue: a disused stadium/rock concert hall stuck on a windswept stretch of semi-industrial wasteland between Marseille and Aix. The concept: watch a UNHCR forensic team excavate a mass grave for 1.5 hours on stage while the orchestra plays Mahler's 2nd in another pit. The acoustics of the place are probably "challenging", so the concert was amplified: sitting in one of the front rows, we got half the sound direct from the musicians (mostly the wind and percussion sections, as the strings were hidden away beneath us) and half the sound through a not particularly great PA system hanging from rails far above the stage. Very off putting, a soup of disembodied sound with contradictory spacial cues. The mistral rattled some metal sheets on the roof, competing very effectively with the large percussion section (at least 6 musicians) and superimposing a random, frenetic score on top of the orchestra's efforts. Maybe there's a message in that, too. The orchestra played well, although it was hard to tell sometimes with the PA and mistral intrusions. Marianne Crebassa (alto) sang Urlicht beautifully, with a lovely warm tone. Golda Shultz was the soprano, a bit shrill occasionally but that could just be the amplification.
I liked the lone white horse wandering around the scene at the beginning, but my limited spirituality didn't get how excavating a crime scene (even if it's washed out in rain from sprinklers during the 5th movement) helps to convey the idea of Resurrection; I will read the abundant program notes to find out. Overall, I would have been happier watching the same musicians in a conventional, non-amplified concert hall. We can do that next week, when the same crew give Messiaen's Turangalila in Aix's main concert hall.
The venue: a disused stadium/rock concert hall stuck on a windswept stretch of semi-industrial wasteland between Marseille and Aix. The concept: watch a UNHCR forensic team excavate a mass grave for 1.5 hours on stage while the orchestra plays Mahler's 2nd in another pit. The acoustics of the place are probably "challenging", so the concert was amplified: sitting in one of the front rows, we got half the sound direct from the musicians (mostly the wind and percussion sections, as the strings were hidden away beneath us) and half the sound through a not particularly great PA system hanging from rails far above the stage. Very off putting, a soup of disembodied sound with contradictory spacial cues. The mistral rattled some metal sheets on the roof, competing very effectively with the large percussion section (at least 6 musicians) and superimposing a random, frenetic score on top of the orchestra's efforts. Maybe there's a message in that, too. The orchestra played well, although it was hard to tell sometimes with the PA and mistral intrusions. Marianne Crebassa (alto) sang Urlicht beautifully, with a lovely warm tone. Golda Shultz was the soprano, a bit shrill occasionally but that could just be the amplification.
I liked the lone white horse wandering around the scene at the beginning, but my limited spirituality didn't get how excavating a crime scene (even if it's washed out in rain from sprinklers during the 5th movement) helps to convey the idea of Resurrection; I will read the abundant program notes to find out. Overall, I would have been happier watching the same musicians in a conventional, non-amplified concert hall. We can do that next week, when the same crew give Messiaen's Turangalila in Aix's main concert hall.
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TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
Well, more Mahler. The seventh with Semyon Bychkov & Czech Philharmonic tonight. Exquisite playing- better than their Dvorak, Janáček and Martinu programme last night.
TheDecameron
Unicorns fart glitter.
I heard Vikingur Olafsson perform the Robert Schumann concerto last week with Edward Gardner & Bergen Philharmonic. Came to mind because I’m listening to his beautiful Bach CD. His Schumann was not good, he seemed ill at ease and it came across in his playing, kept changing the height of his piano stool and I realised he is also quite socially awkward. He gave a transcription of folk songs (by Martinu I think) as an encore and it was an exquisitely played jewel box- much like his Bach playing. Maybe the Romantic repertoire doesn’t suit him or perhaps the recital hall is a more comfortable environment?
Yesterday , Bruce Liu the young Chopin competition winning Canadian in a recital including Rameau. Obviously composed for harpsichord, I’ve never heard anyone trill so fast on a Steinway Model D. Rameau is magical, with a sense of humour.
Under his feet is an air conditioned chapel of rest with four other Steinway concert grands (Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh).
Yesterday , Bruce Liu the young Chopin competition winning Canadian in a recital including Rameau. Obviously composed for harpsichord, I’ve never heard anyone trill so fast on a Steinway Model D. Rameau is magical, with a sense of humour.
Under his feet is an air conditioned chapel of rest with four other Steinway concert grands (Queen’s Hall, Edinburgh).