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Proms 2015

Fantastic performance of Messian's Turangalila on R3 now - Juanjo Mena and BBC Phil from a couple of weeks ago. I wish I'd been there. I've heard a lot of Turangalilas and so not easy to impress, but a swift internet search suggests Mena has already done a classic recording, which I must seek out.
 
duncan said:
I saw the Goldbergs and enjoyed the concert enormously. I'd have liked a tiny bit more joi de vivre in some of the more extrovert variations but that's a tiny point.

After four nights of temperatures in the high 30s in the Bayreuth Festspielhaus the previous week, the Albert Hall seemed pleasantly cool. This was sat in the stalls, next to Mrs. Schiff no less, the arena can be pretty stuffy.
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I was higher up in the second tier, but I had had a rather heavy dinner.
What were you watching at Bayreuth? I'd love to see Thielemann's Tristan
 
I know I'm predictable but I liked Danny boy doing Tchaikovsky 4th with his West Eastern Divan - I still really like that orchestra and what he gets them to do. :)

But yeah the Schoenberg was great too :)
 
adamdea said:
What were you watching at Bayreuth? I'd love to see Thielemann's Tristan
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The Ring. Musically very good, you can see why the BPO were keen on Petrenko. Stefan Vinke was a pretty decent Sigfried, the best I've heard on stage. He's coming to the ROH Ring in this role in 2018 apparently, should be a considerable improvement on the previous two here. Catherine Foster I'd heard before in Weimar, perhaps not as comfortable in Bayreuth as in the smaller house but, again, a great improvement over Covent Garden's last Brunhilde.

The production stated out promisingly (Rheingold set in 1970s US, all Pulp Fiction style petty gangsters), but deteriorated. Siegfried received the loudest and most vehement booing I've ever heard in an opera house, a comment on the production, the singers and orchestra got a very enthusiastic response when they took their calls. Being subject to a Marxist theatre director's deliberately incoherent and provocative staging, purposely undermining the great set-pieces, is all part of the modern Bayreuth experience!

Tristan next year perhaps.
 
Opera is a participation sport in many countries. In Italy, it's singers that get booed, often by prior arrangement as Steve said. http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2006/dec/12/neverletlascalasbooboyss

In Germany, it's usually aimed at the producers. Some even relish this, Castorf - who directed the Bayreuth Ring - goading the audience after the 2013 premier. http://www.theguardian.com/music/musicblog/2013/aug/02/frank-castorf-bayreuth-ring-cycle

He was surely deliberately provocative. I imagine, as a good Marxist, he doesn't much like Wagner and the Bayreuth audience even less. I think he'd have been disappointed had he not been booed. The most infamous moment of the 2013 production was the two crocodiles shagging (no, it's not in the plot) in the third act of Siegfried. This year the two returned... with two offspring!

All this risks making it sound better than it actually was. I'm not averse to a bit of statue toppling, but most of it was cliched and predictable (Siegfried assembles an AK47 instead of forging a sword, various unscripted blow-jobs).

The UK seems to be following the German model, if recent experience is anything to go by: http://www.theguardian.com/music/20...-scene-greeted-with-boos-at-royal-opera-house
 
duncan said:
The Ring. Musically very good, you can see why the BPO were keen on Petrenko. Stefan Vinke was a pretty decent Sigfried, the best I've heard on stage. He's coming to the ROH Ring in this role in 2018 apparently, should be a considerable improvement on the previous two here. Catherine Foster I'd heard before in Weimar, perhaps not as comfortable in Bayreuth as in the smaller house but, again, a great improvement over Covent Garden's last Brunhilde.

The production stated out promisingly (Rheingold set in 1970s US, all Pulp Fiction style petty gangsters), but deteriorated. Siegfried received the loudest and most vehement booing I've ever heard in an opera house, a comment on the production, the singers and orchestra got a very enthusiastic response when they took their calls. Being subject to a Marxist theatre director's deliberately incoherent and provocative staging, purposely undermining the great set-pieces, is all part of the modern Bayreuth experience!

Tristan next year perhaps.
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Sounds very interesting. I'm jealous of anyone whose managed to get through the Bayreuth waiting list. I'm not sure I've seen a ring which did not deteriorate with Siegfried. The met one a couple of years ago (which I only saw at the cinema) managed to be the least irritating. Siegfried doesn't annoy me so much in audio.
 
Listened last night to Yuja Wang hammer her way through Bartòk's number 2 piano concerto, ably supported by Tilson-Thomas and the SF Orchestra. I wasn't there unfortunately, but the quality through laptop + a reasonable pair of headphones was very good. I thought she did very well: a very dynamic performance of a fiendishly difficult work. Compared to my favourite recordings (Pollini and Anda), perhaps a touch less savagery in some parts, but better SQ.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0680mq2

Also liked the Pires/Haitink Mozart concerto a few nights ago, both performances by Denk and MTT's Mahler 1. Quite a few late nights recently with that lot.
 
The BBC Proms series holds scant interest for me so I seldom watch any of the broadcasts but skipping through the channels tonight, I stumbled across Andras Schiff and the Goldbergs. I'm so glad I did. I have admired Schiff's playing for many years; he is possessed of a prodigious technique and this was employed to superlative effect in this performance. I thought it an inspired inclusion in the programme but I imagine a little taximg of the average Promenader's attention span.

The Goldberg Variations, (along with his Canonic Variations and Brahms's Handel workings), have to be the greatest written in this genre and I really enjoyed Schiff's offering. My only criticism related to a few instances in the slower movements. Schiff applied some trills, shakes, mordants and what-have-you in places and which I felt were superfluous. The harpsichord (and, indeed, the early forte-piano) had little sustaining power and required such devices; these hardly are necessary with a nine foot grand. But this really is to quibble. The pianist did, however, start these curlicues on the upper note - sadly, a convention seldom observed by modern musicians.

For me, Rosalyn Tureck remains at the pinnacle of keyboard performances of Bach but I'm delighted I witnessed this wonderful treat this evening. :D
 
I have it waiting in my YouView box along with the past two week's Bach solo violin. Looking forward to watching it all.
 
I can't imagine what a solo cello sounds like in something the size of the Albert Hall (unless you're in the Arena). Radio/TV the way to go on this one.
 
Yes, that occured to me too. More so than the solo violin, and I suspect you'd struggle to hear that over all the coughing, burping, farting, sneezing, rustling of papers etc that goes on at these events unless you were in the standing area right in front of her.
 
That's just what I thought listening to / watching the Goldberg Variations. Even with directional mics on the piano I was still aware of thousands of audience members trying to keep quiet, coughing etc. I'm sure it would have been far worse to have been there.

Last night's broadcast was fantastic too (Schubert & Mozart) - picture on telly, superb sound on hifi - it made me wonder which is the better experience; being in the audience or watching at home.
 
awl said:
Last night's broadcast was fantastic too - picture on telly, superb sound on hifi - it made me wonder which is the better experience; being in the audience or watching at home.
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There is something amazing about being there. I went a few times in the '90s and remember being knocked out with a couple of Mahler symphonies (Haitink and can't remember which orch, maybe BBC and Rattle BPO). I was in the standing area and both times got to close behind the conductor's podium and the sound was phenomenal. No hi-fi can do the BPO full scale!

One thing I've never seen live is any small scale string trio/quartet stuff and I'd love to as its probably my favourite classical form. Wouldn't want it to be anywhere too big though as I imagine the sound would get lost.
 
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