Czech Philharmonic Monday 12/2/18 Manchester - with Alisa Weilerstein

[Barbirollians]

Fresh from being won over by AW's recording of the Dvorak concerto I see she is coming to Manchester to play it with the Czech Phil on Monday - I think it was planned that Belohlavek would lead this tour before prostate cancer took him so cruelly last year - Netopil conducts what is a very popular programme with the Dvorak 9 .

[Barbirollians]

Fresh from being won over by AW's recording of the Dvorak concerto I see she is coming to Manchester to play it with the Czech Phil on Monday - I think it was planned that Belohlavek would lead this tour before prostate cancer took him so cruelly last year - Netopil conducts what is a very popular programme with the Dvorak 9 .

Lucky enough to have been able to make this after a case settled - Alisa Weilerstein utterly stupendous in this performance and passes kea's test with flying colours - Netopil conducted a full blooded and rather less subtle accompaniment than Belohlavek on the recording .

[Barbirollians]

Lovely to see so many young people in the audience no doubt RNCM students .

[Richard Tarleton]

I envy you the concert Barbs, hope she makes it to Cardiff sometime. Hers has been my default recording since it came out.

[Petrushka]

Had no idea that the Czech PO were on a UK tour otherwise I might have gone to either Birmingham or Nottingham. I envy you this one too. Mind, I was lucky indeed to catch them on tour back in 1977 with Vaclav Neumann (now there's an underrated conductor!) in a concert that included the Dvorak 7.

[Conchis]

I really wish Czech orchestras didn't feel so obliged to play Dvorak when on tour!

[teamsaint]

I really wish Czech orchestras didn't feel so obliged to play Dvorak when on tour!

Or if the must, they could play the Czech Suite occasionally.

I can't recall seeing it programmed very often at all.

And it is a real favourite of mine.......

[Tony Halstead]

Had no idea that the Czech PO were on a UK tour otherwise I might have gone to either Birmingham or Nottingham. I envy you this one too. Mind, I was lucky indeed to catch them on tour back in 1977 with Vaclav Neumann (now there's an underrated conductor!) in a concert that included the Dvorak 7.

Hmmmm.... I can go back much earlier than that: when I was a student at the old RMCM (predecessor of the RNCM) in 1965 I travelled by train from Manchester to Newcastle-on-Tyne to hear the CPO/ Ancerl in concert (they didn't bother to come to Manchester!) and sat up all night on the return train arriving back home at 6.00 am!.
In those days they still had ( happily) their piquant, characterful 'woodwind sound' with a sort-of 'vertical and immediate' clarinet tone, a huge wooden flute sound (Geza Novak - a total phenomenon) and a subtly vibratoing horn sound that was light-years away from their French or Russian peers.

[Richard Tarleton]

Barbs, was Josef Špaček in the leader's chair? A gifted soloist as well - he played the Mendelssohn when the CPO came to Cardiff in 2013 (with Jiří Bělohlávek) and lovely guy - I snatched a few words with him as he signed a couple of his CDs for me in the interval - (Ysaÿe and Ernst - both stonkingly good CDs). The rest of their programme consisted of, er, Dvorak and Smetana, but as I hadn't heard a live Má Vlast before, let alone from a Czech orchestra, I didn't mind a bit.

[Barbirollians]

Barbs, was Josef Špaček in the leader's chair? A gifted soloist as well - he played the Mendelssohn when the CPO came to Cardiff in 2013 (with Jiří Bělohlávek) and lovely guy - I snatched a few words with him as he signed a couple of his CDs for me in the interval - (Ysaÿe and Ernst - both stonkingly good CDs). The rest of their programme consisted of, er, Dvorak and Smetana, but as I hadn't heard a live Má Vlast before, let alone from a Czech orchestra, I didn't mind a bit.

No it was a young man Jan Mracek did not look older than 30 and amusingly Weilerstein gave him her bouquet whether to keep or for playing the violin so beautifully in the duet passage in the final movement I do not know !

I understand what Conchis means but Dvorak played this superbly I can take any day. The Symphony No 9 also on the edge of your seat stuff . There was absolutely no question of going through the motions - an outstanding and for once moving rather than pretty cor anglais solo and what a string section extraordinary sweetness and power. It was an even to remind one of the difference between a great and a good orchestra.Once I had the chance to go to hear Weilerstein play the Dvorak with that orchestra was something I would not want to miss .

The only thing that did not quite come off for me was a very big band account of the Overture from Don Giovanni which lacked character also sometimes I felt when accompanying Weilerstein the orchesta was a little too loud and sometimes swamped her a little - hence the comparison with Belohlavek's wonderful accompaniment on the recording - how sad his early loss is he was meant to conduct on this tour.

[Barbirollians]

Hmmmm.... I can go back much earlier than that: when I was a student at the old RMCM (predecessor of the RNCM) in 1965 I travelled by train from Manchester to Newcastle-on-Tyne to hear the CPO/ Ancerl in concert (they didn't bother to come to Manchester!) and sat up all night on the return train arriving back home at 6.00 am!.
In those days they still had ( happily) their piquant, characterful 'woodwind sound' with a sort-of 'vertical and immediate' clarinet tone, a huge wooden flute sound (Geza Novak - a total phenomenon) and a subtly vibratoing horn sound that was light-years away from their French or Russian peers.

More than a hint of that from the first horn in the concerto.

[gurnemanz]

Also at Basingstoke this Friday

[Barbirollians]

In Nottingham they are playing the Enigma and two movements from Ma Vlast , Basingstoke gets the Shostakovich 1 and the Symphonic Variations - Dublin gets the whole of Ma Vlast on Sunday - Spacek joined them to play the Dvorak Violin Concerto in Leeds.

[Barbirollians]

I assume it is a question of money but we tend to get rather lesser touring orchestras in Sheffield . A concert of Tchaikovsky with the Russian State Or Hester's with Polyansky a couple of years back was very much going through the motions stuff.

[Conchis]

In Nottingham they are playing the Enigma and two movements from Ma Vlast , Basingstoke gets the Shostakovich 1 and the Symphonic Variations - Dublin gets the whole of Ma Vlast on Sunday - Spacek joined them to play the Dvorak Violin Concerto in Leeds.

I'm toying with the idea of Nottingham but a Czech Orchestra playing Elgar (and the Engima at that?)? It's very hard not to call Coals to Newcastle.

Presumably Basingtoke gets the most adventurous programming because that is felt to be the most sophisticated audience?