Czech Orchestra - New World Symphony = packed house with very few seats left at Sheffield City Hall . I cannot remember seeing it this packed for a good while . I should like to think they have flocked to hear Nikolai Demidenko play the Chopin 1 but I doubt it .
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Well they ought to have been. I have never heard Demidenko in concert before but he held the large audience spellbound I don’t think I have ever heard so few coughs . A dazzling Minute Waltz as an encore .
Extremely sensitive and for a concerto they can drag such interesting playing . Only downside the tempo of the first movement was a bit too much maestoso and too little allegro . -
A suitably exciting New World to finish my only caveat being that the brass was allowed rather to overpower the strings . The trio of the scherzo was a little short on lilt too.
The strings played very beautifully in places but they certainly did not quite have the heft and richness of the Czech PO in Manchester.
Both heartening and sad to hear so many people in the foyers speaking Czech. Our EU friends who have made their home here coming to hear one of their national orchestras .Comment
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Actually, from my own orchestra-concert going experience, it's far from uncommon to hear in the lobby an increased quotient of speakers of the native language of a given country when that country's music features prominently on the program. The obvious instance is when I hear more scattered Russian spoken than usual when the concert features Tchaikovsky, DSCH or Prokofiev, for example.Originally posted by Barbirollians View Post
I just looked up the capacity of the Oval Hall; 2,271 seats. So good to know the crowd was sizeable. On the subject of Demidenko, I actually found in a 2nd-hand record store his Hyperion CD of Medtner solo piano music, with a strange-looking scrawl on the booklet cover, for $8. I bought it on a whim, and it took a long time to dawn on me that the scrawl was Demidenko's signature.Comment
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