Vienna Philharmonic Summer Concert tonight.

[amateur51]

I enjoyed the VPO concert very much apart from the violin concerto. What was that arrangement all about ?

Gergiev's power and intensity offset the inevitably rather diffuse acoustic.

Maybe not a concert to keep in the archives, still less to buy on disc.

It's likely to turn up on Sky Arts one would have thought.

[Mr Pee]

It's likely to turn up on Sky Arts one would have thought.

If it does, I'll turn the picture off and just listen. Watching Gergiev makes me feel quite ill. Especially in HD- the sweat!! Disgusting.

[BBMmk2]

Well, what's one person's rubbish, is another person's treasure! I have always liked the way VG interprets the music. recent Debussy/prokovief cycle was a marvelous tribute to this conductor.If he sweats, so what? A number of people of top drawer standards sweat! Whats the problem? It's the music that counts, not the sweat!

[ardcarp]

We spotted a total of three women

...and one (well, I think it was a woman) was on the front desk of the 1sts.

I sort of agree with BBM. It certainly wasn't rubbish. The VP produced their usual Rolls Royce sound in spite of the outdoor conditions and acoustic. I don't like wayching VG and wonder how the heck orchestral players follow him. But he seems to produce the goods.

The programme as a whole wasn't especially pleasuable. The cameras seemed to dwell on serried ranks of outdoor audience who got more swaddled as the evening went on...oh and on some clouds too plus the schloss. I suspect I might have enjoyed it even less being there.

[Norfolk Born]

ardcarp's views closely match my own. Although entry to the concert is free, I suspect that the seating is carefully segregated, with only the great and the good allowed to sit at or near the front.

[Ferretfancy]

I've just caught up with this concert on my hard disc --Oh dear!
It seemed to me to exemplify everything that's unsatisfactory about televised music, restless camerawork, tedious dancing, close ups on the wrong instruments and in this case awful sound balance. Heard on wide range equipment the normally excellent Benjamin Schmid was almost inaudible in places during what seemed an interminable performance of the Paganini, and it was only one movement!

It reminded me of Alf Garnett's comment on life in the Soviet Union, " Cornfields and tractors and ballet in the evenings"

Ghastly.

[Alf-Prufrock]

Frankly I thought the Liszt Les Preludes rather scrappy. The sound, mind you, was bad for a modern digital feed - perhaps the outdoor circumstances proved too much for the engineers to handle. I agree with the comment that the direction of the camera work was illogical and subversive, as if intended to make us uneasy and seasick. The dancing was as near trivial as it is possible to be.
Did you enjoy the concert, daddy? Not very much, my boy.
And what was that Paganini concerto? Can anyone explain it?