Philharmonia from the RFH Thursday 28th June

[Flay]

Somebody call?

You too?

I went online to listen but got distracted by a survey: what do I think about the R3 website? Not a lot... At least I got a chance to say so. Then there was the sport...

Will try to listen tomorrow

[Resurrection Man]

I hope we can. After all, it is MY symphony but as I type Listen Again is mute.

Not able to listen in real time due to own floods of Biblical proportions.

[amateur51]

Somebody call?

[techniquest]

I listened to the concert last night and was very disappointed with the Mahler performance. It seemed a hurried performance with the best playing reserved for the 2nd and 3rd movements. I'm not sure what happened to the soloist at the end of Urlicht, but she seemed to lose pitch and ended the last note very quickly (maybe she thought she was going to sneeze or cough or something). As the symphony progressed it was as if EPS lost patience, and the final pages were as underwhelming as I've heard for quite a while. Maybe the condition of the RFH organ was in part to blame, or maybe it was how the orchestra was mic'ed but to me there was no depth of sound and no feeling.
Resurrection Man, I would be very interested to read your assessment when you get to listen to it.

[Resurrection Man]

I thoroughly enjoyed it ...even with only half an organ! I liked his choice of tempo. I didn't pick up on the soloist losing pitch...I'll listen to it a bit more closely again tomorrow.

Parts of it didn't quite hit the spot. There is one passage about 29 minutes into the second half played on the brass that reminds me of an old man slowly and with great effort climbing up a hill and then as he gets to the top and looks over the ridge to see Shangri-La in the valley below, there is a great drum roll and almost an explosion of noise ...in my video this would be a shot from a helicopter zooming up and up and up and up..didn't quite happen here, sadly. But it's a 'keeper'. Much better than that ghastly Dudamel effort last year.

EDIT: Thought I'd see how it was done on another performance and so grabbed a CD at random. Happened to be Rattle and the CBSO recorded back in 1986 with Arleen Auger and Janet Baker...a rather fine recording and I prefer Rattle's approach. Much more dynamic. Think I'll give it a full audition tomorrow...not listened to it for a while.

[Petrushka]

I listened to the concert last night and was very disappointed with the Mahler performance. It seemed a hurried performance with the best playing reserved for the 2nd and 3rd movements. I'm not sure what happened to the soloist at the end of Urlicht, but she seemed to lose pitch and ended the last note very quickly (maybe she thought she was going to sneeze or cough or something). As the symphony progressed it was as if EPS lost patience, and the final pages were as underwhelming as I've heard for quite a while. Maybe the condition of the RFH organ was in part to blame, or maybe it was how the orchestra was mic'ed but to me there was no depth of sound and no feeling.
Resurrection Man, I would be very interested to read your assessment when you get to listen to it.

I wasn't going to enter the fray on this one due to having to listen to it, for technical reasons, via my smart TV. It actually sounded surprisingly acceptable but I must agree with these comments. I didn't notice any problem with the soloist in Urlicht but certainly found the ending underwhelming, a fact clearly not due to having to listen via the TV as I'd thought. Praise, though, to the Philharmonia Chorus who had a really good sing.

If it's a good, strong organ you want at the end (as I do) then the live LPO/Tennstedt or LSO/Kaplan are the ones for you.