Edinburgh Festival 2012

[Flosshilde]

Just got back from the Mahler Youth Orchestra concert - Act 3 prologue & Good Friday music from Parsifal, & Mahler 7. Both stunning, the horns especially good in the Mahler, wind generally very good in both.

(I just wish I'd remembered how uncomfortable the Upper Circle in the Usher Hall is - especially if you have longish legs. Not a good idea for sitting through a Mahler symphony. Great sound though)

[kernelbogey]

If you missed today's 11am concert by Daniil Trifonov, it's well worth catching up on iPlayer...........

I heard part of this on the car radio on a long journey yesterday. Astonishing technique combined with great musicianship. On iPlayer for another six days. Scriabin, Medtner, Stravinsky, Debussy & Chopin. He's only twenty-one, and clearly has a huge future.

[Kuhlau]

I attended the Trifonov recital, and I must say it was the most wonderful performance, this young man is an artist of astonishing potential. I cannot remember enjoying any concert as much as those two hours spent in a crowded Queens Hall. I met him briefly afterwards when he was signing programmes etc, and he seems excited to be returning to Glasgow in November, and also to be playing Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 in Birmingham next year.

His FOURTH encore (not broadcast on Radio 3), a transcription of Die Fledermaus, was probably the most breathtaking pianism I have ever witnessed. And I am certainly not one for hyperbole!

Whilst in Edinburgh, I also took in Busoni's Piano Concerto, Garrick Ohlson as Soloist. Astonishing stamina required! I'm still trying to quite comprehend such a labyrinthine piece - it must be a life's work for some pianists to reach a performance standard for this work - incredible!

[Curalach]

Just got back from the Mahler Youth Orchestra concert - Act 3 prologue & Good Friday music from Parsifal, & Mahler 7. Both stunning, the horns especially good in the Mahler, wind generally very good in both.

(I just wish I'd remembered how uncomfortable the Upper Circle in the Usher Hall is - especially if you have longish legs. Not a good idea for sitting through a Mahler symphony. Great sound though)

That's interesting. I was at this concert last night and, sitting in the stalls, had some issues with the sound. The playing was excellent, although there were some ensemble problems, particularly in the Mahler. The woodwind were frequently swamped by the sheer weight of gorgeous string sound and most of the Nachtmusik tintinnabulations were lost. In the last movement the lute, positioned behind the strings next to the harps was practically inaudible.
From my perspective, these were all balance issues which the conductor failed to get right. I was left wondering if you could have too many string players in an orchestra!
The reading of the Mahler was, for me, too civilised and frequently far too slow, particularly in the first movement. It's a piece that needs a Tennstedt or a Bernstein to inject a level of excitement and, dare I say, malice, which Gatti signally failed to do.

[salymap]

Good to read about this year's Edinburgh Festival, difficult to realise it is 60 years [1952] since I last visited that beautiful City and saw the Tattoo and enjoyed the concerts.

[BBMmk2]

Ah thats omne city I would loveto visit and hav'nt yet!

[Flosshilde]

That's interesting. I was at this concert last night and, sitting in the stalls, had some issues with the sound. The playing was excellent, although there were some ensemble problems, particularly in the Mahler. The woodwind were frequently swamped by the sheer weight of gorgeous string sound and most of the Nachtmusik tintinnabulations were lost. In the last movement the lute, positioned behind the strings next to the harps was practically inaudible.
From my perspective, these were all balance issues which the conductor failed to get right. I was left wondering if you could have too many string players in an orchestra!
The reading of the Mahler was, for me, too civilised and frequently far too slow, particularly in the first movement. It's a piece that needs a Tennstedt or a Bernstein to inject a level of excitement and, dare I say, malice, which Gatti signally failed to do.

Curalach, The Herald review very much agreed with you (but still gave it 4 stars). As far as the sound is concerned, from where I was (row C, centre-ish, in the Upper Circle) the woodwind were clear & not drowned out by the strings (& there were a lot of them - far more than usual in an orchestra, even for Mahler, I thought. The percussion was OK, too, except for the brass (?) sheets, which were almost inaudible until the end when their player laid into them with a bit more vim & vigour. (I'm always amazed at how the triangle manages to cut through the densest sound).

[Northender]

I'm currently enjoying another excellent recital from the Queen's Hall, by Francesco Piemontesi (another graduate of the New Generations Artists scheme).
He's just received a richly deserved ovation.

[BBMmk2]

What a tattoo it was last night! Possibly the best in quite a few years!

[HighlandDougie]

I much enjoyed last night's Philharmonia Orchestra concert, not least because the concerto (Unsuk Chin's Violin one) was completely new to me. Salonen's Bruckner 4 was on the brisk side but was none the worse for that. The type of Bruckner performance which belies the sorts of words being bandied about in the Bruckner battle on another thread. It certainly wasn't turgid or thick but lucid and involving. The Philharmonia were in great form and the only disappointment was that the hall wasn't more full (I am told by a friend who has been to many of the Usher Hall concerts this year that this has been the case at a good number of them). Australian Chamber Orchestra played wonderfully well this morning but I'm not so sure about what they played, other than the Scelsi which was pretty special.

[HighlandDougie]

I can't imagine David Robertson's Belshazzar's Feast will be anything other than clinical and uninvolving so I won't go to the closing concert.

Very involving indeed, with some thrilling singing from Neal Davies and (especially) the Festival Chorus. Great playing from the orchestra (and a good use of the Usher Hall space for the antiphonal brass). And to be able to hear Morton Feldman's 'Coptic Light' - a work which I think is a masterpiece - was thrilling. Alas, if I were to be unfair, definitely casting pearls before swine in relation to a fairly typical Edinburgh audience by programming Ives then Feldman. Hurrah for the RSNO and the Festival for having the courage to do so. One of the best concerts I've been to in a long time.

And following on from the Emersons (Mozart, Ades, Beethoven Op 127, plus a gem of an encore in the form of some Webern), a good day for music

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Morton Feldman's 'Coptic Light' - a work which I think is a masterpiece

... not so sure I'd go along with the idea that "a fairly typical Edinburgh audience" equates to "swine", though!

[HighlandDougie]

... not so sure I'd go along with the idea that "a fairly typical Edinburgh audience" equates to "swine", though!

In the light of day, yes, FHG, that was a bit extreme to say that but some of the comments including, alas, from among friends I met afterwards for a drink.

[Bryn]

In the light of day, yes, FHG, that was a bit extreme to say that but some of the comments including, alas, from among friends I met afterwards for a drink.

Is it know whether the Ives and Feldman were recorded for later broadcast on R3?

[HighlandDougie]

Is it know whether the Ives and Feldman were recorded for later broadcast on R3?

Alas, not a microphone to be seen