Edinburgh International Festival 2013

[Tony Halstead]

Totally agreed!

[Beresford]

Today's really outstanding Midori Bach/Schnittke solo violin recital from the Edinburgh Festival has just been RUINED by sticking on Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto in the interval.

I have just listened to Bang on a Can All Stars, playing Louis Andriessen's Workers Union, in the interval of the Debussy-Ligeti piano recital from Aimard. I thought it was great - livened up my listening no end, and the housework got done much more quickly. Added something visceral to Aimard's presentation of the music as thesis. And how often do we nowadays hear something like the Andriessen on Radio 3 in the morning?

Enjoying the second half much more - either Aimard or my ears got more animated.

[David-G]

Today's really outstanding Midori Bach/Schnittke solo violin recital from the Edinburgh Festival has just been RUINED by sticking on Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto in the interval.

This cancerous spread of filling up intervals with irrelevant music instead of words (or just as good, silence!) really has to STOP!

And did nobody bother to notice that we'll be getting precisely this same Piano Concerto in tomorrow's Prom?

Really, it seems time for R3 to get their programming act together. A little thought would be a good way to start, added to a little less contempt for their audience, and a lot more imagination.

You will gather that I am really cross! It has spoiled what was a splendid live recital.

Agree completely!!!

Of course one could listen on the iplayer instead, and skip past these offending fillers. But that is not what live radio should be about.

I too am intensely angry about this practice. Radio 3 seem to have lost sight of a concert being an entity, not just a collection of pieces that can be mucked around with.

[Veronika]

I'm looking forward to Véronique Gens's concert on the 30th. The only reason I am glad I ever flew with Virgin Atlantic was that I discovered one of her CDs thanks to their in-flight "entertainment" (to use the term loosely) system. (It still does NOT excuse their appallingly uncomfortable seats - no one's back is C-shaped! - or what they put on their "classical" music playlist. Apart from VG's Tragediennes, of course.)

[doversoul1]

Glass harmonica on Monday

I used to love Bruno Hoffmann’ s glass harp LP, so I was looking forward to today’s concert. Was it the difference between glass harp and glass harmonica that this performance didn’t sound anything like Hoffmann’s? There was nothing at all ethereal about the sound but it actually sounded like…someone rubbing a piece of glass with wet fingers. It almost set my teeth on edge in some places. And as far as I could here in the Mozart, not all notes were there as if the instrument wasn’t sophisticated enough for the music. I suppose there was curiosity value but what a disappointment.

Thursday 29
While I am here, anybody interested in Andreas Scholl singing, no not Bach or Dowland but Schubert and Brahms?

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b038y59s

[BBMmk2]

Saw the Tattoo last night! Absolutely great. I thought the kids on the bikes were really good! (I know probably not that part of the festival but it was rather!).

[pastoralguy]

Saw the Tattoo last night! Absolutely great. I thought the kids on the bikes were really good! (I know probably not that part of the festival but it was rather!).

Glad you made it to Edinburgh, BBM! Are you going to any concerts?

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Glad you made it to Edinburgh, BBM! Are you going to any concerts?

Who said he was in Edinburgh - Bbm's talking about the Hell's Angels riding through the centre of Brighton!

[aeolium]

I used to love Bruno Hoffmann’ s glass harp LP, so I was looking forward to today’s concert. Was it the difference between glass harp and glass harmonica that this performance didn’t sound anything like Hoffmann’s? There was nothing at all ethereal about the sound but it actually sounded like…someone rubbing a piece of glass with wet fingers. It almost set my teeth on edge in some places. And as far as I could here in the Mozart, not all notes were there as if the instrument wasn’t sophisticated enough for the music. I suppose there was curiosity value but what a disappointment.

Actually I did think it sounded ethereal at times, ds, though more so in the solo works. It was interesting to hear a performance on a real glass harmonica and not some of the substitutes that are used (e.g. celesta) even though as you say it was a struggle for the soloist in the Adagio and Rondo. I wonder if Mozart had a really exceptional player in mind when he composed that work.

It was an adventurous programme and it was good to hear the Crumb works, which I must listen to again.

[BBMmk2]

Who said he was in Edinburgh - Bbm's talking about the Hell's Angels riding through the centre of Brighton!

Ferney! You gave the game away!! :)

[pilamenon]

Best Eroica ever!

Tonight, Radio 3 broadcast the best performance of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony I have ever heard - by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. The colour and character of the playing, woodwind and brass in particular, were a total joy throughout.

I would like to request a live Beethoven cycle from them, please, and am very eager to tune in for No 7 tomorrow evening!

[pastoralguy]

Tonight, Radio 3 broadcast the best performance of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony I have ever heard - by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. The colour and character of the playing, woodwind and brass in particular, were a total joy throughout.

I would like to request a live Beethoven cycle from them, please, and am very eager to tune in for No 7 tomorrow evening!

We went to that concert and were blown away by it. The playing was superb, especially in the 'Metamorphosen'. The leader made a beautiful sound in the Haydn although it was not a huge sound. The following days concert was even better!

[David-G]

Tonight, Radio 3 broadcast the best performance of Beethoven's 3rd Symphony I have ever heard - by the Chamber Orchestra of Europe conducted by Yannick Nezet-Seguin. The colour and character of the playing, woodwind and brass in particular, were a total joy throughout.

Absolutely! I also came away from this concert with the thought that this must be the best performance of the Eroica I had ever heard.