Lunchtime Concerts one stop shop

[doversoul1]

Monday 2 December

This looks good:
Janacek: Violin Sonata
Amy Beach: Romance, Op 23
Strauss: Violin Sonata in E flat, Op 18
Elena Urioste (violin)
Michael Brown (piano)

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03k0q6x

Janacek is one of my favourite, I know very little about Amy Beach’s music, and a violin sonata by Strauss sounds intriguing.

[Don Petter]

... a violin sonata by Strauss sounds intriguing.

Well worth hearing, and thought worthy of recording by Heifetz, Neveu, Kogan, Suk and Sitkovetsky, to name but a few.

[doversoul1]

Missed the Janacek and Amy Beach but I thought the Strauss violin sonata was enchanting. You (I) could almost hear a story told in words. Come to think of it, I was very much taken to his oboe concerto some time ago. I tend to shy away from the names of these composers of massive works. I wonder what I am missing.

[teamsaint]

Missed the Janacek and Amy Beach but I thought the Strauss violin sonata was enchanting. You (I) could almost hear a story told in words. Come to think of it, I was very much taken to his oboe concerto some time ago. I tend to shy away from the names of these composers of massive works. I wonder what I am missing.

As usual, I caught bits and bobs. The Janacek sounded intriguing, the Beach lovely, and the Strauss worth trying to catch again.

DS, I don't know how familiar you are with Strauss? i'm learning, principally from the Kempe /Staatskapelle Dresden 9 CD orchestral works set.
There is an extraordinary variety of music here, including the Oboe Concerto. Its usually available at a good price too.
I do find some things not quite to my taste (yet?) but lots to enjoy.

£15 well spent, I would suggest !!

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Richard-Strauss-Staatskapelle-Dresden-Kempe/dp/B000BVXC7Q/ref=sr_1_2?s=music&ie=UTF8&qid=1386006070&sr=1-2&keywords=strauss+kempe

[doversoul1]

Thank you, ts, for your recommendation. I have added it to my CD List page on my PC.

CDs are good but I think there is something special about hearing music you don’t know on the radio and find that you like it. I often find this with Lunchtime Concert.

Oh, how familiar am I with Strauss? Not at all.

[teamsaint]

Thank you, ts, for your recommendation. I have added it to my CD List page on my PC.

CDs are good but I think there is something special about hearing music you don’t know on the radio and find that you like it. I often find this with Lunchtime Concert.

Oh, how familiar am I with Strauss? Not at all.

I couldn't agree more, DS.

Perhaps they could have that framed and hung on every R3 producer's wall !

Lots indeed still to enjoy on the lunchtime concerts, despite the chopped up concerts we are getting more of now.

[aeolium]

I enjoyed today's Wigmore Hall lunchtime recital with Mark Simpson on clarinet and Vikingur Olafsson on piano. Simpson used 3 different instruments for the 3 works, a basset clarinet for the Gavin Higgins new work (played first contrary to the website listing), a clarinet in A for the Howells sonata, and clarinet in B flat for Brahms' F minor sonata. I liked the third 'song' of the Higgins and the Howells sonata which I had not heard - a performance for teamsaint and ER to listen to. And the performance of the Brahms sonata was excellent. I know some people like this work in the viola arrangement but to me it sounds incomparably better on clarinet. On this evidence Mark Simpson seems a very talented musician.

[teamsaint]

Anybody catch the interesting programme from today's concert by Mark Simpson?
Interesting programme. I felt there was some very rough sound from the clarinet,(but it was car radio for me), and some overly gushing presentation from SMP, which is par for the course.

The Howells Sonata was the stand out for me. I'd certainly want to hear it again.
Not convinced on first hearing by the Higgins work, though I quite enjoyed the third song

EDIT : cross posted, apologies.
Its well worth catching , at any rate !!

[aeolium]

We seem to have cross-posted, ts, but with similar impressions (though I didn't find the clarinet sound too rough on my radio)

[EdgeleyRob]

Anybody catch the interesting programme from today's concert by Mark Simpson?
Interesting programme. I felt there was some very rough sound from the clarinet,(but it was car radio for me), and some overly gushing presentation from SMP, which is par for the course.

The Howells Sonata was the stand out for me. I'd certainly want to hear it again.Not convinced on first hearing by the Higgins work, though I quite enjoyed the third song

EDIT : cross posted, apologies.
Its well worth catching , at any rate !!

And again and again and again,it's delicious ts.
I can recommend the Naxos (c/w more delicious Howells)and the Hyperion (c/w more delicious British Clarinet and piano stuff).

I caught this one car the car radio too,as I drove past the etihad stadium on the way to a meeting in North Manchester.
Sublime,ridiculous.

[ardcarp]

I heard Mark Simpson do the same e programme (different pianist) last week, live. He also played the John Ireland Sonata, a piece of his own, Echoes and Embers, , and the Finzi Bagatelles. (I went to the concert with one of my g-daughters, 'cos she and I do the Bagatelles together, and I thought it would be good to hear them done expertly...which they were.)

If anyone heard the Howells and the Ireland without knowing their provenance, they would probably not attach the 'cowpat' description to them. They are both at times quite angular and aggressive pieces, and both very much exploiting the clarinet's range and agility...not to mention the player's.

Mark is a very physical player, fabulously musical of course, but in addition to waving the instrument about a lot, his body is continuously bending and stretching at the knees which must be physically exhausting. (I had to stifle some giggles from g-daughter at times.)

He is capable of some beautiful quiet playing (especially in his own piece) but his tone is not always 'beautiful', and loud high notes were shrill I have to say, reminding me a bit of John Harle on the saxophone. I felt at times the Howells and Ireland were deliberately played in a non-lyrical way...maybe to dispel the aforementioned cowpat associations.

Mark's own work (he was the guy who wrote the short piece for the Last Night of the Proms) was interesting, making use of a lot of noises not usually associated with a musical instrument, plus some almost endless glissandi which made the opening of Rhapsody in Blue seem a mere nothing. G-daughter needed to be gagged at this point.

At 'our' concert, Mark was accompanied by Richard Uttley, a fine young pianist who has a Wigmore solo recital early in the New Year.

[Thropplenoggin]

Some excellent concerts coming up next week from the recent LSO St Luke's Mozart season, including one I attended:

Wednesday

Mozart: Violin Sonata in F major, K376
Mozart: Violin Sonata in G major, K379
Mozart: Violin Sonata in E flat major, K481

Vilde Frang (violin)
Michail Lifits (piano)

and one I wished I'd attended:

Tueday

Mozart: Prelude and Fugue in C minor, 404a (after JS Bach)
Mozart: Divertimento in E flat, K563

Lendvai Trio

Their recording of Beethoven's String Trios is excellent. I hope they record K.563.

[Thropplenoggin]

What wonderful performances by the Aronowitz Ensemble from last Friday's Lunchtime Concert (not live).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b03kp85s

Mozart: String Quartet in G, K80
Mozart: Adagio in B minor for solo piano, K540
Mozart: Piano Quartet in E flat, K493

K540 is given a particularly evocative account, and the string playing, unity and sound balance is lovely from start to fiinsh. It's a shame they don't seem to have recorded them on disc.

Compare this to the Chiarascuro Quartet's frankly unbearable account of the 'Dissonance' quartet on Wednesday and you'll hear the advantages of a dedicated ensemble over Alina Ibragimova's part-time quartet outfit.

[Nick Armstrong]

Francesco Piemontesi - I found his lunchtime recital today a delight: a terrific Schubert D960 I thought

I was much taken with it.

This is playing again at the moment. Well worth catching!

(I heard the announcement this time. I wonder how much of my pleasure is to do with the instrument, a Fazioli rather than the usual Steinway which seems to be there when I go (except for the Bechstein used by Michel Dalberto in the Fauré concerts in the spring). Jan Lisiecki managed to make the Steinway sing but normally I'm lukewarm about the piano/s in there, the Steinway used by Nelson Goerner was all mushy sound and clicks and ratttles. Or maybe that was just his playing, with far too much pedal - the D960 played like Debussy )

[David-G]

Originally Posted by Caliban

Francesco Piemontesi - I found his lunchtime recital today a delight: a terrific Schubert D960 I thought



Originally Posted by Richard Tarleton
I was much taken with it.


Were these posts from another thread? I can't find them.