Lunchtime Concerts one stop shop

[gradus]

Did anyone else hear Lang lang's recital broadcast today of the 4 Chopin Ballades. I've never heard anything quite like it, rapturously received by the audience but in many places almost unrecognizable, to me at least. I must have listened to dozens of performances by great pianists none of whom played the pieces remotely like Lang Lang, it was as though one had been transported back a hundred years to hear some long-forgotten finger-hero who was working from first acqaintance with the scores, he made so much of the music sound unfamiliar by stressing subordinate lines and gabbling others; a bizarre exercise in extreme dynamics, weird tempi and some odd rhythms. Perhaps this playing appeals strongly to audiences today? I must be getting old.

[Lento]

Did anyone else hear Lang lang's recital broadcast today of the 4 Chopin Ballades....he made so much of the music sound unfamiliar by stressing subordinate lines and gabbling others; a bizarre exercise in extreme dynamics, weird tempi and some odd rhythms. Perhaps this playing appeals strongly to audiences today? I must be getting old.

I don't think you're getting old! I tend to suffer a mild form of Stockholm Syndrome when listening to Lang Lang: I (almost) believe in what he is doing, while I'm actually listening to it....then I go off and listen to one of the pieces played by someone else, and think "OMG", or words to that effect. This recital was no exception. I went on to listen to Lucy Parham's interpretation of the 4th ballade on Spotify and it is very different, to take one example.

On the plus side, his performances seem always to be involving, always something to react to (or against, one has to say); and then there's that technique. A broadcast by him is not to be missed, in my view, but I don't think I'd pay to go to one of his concerts, and I certainly couldn't live with a recording by him.

[Pianorak]

Did anyone else hear Lang lang's recital broadcast today of the 4 Chopin Ballades. I've never heard anything quite like it . . .

Let's hope we'll never have to hear anything quite like it again. It wasn't just his interpretation which was weird, but he was let down by his fabled technique. Burnout? (Didn't hear the opening Mozart.)

[doversoul1]

Schwetzingen Festival

This week (Tuesday – Friday) concerts from the Schwetzingen Festival
Interesting works and some good performances but the whole thing is so chopped up that there is no sense of live concerts which is a real shame.

Here is a soprano with no wobble (well, very little)
Wednesday: Nuria Rial
Not too sure about her Fauré but I thought the songs by Granados and Montsalvatge were rather good.

and CPE Bach: Fantasia in F minor

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04d4p6q

[Oldcrofter]

Example of Nuria Rial's voice:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mbt9fw6bs8c

[aeolium]

Just an alert that the lunchtime concerts this week include performances of some of the Mozart string quintets from concerts at Salzburg, works that are not that frequently broadcast or programmed in concert but which are always worth hearing. Each "concert" as broadcast is almost certainly not the concert as it was played but, as is now usual, a selection from concerts throughout the Mozartwoche. It is a slight pity that the R3 producers have selected the early quintet K174 (which seems closer in spirit and style to the string divertimenti composed around that time) and the string quintet arrangement of the wind serenade K388, rather than the two great quintets in C and G minor of 1787. The latter quintets were reportedly played during the Mozartwoche but presumably because of scheduling reasons have not been selected for broadcast (AFAICS). Still, there is the chance to hear the two other late quintets, the E flat K614 (broadcast yesterday) and the D major K593. The ensemble is one of invited players including Renaud Capuçon and Alina Ibragimova.

[Lento]

Not sure how to describe Pärt's Mozart Adagio that ended today's concert: arrangement, fantasy, derangement?

[teamsaint]

I would recommend todays LTC.

Wolf and Mahler, very well performed, IMO.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04k8bfy

[rodney_h_d]

Alert for all those interested in string playing!

Cancel everything to listen to Wednesday's lunchtime concert from Cardiff!

I've only ever attended two viola recitals and the one given by this talented musician was extraordinary.

Wednesday 8 October 2014
1.00pm from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff

Brahms: Minnelied Op.71, No.5
Brahms: Immer leiser wird mein Schlummer, Op.105, No.2
Brahms: Feldeinsamkeit, Op.86, No.2

Hindemith: Sonata for Viola & Piano Op.11 No.4

Russian sequence:
Kabalevsky: Improvisation
Mussorgsky: Une Larme
Shostakovich: Barrel Organ Waltz (from The Gadfly Suite)
Mussorgsky: Hopak (from Sorochintsy Fair)
Glazunov: Elegie
Prokofiev: The Young Juliet (from Scene 2 of Romeo and Juliet)
Tchaikovsky: October (No.10 from The Seasons)
Shostakovich: People's Holiday (from The Gadfly Suite)

Lawrence Power (viola), Simon Crawford-Phillips (piano).

[doversoul1]

Edwardian and Victorian songs.: Thursday 9 October

This week's programmes come from BBC Hoddinott Hall in Cardiff. Tenor Ben Johnson, accompanied by Iain Burnside, presents a programme of Edwardian and Victorian songs.

Samuel Liddle: How Lovely are thy Dwellings
Arthur Sullivan: The Lost Chord
May Brahe: Bless This House
C.H.H. Parry: No Longer Mourn for Me
Charles Villiers Stanford: A Soft Day
Trad. Irish, arr. Herbert Hughes: The Stuttering Lovers
Elgar: Pleading; Is she not passing fair?
Amy Woodforde Finden: Kashmiri Song; When I am Dying
Liza Lehmann: Henry King; If I Built a World for You
Guy d'Hardelot: Because
Liza Lehmann: Ah, Moon of my Delight
Ben Johnson (tenor), Iain Burnside (piano).

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b04kf0dw

I am only halfway but I think this is an excellent concert. A song recital in the real sense. Ben Johnson’s comment was brief but insightful. It is one concert (maybe slightly edited?) which is a huge improvement on the cut and paste programmes we were presented lately.

[Padraig]

I agree doversoul that this was a most enjoyable concert. Shades of past drawing room gentility? I have heard many of these songs performed in such a setting - probably the last gasp of a dying social phenomenon before jazz, swing and rock n' roll changed the face of music in the home. I always loved that part of Alan Keith's radio programme where he chose the old songs and the singers who made them known to the likes of me.

Sorry to have no comment on other recent concerts recommended: I have not been around to listen much this last while. I hope to rectify that now, as Lunchtime Concert is one of my favourites.

[Stanley Stewart]

I fully agree, today's R3 Lunchtime Concert (9 Oct), was a sheer delight; an instant reminder of my adolescence in the 40s when I heard Richard Tauber or John McHugh sing ballads at Aberdeen's Music Hall.

[umslopogaas]

I am fairly sure (but it was a long time ago) that when I was a teenager my parents had an EP record of Harry Secombe singing The Lost Chord. Ben Johnson has a pleasant voice, but not as memorable as Secombe's.

If it wasnt Secombe, can anyone remember who it was?

[zola]

I attended the Radio 3 lunchtime concert at LSO St Luke's today ( to be broadcast November 11th ) It was an all Russian programme by the Nash Ensemble, coincidentally including Lawrence Power who impressed Rodney a few posts above this. Borodin String Sextet ( melodic ) Stravinsky Three pieces for String Quartet ( spiky ) Tchaikovsky Souvenir de Florence ( tour de force ) Worth catching when finally broadcast. Introduced by acting director of the proms Edward Blakeman ( whenever are they going to announce appointments ? ) Jonathan Miller happily taking the air in the churchyard outside.

[amateur51]

I am fairly sure (but it was a long time ago) that when I was a teenager my parents had an EP record of Harry Secombe singing The Lost Chord. Ben Johnson has a pleasant voice, but not as memorable as Secombe's.

If it wasnt Secombe, can anyone remember who it was?

Jimmy Durante, surely

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vla0V2jrtYE