LPO Jurowski Jan 15 2014

[BBMmk2]

What a marvellous concert. The JM Viola was magnificent. Well worth hearing again and I am glad that Cali was at the hall himself!! :) With the Mahler 6, I don't know if I have heard such a more natural performance as I had last night! A great way to finish of a day, by anyone's standards! :)

[Nick Armstrong]

Interesting review from ES here: http://www.edwardseckerson.biz/revie...l-hall-review/

[Nick Armstrong]

I am sure that Andy Barclay (LPO Principal Percussion) will forgive me this quote from a thread on Facebook: "Today's interesting discovery - if you play the hammer in Mahler 6 with a little too much enthusiasm the hammer kicks back at you making you take a step backwards into a pair of 24" cymbals which then fall on the floor but you can't hear them because there are 9 LPO horns in front of you rearranging your internal organs while it happens. Just another day at the office......." It was the concert.... I certainly did not hear it.

Fantastic quote -

and the incident was indeed inaudible and invisible from Row E (although I did see some of the punters in the seats directly behind the hammer grinning - I assumed it was just at the spectacle of the chap wielding his oversized croquet mallet...)

[johnb]

Interesting review from ES here: http://www.edwardseckerson.biz/revie...l-hall-review/

A case of damning with faint praise?

I realise that for some people the order of the 2nd and 3rd movements is a source of endless controversy - something I have never really understood. (I am happy to accept the conductor's interpretative decision.) What I do find intensely annoying is when that preoccupation overwhelms and distorts a critic's perception of a performance.

[edashtav]

I've heard only the Macmillan via iPlayer. My word what a fine first performance from Lawrence Power beautifuly accompanied by Jurowski and the LPO! But... what of its music? Marry in haste, repent at leisure goes the proverb and Macmillan always produces bewitching pieces scored with the brilliance of Arnold and Bantock and better structured than either of those forebears could manage. Rhythmic energy, tunes galores, gaudy textures ...
I know you're waiting for the ...

BUT...
repeated hearings of other works have shown that they have lacked staying power. The problem is that a facile ear and a quick brain allow Macmillan to absorb the inconsequential from friend and foe alike but there's too little grist, challenge is absent, the need to struggle to understand the new is never there. "These I have Loved" - including a number of my earlier successes for good measure.

BUT...
Macmillan has his merits. He will be the "way-in", the sugar-coated bon-bon that allows the hard kernels of real modern music to be ingested by those who otherwise find them dfficult to swallow.

Let Jimmy have his moments in the sunshine for I fear posterity's judgement on his work will be harsh.

The trouble is every first performance of a Jimmy Mac inhibits a performance of a piece saying something that we need to hear.

It's so easy to "cop out" - I performed one of Jimmy's Strathclyde motets twice with my choir in December - they loved singing it, and the conservative congregations were bowled over!

I'm a miserable sinner - where's the Catholic Church when you need it, Jimmy?

[jayne lee wilson]

I am sure that Andy Barclay (LPO Principal Percussion) will forgive me this quote from a thread on Facebook: "Today's interesting discovery - if you play the hammer in Mahler 6 with a little too much enthusiasm the hammer kicks back at you making you take a step backwards into a pair of 24" cymbals which then fall on the floor but you can't hear them because there are 9 LPO horns in front of you rearranging your internal organs while it happens. Just another day at the office......."
It was the concert.... I certainly did not hear it.

Whenever I've seen the Mahler 6th at the RLPO (with Groves, Pesek, Schwarz and Petrenko) the huge and very long hammer is placed at the top of the choir stalls with its block, well behind and away from the orchestra. With great Ceremonie de Theatre, a percussionist will leave her seat in the orchestra as the climax approaches, and slowly walk up to the hammer and prepare. You sense the ripple of anticipation around the hall. Then the blow itself (unhampered by neighbouring cymbals or blowback from the horns...) is usually of tremendous force. Once, having to sit out part of the finale in the bar (long story...) I heard - almost felt - the last two blows very clearly.

Still in trouble with the chest infection, my ears too silted up to listen to this Jurowski 6th - or (much worse) the Bychkov/BBCSO Leningrad tonight. Bit fed up.
("So, BOO HOO!" - Said of course with the force and sarcasm of Liz Taylor to Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?)

[Alison]

I strongly disagree with Seckers on his nothing must precede Mahler 6 theory. For myself I need something before the main dish. In any case there seems to be a larger buzz around the orchestral tune up for a second half masterwork.

Good thoughts from him on the movement order though. Let's not recommence that argument!

[Petrushka]

I strongly disagree with Seckers on his nothing must precede Mahler 6 theory. For myself I need something before the main dish. In any case there seems to be a larger buzz around the orchestral tune up for a second half masterwork.

Good thoughts from him on the movement order though. Let's not recommence that argument!

I'm also very much in favour of having something precede Mahler 6 but in a concert situation consideration has to be given to the fact that it is a very long and strenuous work. That's why I'd like to hear a work by an ensemble other than the orchestra giving the Mahler, perhaps a Bach Motet or Cantata, some short chamber piece, even the organ. The possibilities are endless.

I'm with johnb on the question of the middle movements order. I'm quite happy to hear it either way and to accept the conductors choice. I think we must accept that the Mahler 6 exists in what is effectively two versions.

Listening to the extraordinary precision and virtuosity of the LPO last night I did just wonder whether Mahler is becoming too easy, lacking the sense of Herculean struggle just to get round the notes that characterises many older renditions and whether this might account for the feeling of some emotional coolness noted by some.

[amateur51]

I strongly disagree with Seckers on his nothing must precede Mahler 6 theory. For myself I need something before the main dish. In any case there seems to be a larger buzz around the orchestral tune up for a second half masterwork.

Good thoughts from him on the movement order though. Let's not recommence that argument!

I think you just might have ...

You distract them with your fire-eating Alison, while I get the wagons in a circle

[Petrushka]

I think you just might have ...

You distract them with your fire-eating Alison, while I get the wagons in a circle

[edashtav]

Maybe, the leningrad ain't all bad

Still in trouble with the chest infection, my ears too silted up to listen to this Jurowski 6th - or (much worse) the Bychkov/BBCSO Leningrad tonight. Bit fed up.
("So, BOO HOO!" - Said of course with the force and sarcasm of Liz Taylor to Richard Burton in Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf?)

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that Jayne. I, a rabid unbeliever, listened to Bychkov's Leningrad this evening and thought that he made a convincing case for the work. I was longing to hear whether you, a devout yet insightfulful believer, shared my feelings. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that your ears recover before the iPlayer's week is out. Whatever, ...get better, soon for FOR3 NEEDS YOU!

[Petrushka]

Oh dear, I'm sorry to hear that Jayne. I, a rabid unbeliever, listened to Bychkov's Leningrad this evening and thought that he made a convincing case for the work. I was longing to hear whether you, a devout yet insightfulful believer, shared my feelings. I'll keep my fingers crossed and hope that your ears recover before the iPlayer's week is out. Whatever, ...get better, soon for FOR3 NEEDS YOU!

When my own ears were silted up for several weeks a couple of years ago I took to recording any interesting concerts and playing back when things returned to whatever passes for normal.

[BBMmk2]

I always have liked the two versions. And in some ways, I thought this was a good idea on the night.

[Nick Armstrong]

I always have liked the two versions. And in some ways, I thought this was a good idea on the night.

But in other ways, not?

[Alison]

But in other ways, not?

I listened again last night with even greater enjoyment.