(Royal) Concertgebouw Orchestra
Listening to the very interesting and varied segment on CD Review this morning about the latest (Vol 7) in the "Anthology of The Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra" series, it occurred to me it might be interesting to pool people's experiences of this fantastic orchestra - and hall.
We've had individual threads about specific concerts and recordings, but not about the orchestra itself, and its home.
This morning, I was very taken with the Sibelius 5, Berglund taking a broad and magnificent view of the conclusion, but all the extracts caught my ear in one way or another. Since my earliest days of being interested in music, I've been aware of the special transparency and texture of the orchestral sound recorded in that hall, along with the excellence of the orchestra itself - which I've only ever heard on visits to London.
And on CD of course. Haitink in Mahler was my earliest experience of them - No 9 first, then No 3, and perhaps above all the performance of 'Das Lied' with Janet Baker - the final movement is the Concertgebouw recording I've listened to most over the years.
Actually, the above is wrong - my earliest experience of them, I realise, was among my earliest experiences of any recorded music: the classic van Beinum 'Young Persons' Guide' which my parents had at home and which had very regular outings
(Seeing the LP cover again, I vividly remember finding "Concertgebouw" a very fascinating word when I was about the age of the lads depicted in the photo... 
)
Many others must remember it!
And what great music directors the orchestra has had. I thought Chailly a notch below the others in terms of digging out the real subtleties and meaning of certain pieces - but what a maestro of orchestral sonority...
I have attended two concerts in the actual Concertgebouw - two performances of Mahler 9 conducted by Haitink, with the ECYO: a friend was playing in the orchestra in those days, and a couple of us booked a trip to A'dam to coincide with the concerts. One of the performances subsequently came out on a Philips CD, also apparently available on Decca: your humble correspondent is visible in rear elevation among the audience on the cover, in fact...
Anyway, the point being that the acoustic was as tremendous in the flesh as everyone had said - precise yet atmospheric, a perfect balance between the aural equivalents of fruit and tannin
I've often perused the RCO schedule and toyed with the idea of a return trip to hear them in situ, but it hasn't happened yet. It will
Anyone else here had any great experiences in that hall, and/or with that orchestra? And does anyone own any of the seven volumes of the Anthology? (I can't see that they are downloadable anywhere - does anyone know any different? I might want to cherry-pick, I'm not sure I want to invest in whole boxes)
All thoughts, doubts, experiences &c. most welcome!
We've had individual threads about specific concerts and recordings, but not about the orchestra itself, and its home.
This morning, I was very taken with the Sibelius 5, Berglund taking a broad and magnificent view of the conclusion, but all the extracts caught my ear in one way or another. Since my earliest days of being interested in music, I've been aware of the special transparency and texture of the orchestral sound recorded in that hall, along with the excellence of the orchestra itself - which I've only ever heard on visits to London.
And on CD of course. Haitink in Mahler was my earliest experience of them - No 9 first, then No 3, and perhaps above all the performance of 'Das Lied' with Janet Baker - the final movement is the Concertgebouw recording I've listened to most over the years.
Actually, the above is wrong - my earliest experience of them, I realise, was among my earliest experiences of any recorded music: the classic van Beinum 'Young Persons' Guide' which my parents had at home and which had very regular outings
(Seeing the LP cover again, I vividly remember finding "Concertgebouw" a very fascinating word when I was about the age of the lads depicted in the photo... )Many others must remember it!
And what great music directors the orchestra has had. I thought Chailly a notch below the others in terms of digging out the real subtleties and meaning of certain pieces - but what a maestro of orchestral sonority...
I have attended two concerts in the actual Concertgebouw - two performances of Mahler 9 conducted by Haitink, with the ECYO: a friend was playing in the orchestra in those days, and a couple of us booked a trip to A'dam to coincide with the concerts. One of the performances subsequently came out on a Philips CD, also apparently available on Decca: your humble correspondent is visible in rear elevation among the audience on the cover, in fact...
Anyway, the point being that the acoustic was as tremendous in the flesh as everyone had said - precise yet atmospheric, a perfect balance between the aural equivalents of fruit and tannin
I've often perused the RCO schedule and toyed with the idea of a return trip to hear them in situ, but it hasn't happened yet. It will
Anyone else here had any great experiences in that hall, and/or with that orchestra? And does anyone own any of the seven volumes of the Anthology? (I can't see that they are downloadable anywhere - does anyone know any different? I might want to cherry-pick, I'm not sure I want to invest in whole boxes)
All thoughts, doubts, experiences &c. most welcome!
- my mother bought it when I was a nipper 
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