Originally posted by teamsaint
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Originally posted by Beef Oven!
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To my (again, cloth) ears the RVW 9 suffered a bit at times from Jurowski's unwavering tendency to brisk objectivity in everything - more being made of the moments of mysterious evocation would allow the visionary quality of the piece to speak more powerfully. That said there was plenty of involvement and those sections which lend themselves to being hard driven (demented cat saxophony) definitely came off. The most remarkable moments of the piece come at the very end imv - and here the monumental crescendi tailing off into harps swirling into the inky void were a strikingly stark and non-comforting vision. Cumulative impact does perhaps sum it up over all...
With this programme of three relatively little known pieces, a limited attendance (even allowing for it being clearly bolstered by a large contingent of Kancheli's family and supporters in the stalls) was regrettably inevitable even in London. There have occasionally been concerts of similarly unusual repertoire in Manchester where the orchestra appeared to outnumber the audience, so the RFH was rammed by comparison. The LPO seem to continue to risk several events a year like this - presumably offset via the reliable income stream from Glyndebourne and other more regular concerts. 17/18 includes Enescu's Oedipe, and Joseph Marx's Eine Herbstsymphonie plus other rarities melded into otherwise more crowd-pulling programmes. Those of us who seek out such things should be grateful that the LPO can find and is willing to risk the funds to still put them on.
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