What was your last concert?

[Cellini]

It was at the QEH on Tuesday last to hear the Takacs Quartet play Haydn - Bartok 3rd quartet - and Smetana No 1 in E minor (from my life). They also did a Haydn last movement as an encore.

Superb concert with totally committed playing from the quartet, and a huge ovation from a pretty much packed hall. A friend who joined us commented on how attentive and quiet the audience was and how the atmosphere was so electric.

He corrected me about the final high E in the first violin part which represents Smetana's horror at his deafness, for me to realise now that I was right as the quartet was in E minor and not F minor as he thought. His perfect pitch must have gone up a semitone!

As usual another stunning concert from the Takacs - but not broadcast or recorded. I'm only sorry I did not have a chance for the usual chat with in particular Edward the leader afterwards as I would have liked to ask why they changed the Haydn from the Rider Op 74 No 3 (a very hard quartet) and also about the new strings he is using, having persuaded me to try them too. Not always time for the added pleasures seeing old friends, as they have become for me over the years.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

this lunchtime a recital by a sixth form student with an extraordinary performance of this:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MFSm5_4afro

sandwiched between a Haydn Sonata and a Liszt Sonnet .... but the Say piece stole the show, full house enthralled

[Dave2002]

Tonight

Menuhin Hall

Vihan Quartet, Charles Owen (Piano)

Janacek Kreutzer Sonata quartet
Smetana Quartet no 2
Dvorak Piano Quintet Op 81

Excellent. The quartet layout was slightly unusual - violin 1, violin 2, cello, viola - worked really well - particularly with these players and pieces.

[ostuni]

Also tonight: Mahler 9, CBSO/Nelsons, Symphony Hall. Stunning. I know the piece well, but this was the first time I'd heard it live. The ending is so much more powerful when it's hovering on the borders of inaudibility, which never really happens in a recording. Superb horn and flute solos.

[Simon B]

Simon B

I agree with you about the inaudible organ in the Mandarin, may I ask, whereabouts were you in the hall? We were in the side facing seats overlooking the front stalls, and in the second row. The only problem I had was that the piano could have sounded better when the orchestra was in full throw, but I wasn't entirely surprised since the sound seems to vary almost from seat to seat in spite of the vast sums spent on refurbishment. It is better than before, but not that much better.
What did you think of the forest of microphones ? Perhaps both the Philharmonia and the Beeb were making independent recordings, it will be interesting to hear the broadcast.

Hello Ferretfancy

I was right in the middle of row S of the stalls, which as you probably know is almost at the back of the front block. This is where the "Premium" seats normally are and so not somewhere I'd normally sit, but they were available at non-premium price this time.

Similarly to another occasion I've sat in the same area, I wasn't terribly convinced. My experience is that the cheaper (only in a relative sense ) seats somewhat to the 1st-violin side of the front stalls are the best acoustically. You get the directional sound from the bells of the trumpets/trombones straight in the right ear and reflections of everything else off the side wall in the left ear. Or something like that anyway!

I find that the RFH routinely swallows the sound of a piano, and agree that it was swamped in the Bartok Concerto. The same was true of a Prokofiev concerto with the LPO recently. Again, and perhaps counterintuitively, I think it's worse if you sit in the middle and better from the sides. I'd also agree that, rather like the RAH, the sound seems to vary remarkably with small seat-to-seat changes in position.

My view on the refurbishment is that the improvement took the acoustic through the threshold of acceptability. I avoided the RFH like the plague for years prior to the refurb as, on the rare occasions I went, I found it was generally a losing battle against the acoustic to get much from the experience. Now, provided I sit in the right place, I find it's at least ok, though there's still noticeable congestion and compression of a big orchestra at full tilt. Overall, I'm going to a lot more concerts at the RFH, particularly as I'm finding both the Salonen/Philharmonia and Jurowski/LPO partnerships very interesting.

Finally, yes, there did seem to be a veritable forest of microphones! My assumption would be that the Philharmonia are recording some/all of the Bartok events for their own label. To be fair, I'd imagine the Mandarin is a bit of a nightmare to record, especially in a tricky concert hall acoustic. With such complex orchestration and extreme dynamic range presumably they play safe by having lots of spot mics to help unscramble what could be a bit of a mess in post-production?

[Ferretfancy]

Hello Simon B

I find your comments on the RFH acoustic very interesting, they certain tally with my own feelings. My partner and I went to one of the test concerts before the hall reopened, and we were able to try one or two different places. At the time I was impressed with the improvement, it sounded warmer and very clear, but at times rather strenuous. One of the LPO players told me that it worked much better for them, at least they could now hear each other properly. He also thought that they had to break their old habit of forcing their tone, which was brought about by the dreadful deadness before the alterations.

Since then, I've varied my position, with mixed results. I still would like a better string sound, the violins sometimes have a steely quality which is particularly noticeable if you are in the balcony, and the woodwinds can often seem too prominent, but maybe that's just me.

I think you are right about engineers using lots of microphones to play safe, with mixing down at post production, but overuse of spot mics can lead to a very unnatural effect resulting loss of space in the acoustic. Both the RFH and the Barbican must be quite a challenge.

[Curalach]

Last night (Sat 5th Feb) Glasgow Royal Concert Hall

Lyadov - The Enchanted Lake
Prokofiev - Piano Concerto No 3
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No 6 Pathetique

Alexander Gavrylyuk, piano
RSNO
Andrey Boreyko, conductor

I had gone to this concert without particularly high hopes. Not the most inspiring programme and with, potentially, another bland visiting conductor.
How wrong can you be. Gavrylyuk gave a blistering performance of the concerto and followed it with the astonishing Liszt/Horowitz transcription of the Wedding March which brought the house down. As a non-pianist my mind boggles at the sheer physical achievement of hitting all of these notes in the right order.

Boreyko conducted a very fine Pathetique which stripped away all the warhorse elements and presented the symphony as the great work it is.
The orchestra played out of their skins for him and were unusually generous in their applause.

Altogether, an excellent evening at the concert hall. Almost full house.

[Norfolk Born]

Just got back from our local church. Shostakovitch String Quartet No. 4, Weber Clarinet Quintet, Schubert 'Death and The Maiden' Quartet. Quartet led by Nicholas Ward (from the CLS - his sister organizes our local concerts), guest violinist Peter Pople (Alberni Quartet). A fantastic afternoon's music for a tenner!

[kuligin]

Last Friday, Opera North in Leeds, Weinberg (aka Vaynberg) "The Portrait".

An excellent production by Poutney, a very good performance of the main and really only character by Paul Nilon in the best voice I have heard him for many years. The numerous small roles all well taken by familiar faces such as Jonathan Best.

Sadly the music a bit of a curates egg. The best bits very similar to Shostakovich but without the edge his best music contains. The begining rather repetitive and very thin, it took a long time to get going. The final scene which is the climax of the Opera too long and lapsed into a Part like sequence full of repetition and rather bland

Still an interesting and enjoyable evening, naturally for such obscure fare not full. A strange choice for a recession though . One wonders if the cost of the lavish set might have been better spent on Das Rheingold which is being given in concert format presumably to save money

[Dave2002]

A few recently:

Susan Bullock with Malcolm Martineau in a song recital - first Saturday in March.

The Florin Ensemble (trio) playing Mozart's divertimento in E flat. Sunday after above.

Dream of Gerontius in Sloane Square last night.

All good in different ways.

[Chris Newman]

About three weeks ago listened to the Hogan Ensemble sing Masses by Rheinberger and Frank Martin in St Martin's Church Salisbury. Coming Sunday intend to hear Dream of Gerontius in Salisbury Cathedral with Ed Gardner and LPO forces.

[Suffolkcoastal]

October 2007 in Manchester, haven't been to one since. Stuck out on a limb the concerts we do have in my neck of the woods are full of standard repetoire and of no interest to me and it really would have to be interesting concert to entice me to part with a lot of cash to get down to London.

[Richard Tarleton]

St David's Hall, Cardiff, last Wednesday - an impassioned performance of the Dvorak cello concerto by Steven Isserlis, Philharmonia, Andras Schiff conducting. Schiff played Beethoven 4 in part 2, conducting from the keyboard (actually he left them to get on with it most of the time). We were sitting in the centre of the front row. The Philharmonia had an unnamed guest principal flute who was superb in the Dvorak. I'm not sure which of the two Strads that he has the use of Isserlis was playing - the Feuermann or the Nelsova. I hadn't heard a live performance of the Dvorak for close on 40 years - that time it was Tortelier/Horenstein.

Llyr Williams in April, Natalie Clein in May, Hilliard Ensemble and Red Priest in late May/early June - a lot going on west of Offa's Dyke....

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

Two concerts last Thursday:R3 Lunchtime recital with Patricia Kopatchinskaja and Polina Leschenko - Schumann, Kurtag and Franck (broadcast a week Thursday and definitely worth a listen); followed by the Orchestra Accademia di Santa Cecilia/ Antonio Pappano at The Anvil, Basingstoke - Aida Sinfonia (not the usual Preludio); Liszt Piano Concerto No.1; Mahler 1 - excellent performances + 4 encores!

[Bryn]

Wednesday and Thursday of last week at Café Oto, a 2 day residency by Lou Gare, with Eddie Prevost and younger improvising musicians closely associated with him.