What was your last concert?

Collapse
X
 
  • Filter
  • Time
  • Show
Clear All
new posts
  • Beef Oven!
    Ex-member
    • Sep 2013
    • 18147

    Originally posted by Ferretfancy View Post
    Another visit to the Barbican last night, to hear the Britten Sinfonia and Ian Bostridge with Paul Daniel conducting. After the Britten arrangement of Purcell's Chacony came Britten's Young Apollo, a rather odd extended flourish for piano and strings, with the young Turkish pianist Lara Melda. Next came Tippett's Fantasia concertante on a theme of Corelli.
    I've always had a slight problem with this piece. It certainly has some lovely moments, but it does rather remind me of the story of Debussy taking a friend to hear a new work by another composer. After a few moments, Debussy whispered "Let's leave now, he's starting to develop !" For me there's far too mucg contrapuntal working out in the Tippett piece.

    After the interval Bostridge gave a fantastic performance of Our Hunting Fathers. I don't think that Britten wrote such a radical piece ever again, it really is harrowing to listen to and Bostridge made it so without flinching.
    Finally came the Suite on English Folk Tunes 'A time there Was', the composer's homage to so much tradition and the memory of Percy Grainger, a musician he much admired.
    This was not a comfort blanket of a concert, but it was well worth the effort.
    I think Lara's British. She was born in London and studied at the Royal College Of Music. Her mum and dad are Turkish.

    Comment

    • Bryn
      Banned
      • Mar 2007
      • 24688

      Not quite the right thread as it has not happened yet. However, re. tonight's electronic music concert at the Performance Space, City University, I have received an email with the following content:

      "Due to unforeseen circumstances outwith our control, we regret to announce that Pamela Z will be unable to perform in tonight's concert.

      The programme will instead include 'Bosonica' by Diana Salazar and 'Make it Snappy' by Georgia Rodgers."

      Comment

      • Mahler's3rd

        Mahler's 7th Philharmonia/Gustavo Dudamel @ The Royal Festival Hall on Thursday Night & Dvorak's 5th & 7th Last Night Along With Bruch's Violin Concerto (Chloe Hanslip), Czech National Symphony Orchestra/Libor Pesek at Bristol's Colston Hall Last Night

        Comment

        • amateur51

          Originally posted by Mahler's3rd View Post
          Mahler's 7th Philharmonia/Gustavo Dudamel @ The Royal Festival Hall on Thursday Night & Dvorak's 5th & 7th Last Night Along With Bruch's Violin Concerto (Chloe Hanslip), Czech National Symphony Orchestra/Libor Pesek at Bristol's Colston Hall Last Night
          Wow what a time you're having Mahler's3rd

          Comment

          • Mahler's3rd

            Hello Amateur 51, yes it was a wonderful 24 hours thanks, managed to pop into Lords on Thursday and pick up a signed copy of Andrew Strauss's new book as well while I was in London. Mahler's 7th was superb, I recorded it live from R3 on my Sky Box so look forward to playing it back next week when I'm on night's. Last night also excellent, first time I'd seen Chloe Hanslip live who was teriffic, the Czech Orchestra also on fine form, forgot what a lovely work Dvorak's 5th is. As you probaly know it rarely gets an airing live, so full marks to Libor Pesek for programming Dvorak's 5th & 7th for a change

            Comment

            • Rolmill
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 634

              Originally posted by Mahler's3rd View Post
              ...first time I'd seen Chloe Hanslip live who was teriffic...
              Yes, I saw Chloe Hanslip for the first time last weekend, playing the Mendelssohn concerto in Tunbridge Wells, and was impressed - by turns brilliant, intense and delicate.

              Comment

              • Richard Tarleton

                Originally posted by Rolmill View Post
                Yes, I saw Chloe Hanslip
                So did I - last night in Cardiff, playing the Bruch No 1. She and her 1737 Guarneri del Jesu make a fine team. Terrific indeed - and tiny! Without her heels, signing CDs in the interval, tinier still!
                brilliant, intense and delicate
                and great rapport with orchestra and conductor, too.

                The orchestra was the Czech National SO, under Libor Pešek. This orchestra is only 20 years old, unlike the Czech Phil (1896) or the Prague SO (1934) that we had in Cardiff last season. And very good they were too - Schubert 8 and Dvorak 7. Oh, and the overture to Die Fledermaus before the Dvorak after the interval. It was originally going to be Tales from the Vienna Woods. Perhaps this was to leave space for the encore - which they played without too many curtain calls, Maestro Pešek not so quick on his feet these days - a piece of Piazzola. I didn't hear what it was called, he speaks very quietly, but it featured a solo trumpet part played by the first trumpet who also turns out to be the founder of the orchestra - Jan Hasenöhrl - and very good he was too, clearly held in great affection by the band.

                My only reservation was the difficulty (IMV) of starting a concert with the Unfinished. It requires rapt attention from the audience, and the feedback loop between audience and orchestra was simply not in place. Too much coughing, for one thing. I've only heard it start a concert once before, when it worked. Also clapping started the moment it was over, which showed some people hadn't been listening.

                Comment

                • Dave2002
                  Full Member
                  • Dec 2010
                  • 18009

                  Two recent concerts.

                  Last Saturday the Heath quartet:

                  Haydn G Major Quartet Op 77 No 1
                  Bartók Quartet no 2
                  Mendelssohn A minor quartet No 2, Op 13

                  A very good concert, though perhaps the Haydn was played with the most conviction. Just about perfect intonation throughout, but speeds maybe a bit on the fast side. I still find the outer movements of the Bartók a bit hard to take. The Mendelssohn sounds a bit like "the only quartet by Beethoven you'll ever need"!

                  Last night (Tuesday) a recital by Martino Tirimo including Chopin Preludes and Tchaikovsky Nutcracker (arranged by Pletnev). I didn't really want to hear any of this music, but I did want to hear Tirimo. Some of his Chopin playing is lovely - though at times he slowed up too much, and once or twice he cut the music off at the end, rather than let the sound die away. I enjoy the Nutcracker in its orchestral versions. I really could not see any point in listening to transcriptions, and for me at any rate, last night's performances confirmed this.

                  I have some CDs with Tirimo playing Mozart and Debussy. I would much prefer to have heard him play music by those composers, or perhaps Haydn and Schubert. I would listen to him playing Chopin again, though I think a whole evening of Chopin is too much. Chopin is, for me, a composer to enjoy in small doses. That he managed to keep the attention of the audience through all 24 of the Preludes was an achievement.

                  Comment

                  • Sir Velo
                    Full Member
                    • Oct 2012
                    • 3225

                    Originally posted by Dave2002 View Post
                    The Mendelssohn sounds a bit like "the only quartet by Beethoven you'll ever need"!




                    Comment

                    • Bryn
                      Banned
                      • Mar 2007
                      • 24688

                      Takemitsu and Ligeti (BBCSSO, Volkov) at RFH tonight. Enjoyed the performances but not the whispering sociopaths and idiot who failed to heed the announcements requesting the switching off of mobile phones (both 'cases' just behind me).

                      Comment

                      • Beef Oven!
                        Ex-member
                        • Sep 2013
                        • 18147

                        Originally posted by Bryn View Post
                        Takemitsu and Ligeti (BBCSSO, Volkov) at RFH tonight. Enjoyed the performances but not the whispering sociopaths and idiot who failed to heed the announcements requesting the switching off of mobile phones (both 'cases' just behind me).
                        I had a guy with his smartphone on, sitting next to me who kept getting emails and messages. His phone was on silent, but it lit up each time! Then, in the quietest of all passages in the Ligeti violin concerto, his phone bleeped. To be honest, it didn't really bother me. I wonder if it was the same guy you're thinking of.

                        Comment

                        • teamsaint
                          Full Member
                          • Nov 2010
                          • 25195

                          the woman next to me kept re arranging her hair during the Takemitsu.

                          I moved to a better part of town.
                          Record levels of coughing. Winter , I suppose.

                          Great evening though, Ligeti should be compulsory in school.
                          I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                          I am not a number, I am a free man.

                          Comment

                          • Bryn
                            Banned
                            • Mar 2007
                            • 24688

                            No, this one was a full on ring. The guy had returned from the interval at the last minute and simply did not bother to heed the crystal clear announcements. He was, however, clearly very embarrassed when the damned thing started ringing. The whisperers did not return for the violin concerto.

                            Comment

                            • teamsaint
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 25195

                              Actually, I had some whisperers near me in the first half.

                              Perhaps they were the £4 types !!

                              ( I bet anybody who paid a full price on some of the better seats was mightily pissed off at that offer, never mind the £10 one.....)
                              I will not be pushed, filed, stamped, indexed, briefed, debriefed or numbered. My life is my own.

                              I am not a number, I am a free man.

                              Comment

                              • Beef Oven!
                                Ex-member
                                • Sep 2013
                                • 18147

                                Agreed, the coughing was extraordinary, but dissipated in the second half.

                                The whisperers weren't the only ones that didn't return for the violin concerto. I suppose a few people took a £4 punt, and felt they'd had enough!

                                My seat was in the first row, so I wandered off and took a £65 seat, there were plenty available. Teamsaint joined me in the second part, when he'd finished playing with some woman's hair in the back of the stalls.

                                Comment

                                Working...
                                X