What was your last concert?

[teamsaint]

Drew Steanson - piano
Wagner arr. Liszt
Parsifal, March to the Holy Grail
Liszt
Piano Sonata in B minor
This was a lunchtime recital at St Bride’s church, Fleet Street.
What a lovely oasis of calm in the middle of the London hurly burly St Brides is. About 10 yards off Fleet street, it has a spacious area outside with plenty of benches for contemplation, sandwich eating, or to enjoy the excellent coffee sold from his mobile store by Kieran, a charming Irishman, who will be getting my custom again before too long.
The church is a lovely space for a recital. The piano was placed about half way down the nave, allowing a modest but respectably sized audience to be very close to the performer. The piano made a splendid sound, with just a hint of distortion in the very highest registers.
Drew introduced the programme, drawing attention to the spiritual aspects of the Wagner, and how he wanted the programme to flow from one piece into the other without applause, allowing the Wagner transcription to prepare us for the start of the Liszt.

Drew, who came over as a sensitive and emotionally involved pianist, gave us a fine performance of both pieces. His introduction certainly helped with insight into the Wagner. The Liszt was a powerful and moving performance. I’ve not heard this performed live previously, and Drew’s performance brought out much that isn’t always obvious in recordings. In particular the rising and falling theme that runs like a thread through the piece, was emphasised in a way that helped create a strong sense of continuity and strength.
Drew is a third year undergraduate at the Guildhall School, and a Hampshire boy to boot, so no doubt he has a fine career ahead of him. I don’t normally provide details of apparel for male performers, ( since they are usually not of interest unless Monsieur Thibaudet is on stage,) but today Drew was resplendent in Red trousers, which displays a fine sense of inner confidence, for sure!

[clive heath]

From our vantage point in Row W, we see the keyboards of the Vibes, the Celeste, the Keyed Glockenspiel and the Piano and the Ondes Martinot facing us from beside the cellos. The double basses are backs to the wall on the far side on their dais whereas next to the tall malletman below us are the fair maidens of the back row of the first violins and amazingly considering how packed the rest of the stage is... empty space. "Syrinx" and "La demoiselle Elue" were before the interval ( I've looked up the D.G.Rossetti poem in our Palgrave ) so now it is the "Turangalila" under Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia. Wow. I had a silly grin on my face nearly all the way through at the kaleidoscope of sound, at the sheer nerve of the thematic repetition/variation, at the orchestration sounding from time to time like the Charles Ives simultaneous marching bands or the fairground clash of different stalls and their raucous music and at the conductor's confident marshalling of the huge orchestra. I was intrigued by how often the Glock and the piano were in unison providing harmonic and rhythmic punctuation. The audience seemed to like it and (I never do this!) I was on my feet with most of them at the end.

I was reminded of this connection between the conductor and the work:

"Another name for Finland is 'Karjala'. It is interesting that in Sanskrit 'KarjAla' (करजाल) means 'streams of light' which may be a reference to the 'northern lights' or 'auroras' visible in Finland."

Turangalîla is a combination of two Sanskrit words: turanga, meaning time and the more difficult to translate lîla, meaning love but also the play that is life and death.

[vinteuil]

... do we think it likely the sanscrit writers wd have been aware of the aurora borealis?

Some submerged memory from their primal wanderings in the north?

[VodkaDilc]

From our vantage point in Row W, we see the keyboards of the Vibes, the Celeste, the Keyed Glockenspiel and the Piano and the Ondes Martinot facing us from beside the cellos. The double basses are backs to the wall on the far side on their dais whereas next to the tall malletman below us are the fair maidens of the back row of the first violins and amazingly considering how packed the rest of the stage is... empty space. "Syrinx" and "La demoiselle Elue" were before the interval ( I've looked up the D.G.Rossetti poem in our Palgrave ) so now it is the "Turangalila" under Esa-Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia. Wow. I had a silly grin on my face nearly all the way through at the kaleidoscope of sound, at the sheer nerve of the thematic repetition/variation, at the orchestration

A wonderful evening. I agree with everything Clive has written. From row N it was possible to have a clear view the piano, ondes martinot and both ladies on the celesta and keyed glockenspiel - visually it was as impressive as it was musically. The climaxes kept on coming and I thought that Esa Pekka was going to explode in his efforts to make the players give even more to the last chord. I had not realsied it was on the radio until I saw the microphones and the announcer in the box near the platform; however it would have taken some pretty impressive hi-fi equipment to get close to the impact of the music in the hall.

The comment about grinning from ear to ear sums it up; the sheer lushness of the ondes martinot in particular gives the work an amazing feeling of joy and exuberance. What a great orchestra the Philharmonia is!

[Bryn]

The audio engineers took a bit of a risk last night. They usually leave at least 6dB of headroom for the HD Sound offering. Last night Turangalîla-Symphonie peaked at -2.4dB during Turangalîla II. Sounded very good at home. Now finding its way onto CD-R.

[VodkaDilc]

The audio engineers took a bit of a risk last night. They usually leave at least 6dB of headroom for the HD Sound offering. Last night Turangalîla-Symphonie peaked at -2.4dB during Turangalîla II. Sounded very good at home. Now finding its way onto CD-R.

When I first saw the microphones, before reading the programme, I wondered if the Philharmonia was making a recording for eventual CD release. That would have been worth buying!

[teamsaint]

· Max Bruch
Concerto pour violon n° 1
· Intermission
· Gustav Mahler
Symphonie n° 5
· Orchestre de Paris
· Paavo Järvi
· Renaud Capuçon

Philharmonie de Paris. Thursday May 28

As I was planning to be in Paris last week, I decided to take in this concert to get a view of the almost brand new concert hall, and to see if it lives up to the hype that such a building inevitably attracts.

At first sight, the outside doesn’t really surprise , after a good look at the photos in the press and online. It sits well enough in its environment, which is a bustling and charming hotch potch of building styles. There are some impressive elements to the building, including highly elegant outside stairs to the upper areas. I’m not really sure about the overall design of the outside, but it is striking , to be sure.
The foyer areas are pleasant and spacious, given that there was a full house, with one of the more interesting details being the ceilings in the upper floors, where they are covered in small rectangular metal pieces hanging down. Both eye catching, and effective at covering the utilities above.
Inside the hall, it is perhaps a little more conventional than the PR photos suggest. Nonetheless, it is highly stylish, and the seating is successfully designed to get the audience as close as possible to the performers. The overall effect is close to being" in the round" , with ,at a guess, ( because I didn’t count !) about 30/40% of the audience being in front of the conductor. It is stylish and comfortable, and with some nice touches such as extremely comfortable seats with backs which move, one advantage of which is more legroom if the the seat in front isn’t occupied .
The concert itself probably isn’t one I would have chosen to attend at home, but was enjoyable enough. Capucon made an excellent job of the Bruch, and the audience came to enjoy one of their( I presume) favourites. The violin sound bounced powerfully around the hall, although the acoustic seemed to produce a somewhat indistinct orchestral sound, at least from our ( very keenly priced)seats high up behind the orchestra .
We were keen to see how the Mahler coped with this new acoustic,having put down the indistinct sound to, possibly, the orchestration of the Bruch. However, this feature seemed prevalent again. Certainly not anything to ruin a night out, and hard to pin down, but there really did seem to be a lack of clarity and definition at times,
The performance was decent, but somehow never really took off, or took me with it.. The climaxes were powerful and really did project strongly through the hall. There was a bit of a rough edge to the trumpet sound, ( somehow rough sound seems to follow this work around with me), although he was playing what looked like a trumpet of considerable vintage, so we put the sound down to this. The trumpet solos were magnificent, spoiled only by a cascading bottle at the very start. Jarvi took a fairly low key approach for this second night of two performances of this programme, and perhaps this was they key to a slight lack of engagement.
No matter, the audience loved it to bits, and called him back numerous times.
Definitely a hall well worth a visit, and an orchestra well worth hearing. In the end though, the whole experience was enjoyable rather than totally captivating. But a visit from London is easy enough to do, and would be well worth the effort for those looking for a new concert hall experience.

[Russ_H]

A friend plays the BB♭ (?) tuba in a local brass band. He suggested that I might enjoy a competition which the
band had entered. Saturday saw me in Ripon Cathedral.

http://www.riponcityband.co.uk/ripon%20city%20band%20-%20contest.html

Lots were drawn to decide the running order, and Bob's band were fifth to perform out of fourteen. I watched the
first five sets, and enjoyed most of them, but I think it would be necessary to be a brass band connoisseur to sit
through the whole day. It was a light-hearted contest, and the bands were free to choose their own pieces within
some constraints: they were required to play a hymn, a march, a solo, and two other pieces.

An interesting day out, musically. Additionally, Ripon is an attractive city which I shall revisit.

[Beef Oven!]

· Max Bruch
Concerto pour violon n° 1
· Intermission
· Gustav Mahler
Symphonie n° 5
· Orchestre de Paris
· Paavo Järvi
· Renaud Capuçon

Philharmonie de Paris. Thursday May 28

As I was planning to be in Paris last week, I decided to take in this concert to get a view of the almost brand new concert hall, and to see if it lives up to the hype that such a building inevitably attracts.

At first sight, the outside doesn’t really surprise , after a good look at the photos in the press and online. It sits well enough in its environment, which is a bustling and charming hotch potch of building styles. There are some impressive elements to the building, including highly elegant outside stairs to the upper areas. I’m not really sure about the overall design of the outside, but it is striking , to be sure.
The foyer areas are pleasant and spacious, given that there was a full house, with one of the more interesting details being the ceilings in the upper floors, where they are covered in small rectangular metal pieces hanging down. Both eye catching, and effective at covering the utilities above.
Inside the hall, it is perhaps a little more conventional than the PR photos suggest. Nonetheless, it is highly stylish, and the seating is successfully designed to get the audience as close as possible to the performers. The overall effect is close to being" in the round" , with ,at a guess, ( because I didn’t count !) about 30/40% of the audience being in front of the conductor. It is stylish and comfortable, and with some nice touches such as extremely comfortable seats with backs which move, one advantage of which is more legroom if the the seat in front isn’t occupied .
The concert itself probably isn’t one I would have chosen to attend at home, but was enjoyable enough. Capucon made an excellent job of the Bruch, and the audience came to enjoy one of their( I presume) favourites. The violin sound bounced powerfully around the hall, although the acoustic seemed to produce a somewhat indistinct orchestral sound, at least from our ( very keenly priced)seats high up behind the orchestra .
We were keen to see how the Mahler coped with this new acoustic,having put down the indistinct sound to, possibly, the orchestration of the Bruch. However, this feature seemed prevalent again. Certainly not anything to ruin a night out, and hard to pin down, but there really did seem to be a lack of clarity and definition at times,
The performance was decent, but somehow never really took off, or took me with it.. The climaxes were powerful and really did project strongly through the hall. There was a bit of a rough edge to the trumpet sound, ( somehow rough sound seems to follow this work around with me), although he was playing what looked like a trumpet of considerable vintage, so we put the sound down to this. The trumpet solos were magnificent, spoiled only by a cascading bottle at the very start. Jarvi took a fairly low key approach for this second night of two performances of this programme, and perhaps this was they key to a slight lack of engagement.
No matter, the audience loved it to bits, and called him back numerous times.
Definitely a hall well worth a visit, and an orchestra well worth hearing. In the end though, the whole experience was enjoyable rather than totally captivating. But a visit from London is easy enough to do, and would be well worth the effort for those looking for a new concert hall experience.

Very interesting teamsaint, thanks for posting. The photos of the place are amazing. I will definitely ear-mark it for a visit, should an opportunity arise.

The Bruch doesn't do anything for me, but M5 is always nice (well nearly)!

[Nick Armstrong]

The trumpet solos were magnificent, spoiled only by a cascading bottle at the very start.

This made me visualise the first trumpet having failed to conceal his 'Dutch courage' successfully before the opening fanfare, and the half-bottle of Johnnie Walker having leapt from his pocket as he played...

V good to get that review of the concert and the venue.

Hope the rest of Paris swept you and Mrs Team away rather more?

[gurnemanz]

Very interesting teamsaint, thanks for posting. The photos of the place are amazing. I will definitely ear-mark it for a visit, should an opportunity arise.

The Bruch doesn't do anything for me, but M5 is always nice (well nearly)!

Looks similar to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Great building but after ten years with spiralling costs not due to open till Jan 2017.

[Beef Oven!]

Looks similar to the Elbphilharmonie in Hamburg. Great building but after ten years with spiralling costs not due to open till Jan 2017.

Looks very similar. Spiralling costs and an overshoot on the deadline? Doesn't conform to the usual German stereotype

[teamsaint]

This made me visualise the first trumpet having failed to conceal his 'Dutch courage' successfully before the opening fanfare, and the half-bottle of Johnnie Walker having leapt from his pocket as he played...

V good to get that review of the concert and the venue.

Hope the rest of Paris swept you and Mrs Team away rather more?

oh dear, didn't mean to suggest that the principal trumpet was " tired and emotional"....!! substance free, for sure.

Anyway, its a lovely environment to go and enjoy music, with a decent " visitor experience" ( despite a café that sells cheese on toast at ten euros a pop). My advice would probably be to try to take in a couple of concerts, as there are two major halls, or visit one of the exhibitions as well.

Still intrigued by that acoustic. perhaps those who know , such as Gongers, can explain if there are inherent problems with music " in the round" in such a big hall.

Re Paris, it is business as usual. Tourists everywhere ,

At least the pound is buying plenty of euros for the cheese on toast fund to stretch that bit further.

Edit: I have two Metro tickets left over from my last Carnet, if any board members need a bit of a subsidy for a musical jaunt. PM me if interested. !!

[Pianorak]

Saturday 6 June, 19:30
At Reading Concert Hall

University of Reading Chamber Choir and Chorus

Faure: Cantique de Jean Racine
Mozart: Coronation Mass
Faure: Requiem

[richardfinegold]

Ludovic Morlot, c
Denis Kozhukhin,p

Last night was my first outing since my heart surgery 3 weeks ago. We attended a CSO Concert of Ravel, Gershwin and Stravinsky. My wife and private duty nurse decided I was looking peaked at the interval and we left. imo the Concert was very lopsided, with the best pieces on the first half of the program, so I decided to humor her. Morlot is a French Conductor who has been getting very positive press here with the Seattle Symphony; he seemed to have great rapport with the Orchestra as there was a lot of smiling by the players. I had never heard of the Soloist but he had a cute pony tail that he would swing like a horsetail to great effect.
The first item was Gershwin, An American In Paris. (By coincidence, someone had sent us a "movie basket" filled with old movies and snacks to watch during my convalescence, and one of them was the Gene Kelly movie of the same name. And one of my Doctors, an old friend, had just seen the new Broadway Musical derived from the movie in New York and we spent most of my visit discussing that). I remember the first time I had seen this in Concert, when I was in Medical School in Detroit, and perhaps because of the city's automobile heritage, there were real auto horns used in the concert. No auto horns last night, but the CSO brass did an admirable imitation. The highlight for me was when one of Robert Chen's fine violin solos was answered by an extended riff from the Tuba,including a brief improvised cadenza that I don't think is in the score but which Gershwin surely would have countenanced. A real crowd pleaser, and the
Audience showed it.
Next up was the Ravel Left Hand Concerto. Morlot painted a great introduction, with those double basses providing a backdrop for the Piano that made it seem as though it was emerging from Middle Earth. Mr. Pony Tail played very dramatically. Besides whipping his hair around for effect, he also used his right arm to brace himself on the Piano, clearly a luxury that the original soloist couldn't enjoy.
The items we missed were the Stravinsky Card Game Piece and Ravel's La Valse. I've never liked the Stravinsky--it always sounds like a pastiche that he dashed off to get a paycheck--but since I have changed my mind about more than one piece of music after hearing a live performance, I regret missing it.
I've heard La Valse more times than I can remember and don't miss it. Once one absorbs the party trick of Strauss Tales Of the Vienna Woods mutatating into Invasion of the Body Snatchers, there doesn't seem to be much of a point.