What was your last concert?

[pastoralguy]

They might have the accents, pasto - and perhaps the jewellery - but which of them could play the Bach Double Concerto with Ms Little?

Thank for the vote of confidence, Ferney! (I did once lead the second fiddles in a concert where she played the Brahms concerto).

[pastoralguy]

With your musical experience, I’m surprised that you were surprised at this, PG.

At any rate, the important thing (IMO obviously) is to remember that they don’t own the music.

I’m sorry that you ended up feeling as you did.

( I keep getting emails from Grange Opera asking why I don’t sign up for tickets. I did mention the sky high ticket prices and black tie dress code might have something to do with it......)

I think it crept on me as we were perusing the croquet pitch and this terribly plummy voice commented that it was simply TOO WARM to be playing croquet. I was also aware that I'd come straight from work so wasn't wearing my best clothes whereas my fellow audience members were all dressed up to the nines!

[teamsaint]

I think it crept on me as we were perusing the croquet pitch and this terribly plummy voice commented that it was simply TOO WARM to be playing croquet. I was also aware that I'd come straight from work so wasn't wearing my best clothes whereas my fellow audience members were all dressed up to the nines!

I’ll be in my work clothes for the Sibelius and Prokofiev at the RAH on Weds night. I’m confident of passing the dress code.

.

[Bryn]

I’ll be in my work clothes for the Sibelius and Prokofiev at the RAH on Weds night. I’m confident of passing the dress code.

Just so long as you don't work as a life model.

[HighlandDougie]

Steven Osborne at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. I hope that PG wasn't too disappointed at not seeing Beatrice Rana - indisposed yesterday afternoon - so Steven Osborne (who lives sort of just along the road) brought in as a last minute sub. I don't think that anyone could have felt short-changed by some pretty sublime music-making - Schubert's last Piano Sonata (D960) and five of Messiaen's Vingt Regards, in that order. SO's utterly unstarry manner (quite unlike Yuja Wang last night in the Usher Hall) does, I suspect, lead some people to underestimate him but, to my ears, he is as good a pianist as anyone around anywhere at the moment. It was/will be on the radio so well worth seeking out.

[pastoralguy]

Steven Osborne at the Queen's Hall, Edinburgh. I hope that PG wasn't too disappointed at not seeing Beatrice Rana - indisposed yesterday afternoon - so Steven Osborne (who lives sort of just along the road) brought in as a last minute sub. I don't think that anyone could have felt short-changed by some pretty sublime music-making - Schubert's last Piano Sonata (D960) and five of Messiaen's Vingt Regards, in that order. SO's utterly unstarry manner (quite unlike Yuja Wang last night in the Usher Hall) does, I suspect, lead some people to underestimate him but, to my ears, he is as good a pianist as anyone around anywhere at the moment. It was/will be on the radio so well worth seeking out.

Yes, Dougie, I was gutted at Ms. Rana's cancellation but Steven was very gracious in his tiny pre-concert speech. Yes, absolutely wonderful music making. Such exquisite voicing in the Schubert. And his Messiaen actually had me digging the cds out when I got home!

I got a tweet from Ms. Rana saying she'd caught a nasty virus. Maybe next year?

And tonite? West Side Story with John-Eliot Gardner conducting the SCO and a cast of incredibly talented young singers! Just wonderful although J-E G's turn as Officer Krupke brought the house down! Something I thought I'd never see!

[Bryn]

Yes, Dougie, I was gutted at Ms. Rana's cancellation but Steven was very gracious in his tiny pre-concert speech. Yes, absolutely wonderful music making. Such exquisite voicing in the Schubert. And his Messiaen actually had me digging the cds out when I got home!

I got a tweet from Ms. Rana saying she'd caught a nasty virus. Maybe next year?

And tonite? West Side Story with John-Eliot Gardner conducting the SCO and a cast of incredibly talented young singers! Just wonderful although J-E G's turn as Officer Krupke brought the house down! Something I thought I'd never see!

Any sign of Beeb mics, or better still, cameras?

[pastoralguy]

Any sign of Beeb mics, or better still, cameras?

Steven Osborne = yes! Available on BBCSounds.

West Side Story = no! Unfortunately!

[Bryn]

Steven Osborne = yes! Available on BBCSounds.

West Side Story = no! Unfortunately!

A pity. I listened to this morning's performance. It was WWS I was thinking of.

[bluestateprommer]

Very belated contribution, some weeks after my annual visit to Santa Fe, but one selection during that trip was a Wednesday noontime recital of Winterreise (nope, not making that up - remember, this is New Mexico in summer), with Philippe Sly and Michael McMahon. I did a mental doubletake upon seeing PS take the stage, because he could almost be Petroc's brother. There was a projector screen set up directly behind the piano, for the translations to be projected directly. While not the most visually elegant stage set-up, this allowed for the audience not to have to look at booklet texts or turn pages, and to get both the translations and PS' facial expressions in the same line of sight. It worked out quite well, and PS and MM gave a very fine reading of the work.

[MrGongGong]

Barry Truax and Curtis Roads at DMU last night
Diffusion / Audiovisual works in a room full of lovely Finnish loudspeakers

Beautifully constructed and pristine with a great audience

[Bryn]

Last night a Cafe OTO, John Tilbury playing Cage's Sonatas and Interludes, or, as he jokingly put it to me before-hand, a fantasia on Cage's Sonatas and Interludes. The Cafe OTO piano is Yamaha C3, so the measurements given in Cage's table of preparations had to be adjusted to give the timbres considered close to what Cage was aiming at (not that quite the original sounds could ever be reproduced, even on a Steinway model O, the instrument originally used by Cage while composing the work, given the changes is material composition of 'rubber' erasers, screws, bolts, etc. so loosely described by the composer). Things were made a little more complicated by the fact that while JT has remembered to take the score and his collection of preparations, he forgot the table of preparations from which to work. Fortunately, I was able to find a site on the Internet which included a reproduction of that table and Cafe OTO were able to download and print it to a sheet of A4 in time for the piano to be made ready.

[gurnemanz]

We've just returned from a long weekend visiting Bruges and Ghent. Long overdue - we had driven past these towns on the motorway many times on the way to Germany without ever stopping. This time we took Eurostar and had a most enriching four days. By chance there was an enticing concert on Saturday night at the Concergtgebouw, Bruges. This fine concert hall was built in 2002 when Bruges was European Capital of Culture. It was a double bill with Peter Eötvös conducting the Brussels Philharmonic in Bartok's Duke Bluebeards's Castle and his own one acter Senza Sangue. For the latter he employs exactly the same two voices and orchestration as Bartok, so they make a good pairing. Jordan Shanahan and Viktoria Vizin sang the Eötvös and Gábor Bretz joined Viktoria Vizin after the break for the Bartok - so we had the authenticity of three Hungarians on the stage. Ms Vizin must have had a very demanding evening but carried it off brilliantly. I would not expect to hear many more riveting and exciting performances of Bluebeard. I noticed that Bretz had sung the same role with Rattle in Berlin. He has a splendidly cavernous bass timbre. A great evening followed by a couple of Brugse Zot on draught at the the venue's bar.

[Stanfordian]

Tonight at Philharmonie, Munich - the Munchner Philharmoniker under Andrea Marcon playing:

Haydn Symphony No. 36
CPE Bach Cello Concerto No. 3 (soloist: Jean-Guihen Queyras)
Beethoven Symphony No. 2

Playing of total class and abundant with vibrancy from start to finish! Outstanding!

[Joseph K]

Birtwistle - The Mask of Orpheus, opening night at ENO. I knew the music would be great but was not prepared for everything that would happen on stage, not to mention the words! Amazing stuff indeed. I'll try to go into more detail when I've access to a computer.