What was your last concert?

[Beef Oven]

Off to see Karnataka in Milton Keynes tonight. A friend is a prog-rock fan and goes to hundreds of gigs and I tag along from time to time.

Apparently they are a great band with a wonderful lead singer in the mould of MaddyPrior/Annie Haslam.

Was a bit partial to the prog-rockers Renaissance and folk-rockers Steeleye Span in the 70s.

[french frank]

I hope you'll enjoy it as much as I did, ff.

Well ... I did . Pity about the restricted view, though - the pianist was definitely Paul Lewis. No idea who the tenor was - sounded like Mark Padmore.

One of the great endings to a song cycle. Total silence, and nil movement from the performers, for an age.

[Norfolk Born]

This afternoon in our local church - Beethoven String Quartets Opp. 18 No. 3, 135 and 59 No. 2. Wonderful music beautifully played!

https://www.felixstowemusic.com

[Chris Newman]

Last night in St Thomas's Church, Salisbury. The Salisbury Sinfonia conducted by Tim Murray played Hugh Wood's Divertimento for Strings as an 80th Birthday celebration for the composer, Dvorak's Violin Concerto with Rosie Thompsett and Schumann's 2nd Symphony, the Rhenish. A delightful night out. Looking forward to hearing Tim Murray conduct South African Opera (with the WNO Orchestra) at London Coliseum in Gershwin's Porgy and Bess. Hugh Wood was one of Murray's tutors at RAM. Interesting piece like three Tippett miniatures. Rosie is a local and produced lovely tone in the Dvorak: super slow movement. The Schumann was briskly handled: yet showed its foretaste of Tchaikovsky and Bruckner to come.

[Ferretfancy]

The NYPO concert from the Barbican was broadcast last night, but did R3 stay for the the encores? Polaris by Thomas Ades got off to a good start, and was well received, quite interesting, but it ran out of steam as so many new works seem to do. Next came a loving performance of Les Nuits D'ete by Joyce di Donato, perhaps a tad slow in places, but what a voice, and what music!
Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements always works for me, and the NYPO were good, even if there were a few untidy patches, particularly in the slow movement.
The best performance of the evening was the Ravel Daphnis and Chloe second suite, which was radiantly played.
Then came the encore, Chabrier's Espana, and just as we were ready to leave half a dozen brass players stood and gave us a rousing bit of ragtime! It was one of those tunes, possibly by Scott Joplin, which we all know and can't quite place.
I've counted the numbers on the platform last night after looking at my programme. There were 98 performers, at least 50 of whom were women, with a large majority in the strings and woodwinds.That's one in the eye for the VPO!

[Chris Newman]

The last two nights have been at the London Coliseum with Offenbach's The Tales of Hoffmann and Richard Strauss's Der Rosenkavalier. Super evenings which I shall describe at more length on the Performance/Night at the Opera thread.

[amateur51]

T
I've counted the numbers on the platform last night after looking at my programme. There were 98 performers, at least 50 of whom were women, with a large majority in the strings and woodwinds.That's one in the eye for the VPO!

Bravo Ferret!

[amateur51]

On Friday lunchtime, I went to Royal Academy of Music in London fir a performance of Sibelius symphony no 4 given by the Academy Concert Orchestra under Sir Colin Davis.

Sir Colin is now quite visibly a much older man than he was just a year ago when these forces gave a wonderfu account of Bruckner symphony no 6. However, excuse the cliché, once he was on the podium with his baton in hand, his control was masterly. I was sitting unusually close (for me) and could see his face throughout the performance and the concentration of his gestures and how he made his intentions plain. It was clear that much hard work had gone into preparing for this performance and the youing male 'solo' cellist was a picture of intense concentration and projection.

This symphony has always been the tough nut for me to crack among Sibelius' output but I was able to anticipater akn ost all the twists and turns, which was pleasing as it enabled me to appreciate some excellent sectional playing from the brass, the woodwind and the lower strings, not forgetting the timps (outstanding) and the bells etc.

At the end Sir Colin was duly modest & clearly delighted by the audience'sreception. It was good to see that he was back to his old game of shimmying between the crowded orchestral players, something I've always noticed about him with delight, suggesting that once his adrenaline is up, the years fall away.

For many years now Sir Colin has spoken about his need to overcome his earlier 'ego' which had made life difficult for him as a young conductor and how he came to understand that for him there had to be another means of operating, of becoming a conduit for the composer and for the music. This performance seemed to me to be devoid of conductorly 'ego', and the vigorous stamping on the platform floor from the young orchestra, causing Sir Colin to come up for a third bow, seemed to confirm their deep appreciation for their relationship with him. A wonderful free concert

[Nick Armstrong]

A wonderful free concert

You're not kidding!

My last one wasn't free, and was partly wonderful - the second half of the LPO's concert on Tuesday evening (repeated Friday): Rachmaninov's 2nd Symphony under Neeme Järvi. Great balance between impetus and expressivity, and between all parts of the orchestra. Most exciting and moving, and made one think 'what a fantastic symphony this is'

First half was another matter - a rather lacklustre although adept pianist called Boris Giltburg may have been to blame (he got himself into an awful memory lapse wilderness in the first movement at one nerve-wracking point ). In contrast to the Symphony, the tempo was all over the place, no sense of pulse... it sagged and seemed endless

(There was a curious orchestration of Rach's arrangement of 'Liebesleid' after the concerto, before the interval. Forgettable)

But well worth the price of entry for the Symphony.

[Simon B]

Due to many good things being on in close proximity and being in the right place at the right time, I've been to, er, a few events in the last 10 days. The next few months look rather drab by comparison. Just as well really. Especially after going to all the main LPO events in the Prokofiev festival at the RFH in January and others.

So, there was:
Sat: Der Rosenkavalier, ENO
Sun: Black Dyke Band, Symphony Hall Birmingham
Wed: LSO/Pappano, Rachmaninov: Isle of the Dead, Korngold: Violin Concerto (Kavakos), Bartok: Concerto for Orchestra, Barbican
Thu: RLPO/Petrenko, Shostakovich: Three Poems for Chorus & 9th Symphony, Wagner (arr Leinsdorf): Parsifal Synthesis, Philharmonic Hall Liverpool
Fri: BBCPO/Tortelier, RVW: Tallis Fantasia, Debussy: Fantasie (Stott), Prelude a L'après-midi d'un faune, Scriabin: Poem of Ecstasy, Bridgewater Hall Manchester
Sat: CBSO/Gardner, Dukas: La Péri, Szymanowski: Stabat Mater, Holst: The Planets, Symphony Hall Birmingham

Nothing to a Proms season ticket holder (presumably), but, well, quite a lot by any other standard.

It'd doubtless bore any readers to sleep were I to even try to comprehensively review the lot, so I'll try not to!

The ENO production of Der Rosenkavalier was so good that for once the opera almost didn't seem to go on for rather too long. Even if the rest of it was rubbish (far from the case) and cliché though it may be, it'd be worth the 3 hour wait for the famous trio when it's done right. It was. Particular credit is due Ed Gardner for risking a daringly slow tempo and making it work. So sonically gorgeous that it almost hurt at a few key cadences.

The RLPO may still not quite have the technical finesse of the LSO and CBSO, but their Shostakovich/Wagner concert again confirmed to me that Petrenko/RLPO is the most "alive" combination on the UK scene at the moment. The surprise here was that it wasn't the Shostakovich (excellent though that was) but the Wagner that was most memorable. Helped by the immediate but resonant acoustic of the Liverpool hall this was 60-odd minutes of glowing, thoughfully-paced sonic medicine.

Just a little more blasting and pounding from the brass and percussion of the BBCPO at the, er, pinnacle of Scriabin's Ecstasy and it would have been just like the old times when Tortelier was chief conductor. Nostalgia maybe isn't what it used to be, but it was smiles all round with orchestra, audience (a respectable size for a Friday at the Bridgewater by the alarming standards of the last few years) and Tortelier all obviously pleased to see each other.

Ed Gardner seems to be Mr Ubiquitous recently, but that's no bad thing. The CBSO concert was one of several interesting and effective programmes (which I assume are partly or wholly his doing) he's conducted recently in London or Brum. After a long hiatus there's now a glut of live performances of major Szymanowski works in the offing - anniversaryitis presumably. It was the Rattle/CBSO recordings that first brought these to my attention many years ago, and the chance to hear the marvellous Stabat Mater in the Symphony Hall acoustic was particularly welcome. Bar slightly more sense of forward momentum from Gardner this sounded remarkably similar to the EMI recording. The Dukas (the whole thing, not just the fanfare) was also a welcome rarity. The Planets is anything but a rarity, but still welcomed by me, at least when played with the drive and refinement that are hallmarks of the present CBSO. For once these days, while the audience was a little... bronchial at times, there was no applause between planets, and (even rarer) silence as the voices disappeared into the (not quite far enough, but never mind) distance at the end.

Now, I think a period of silence is required! Er, ok, excepting Szymanowski's 3rd Symphony with the LPO on Weds...

[Beef Oven]

Just back from Royal Albert Hall - Aida. Great singing, wonderful dancing, glorious evening!

.

[DublinJimbo]

Not long back from the latest in the 2011-12 season of the National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland. The programme consisted of Grieg's Norwegian Dances, the Delius Double Concerto, more Delius ('La Calinda') as the 'wild card' after the interval, and finally Prokofiev's 3rd Symphony (part of Principal Conductor Alan Buribayev's ongoing cycle of the complete Prokofiev symphonies).

1. The Grieg was delightful, full of lovely touches.

2. Delius appears hardly ever on concert programmes in Ireland, and was no doubt included because of his 150th Anniversary. I found the concerto desperately dreary and forgettable, and wouldn't expect that it will be programmed again any time soon. The fine performance of 'La Calinda' made up for the concerto and redeemed Delius's name somewhat.

3. Undoubted highlight of the evening was the Prokofiev, given a searing performance which brought us to our feet. What an extraordinary work it is, especially when played as it was tonight. The orchestral writing is astonishing, with the general feeling of menace emphasised by the inclusion of bass clarinet, contra-bassoon and bass trombone and the percussion making their presence felt in no small way. To my shame, this is the first of the Prokofiev concerts I've been to. I'll make a point of catching the rest (no more this season, and no idea yet how many will be included in 2012-13).

[kuligin]

Last night Halle Edward Gardner

Berio Renderings actually a lot of Schubert sketches linked together by Berio. While better IMHO than the pastiche found in "Elgar" Symphony 3 it was really neither fish nor fowl. Just brought home the loss of Schuberts early death, the scraps were the material for a Symphony as great as the 9th

Mozart 2 Piano Concerto Solists Philip Moore and Simon Crawford Phillips very enjoyable visually as well as musically

Beethoven 8 A blistering performance best of the cycle apart from Elders No 1

[Osborn]

Last night Halle Edward Gardner...Beethoven 8 A blistering performance best of the cycle apart from Elders No 1

He was appointed principal guest conductor of Nelsons' CBSO last Sept & for 3 years. I've yet to hear him but he's already highly rated in Brum.

[bluestateprommer]

I heard a Chicago Symphony concert of Schoenberg's Piano Concerto, with Pierre-Laurent Aimard as guest pianist, and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde, with Stuart Skelton & Michelle De Young as the vocal soloists. The main interest, however, was that Jonathan Nott was the guest conductor, as a substitute for Pierre Boulez, who apparently was advised by his eye doctor to pull out of his Chicago concerts. This was my first time seeing Nott as a guest conductor, and he did an excellent job, IMHO. I had a seat on the side of the hall, but managed to scootch to the middle, floor level, for the 2nd half (as I'd done for Haitink's Mahler 4 earlier this season). I thought that JN achieved a wonderfully clear balance with the orchestra, and only rarely did the orchestra threaten to really overwhelm the singers.

I did overhear a bit of stage door banter, with a regular (R) who had raved about Nott's conducting chatting with one of the veteran players (P). More or less, it went:

R: "Wasn't he great?"
P: "You mean the soloist, right?"
R: "The guest conductor."
P: "You meant the soloist, right?"

While not revealing names, I sort of arched my eyebrow at hearing this, because this player has had issues of execution for a few seasons now, and so, again IMHO, isn't really in a position to judge snarkily about quality that way. However, "P" did have a back-handed complement for JN, after a fashion:

"OK, there aren't many conductors who can conduct both of those pieces, without changing the program."

I don't know how many of you here have seen Jonathan Nott live, but on the basis of this one appearance, I'd be happy to catch him as a guest conductor again.