What was your last concert?

[Beef Oven!]

yes, great review of an interesting from Beefy, sounds like he had a great time.

So many of these reviews make me wish I could have been there.

It was marvellous. It still amazes me what music can do. The power of music.

It took me to another place. Was it important what I thought yesterday? What do emotions mean, or what can they tell us? Who needs drugs!!!?

Gigs like yesterday remind me of those amazing avant garde and experimental gigs of the 1970s that I was fortunate enough to attend.

How could the gig have been better? Sofas and scatter cushions rather than chairs; be allowed and whoop from time to time; and more younger people in the audience!

[teamsaint]

The way in which live music is presented is perenially troublesome.
Interesting that apparently there were lots of "young people", presumably mainly music students, at the Schnittke the other night.
Sorabji, is obviously a whole other thing.

Incidentally, can anybody recommend (or otherwise) the BIS complete Schnittke symphonies set?

( Re your comments about the way the concert was set up...Somebody was saying to me just last night that the way classical music is presented in the concert hall is off putting to them.)

Edit: its wonderful when you are still buzzing the next day......

[Beef Oven!]

The way in which live music is presented is perenially troublesome.
Interesting that apparently there were lots of "young people", presumably mainly music students, at the Schnittke the other night.
Sorabji, is obviously a whole other thing.

Incidentally, can anybody recommend (or otherwise) the BIS complete Schnittke symphonies set?

( Re your comments about the way the concert was set up...Somebody was saying to me just last night that the way classical music is presented in the concert hall is off putting to them.)

Edit: its wonderful when you are still buzzing the next day......

Yes, sadly the whole mind-set at classical gigs is wrong, and it puts a lot of people off.

Dinosaurs are running and ruining classical music.

We need to get back to the Paris 1840s vibe, they knew how to enjoy gigs back then. Even that sour-puss Wagner knew it!

I have the Schnittke on BIS and I love them. Fill your boots I'd say! I paid about £2.52p per album on eMusic.

[EdgeleyRob]

It was marvellous. It still amazes me what music can do. The power of music.It took me to another place. Was it important what I thought yesterday? What do emotions mean, or what can they tell us? Who needs drugs!!!?

Gigs like yesterday remind me of those amazing avant garde and experimental gigs of the 1970s that I was fortunate enough to attend.

How could the gig have been better? Sofas and scatter cushions rather than chairs; be allowed and whoop from time to time; and more younger people in the audience!

Sounds like it was amazing BeefO.

Yes the power of music is astounding.
The music that is most dear to me is essential for my well being and sanity.
When I start to feel anxious I turn to RVW and Mendelssohn (amongst others),it's saved me a lot of pill-popping over the years.

[Beef Oven!]

Sounds like it was amazing BeefO.

Yes the power of music is astounding.
The music that is most dear to me is essential for my well being and sanity.
When I start to feel anxious I turn to RVW and Mendelssohn (amongst others),it's saved me a lot of pill-popping over the years.

I love to hear stuff like that.

[Ferretfancy]

There were two very different concerts at the RFH for me this week, first the Philharmonia and Termirkanov on Thursday with the violinist Vilde Frang. It opened with a nicely pointed performance of Prokofiev's Classical Symphony, especially nice in the third movement, but then, when do you ever hear a really bad performance of this symphony ?

This was followed by Prokofiev's second Violin Concerto. Vilde Frang is an excellent performer with a strong tone and eloquent phrasing, but I have to admit that listening to it i began to think that perhaps I do not like this concerto as much as I thought I did. Why? I think it was the rather lumpy contribution of the orchestra which seemed to emphasise the slightly repetitious nature of some of the material.

The fault in the case of the Prokofiev may have been mine, but I don't think this was so with the performance of the Rachmaninov Second Symphony after the interval. This was almost constantly loud and brash, with very little romantic drama in evidence. I felt that Temirkanov was aiming at a very objective performance, playing down all the yearning which a proper sense of light and shade brings. The string playing in particular was very matter of fact, it was if they would have liked to expand a little more in their phrasing, but had been told not to -very odd.
Everybody knows the sense of release that the huge climax towards the end of the slow movement can bring, here it went for little, sinse there was no sense of build up in the sections that preceded it. I was baffled by the storm of applause and cheers at the end,but I stand my ground on this one. The concert was well attended.

Last night was very different, with the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic and Vassily Petrenko. The first item was Berio's witty and hugely enjoyable Quattro Versioni Originali della 'Ritirata notturna di Madrid' How's that for a title ? Boccherini would have liked it. There followed Steuart Bedford's suite from Britten's Death in Venice. I'm not very familiar with the opera, but was fascinated by this haunting and extraordinary music, basically a set of dances centred around Eschenbach's obsession with Tadzio leading to his death. We had fine playing from the orchestra with its team of skilled performers on an array of tuned percussion.

After the interval came Shostakovich's Fifteenth Symphony, which brought out all the strangeness of this piece without losing tension for one moment. Is this the last true masterpiece to enter the repertory in the 20th Century?

One source of shame was that this excellent concert by a visiting orchestra was so poorly attended, I doubt if the hall was more than half full. My partner and I sat in the most distant box from the orchestra on the keyboard side and all the others were empty. What's more, we were the only occupants of Level 6, the Balcony level. Apparently only five people had bought tickets, and they had been reseated elsewhere. It was a very odd experience to come out of the audience into a deserted space after such a moving performance, which incidentally was very well received by those of us who were present. I met a 92 year old lady in the interval who was thrilled to be there and was looking forward to the Shostakovich, a delightful person who was a real lover of music and still willing to explore.

[Mattbod]

Trevor Pinnock "Journeys through Music" at St Paul without the walls Canterbury (last Monday). A wonderful programme on Trevor's harpsichord from Cazubon to Scarlatti (with Bach and Handel in between). It was a shame he did not mingle during the interval drinks as artists mostly do at small venues as i would have loved to have had a chat (and got him to sign my copy of his Rameau CD)

[teamsaint]

Great review FF, thanks for sharing your thoughts.

The Sunday concert sounds fascinating. What a shame about the attendance.
Perhaps the people in sales and marketing need to get their thinking caps on......

[Thropplenoggin]

MOZART: Violin Sonata in F major K376
Violin Sonata in G major K379
Violin Sonata in E-flat major K481

Vilde Frang, violin
Michail Lifits, piano

I'the flesh and up close (I was sat one row back from the front), Vilde Frang resembles a Klimt portrait. Or a Pre-Raphelite painting. Or an amalgam of both. Nothing like her PR photos. My neighbour, an elderly lady and former piano teacher, described her dress as 'enchanting but very distracting'. Sequins and a plunging neckline. I found her to be an excellent violinist - 'breathy' pianissimos, astonishingly precise intonation, and feeling which Mme. Thropplenoggin felt was rather mannered. Mlle. Frang does have an uncanny habit of dropping bow and violin and gazing into the distance during piano solo parts of the sonatas. The symbiosis 'twixt pianist and violinist was excellent but...oh, and this is a supersized 'but' - the balance between instruments often felt wrong. My inner HIPster found itself frowning. The Steinway quite often drowned out the violin, especially during the delicate pizzicato ending of K. 379. I kept thinking - this isn't what Mozart heard. Michail Lifits is a superb Mozartian - very, very graceful technique. Buoyant. Trills, runs, all superb (the former piano teacher was very impressed, and she rates Uchida highly in Mozart )...but (another big 'un, I'm afear'd), his fortissimos sounded far too Late Beethoven Romantic to me. Again, this felt, well, inappropriate. Still, a lovely little concert, with a superbly attentive and mercifully quiet audience.

It was our first visit to LSO St Luke's. We loved the ambience. The acoustic is superb. We had amazing seats for a tenner. And had a brilliant lunch at a cafe-cum-bicycle repair shop down the road (Look Mum No Hands!) - wonderful salads, Scotch egg with blackpudding and apple, Chicken and Ham Pie, and the best piccalilli I've ever tasted (I'm not normally a fan)...Huzzah!

[teamsaint]

Sounds like a splendid way to spend a lunchtime, @Noggo, and many thanks for your entertaining report. I certainly look forward to visiting this venue sometime soon. And as a picalili lover, it seems i have an extra treat in store if I treat myself to lunch. Yum.

Been out and about myself. Spent Wednesday evening at the Lighthouse in Poole, being entertained by the BSO/Thomas Dausgaard.

THe programme started with Radu Lupu playing Bartok 3. However, due to a combination of traffic delays, traffic jams, and traffic hold ups, i arrived a minute too late for the first half, despite setting off in ample time.
But we must live in the moment, so after a reviving walk around the lovely environs of the Arts centre () and a reviving slurp, anticipation of the Mahler 5 began to kick in.

First visit to this hall, and the first thing to say is that, on this occasion at least, the acoustics are interesting. No real problems, but somehow I thought that there was throughout something that added a slightly rough edge to the sounds. Don't know if this is me, the position of my seat or the hall. Nothing that was a problem, but there was a definite "earthy" feel to this concert. perhaps Dausgaard was looking for a bit of edge in the tone.
No matter, it was a fine performance to this novice's ears. Excellent brass in all departments, and the principal trumpet was superb. Strings were excellent, if occasionally a little on the quiet side perhaps. I had a great seat (3rd row, cello side) for a view of the harp,who was tucked in just behind the cellos. Great vantage point for the Adagietto, i could see every finger movement, and got the full sound, which, though lovely, again had a very slightly harsh edge. I wonder if it was something about where i was sitting ? Just a joy to hear that harp in that movement so close up. Dausgaard took it at a lovely slow pace, and was very careful to keep a lid on the whole movement, which worked really well.
Timings were all but impeccable throughout. There was a retune before the Adagietto,not really sure why, as the only thing i had noticed was a very (possibly) fractionally flat horn, but I wouldn't swear to it . Tempi and control were as I would expect, and the climaxes really full throttle....the BSO make a tremendous noise when they get going !

All in all a splendid evening at a decent venue, which was pretty well attended.


Footnote. The very nice man sitting next to me spent the whole of the Mahler reading his programme, including notes on Lupu and Dausgaard. Unobtrusive, but odd. Oh well, he helps pay the wages too !!

Back there for some Hindemith and Beethoven in December. Marvellous !!

Edit: I thought that the wise Edashtav said he was going, so if he posts something completely different, just take my word for it ....!! Hope you got there Ed !!

[EdgeleyRob]

Thanks ts,a super review.
I've rather fallen out of love with Mahler's music lately.
There was a time,a few years ago,when I wouldn't have thought that possible.
I think,in the near future,I'll revisit.

[edashtav]

Edit: I thought that the wise Edeshtav said he was going, so if he posts something completely different, just take my word for it ....!! Hope you got there Ed !!

Sadly, I was in poor health and my "driver" for the night had 'flu- I couldn't face up to 90 minutes public transport to & from the concert. So, I missed the concert.

From previous experiences, I'd state that the Lighthouses's acoustics are "rough & ready". Everything may be heard, but neither suffused with an inner glow nor with a bright radiance. When I compare them to the BSO former home in the Winter Gardens Bournemouth, I feel sad, for a fine hall was razed to the ground and the new one is barely adequate.

[teamsaint]

Sadly, I was in poor health and my "driver" for the night had 'flu- I couldn't face up to 90 minutes public transport to & from the concert. So, I missed the concert.

From previous experiences, I'd state that the Lighthouses's acoustics are "rough & ready". Everything may be heard, but neither suffused with an inner glow nor with a bright radiance. When I compare them to the BSO former home in the Winter Gardens Bournemouth, I feel sad, for a fine hall was razed to the ground and the new one is barely adequate.

Sorry to hear that, Ed, hope you are both feeling better soon. We can no doubt compare notes on some other occasion.

[Beef Oven!]

Sounds like a splendid way to spend a lunchtime, @Noggo, and many thanks for your entertaining report. I certainly look forward to visiting this venue sometime soon. And as a picalili lover, it seems i have an extra treat in store if I treat myself to lunch. Yum.

Been out and about myself. Spent Wednesday evening at the Lighthouse in Poole, being entertained by the BSO/Thomas Dausgaard.

THe programme started with Radu Lupu playing Bartok 3. However, due to a combination of traffic delays, traffic jams, and traffic hold ups, i arrived a minute too late for the first half, despite setting off in ample time.
But we must live in the moment, so after a reviving walk around the lovely environs of the Arts centre () and a reviving slurp, anticipation of the Mahler 5 began to kick in.

First visit to this hall, and the first thing to say is that, on this occasion at least, the acoustics are interesting. No real problems, but somehow I thought that there was throughout something that added a slightly rough edge to the sounds. Don't know if this is me, the position of my seat or the hall. Nothing that was a problem, but there was a definite "earthy" feel to this concert. perhaps Dausgaard was looking for a bit of edge in the tone.
No matter, it was a fine performance to this novice's ears. Excellent brass in all departments, and the principal trumpet was superb. Strings were excellent, if occasionally a little on the quiet side perhaps. I had a great seat (3rd row, cello side) for a view of the harp,who was tucked in just behind the cellos. Great vantage point for the Adagietto, i could see every finger movement, and got the full sound, which, though lovely, again had a very slightly harsh edge. I wonder if it was something about where i was sitting ? Just a joy to hear that harp in that movement so close up. Dausgaard took it at a lovely slow pace, and was very careful to keep a lid on the whole movement, which worked really well.
Timings were all but impeccable throughout. There was a retune before the Adagietto,not really sure why, as the only thing i had noticed was a very (possibly) fractionally flat horn, but I wouldn't swear to it . Tempi and control were as I would expect, and the climaxes really full throttle....the BSO make a tremendous noise when they get going !

All in all a splendid evening at a decent venue, which was pretty well attended.


Footnote. The very nice man sitting next to me spent the whole of the Mahler reading his programme, including notes on Lupu and Dausgaard. Unobtrusive, but odd. Oh well, he helps pay the wages too !!

Back there for some Hindemith and Beethoven in December. Marvellous !!

Edit: I thought that the wise Edashtav said he was going, so if he posts something completely different, just take my word for it ....!! Hope you got there Ed !!

Glad you had a good time!

[Ferretfancy]

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.