What was your last concert?

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  • Ferretfancy
    Full Member
    • Nov 2010
    • 3487

    At the RFH last night to hear the Philharmonia and Salonen. The first item was Kaija Saariaho's Maan varjot fpr organ and orchestra, a British Premiere and my first chance to hear the rebuilt RFH organ. Unfortunately, it was neither an organ concerto, nor a concertante piece. After a promising start, the all too usual cacophony set in. I feel that I have been listening on and off to this sort of offering since the 1960s. All the usual gimmicks were in evidence, tam tams played with violin bows etc.etc. all completely inaudible since the welter of sound effectively drowned everything for eighteen minutes.

    I'm always amazed at how quickly orchestral players recover, as following the Saariaho the Philharmonia provided great support for an astonishing performance of the Sibelius Violin Concerto by Lisa Batiashvili. This was superb. She has a wonderful range of tone and powerful projection when required. Her rapport with Salonen and the orchestra was complete.

    Finally, the Sibelius Second Symphony. Salonen seems to prefer a fairly fleet dramatic approach to this work. The playing was very incisive. Personally. I prefer slightly slower tempi and a darker, more brooding character which can be found in the score, but nevertheless it was a fine performance, enthusiastically received.

    While having a snack beforehand I met a man in his forties who loved music but had never heard any Sibelius. Lucky him last night! I'm sure he would have been very happy with his experience of this magnificent music.

    Comment

    • Richard Tarleton

      Aldeburgh Festival - final week

      Just back from a week in Suffolk. I've reported on the Pierre-Laurent Aimard "Etude" concert on the dedicated thread. On Thursday we returned to the Maltings for the (augmented) Arcanto Quartet - Schumann 1st string quartet, Schoenberg Fantasy for violin and piano op 47, a solo cello work (2001 rev. 2009) by Marco Stroppa entitled "Ay there's the rub" (an allusion to Hamlet) and a sumptuous performance of Brahms string Sextet no 1 Op 18 - fabulous, Pierre-Laurent Aimard leading the shouts of "Bravo" at the end. The Schumann has prompted me to get to know his string quartets better. The solo cello work had its moments - as a composition test piece it was a bit heavy on special effects, but quite atmospheric. A fine ensemble, and the sound in the Maltings acoustic was just superb.

      On Friday came the highlight of my week - along with seeing a stone curlew - a concert by Britten-Pears Alumni in the Jubilee Hall. Guitarist/lutenist Ian Watt and counter tenor Magid El-Bushra performed six Dowland lute songs beautifully, and in part two Watt gave an immaculate and moving performance of the Britten Nocturnal for guitar after John Dowland. It is unusual these days for anyone to play the guitar and lute, let alone in the same concert - for one thing todays lutenists tend not to play with fingernails, and the right hand techniques are quite different - in fact the last person I heard doing so was, er, Julian Bream. But Watt is a most sensitive accompanist on the lute, and sneaking a look at his music stand in the interval I saw that he was indeed playing from tablature. He also played (on guitar) a "Fantasy on themes from Britten's Gloriana" by John McLeod, who was present to receive an ovation.

      Soprano Léa Trommenschlager and pianist Aska Carmen-Saito performed songs by Schumann and Korngold, and then El-Bushra returned to perform four French songs with the pianist, including (to my great delight) À Chloris by Reynaldo Hahn. For their encore, all four came on to perform a stonking number which they did not announce but which sounded as if it was from a Schubertiade. A terrific performance by four artists to look out for.

      Comment

      • MrGongGong
        Full Member
        • Nov 2010
        • 18357

        Originally posted by Ferretfancy View Post
        At the RFH last night to hear the Philharmonia and Salonen. The first item was Kaija Saariaho's Maan varjot fpr organ and orchestra, a British Premiere and my first chance to hear the rebuilt RFH organ. Unfortunately, it was neither an organ concerto, nor a concertante piece. After a promising start, the all too usual cacophony set in. I feel that I have been listening on and off to this sort of offering since the 1960s. All the usual gimmicks were in evidence, tam tams played with violin bows etc.etc. all completely inaudible since the welter of sound effectively drowned everything for eighteen minutes.
        I'm looking forward to hearing this one
        She writes some great music and the refurbished RFH organ is a really wonderful thing IMV

        I feel like you do about Mendelssohn
        After a promising start you get all the usual cliches, major chords, minor chords, "melodies", cadences and solo lines the usual "gimmicks" as well, violins played with bows, Timp rolls and polyphony

        Comment

        • ferneyhoughgeliebte
          Gone fishin'
          • Sep 2011
          • 30163

          Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post
          She writes some great music and the refurbished RFH organ is a really wonderful thing IMV


          ... now, if she'd been appointed MQM ...
          [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

          Comment

          • MrGongGong
            Full Member
            • Nov 2010
            • 18357

            Originally posted by ferneyhoughgeliebte View Post


            ... now, if she'd been appointed MQM ...

            Comment

            • Ferretfancy
              Full Member
              • Nov 2010
              • 3487

              Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post
              I'm looking forward to hearing this one
              She writes some great music and the refurbished RFH organ is a really wonderful thing IMV

              I feel like you do about Mendelssohn
              After a promising start you get all the usual cliches, major chords, minor chords, "melodies", cadences and solo lines the usual "gimmicks" as well, violins played with bows, Timp rolls and polyphony
              Nice one, MrGongGong, but the emperor still has no clothes.

              Comment

              • ferneyhoughgeliebte
                Gone fishin'
                • Sep 2011
                • 30163

                Originally posted by Ferretfancy View Post
                Nice one, MrGongGong, but the emperor still has no clothes.
                Oh, steady on, Ferret - Mendelssohn may have all the faults MrGG lists, but it's a bit harsh to suggest that he's a fraud.
                [FONT=Comic Sans MS][I][B]Numquam Satis![/B][/I][/FONT]

                Comment

                • MrGongGong
                  Full Member
                  • Nov 2010
                  • 18357

                  Originally posted by Ferretfancy View Post
                  Nice one, MrGongGong, but the emperor still has no clothes.
                  BINGO
                  and what would be termed an "Epic Fail" in contemporary parlance

                  Comment

                  • french frank
                    Administrator/Moderator
                    • Feb 2007
                    • 30241

                    Originally posted by Richard Tarleton View Post
                    On Friday came the highlight of my week - along with seeing a stone curlew - a concert by Britten-Pears Alumni in the Jubilee Hall. Guitarist/lutenist Ian Watt and counter tenor Magid El-Bushra performed six Dowland lute songs beautifully, and in part two Watt gave an immaculate and moving performance of the Britten Nocturnal for guitar after John Dowland. It is unusual these days for anyone to play the guitar and lute, let alone in the same concert - for one thing todays lutenists tend not to play with fingernails, and the right hand techniques are quite different - in fact the last person I heard doing so was, er, Julian Bream. But Watt is a most sensitive accompanist on the lute, and sneaking a look at his music stand in the interval I saw that he was indeed playing from tablature. He also played (on guitar) a "Fantasy on themes from Britten's Gloriana" by John McLeod, who was present to receive an ovation.
                    And still just a chee-ild! I enjoyed this, which you've probably already found :-)
                    It isn't given us to know those rare moments when people are wide open and the lightest touch can wither or heal. A moment too late and we can never reach them any more in this world.

                    Comment

                    • Richard Tarleton

                      Originally posted by french frank View Post
                      And still just a chee-ild! I enjoyed this, which you've probably already found :-)
                      Thanks! I hadn't got beyond studying his website. I have, however, ordered his CD of Britten, McLeod, Walton, Dowland....His performance of the Britten Nocturnal was 50 years on from the first performance of the work by Bream on the same stage

                      Comment

                      • rauschwerk
                        Full Member
                        • Nov 2010
                        • 1480

                        A very impressive show ("Into the Night") by Voces8 at St Bartholomew-the-Great, Smithfield, last Tuesday. Opened with Byrd's Sing Joyfully, in a far cry from some of the can belto versions one hears of this piece. Then Hieronymus Praetorius (a fine Magnificat), Monteverdi and Giovanni Gabrieli. After these, a Bach motet. All sung from memory. Now, to do a Bach motet (in this case Der Geist hilft) with just eight voices a cappella is very demanding and perhaps this performance was not quite top notch. Then we had a Voces8 commission - the Canti Augustini of Alexander Levine (b.1955). That didn't interest me very much.

                        After the interval, two Taverner Pieces - The Lamb and Hymn for the Dormition of the Mother of God. I confess to some schadenfreude here. The Lamb was the only piece in the concert which went off pitch (a semitone sharp). I know from long experience that it's a really hard piece to sing without going sharp or flat. The final group, in which the singers processed to the other end of the darkened church and back, was framed by two settings of Te lucis ante terminum and included an Ave Maria by Franz Biebl (previously unknown to me but see Wikipedia) and Bogoroditse Devo (ie Ave Maria) by Rachmaninov. This group made a most beautiful and moving conclusion to the concert.
                        Last edited by rauschwerk; 06-07-14, 10:04.

                        Comment

                        • Dave2002
                          Full Member
                          • Dec 2010
                          • 18009

                          Last night in Winchester a concert of guitar and viola music played by Morgan Szymanski and Simon Rowland-Jones, put on by Kirker - http://www.kirkerholidays.com/music-holidays

                          Hearing guitar music - even if some of it was arranged from piano music by Albéniz - live in a sympathetic acoustic was very much better than hearing it on CD or radio. Perhaps the quietness of the instrument makes recording using close microphones inevitable, so that the ambience gets lost.

                          A very enjoyable outing.

                          Comment

                          • Aotearoa
                            Full Member
                            • May 2014
                            • 35

                            Still navigating through this fascinating and informative website.
                            Mine last concert was back in May in Christchurch, New Zealand:

                            NZSO played:
                            Rachmaninov Caprice Bohemien
                            Schumann Piano Concerto
                            Shostakovitch Symphony No 15

                            Alexander Lazerev conducting
                            Alexander Melnikov at the piano

                            We do not really have a permanent concert hall given ours is unsafe and in need of some major structural work after the 2011 earthquakes. We have to put up with some really unsatisfactory venues, like the ASB Arena, a sports arena with a makeshift roof. However, I am always grateful for people trying to bring such events to the South Island.
                            As for the concert itself, the Schumann felt very mechanical and perfunctory. No real passion or soloist engagement. It is a truly passionate piece and requires more than this to bring it to life. I was therefore a little disappointed and wondered what would happen after the break.
                            The Shostakovitch, though I have heard it numerous times really demonstrated to me the difference between listening to a CD and a live performance. The performance was revelatory to me. I understood the role of each section of the orchestra - it really felt like a concerto for orchestra. I was delighted it was the final piece as I left the event buzzing - and that's how I like to leave a concert. It is also one of those pieces where I think the nationality of the conductor was important. He somehow managed to translate the implications of Russia/Soviet Union to the music. I am not sure that any of our talented conductors could have communicated this in the same gripping manner.
                            The whole programme is being performed around New Zealand's regions; Auckland first, then Wellie and Christchurch. Smaller cities then got their turn. It was

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                            • MrGongGong
                              Full Member
                              • Nov 2010
                              • 18357

                              Ebene Quartet at the Verbier Festival this evening
                              absolutely stunning playing and joined by 2 others for an electrifying performance of Verklarte Nacht (how do you do the accents and stuff ?)

                              Comment

                              • Padraig
                                Full Member
                                • Feb 2013
                                • 4225

                                Originally posted by MrGongGong View Post
                                Ebene Quartet at the Verbier Festival this evening
                                absolutely stunning playing and joined by 2 others for an electrifying performance of Verklarte Nacht (how do you do the accents and stuff ?)
                                I was at a concert too at the Walled City Festival. A programme of Oboe and Piano music with Nicholas Daniel and Cathal Breslin. Bach, Britten, Beethoven, Poulenc.

                                MrGongGong I use this link:

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