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.
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.
- a concert by Britten-Pears Alumni in the Jubilee Hall. Guitarist/lutenist 
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 
the usual "gimmicks" as well, violins played with bows, Timp rolls and polyphony 
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