What was your last concert?

[gurnemanz]

Another lunchtime concert yesterday in Oxford Lieder's complete Schubert Project. Again most enjoyable with three different solo singers who joined together at the end for the 10 minute Cantata for the Birthday of the Singer Johann Michael Vogl. It is not a work that sees the light of day that often and it can certainly bear hearing at least once live, if not maybe returning to that often. The tenor, Charles Daniels, was familiar to me from recordings of early and baroque music and I liked his interpretations very much - especially the delectable Am See, slightly reminiscent of the Karl Erb's exquisite version. Marcus Farnsworth was very effective in the baritone songs. It is always exciting to get to hear young singers at the start of their career for the first time and I really took to the young Slovenian soprano, Nika Gorič, who had stood in at the last minute for the indisposed Mary Bevan.

[rauschwerk]

The Suffolk Philharmonic Orchestra (sic) at the Apex, Bury St Edmunds, yesterday. Conductor Leslie Olive, along with a willing team of volunteers and fundraisers, got this going a couple of years ago. A decent sized band (strings 10-8-6-4-2, which is about as many as you can get on that stage) of high quality, though the only names I recognised were Duke Dobing (flute) and Gary Kettel (timps).

We had the Barber Adagio, Fingal's Cave, Bruch fiddle concerto 1 and Vaughan Williams's 5th symphony. The Bruch was played by 24 year old New Zealand born Benjamin Baker. I'm not too fond of this piece so couldn't really compare this performance with others, but it was extremely assured playing. For the well-deserved encore he gave us a movement from an Ysaye sonata. The VW had a couple of rocky moments (no doubt another rehearsal would have sorted that out) but the conductor clearly knew just how the piece should go. Having done the London last year, he hopes to complete the cycle, which will be quite something in Suffolk!

[Nick Armstrong]

The latest in concert in the Aspect Foundation "Musical Capitals" series, celebrating "Czech Romantics", at the 20th Century Theatre in Westbourne Grove, W11:

Smetana String Quartet No. 2 in D minor
Dvořák Piano Quintet No. 2 in A major, Op. 81

Zemlinksy Quartet
Vsevolod Dvorkin piano
Illustrated talk by Iain Burnside

Wonderful evening with Mr Burnside a genial, amusing and informative host. Very good performances (the Smetana had to contend with the barrage of bonfire night) and great atmosphere with lots of Czech being spoken in the interval among the audience.

[Flosshilde]

Thursday's performance by the BBCSSO (broadcast live) -

Rameau: Suite No. 1 (from 'Les Indes Galantes')
John Adams: Absolute Jest, for String Quartet and Orchestra
Rebel: Chaos (from 'Les Élémens')
Beethoven: Symphony No. 2

Doric String Quartet
BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra
Markus Stenz (conductor).

A very rduced orchestra for the Baroque works; enjoyed the Rameau (even if it was a very small selection), & the Rebel was very surprising - a very effective 'chaos' indeed. I checke to see if I could find a recording afterwards - one by Marc Minkowski on Amazon for £82!
The Adams - well, what's the point of it? I thought it was rather like the beginning of the 4th movt of Beethoven's 9th symphony, in that he seemed to be trying different ideas, but unlike Beethoven never found one he wanted to develop.
The Beethoven I enjoyed more than I thought I would - very lively & crisp playing.
The conductor - well, it's the first time I've seen a conductor using his body rather than his arms or hands - arms held down at his sides (not all tyhe time), crouching & then jumping up, swaying all over the place. He trained with Bernstein - enough said?
The most exciting piece, though, came in the after-concert 'coda' (something the BBCSSO do frequently - do other orchestras? - well, not the orchestra, but soloists); the Doric Quartet played Janacek's Quartet no. 1, 'Kreutzer Sonata'. A very intnense 15 minutes, & something I'll have to look into again.

[teamsaint]

Liadov, Anatol Konstantinovich (1855-1914)
Kikimora, Op.63

Prokofiev, Sergey (1891-1953)
Violin Concerto no. 1 in D major, Op.19

Tchaikovsky, Pyotr Ilyich (1840-1893)
Symphony no. 6 in B minor, "Pathétique", Op.74

St Petersburg Philharmonic Orchestra

Leticia Muñoz Moreno
Violin
Yuri Temirkanov
Conductor

I was at this evening of Russian music at The Anvil Basingstoke on Friday night.

A pleasant enough evening for the time of year, the streets lights glinting cheekily on the surface of the inner ring road.

Wasn’t really surewhat to expect from any of the performers, since this was a ticket I had swapped with the venue after rather double booking myself later this month .

The Liadov was a lovely way to open the concert. I suspect it may have been used in part to settle the audience before the Prokofiev…or perhaps not !!I had heard a few mumblings about “the first half” from folks in the almost capacity turn out before the concert started . If you don’t know the Liadov, it’s a lovely romantic tone poem, which serves well as an overture.
To the Prokofiev. The soloist Leticia Moreno, is certainly hard to ignore. Her generally stern countenance could hardly have been in greater contrast to her dress, which, just in case JLW is looking in, I will try to describe. A full length bright pink affair, with tiny shoulder straps, and bold black floral outlines. It has a big Flamenco thing going on below the knee at the back and was slit at the front also to the knee. It was very close fitting . Very striking certainly.
I’m not sure that the piece ever really took off, although it was enjoyable enough. The best moments were when Moreno really let herself go, and threw herself into the music, but it all seemed just a fraction polite to me, almost as if the performers sensed the audiences inhibitions about the music. A decent response at the end, but no encore, and it did, in the end , all feel just a tad perfunctory.

Of course, the big crowd had really come for the Pathetique. Falling off a log is probably difficult , for this band and conductor, compared to running through this work. It must be in their very marrow, and without any doubt they performed it with a great sense of ease and style. Termikanov has an easy , and easy on the eye style, and must be the master of the tiny hand gesture. With his arms almost always held low down when gesturing to the players, it’s a wonder that most of them can see what it is he requires. All that said, he didn’t seem to have any trouble at all getting the desired responses. Somehow, the orchestra’s ease with the piece seemed to shine through in the March, which was pretty awe inspiring.
Not a dry eye in the house after a beautiful finale, of course. A really big response from the audience led to encore of " Nimrod".
Not knowing much about Temikarnov, I was unaware of his more than somewhat dubious views about women conductors. I have been pretty uncompromising on this board in my views on Gergiev, and , FWIW, unless Termikanov comes out with rather different views that those previously expressed, I wouldn’t support one of his concerts again. Consistency is important.if not always easy to achieve.

[Flosshilde]

Their programme in Edinburgh & London earlier in the month included Shostakovitch 10th; perhaps they felt that there isn't the audience in Basingstoke for it? Or they wanted a change

[teamsaint]

Their programme in Edinburgh & London earlier in the month included Shostakovitch 10th; perhaps they felt that there isn't the audience in Basingstoke for it? Or they wanted a change

well Basingstoke appears to be ready for Ellen Kent's Rigoletto...http://www.anvilarts.org.uk/whats-on/rigoletto

And DSCH 5 is on the Anvil menu later this month......the one I double booked.

I'm sure it was well thought out programming either way.
At least there was no booing, unlike those nasty London Opera goers !!

[Petrushka]

There was a time when the St Petersburg Philharmonic were appearing at Symphony Hall in Birmingham every other week (or it seemed that way) and I went to lots of their concerts catching some terrific Tchaikovsky and Shostakovich from them under Temirkanov and Jansons. I remember sitting in the café in Symphony Hall on one such occasion and a group of obviously Russian men came and sat at my table. I engaged them in conversation (their English was almost as bad as my Russian but we got by somehow) and it transpired that it was the St Petersburg Philharmonic horn section!

[Nick Armstrong]

the streets lights glinting cheekily on the surface of the inner ring road

... a big Flamenco thing going on below the knee at the back

Blimey, it's all gone raunchy in Basingstoke!!

Seriously, thanks for that detailed review! I feel as if I was there! (Without the need to make the journey home, what's more!). I saw Termikanov recently as well, in another 'warhorse' (Dvorak New World, the first of two live ones this year) and I can endorse everything you say about his style


PS

The soloist Leticia Moreno, is certainly hard to ignore

Wonderful double-edged remark!

[Il Grande Inquisitor]

I was at the St Petersburg Phil's London concert at the RFH last night, where they traded in Moreno for Maxim Vengerov... I think you may have had the better deal in Basingstoke, frankly. There was a cracking Shostakovich 10, though, plus a reprise of Kikimora.

http://bachtrack.com/review-temirkanov-st-petersburg-vengerov-november-2014

[Nick Armstrong]

I was at the St Petersburg Phil's London concert at the RFH last night, where they traded in Moreno for Maxim Vengerov... I think you may have had the better deal in Basingstoke, frankly. There was a cracking Shostakovich 10, though, plus a reprise of Kikimora.

http://bachtrack.com/review-temirkan...-november-2014

Ah yes, I caught part of the live relay of their Manchester concert on the radio on Tuesday evening - I heard the last two movements of DSCH10. I thought it was one of the most compelling performances of the third movement I've ever heard - not a movement I've ever really understood, but YT turned it into a really gripping piece of musical story-telling

I note they had Mortitia playing the Tchaik VC in Manchester...

[ChrisBennell]

I was at the Oxford Coffee Concert yesterday morning to hear the Heath Quartet at the Holywell music room.

Haydn String Quartet in E flat Op 64 No 6
Beethoven String Quartet in C sharp minor Op 131.

Packed audience as usual - and a marvellous concert - coffee in the Kings Arms beforehand wasn't bad either.

Good way to start the day (as long as you can get parked in Oxford!)

[amateur51]

[COLOR="#0000FF"]Blimey, it's all gone raunchy in Basingstoke!!

Seriously, thanks for that detailed review! I feel as if I was there! (Without the need to make the journey home, what's more!). I saw Termikanov recently as well, in another 'warhorse' (Dvorak New World, the first of two live ones this year) and I can endorse everything you say about his style

Temirkanov has a number of conducting styles in my experience. These days he tends to adopt a baton-free chopping movement with his hands and sweeping movements with the bent full arm. The first time I saw him he held a medium-length baton in the middle which fascinated me.

His repertoire seems remarkably small too but what he does, he does well.

[Richard Tarleton]

Mouthwatering, Chris. And what a lovely venue it is, the Holywell Music Room deserves a mention on aeolium's thread, here.

[ChrisBennell]

Mouthwatering, Chris. And what a lovely venue it is, the Holywell Music Room deserves a mention on aeolium's thread, here.

Thanks - Done!