What was your last concert?

[MrGongGong]

When attending Siegfried at SH a couple of years back, I was aware of slight reverberation to the sound (I was sitting in the left-side stalls, close to the stage). Never had these issues in Nottingham. Symphony Hall was considered the most acoustically perfect concert venue in the UK until the last couple of years, when some criticisms like mine were made.

There's meant to be reverberation, that's what the reverberation chambers are for.

Which maybe proves the point that maybe folks (including, dare I say it? Simon Rattle) don't always know what they are talking about when they talk about 'acoustic'.

Without reverberation it would sound like it was here



and what is meant by this?

I've been to the Royal Concert Hall in Nottingham a couple of times and found the acoustic ok but uncomfortably loud.

What was the music?
Where were you sitting?

[Bryn]

I posted under Performance about last nights CSO concert,featuring the Mozart Requiem. I just played my Hogwood/AAM recording and was surprised at it's brevity. On reading the notes I discover that Hogwood excised every note that was thought to have been composed by Sussmayr

Surely the excision was down to Richard Maunder, rather than Christopher Hogwood.

[DublinJimbo]

Paul Lewis gave a recital in the National Concert Hall last night. The programme consisted of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas.

I must admit to reservations to Paul Lewis's recordings, having been less than impressed with those I've heard. But I'd been to Benjamin Grosvenor in the NCH at the end of January and had been hugely impressed by his musical maturity. I'd already made comparisons between the two to my music friends, favouring Benjamin. I hadn't booked for last night's recital because of my negative feelings, but I decided a couple of weeks ago to give Paul Lewis a chance, especially since I'd never experienced him live.

He gave us sonatas 30 and 31 in the first half. Oh dear. The response from the audience (very sparse in numbers, with the hall less than half full) was half-hearted, which suggested that I wasn't alone in finding what we'd heard quite pedestrian. Apart from some fluffs (yes, there were some), there was a general feeling of lack of emotional involvement in the music. The glorious final movement of no. 30 was quite prosaic, with the heart-aching return of the theme at the end po-faced rather than imbued with what had gone before and changed by the experience.

Fortunately, the second half was far, far better, It was as if a football coach had chided the team in the dressing room and they came back on the pitch transformed. The opening chords were delivered with great authority, and the whole sonata came alive as the other two had failed to do. As with all the best performances, it was the composer who won out in the end. Paul Lewis surrendered himself to the music, delivered it magnificently, and sent me aware wondering again at the magnificent achievement of Beethoven.

In summary: I'd beg, steal or borrow to see/hear Benjamin Grosvenor again; I wouldn't be worried if I never saw/heard Paul Lewis again (despite no. 32).

[pastoralguy]

Tackas quartet at Alice Tully Hall, Lincoln Centre.

Schubert. Quartetsatz

Mozart. g minor string quintet with Laurence Power.

Beethoven. Op. 59. No. 1

Wonderful evening of top class music making in, IMHO, the best hall I've ever been in. The acoustics were superb!

[Richard Barrett]

Every Friday evening when I'm at home I go to see the Belgrade Philharmonic, of which my other half is a member. Last night was particularly interesting, in that, apart from Shostakovich's autopilot-written October overture and Barber's dishwater-dull Cello Concerto, the main item in the programme conducted by Vladimir Kulenović was Vaughan Williams' Third Symphony, which I suppose many people would regard as a quintessentially English piece to be played in a quintessentially English way.

The "problem" with this performance by a Serbian orchestra under a Serbian conductor was that nobody knew how the piece was "supposed to go" (that's enough scare quotes now I think); the result was what I think has been the most gripping and moving performance of this piece that I've ever heard. It was what you might expect to happen if a British conductor were to attempt to strip off the music's patina of performing tradition and to extrapolate its emotional implications just from what's in the score, although in this case the patina hadn't been there in the first place. Also, the destruction and aftermath of war will have been a reality to every member of the orchestra, rather than a memory passed down from previous generations, which no doubt played a part in how intense the experience was. It was highly appreciated by the audience, although it was clearly unfamiliar to them too because nobody seemed to be sure when it had ended. So, as to the old question of whether this music can be said to travel successfully, the answer seems to be yes, as long as people forget where it comes from.

The vocal part in the last movement was taken by a solo clarinet. I'm not sure whether this was sanctioned by RVW but I'm not sure that I don't actually prefer it.

[Bryn]

The vocal part in the last movement was taken by a solo clarinet. I'm not sure whether this was sanctioned by RVW but I'm not sure that I don't actually prefer it.

RVW did indeed sanction the use of a clarinet if no suitable vocal soloist was available.

[Stanfordian]

Paul Lewis gave a recital in the National Concert Hall last night. The programme consisted of Beethoven's last three piano sonatas.

I must admit to reservations to Paul Lewis's recordings, having been less than impressed with those I've heard. But I'd been to Benjamin Grosvenor in the NCH at the end of January and had been hugely impressed by his musical maturity. I'd already made comparisons between the two to my music friends, favouring Benjamin. I hadn't booked for last night's recital because of my negative feelings, but I decided a couple of weeks ago to give Paul Lewis a chance, especially since I'd never experienced him live.

He gave us sonatas 30 and 31 in the first half. Oh dear. The response from the audience (very sparse in numbers, with the hall less than half full) was half-hearted, which suggested that I wasn't alone in finding what we'd heard quite pedestrian. Apart from some fluffs (yes, there were some), there was a general feeling of lack of emotional involvement in the music. The glorious final movement of no. 30 was quite prosaic, with the heart-aching return of the theme at the end po-faced rather than imbued with what had gone before and changed by the experience.

Fortunately, the second half was far, far better, It was as if a football coach had chided the team in the dressing room and they came back on the pitch transformed. The opening chords were delivered with great authority, and the whole sonata came alive as the other two had failed to do. As with all the best performances, it was the composer who won out in the end. Paul Lewis surrendered himself to the music, delivered it magnificently, and sent me aware wondering again at the magnificent achievement of Beethoven.

In summary: I'd beg, steal or borrow to see/hear Benjamin Grosvenor again; I wouldn't be worried if I never saw/heard Paul Lewis again (despite no. 32).

Hiya DublinJimbo,

I've seen both Paul Lewis and Benjamin Grosvenor a number of times including a recital at Preston when Grosvenor was still a school boy. Although a very fine player Lewis's performances tend to leave me cold whilst Benjamin Grosvenor is much more exciting, more vituosic.

[Nick Armstrong]

Hiya DublinJimbo,

I've seen both Paul Lewis and Benjamin Grosvenor a number of times including a recital at Preston when Grosvenor was still a school boy. Although a very fine player Lewis's performances tend to leave me cold whilst Benjamin Grosvenor is much more exciting, more vituosic.

Friends of mine went to a Paul Lewis recital at the Wigmore Hall and were staggered by how uninvolving and apparently uninvolved and slapdash it seemed. They put it down to a bad evening in the office - but decided not to spend money to hear him again...

[Ferretfancy]

Hiya DublinJimbo,

I've seen both Paul Lewis and Benjamin Grosvenor a number of times including a recital at Preston when Grosvenor was still a school boy. Although a very fine player Lewis's performances tend to leave me cold whilst Benjamin Grosvenor is much more exciting, more vituosic.

How we react to pianists can be very variable. I went to a Nelson Freire recital at the QEH a few months back, and couldn't see what the fuss was about, because he got rave reviews. In this case I think it may have been the piano itself that just didn't sound right. Stephen Hough is another player who often seems very unsteady to my ears. Grosvenor is amazing,and although he has splendid technique he never seems to rush his fences. Too many pianists today seem to feel the need to deliver ultra fast playing, just because they can.

[Nick Armstrong]

How we react to pianists can be very variable.

Indeed it can, but so can pianists! I remember last year or the year before I went to two piano recitals at the Wigmore within just a few days of each other - sitting in virtually the same seat each time, the difference in sonority, in enjoyment of the sheer sound, was enormous. The first one was t'other Nelson, Goerner, playing Schubert (D960) like not very well played Debussy, a thick unattractive piano sound, lots of pedal, masking the detail - I was thinking that the piano or the acoustic from that seat must be wrong... But then a couple of days later, Jan Lisiecki played the Chopin Études, presumably using the same piano (although who knows?) and it was a sonic delight, no longer the 'wet' gloopy sound and lack of detail, but a crisp, jewelled sound - ideal.

[Nick Armstrong]

Anyone at this?

I've always wanted to hear Segerstam. Do I remember Beefy planning to go? Then again, it seems no one knew till lately that it was to be Big Leif

Bach Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227*
Bruckner Selected motets*
Bruckner Symphony No 8
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Leif Segerstam conductor
James O’Donnell* conductor
BBC Singers

Please note that this concert will be conducted by Leif Segerstam in place of the originally advertised Semyon Bychkov.


I think I'd probably have turned up at the interval....

But Bruckner 8 in the Barbican? The engineers on the radio are making a pretty good fist of it.

[MrGongGong]

But Bruckner 8 in the Barbican? The engineers on the radio are making a pretty good fist of it.[/COLOR]

Don't tell anyone but I said the could borrow this for the evening

[Beef Oven!]

Anyone at this?

I've always wanted to hear Segerstam. Do I remember Beefy planning to go? Then again, it seems no one knew till lately that it was to be Big Leif

Bach Jesu, meine Freude, BWV 227*
Bruckner Selected motets*
Bruckner Symphony No 8
BBC Symphony Orchestra

Leif Segerstam conductor
James O’Donnell* conductor
BBC Singers

Please note that this concert will be conducted by Leif Segerstam in place of the originally advertised Semyon Bychkov.


I think I'd probably have turned up at the interval....

But Bruckner 8 in the Barbican? The engineers on the radio are making a pretty good fist of it.

I didn't go.

I've seen Leif at the Barbican, conducting Brahms 1 a few years ago. Queuing to pay the car park ticket with a member of the orchestra, I asked him what it was like working with him and he laughed and said 'he's larger than life' and carried on smiling!

[rauschwerk]

In summary: I'd beg, steal or borrow to see/hear Benjamin Grosvenor again; I wouldn't be worried if I never saw/heard Paul Lewis again (despite no. 32).

I had a similar reaction to Lewis's playing when he gave the last three LvB sonatas at Snape some years ago, but thought: maybe it's just me. But maybe it wasn't!

[Zucchini]

Pires played Mozart. Wonderful. Supper at Brasserie Blanc. An excellent evening.