What was your last concert?

[LeMartinPecheur]

Truro last Friday, Soojin Han (vln)/ Sholto Kynoch (pf) in Beethoven Op 12/3, Brahms Op 78, Bach Solo Sonata No 1, Prokofiev Sonata no 2.

Ms Han is a little slip of a thing, looks about 16 but was actually born in 1986. Some anonymous benefactor has lent her a Strad and she deserves it. A name to watch, even if her solo Bach has a little way to go yet. But the Beethoven and particularly the Prokofiev were very special.

[gurnemanz]

I Fagiolini: A varied and entertaining programme last Friday at the Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon. Afterwards a good pint at the Castle Inn.

[Jasmine Bassett]

An unusually busy few days:
Sunday 13th - Billy budd at Netherlands Opera in Amsterdam
then last Thursday a preview of Philip Dukes' 20th Anniversary of his South Bank debut recital given in Marlborough (Benjamin, Brahms and Berlioz arr. Liszt)
then on Saturday the Orchestra Accademia di Santa Cecilia/ Antonio Pappano at Symphony Hall, Birmingham - Aida Sinfonia (not the usual Preludio); Liszt Piano Concerto No.1; Mahler 1 + (probably the same 4 encores as in Basingstoke).

[Chris Newman]

I Fagiolini: A varied and entertaining programme last Friday at the Wiltshire Music Centre, Bradford-on-Avon. Afterwards a good pint at the Castle Inn.

gurnemanz,

Ah! the Castle Inn. An oasis in the centre of town. An even more surprising one is right where you leave the "concrete mini-South Bank Wiltshire Music Centre and the former council estate, and go into Ashley Road where the Music Centre and St Laurence School are situated. Instead of turning right towards the town as you leave the school turn left....in fact you can walk it in two minutes. One moment you are coming out of the suburban jungle with the estate on your left and a field on your right and the next hey presto you are surrounded by Cotswoldy drystone walls and fields and you are at the very rustic Dog and Fox. A gem of a pub. Every pub game under the sun. Lots of little rooms with six foot long bars. Real real ales. Freshly made Sarnies. Ideal before or after the concerts. You are treated like a lord by the family and customers alike.

Cheers,, Chris.

[StephenO]

Last Friday in Malvern - Angela Hewitt and the CBSO in Beethoven's First Piano Concerto, Liszt's Les Preludes and Dvorak's New World Symphony. Stirring stuff brilliantly conducted by Hannu Lintu.

Two more to look forward to. This Saturday something completely different - a recreation of Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall concert. The following Friday it's Stephen Hough playing the Moonlight Sonata, Liszt's B minor Sonata and pieces by Scriabin and Janacek. Three concerts in as many weeks - that's more than I went to in the previous three months!

[Ferretfancy]

Mitsuku Uchida gave a fine performance of Beethoven's 3rd Piano Concerto tonight, with the Bavarian Radio Symphony Orchestra conducted by Mariss Jansons. This was followed by a stunning performance of Ein Heldenleben, with particularly distinguished solo violin playing by the leader, Anton Borachovsky. It was one of those special evenings at the Royal Festival Hall, when everything went well, and the concert had a rapturous reception.
There were microphones on the platform, so I hope that it might be broadcast soon.
I walked across to Embankment station with the music still ringing in my head!

[Chris Newman]

Well, tonight I went to a packed Salisbury Cathedral to hear Elgar's Dream of Gerontius. I have started a seperate thread as I know several boarders said they were going to the performance yesterday at the Royal Festival Hall.

[rauschwerk]

Rushmere St Andrew, just east of Ipswich. Kerenza Peacock (violin), Alison Farr (piano). I counted myself lucky to have been there. Kerenza (who leads the Pavao quartet) is an Ipswich girl who came to give a concert here partly for the benefit of her grandmother. If I had been her, I would have been disappointed by the size of the audeince. Sonatas by Mozart and Elgar to start with (such passion from both players in the first movement of the latter!), and lighter (but not trivial) fare in the second half. The pianist conjured wondrous sounds from a piano which I know from experience to be very ordinary.

[David Underdown]

An interesting time on Saturday, performing the Rheinberger mass for double choir and the Faure Requiem at St Martin-in-the-Fields, which entailed a certain amount of demo dodging. Fortunately we finished just in time to avoid the major aggro in Trafalgar Square.

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

last night attended this ...

choir in tremendous form and clearly have been working assiduously ... and the four soloists in Rossini's Stabat Mater were particularly fine, but the tenor John Graham-Hall was on really stunning form in Cujus Animam Gementem ... i had not heard the piece before and was greatly taken by it's cheerfully Italian operatic élan and the comic incongruity of the music and the words ... a wonderful piece!

but the evening belonged to the young lady playing the Elgar concerto transcribed for viola; as mature, controlled and expressive as you will ever want to hear ... a committed performance from a very fine young musician, off to RCM after A levels ...

yesterday we were blessed for music in the middle kingdom ...

[aeolium]

The last concert I attended was at Cheltenham's Pittville Pump Room, the London Conchord Ensemble playing Mozart and Beethoven piano and wind quintets, plus Poulenc's Flute Sonata and Bridge's Divertimenti for wind quartet. Lovely playing, and good to hear the Bridge, a work I didn't know.

Next up at the same venue on April 7, Steven Osborne playing the last 3 Schubert piano sonatas...

[Nachtigall]

Saturday night at the Hexagon, Reading, where the acoustics are flat and uninspiring. Royal Philharmonic conducted by Barry Wordsworth – not at their best, I fear. However, the soloist in Chopin's Second Piano Concerto was the 20 year-old Behzod Abduraimov, making a return visit after he stepped in for Martha Argerich last year. He won the London International Piano Competition at the age of 19 and subsequently gave an outstanding recital at the Wigmore Hall, which prompted Michael Church to hail him as "the new Horowitz". His playing of the Chopin concerto was impressively refined and emotionally mature, with a quicksilver delicacy of phrasing. Pity that the place was only two-thirds full – and I've never seen so many walking sticks in an audience before.

[amateur51]

last night attended this ...

choir in tremendous form and clearly have been working assiduously ... and the four soloists in Rossini's Stabat Mater were particularly fine, but the tenor John Graham-Hall was on really stunning form in Cujus Animam Gementem ... i had not heard the piece before and was greatly taken by it's cheerfully Italian operatic élan and the comic incongruity of the music and the words ... a wonderful piece!

but the evening belonged to the young lady playing the Elgar concerto transcribed for viola; as mature, controlled and expressive as you will ever want to hear ... a committed performance from a very fine young musician, off to RCM after A levels ...

yesterday we were blessed for music in the middle kingdom ...

What a stonking concert Calum - thanks for telling us about it. There is such talent out there ...

[amateur51]

The last concert I attended was at Cheltenham's Pittville Pump Room, the London Conchord Ensemble playing Mozart and Beethoven piano and wind quintets, plus Poulenc's Flute Sonata and Bridge's Divertimenti for wind quartet. Lovely playing, and good to hear the Bridge, a work I didn't know.

Next up at the same venue on April 7, Steven Osborne playing the last 3 Schubert piano sonatas...

a well-packed & well-picked programme, aeolium - I'm glad it went well.

In due course I'd be grateful for your report on Steven Osborne's recital please

[StephenO]

An amazing big band concert at Malvern on Saturday, recreating Benny Goodman's 1938 Carnegie Hall appearance. Everything a concert should be - wonderful playing, wonderful music and a wonderful atmosphere in which the entire audience seemed to be caught up. Swing, jazz, klezmer... Two days later I still haven't come down to Earth!

Eagerly anticipating Stephen Hough's recital on Friday.