What was your last concert?

[zola]

Denis Kozhukhin St John's Smith Square ( where the South Bank's QEH concerts have decamped to while that venue is refurbished )

Haydn sonata in D major
Brahms Themes and Variations in D minor
Brahms Seven Fantasies

Interval

Haydn Sonata in b minor
Liszt Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude
Bartok Out of Doors

Interesting and varied programme. Did not catch Kozhukhin's pre-concert talk, wondered if it was some kind of Hungarian link ? No flamboyance ( apart from the hair ) but beautiful playing which really drew the listener in. Not without humour where appropriate. Another name to consider in this outstanding pianistic period.

[Ferretfancy]

Denis Kozhukhin St John's Smith Square ( where the South Bank's QEH concerts have decamped to while that venue is refurbished )

Haydn sonata in D major
Brahms Themes and Variations in D minor
Brahms Seven Fantasies

Interval

Haydn Sonata in b minor
Liszt Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude
Bartok Out of Doors

Interesting and varied programme. Did not catch Kozhukhin's pre-concert talk, wondered if it was some kind of Hungarian link ? No flamboyance ( apart from the hair ) but beautiful playing which really drew the listener in. Not without humour where appropriate. Another name to consider in this outstanding pianistic period.

An interesting concert at the RFH tonight in which Krystof Penderecki conducted some of his own music with the LPO.

The Adagio for Strings was an arrangement of the third movement of his Third Symphony with very sonorous writing but to my mind rather unadventurous. The next item was a Horn Concerto 'Die Winterreise' This was, however, not based on Schubert but rather follows some of Penderecki's only journeys in Europe. Another concert goer asked me what I thoght of it, and the only word that came to mind was' harmless" The horn playing by Radovan Vlatkovic was astonishing, but the work didn't seem to have a destination.

After the interval came the threnody to the victims of Hiroshima, which can still impress. I must say that I would like to have heard more of Penderecki's earlier pieces like Anaklasis or de nature Sonoris, but it was interesting to see the composer in person, looking a little like Ernest Ansermet.

The concert ended with Shostakovich 6, in a direct performance which perhaps lacked that moody intensity in the first movement that you might get from a Haitink or a Jurowski, but it went well. Orchestral playing all evening was excellent.

[LeMartinPecheur]

Found myself at a conference in Manchester on Weds night. Wandered hopefully to the Bridgwater Hall and found the Dresden Philharmonic under Michael Sanderling were also in town:

Wagner: Meistersingers Ov.
Elgar: Cello Concerto (Sol Gabetta)
Beethoven: Eroica

We also got some encores, the Lone Ranger section of a certain Rossini overture at the end, and one I couldn't identify after the Elgar. It was a Romantic/ Late Romantic cantabile accompanied by just the cello section playing mainly tremolando, and it finished on a very high note - soloist's finger right at the bottom of the finger-board, presumably on the top string though it might have been a harmonic. I'd really like to know what it was!

And though I've known and adored this concerto since my teens, I'd never before heard it live. Glad I heard it in Manchester just down from Barbirolli Square and with an attractive blonde cellist who played wonderfully It did strike me as strange to be hearing the work with probably not a single Briton on the platform! But none the worse for that, and I guess we can be pleased that this might reflect growing international acceptance??

Or regrowing, if we recall that Fournier made his recording with the Berlin PO under Wallenstein...

[HighlandDougie]

Denis Kozhukhin St John's Smith Square ( where the South Bank's QEH concerts have decamped to while that venue is refurbished )

Haydn sonata in D major
Brahms Themes and Variations in D minor
Brahms Seven Fantasies

Interval

Haydn Sonata in b minor
Liszt Benediction de Dieu dans la solitude
Bartok Out of Doors

Interesting and varied programme. Did not catch Kozhukhin's pre-concert talk, wondered if it was some kind of Hungarian link ? No flamboyance ( apart from the hair ) but beautiful playing which really drew the listener in. Not without humour where appropriate. Another name to consider in this outstanding pianistic period.

He performed (almost) the same programme in Perth Concert Hall last Sunday. We didn't get the Bartok (shame) but Liszt's transcription of the Tannhauser Overture instead (programme notes by CD Review regular Kenneth Hamilton). And a Scarlatti sonata as a lovely encore. Zola's comments about his pianism (and his hair) spot-on. The Liszt Benediction was as fine an example of sublime pianism as I've heard in a long time. Shamefully small audience for a Sunday afternoon but an excellent start to the 2015/16 Perth Piano Sundays series.

[rauschwerk]

To Ipswich School last night: the Benyounes Quartet (formed at the RNCM eight years ago) with David Campbell (clarinet). Haydn's Emperor quartet, Brahms's Clarinet Quintet and Schubert's D minor quartet ('Death and the Maiden'). A long but most satisfying programme, excellently played notwithstanding a clarinet fluff or two. The finale of the Schubert went at such a lick that I wondered how the coda could possibly go any faster but it did, and remained completely secure. Am I alone in finding the Emperor one of Haydn's less riveting quartets?

An interesting anecdote from the clarinettist. He was taught by Jack Brymer, who in his youth had given several performances of the Brahms quintet with a violist who had done the piece with Richard Muhlfeld, whose playing inspired Brahms to write the piece. Apparently Muhlfeld's vibrato was wider than the cellist's, whilst his rubato was such that no two bars were the same length. Would anyone dare to play Brahms like that nowadays? I doubt it very much.

[Richard Tarleton]

To Cardiff last night, for the Armonico Consort and Baroque Players performing Pergolesi's Stabat Mater and Purcell's Dido and Aeneas. Just 10 singers and 7 players on stage, including director/harpsichordist Christopher Monks. There were, I estimated, barely 500 people in the 2000-seater hall, but the seats had been intelligently sold (centre stalls and tiers) and the atmosphere was excellent. The concentration and silence at the end of the D&A was intense.

The Pergolesi was ravishingly sung by Elin Manahan Thomas and William Towers. EMT was also Belinda in Dido and Aeneas, with Dido beautifully sung by Yvette Bonner, all other parts by members of the consort doubling as chorus and very good they were. It was semi-staged, with well-judged movement round the stage, some amusing acting and business, and a little coup de theatre which I won't spoil for anyone attending a future performance (they're touring it to Shrewsbury, Poole, Yeovil and Crawley in February, don't miss it if you're near any of those).

An excellent evening. All a long way from my deeply upholstered Leppard recording with Jessye Norman and Thomas Allen ....I picked up the Armonico's recording on the way out, all proceeds go towards their educational activities, about which Christopher Monks said a few words at the end.

[Bryn]

Gavin Bryars Ensemble and Addison Chamber Choir at Kings Place last night (24 October). As an erstwhile contributor here, and muted eupho player in Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet last night, commented, the acoustics of Hall 1 are effectively dead. Just about no reverberation at all. This did no great favours to the choir. Fine performances, but oh how much better is would have sounded in a somewhat more reverberant venue.

Ah, I forgot to mention; one for the inter-movement applause fulminators. A large section of the audience applauded between the Kyrie and Caedman Paraphrase of the Cadman Requiem, and why not.

[Nick Armstrong]

Very memorable. I'm looking forward to hearing [Jan Lisiecki] at The Wigmore Hall later in the Autumn.

So, Vodka? How was it last night?

The live broadcast hasn't drawn much comment unless I've missed something. I've got the second half recorded for repeat listening, haven't heard it yet.

[Simon B]

Re Bruckner 5:

Stan the man indeed. A sprightly 92 and conducting like every nuance of the piece is embedded deep in his being. There was a score (or hanky?!) on his music stand but it remained resolutely closed.

The LPO didn't put a foot wrong throughout. Standing ovation from an actually largely full and almost entirely silently attentive RFH audience.

Microphones present so presumably an R3 relay or LPO Live release to follow.

[Pianorak]

I listened to the Jan Lisiecki on the radio - probably wasn't in a receptive mood, or possibly still under the spell of Stephen Hough's recital the previous evening.

Heard Sir Willard White with Eugene Asti at the piano at Reading Concert Hall this evening: Six Songs by Schubert, Four by Kurt Weill/Walt Whitman, Five by Charles Ives, If I were a Rich Man by Jerry Bock, as well as Richard Rodgers, Cole Porter and George Gershwin plus two encores.
Surprised to see that the Ives included "Ich grolle nicht, und wenn das Herz auch bricht", so memorably included in Schumann's Dichterliebe cycle.

A most enjoyable recital.

[Prommer]

It was wonderful. The hall was only about 60% full which is a shame but it is a Saturday, it is Halloween (yuck) and a rugby game was on...

Stan was the Man this evening. Standing throughout, score closed and un-consulted, he led an immensely subtle, carefully shaded and graded performance which totally convinced. It was absolutely powerful when it needed to be and there was even some jazz in the closing pages of the final movement. Those who know the piece will know what I mean. Plus as with Abbado that wonderful ascending phrase for the flutes just before the end.

There will be a CD in the from LPO Live as with numbers 7 and 3 before. Think they do need to speed up the Stan LPO Bruckner cycle a bit...

[ostuni]

Agreed - a tremendous performance. Never in the slightest bit ponderous, but never rushed, either. Those tempo changes/transitions in the 1st movement, which can so often sound awkward, were absolutely beautifully handled. And gorgeous string tone in the slow movement's 2nd subject.

[EdgeleyRob]

So, Vodka? How was it last night?

The live broadcast hasn't drawn much comment unless I've missed something. I've got the second half recorded for repeat listening, haven't heard it yet.

There was some comment under 'what are you listening to now' Cali.
Well worth catching

Fantastic piano recital on the wireless right now.

Jan Lisiecki is the real deal for me.

Yes Alison,I enjoyed that.
I like his way with Mendelssohn,a composer who should feature more in recitals IMO (not just the Songs Without Words).
He wrote 3 sonatas you know,well I know you know but do today's pianists know ?.
Someone was determined to get the first clap in,noticeably after Sospiro and the Rachmaninov encore.
Bonus Mendelssohn Op 81 during the interval too !

[P. G. Tipps]

Wonderful to hear all went well last night!

I saw Stan conduct Bruckner 5 with the Halle in an almost empty Free Trade Hall in Manchester way back in the 1980s and I still rate that one of the finest Bruckner performances I have ever witnessed. I feel privileged to have been one of the few present. He was in his early Sixties then and I still have warm memories of him bounding onto the podium to conduct his beloved Bruckner and on numerous other occasions as well .

A modest, self-effacing man and one of the truly great Bruckner conductors, imo!

[Nick Armstrong]

Re Bruckner 5: LPO/Stanisław Skrowaczewski

It was wonderful. ....Standing throughout, score closed and un-consulted, he led an immensely subtle, carefully shaded and graded performance which totally convinced. It was absolutely powerful when it needed to be and there was even some jazz in the closing pages of the final movement. Those who know the piece will know what I mean.

Agreed - a tremendous performance. Never in the slightest bit ponderous, but never rushed, either. Those tempo changes/transitions in the 1st movement, which can so often sound awkward, were absolutely beautifully handled. And gorgeous string tone in the slow movement's 2nd subject.

What a performance! I've never heard the LPO sound quite like that, a unique blended, burnished string and brass tone, at all levels of dynamic. Enthralling from start to finish, and - especially memorable - the slow movement done with a sort of incandescence which was thrilling.

And extraordinary to see the slight, frail figure appear from the artists' door, left shoulder dropped way lower than the right (presumably from decades of coaxing the first violins with the left, baton held high in the right) - seemed touch-and-go if he would actually make it to the podium; but there wasn't even a stool there 'in case' - and as you say, a miniature score on the stand remained closed throughout).

Glad that a good sprinkling of Forumites was there (though sorry that P.G. couldn't make it).

A bonus was that Stan came into Skylon afterwards for his supper; he was waiting in the entrance to be seated just as I was coming back in from the bathroom, so I was able to put an arm round him (he's about half my size) with a heartfelt thank you, receiving thanks back plus a twinkle in the eye.

Astonishing to think the guy turned 21 the year of D-Day...