What was your last concert?

[Tetrachord]

Sadly, my last concert was the late Harnoncourt with Concentus in May last year at the Musikverein (his last in that venue)!!

I've had a friend staying with me for the last few days and she goes to concerts at Sydney Opera House with the SSO reasonably regularly. She inquired about why I never attend the SSO concerts, especially when I'm clearly a music-lover who has been to so many performances in Europe over the last few years - in the great concert halls and with the premier orchestras and conductors. Other people have expressed the same sentiments about my lack of attendance at local concerts.

But I don't really know the answer; the fact is, I'm not at all interested in the Sydney Symphony Orchestra or its programs. And, apart from significant international artists, I rarely attend anything in Sydney at all these days. Perhaps I'm just disloyal to the local talent, or bored with the conservative, repetitive fare on offer; I really don't know. The fact is, it isn't Wiener Staatsoper, Theater an der Wien, the Musikverein, Leipzig Gewandhaus, Amsterdam Concertgebouw or Philharmonie. And there's nothing I can do about that!!! All I can say is that having been to the mountain-top it's difficult to remain on the plains.

[bluestateprommer]

Not my last concert, but sadly, the literal last concert of the SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg was this past Sunday. This was their program, with some very unsubtle (in terms of message) but appropriate selections:

Mahler: Todtenfeier
Mark Andre: über (for clarinet, orchestra and live electronics)

(1st interval)

Ligeti: Atmosphères
Schubert: Symphony No. 8 ('Unfinished')
Boulez: Notations I - IV - III - II

(2nd interval)

Ives: The Unanswered Question
Stravinsky: Le sacre du printemps

SWR Sinfonieorchester Baden-Baden und Freiburg
Jörg Widmann, clarinet
Experimentalstudio des SWR (Michael Acker, Joachim Haas, Sven Kestel, Klangregie [sound direction])
François-Xavier Roth, conductor

Pictures are available here (where I saw the program). You can see the title of Part II of The Rite as the "last word", namely "Le sacrifice".

[HighlandDougie]

Wagner: Siegfried Idyll
Mahler (arr. Schoenberg & Riehn): Das Lied von der Erde

Alice Coote (Mezzo-Soprano), Stuart Skelton (Tenor), Australian Chamber Orchestra/Richard Tognetti - at the Queen's Hall in Edinburgh

The only concert at this year's EIF that I will have time to attend. Wonderful singing from Alice Coote - and Stuart Skelton didn't have to shout too much, although it was interesting to note that, even in its cut-down version, the orchestration in the first song still tends to swamp the soloist. Some interesting sonorities in this version - and I found that I hardly missed the full orchestra. I'm ashamed to say that, in the 50 years since I fell under the spell of this work, it's the first time I've heard it live in its chamberised form. The ACO are a class act - and playing standing up gives added physicality to their playing which comes across quite powerfully in the music. Worth catching on the radio - and Steven Osborne was in the audience so it must have been his doppelganger performing on R3 this morning.

[pastoralguy]

Mrs PG and I were walking past the QH as the audience were coming out and we heard many positive comments. Alas, work precluded our attendance...

[LeMartinPecheur]

The last two concerts of the St Endellion Summer Festival this year. Last night Susan Bullock as BB's Gloriana, quite magnificent with an excellent supporting cast, cond. Brabbins.

The previous night he'd conducted the Enigma Variations superbly, a very well-earned kick up the bottom for yrs truly as I'd really gone to hear Britten's Our Hunting Fathers and hadn't been too thrilled at the Enigma Var's as 'coupling'. But the old warhorse showed it still has mettle aplenty, particularly in this performance (bar some slightly scrappy strings at the start of RBT).

Two previous concerts were the week before in Salzburg. Couldn't quite afford the biggest festival bashes but we made it to an interesting 2-piano/piano duet concert by Dennis Russell Davies and Maki Namekawa. I boost DRD not because I think he was amazing, but to make an unequal opportunities point that I felt quite angry about.

DRD was placed firmly at the top of the bill on programme and posters. But Namekawa was very clearly the primo player in all works - DRD played the easier parts and was very much the supporting player at all times. So why was he top of the bill? Presumably only because he's the big name!

Their programme featured two DSCH arrangements of symphonies for teaching purposes: Symphony of Psalms and Honegger's 3rd. The latter seemed to work much better (the lack of voices in the other was a bit of a killer).

Our other Salzburg show was an interesting baroque one by excellent Italian group Il Suonar Parlante directed by Vittorio Ghielmi, viola da gamba. The programme entirely featured Salzburg composers, with Heinrich Biber figuring most strongly, supported by bits and bobs by his son Carl Heinrich, G. Valentini, M. S. Biechteler, Cipriano De Rore arr. Orazio da Parma, J. A. K. G. Von Reutter and J. C. Kerll. Quite a few new names for my concert records there! Any devotees of these lesser lights amongst boarders??

[DublinJimbo]

Just back from a weekend at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Went to three events.

1.
On Saturday evening, András Schiff with his 'penultimate' piano sonata programme (Mozart No. 17 in B flat K.570, Beethoven No. 31 in A flat op. 110, Haydn No. 61 in D Hob. XVI:51, and Schubert's A major D.959 — all played without interval). A wonderful experience, building to a sublime performance of the masterly Schubert.

2.
On Sunday morning, soloists from the Irish Chamber Orchestra gave us Mozart's 'Hunt' Quartet, followed by Jörg Widman, the orchestra's principal conductor, donning his composer's hat and introducing his own 'Hunt' Quartet (no. 3 in his cycle of five quartets to date). Each quartet was played by four different soloists from the orchestra. The two works couldn't have been more different, but worked wonderfully well together, especially with the order reversed from what had been originally advertised. The Widman was a riot of swishing bows, all sort of special playing effects, and vocalisations from the players.

3.
The morning quartet players joined their fellows in the Irish Chamber Orchestra on Sunday evening for an all-Mozart concert (Mozart is the focus this year, as was Bach last year and Beethoven the year before). We began with Jörg Widmann directing and taking the solo part in the clarinet concerto, and then went on to symphonies 40 and 41. The whole thing was wondrously good (what a fine orchestra the ICO have become under Widman's direction!). Good as the 'Jupiter' was (and what a great finish it is to any concert), the highlight of the evening for me was the finale of no. 40, performed with real adrenaline-raising and cheer-enducing virtuosity.

=========

My only regret after the two days was not to have been there on the Friday as well for the ICO's other Mozart programme programme (symphonies 38 and 39 and the Violin and Viola Sinfonia Concertante). Gabor Takács-Nagy, the orchestra's 'Principal Artistic Partner', was at the helm for that concert. I've been at several of his concerts with the orchestra during the past few years and have found them exciting, but I have to say that Jörg Widmann inspires the ICO to even finer results.

[bluestateprommer]

My last 2 concerts, to bend the rules a bit, have been in Santa Fe this past week, the Wednesday night (August 10) and Thursday noon (August 11) concerts listed at this pdf:

https://www.santafechambermusic.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/12/SFCMF-2016-Week4-Aug7-13-v9.pdf

The Wednesday night concert was good, a slightly mixed bag. The Frank Bridge Phantasie Trio (my first, and probably last, ever live hearing) did seem to ramble on, and Haochen Zhang did occasionally threaten to overpower the string players (though I'm sure not deliberately). He seemed on surer ground on his on in the Janacek Sonata. The two Brahms songs went well, with a change of pianist. The Brahms string quintet also had a very rhapsodic feel about it, with occasional foot stamps in the heat of the moment from either or one of the Preucil family members.

The Thursday noon concert seemed stronger overall. It should be noted that HZ switched the order of the Chopin selections in the concert, so that the four Mazurkas were first (more sensibly), and then the Sonata No. 2 second. Wise move, as he did very well in both. The Haydn quartet also went well, despite one nearly off the rails moment in the scherzo from the first violin, although he recovered well enough.

And this doesn't even include opera in the last two nights, although one might not count those as "concerts"......

[teamsaint]

Just back from a weekend at the Kilkenny Arts Festival. Went to three events.

1.
On Saturday evening, András Schiff with his 'penultimate' piano sonata programme (Mozart No. 17 in B flat K.570, Beethoven No. 31 in A flat op. 110, Haydn No. 61 in D Hob. XVI:51, and Schubert's A major D.959 — all played without interval). A wonderful experience, building to a sublime performance of the masterly Schubert.

2.
On Sunday morning, soloists from the Irish Chamber Orchestra gave us Mozart's 'Hunt' Quartet, followed by Jörg Widman, the orchestra's principal conductor, donning his composer's hat and introducing his own 'Hunt' Quartet (no. 3 in his cycle of five quartets to date). Each quartet was played by four different soloists from the orchestra. The two works couldn't have been more different, but worked wonderfully well together, especially with the order reversed from what had been originally advertised. The Widman was a riot of swishing bows, all sort of special playing effects, and vocalisations from the players.

3.
The morning quartet players joined their fellows in the Irish Chamber Orchestra on Sunday evening for an all-Mozart concert (Mozart is the focus this year, as was Bach last year and Beethoven the year before). We began with Jörg Widmann directing and taking the solo part in the clarinet concerto, and then went on to symphonies 40 and 41. The whole thing was wondrously good (what a fine orchestra the ICO have become under Widman's direction!). Good as the 'Jupiter' was (and what a great finish it is to any concert), the highlight of the evening for me was the finale of no. 40, performed with real adrenaline-raising and cheer-enducing virtuosity.

=========

My only regret after the two days was not to have been there on the Friday as well for the ICO's other Mozart programme programme (symphonies 38 and 39 and the Violin and Viola Sinfonia Concertante). Gabor Takács-Nagy, the orchestra's 'Principal Artistic Partner', was at the helm for that concert. I've been at several of his concerts with the orchestra during the past few years and have found them exciting, but I have to say that Jörg Widmann inspires the ICO to even finer results.

Thanks for those reviews, DJ.
It looks an interesting festival, in a nice town. The programme looks not dissimilar to the stuff on offer at the Galway festival, although rather more classical music at Kilkenny?I say nice town, because my one trip there was accompanied by rain like i have seldom seen, so maybe not the best circumstances to see the place.

I think I could be tempted to a trip to the festival, especially if the ICO are there and are as good as you say.

[pastoralguy]

Magdalena Kozena and Malcolm Martineau at the Queen's Hall.

This concert was given as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and will be broadcast on Friday the 19th of August. It was introduced by Donald Macleod.

Dvorak Four Lieder, Op. 2

Wolf Morike Lieder

Strauss Three Ophelia Songs, Op. 67

Faure. Three Songs, Op. 23

Schoenberg Brettl- Lieder

Now I'm no expert on the human voice but this concert struck me as being pretty exceptional. Right from the beginning, Ms. Kozena was in total command of the audience and sang with superb assurance and intensity. I've always perceived her as being a tad humourless but this repertoire seemed to bring out her less serious side.

Well worth going to and I'd recommend all vocal (and non vocal) fans try to hear this.

Afterwards, Mrs. PG spoke to her in Czech and which seemed to surprise her somewhat and she wrote a wee inscription in her cd book in Czech. (Ms. Kozena is quite tall!)

Sir Simon was there and I was lucky enough to get a bit of chat with him. He's very engaging and I'm sure would have been happy to chat about Sibelius all day had time allowed. (I asked him to sign a cd of Sibelius 4 & 6 which was the first cd of his I ever bought!)

Alas, I didn't get the opportunity to ask if he would consider doing a George Lloyd cycle mit Die Berliner Philharmoniker to add to his Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Sibelius cycles. A real missed opportunity!

[EdgeleyRob]

Magdalena Kozena and Malcolm Martineau at the Queen's Hall.

This concert was given as part of the Edinburgh International Festival and will be broadcast on Friday the 19th of August. It was introduced by Donald Macleod.

Dvorak Four Lieder, Op. 2

Wolf Morike Lieder

Strauss Three Ophelia Songs, Op. 67

Faure. Three Songs, Op. 23

Schoenberg Brettl- Lieder

Now I'm no expert on the human voice but this concert struck me as being pretty exceptional. Right from the beginning, Ms. Kozena was in total command of the audience and sang with superb assurance and intensity. I've always perceived her as being a tad humourless but this repertoire seemed to bring out her less serious side.

Well worth going to and I'd recommend all vocal (and non vocal) fans try to hear this.

Afterwards, Mrs. PG spoke to her in Czech and which seemed to surprise her somewhat and she wrote a wee inscription in her cd book in Czech. (Ms. Kozena is quite tall!)

Sir Simon was there and I was lucky enough to get a bit of chat with him. He's very engaging and I'm sure would have been happy to chat about Sibelius all day had time allowed. (I asked him to sign a cd of Sibelius 4 & 6 which was the first cd of his I ever bought!)

Alas, I didn't get the opportunity to ask if he would consider doing a George Lloyd cycle mit Die Berliner Philharmoniker to add to his Beethoven, Brahms, Schumann and Sibelius cycles. A real missed opportunity!

You're fired pg

[gurnemanz]

We really enjoyed the Weimar cabaret show which Barry Humphries masterminded and compered at the The Cadogan Hall a week or so ago. A feisty one-off compilation of 30's rarities. Also at Edinburgh .

[pastoralguy]

[/B]

You're fired pg

I'm a disgrace to the George Lloyd cause...

(Mind you, I did get a cd signed by SSR! )

[Bryn]

Dave's Smith's performance of 25 Beatles songs as arranged for piano solo by John Tilbury.

The Schott Music recital room has a rather low audience capacity which attracted numerous luminaries of the English Experimental Music tradition, including the likes of arranger John Tilbury, composers Howard Skempton, Gavin Bryars, Michael Parsons, John White, John Lewis et al, plus leasing improvising musicians such as Steve Beresford, and the Essential Sarah Walker. A most delightful evening, the somewhat less than perfect voicing of the Steinway baby notwithstanding.

[Stanfordian]

This morning at the Philharmonie, Berlin the Junge Deutsche Philharmonie/Jonathon Nott playing Varese Deserts, Ligeti Violin Concerto & Beethoven Sym No. 3 'Eroica'

Tonight at the Philharmonie the Deutsche Symphonie Orchester Berlin/Jakub Hrusa playing Ligeti Concerto Romanesc; Neuwith Percussion Concerto & Dvorak Sym No. 4 (What a super work! The first time I've heard it live)

[Beef Oven!]

Earlier this evening .....

London Symphony Orchestra, Gianandrea Noseda. The Barbican Centre, London.

Debussy - La Mer

Haydn - Trumpet Concerto (Philip Cobb, trumpet (LSO Principal Trumpet))

Shostakovich - Symphony #5

A programme of excellent compositions. A muscular La Mer. Very powerful indeed, but with all sections of the orchestra seamlessly blending together so that even in the choppiest of seas Debussy’s vista is almost tangibly realised. This was clearly a big sea and the storm in the final movement would have given any shipping severe problems. What is very apparent, is that the LSO are a really fine, top-flight orchestra and one hopes that Sir Simon will do better with them than he did with the BPO.

The Haydn was ruined, IMHO, by a less than sympathetic partnership from the orchestra. The solo trumpet was pretty much drowned out in the first part of the first movement and even though they’d slimmed down to just under 40 players, the orchestra simply sounded too big. Perhaps I’m just too accustomed to HIP performances, these days. The first movement cadenza was damn good, but I pretty much switched off for the last two movements.

The Jazz encore was too long and left me cold. My partner in crime at this concert was teamsaint, and I think he enjoyed the Haydn more than I did, so he might have something different to say.

The DSCH 5 was amazing, a real stonker! Noseda is avery athletic conductor (and a very athletic man - I estimate that he burned a good 2,000 calories through that symphony!). Both his feet left the ground on several occasions! I did not look at my watch to check the timing, but I think it was a swift performance.

The LSO can play very loud - possibly the loudest orchestra I’ve ever heard. In the tuttis/clamaxes in the first movement and in the early part of the fourth movement, I wondered whether Noseda had left himself any headroom. This doubt remained until the very last moments when the percussionist hit the drums with what must have been cleverly disguised sledgehammers!

It was a real concert concert. I don’t know whether it would work as a recording. teamsaint said there were plenty of microphones in evidence (something that totally escaped me) so maybe there is a recording that will surface on the Radio or a LSO Live release.

Anyway, a really enjoyable night with repertoire of the very highest quality and a 100,000 volts/high amperage performance.