What was your last concert?

[teamsaint]

Thanks for an excellent and very entertaining review of a really fine evening of music Beefy. Can't say I have that much to add to your very pertinent comments.

The Haydn I thought was enjoyable enough, but inevitably one finds oneself thinking about what a HIPP would have sounded like in the same venue. It's a fine work, and just thought that the performance just needed enjoying on its own terms. Cobb was impressive during the more virtuosic passages, although he did full justice to the slow movement. The balance was certainly problematic in the first movement.

The Shostakovich was indeed superb. We agreed that the woodwinds were absolutely outstanding, and the principle oboe deserves special mention.Noseda was very generous in his acknowledgement of his players, and let them take most of the plaudits. I've not seen him conduct before, and enjoyed his no nonsense approach to his work .

Picking up on Beefy's point about Rattle, I'm sure he'll do a fine job with an already excellent orchestra. My advice to SR would be not necessarily to abandon the Barbican, or worry about the acoustic too much, but to get the management to make a few cheap but useful improvements to the centre. I have a short list, if he needs some help.

[Pulcinella]

Good to hear that the Shostakovich lived up to expectations, especially after the homework you did in preparation.
Joined you in spirit for your second half instead of that of the R3 concert (my tolerance for the fortepiano being somewhat limited, I fear) and played the old Naxos BRT/Rahbari performance I have, though, in consideration of my neighbours, not at the sort of volume you were exposed to!

[teamsaint]

Good to hear that the Shostakovich lived up to expectations, especially after the homework you did in preparation.
Joined you in spirit for your second half instead of that of the R3 concert (my tolerance for the fortepiano being somewhat limited, I fear) and played the old Naxos BRT/Rahbari performance I have, though, in consideration of my neighbours, not at the sort of volume you were exposed to!

I think you need a Fortepiano immersion event, Pulcers.
anyhow, here's a review from a professional reviewer, assuming of course that IGI pays his chaps.

https://bachtrack.com/review-noseda-cobb-london-symphony-barbican-september-2016

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

I think you need a Fortepiano immersion event, Puclcers.

Jos van Immersion?

[Beef Oven!]

Merzbow, Balázs Pándi, Mats Gustafsson Thurston Moore - London, Wednesday 28th September 2016



"The couple sitting next to me seemed physically pained before leaving after 15 minutes without return, but there was also the audience member in front who pounded the air in delight when the noise was at its most vehement. It all depends on what you think music should be, or perhaps rather what it can be ......."

[Serial_Apologist]

Merzbow, Balázs Pándi, Mats Gustafsson Thurston Moore - London, Wednesday 28th September 2016

"The couple sitting next to me seemed physically pained before leaving after 15 minutes without return, but there was also the audience member in front who pounded the air in delight when the noise was at its most vehement. It all depends on what you think music should be, or perhaps rather what it can be ......."

Having been invited to that, I'm glad I missed it, being more and more of the opinion as my years knock on that really loud sensory-engulfing so-called avant-garde or experimental music is tantamount to a form of musical fascism, and wondering what Mats Gustavsson, whom I used really to like, was doing getting involved in this project.

[Beef Oven!]

Having been invited to that

You are MrGG and I claim my £5

I'm glad I missed it, being more and more of the opinion as my years knock on that really loud sensory-engulfing so-called avant-garde or experimental music is tantamount to a form of musical fascism, and wondering what Mats Gustavsson, whom I used really to like, was doing getting involved in this project.

That’s the difference between people like you, and people like Mats Gustavsson, I suppose.

(I just walked past the venue early that morning and thought it’d be good (and boy it was), best not to think too much into these things).

[vinteuil]

....being more and more of the opinion as my years knock on that really loud sensory-engulfing so-called avant-garde or experimental music is tantamount to a form of musical fascism.

Yes.

"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction." I have always thought Blake just wrong (when he was not being bonkers). The whole Romantic movement in fact: give me the cool sense of the 18th century over the self-centred silliness of the 19th century. Passion? Pahh!



And here's a good pome -

http://poetry.eserver.org/voltaire.html

[Beef Oven!]

Yes.

"The tigers of wrath are wiser than the horses of instruction." I have always thought Blake so wrong. The whole Romantic movement in fact: give me the cool sense of the 18th century over the self-centred silliness of the 19th century. Passion? Pahh!



And here's a good pome -

http://poetry.eserver.org/voltaire.html

Or ......... if you can’t stand the heat, get out the kitchen

[vinteuil]

Or ......... if you can’t stand the heat, get out the kitchen

.... best not to think too much into these things).

... yes, "not thinking" is precisely what I find wrong about romanticism and its successors.

[Stanfordian]

Hallé under Mark Elder giving a fine performance of the Beethoven Symphony No. 6 'Pastoral'. Preceded by an exciting reading of the Tchaikovasy 'Hamlet' fantasy overture and uninspiring rather unexciting playing by Benjamin Grosvenor in the Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 'Triangle'.

[Barbirollians]

A similar programme in Sheffield tonight - a splendid performance of Dvorak's Golden Spinning Wheel and an on form Benjamin Grosvenor in Liszt's Second Concerto fantastic articulation and lovely quiet playing as well as plenty of weight without any hardening of tone . Look forward to the Pastoral .

Update what a gorgeous performance of the Pastoral a particularly beautiful scene by the brook movement .

[Richard Barrett]

Just back from seeing the DSO Berlin conducted by (the 26 year old!) Lorenzo Viotti, with Prokofiev's 3rd concerto (George Li), Haydn's C major cello concerto (Pablo Ferrández) and Honegger's 3rd symphony, which I'd never taken much notice of before. Any Honegger admirers here? I found the last couple of minutes very striking, from the big dissonant climax to the elegiac coda, but I felt it was sometimes a bit of a hard slog to get there. I have the impression that Viotti made as good a case for this work as one could. I imagine we will be hearing a lot more of him in the future.

[Bryn]

Just back from seeing the DSO Berlin conducted by (the 26 year old!) Lorenzo Viotti, with Prokofiev's 3rd concerto (George Li), Haydn's C major cello concerto (Pablo Ferrández) and Honegger's 3rd symphony, which I'd never taken much notice of before. Any Honegger admirers here? I found the last couple of minutes very striking, from the big dissonant climax to the elegiac coda, but I felt it was sometimes a bit of a hard slog to get there. I have the impression that Viotti made as good a case for this work as one could. I imagine we will be hearing a lot more of him in the future.

I don't think you are going to like this, though I feel sure fg will concur. Herbert von Karajan made very fine recordings of Honegger's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies. My introduction to both works was via Baudo and the Czech Philharmonic., but fond as I am of those recordings, I have to admit that Karajan has the edge. He did sometimes get it right.

[Richard Barrett]

I don't think you are going to like this, though I feel sure fg will concur. Herbert von Karajan made very fine recordings of Honegger's 2nd and 3rd Symphonies.

No, I'm always happy to give HvK credit for some recordings I like very much, his Ring des Nibelungen especially but various other items too, so I'll see if I can get to hear his Honegger recording.