What was your last concert?

[tom_960]

My last concert was Bernstein's Candide with the LSO and Kristjan Jarvi at the Barbican on Sunday night - very enjoyable. Andrew Staples as Candide was really wonderful - the rest of the cast were characterful but less impressive as singers. Of them I most enjoyed Marcus Deloach's smooth baritone as Maximilian, and Jeremy Huw Williams as a sharply-observed Pangloss. Rory Kinnear was a good narrator, with a witty script that never outstayed its welcome.

The LSO played with panache and sparkle as you'd expect, without quite erasing memories of Lennie's own performances in the same hall, with the same orchestra, over 21 years ago. I wonder how many of the band played on that occasion also? In 1989 the Candide was Jerry Hadley, who - in the end - wasn't able to make his own garden grow. RIP, Jerry.

[Simon B]

Same as tom_960 - Candide at the Barbican.

The crits I've seen so far have been pretty mixed, ranging from degrees of grumpiness (though Seckerson is more considered), e.g.:

http://www.opera-britannia.com/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=515:candide-barbican-5th-june-2011&catid=8:opera-reviews&Itemid=16

http://www.edwardseckerson.biz/?p=649

through a degree of incoherence (yes, hypocrisy I know!):

http://ceasefiremagazine.co.uk/new-in-ceasefire/opera-candide/

My favourite non-sequitur from this one is:
"Here, where the orchestra were on top, the conductor was not: Järvi’s gestures were theatrically unimpressive and gave no effect at all although he did revitalise the score with overwhelming might." Duh?!

to, Andrew Clements who (amazingly to me) seemed to like it:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2011/jun/07/candide-review

For what it's worth, my own opinion was that it was a good night out overall. Yes, the cast were (inevitably) uneven and there were some balance problems, but those are minor quibbles.

It started very badly as far as I was concerned - with an overture that was a shambles from the timps and percussion. It's probably fair to assume that there was a very good reason why the LSO's principal timpanist was late (not by a fraction of a beat, or a bar, but by about 5 minutes). Even so, of all the times to go missing... I had to feel sorry for the percussionist who had to step in at zero notice and apparently sight read the timp part of the overture. It's about the last timp part in the repertoire you want to have to sight read - it's extremely difficult and it's not surprising that the no-notice substitute missed entries almost from the word go. Meanwhile, David Jackson did an extraordinarily good job of running around the back of the stage trying to do the work of two players, triangle beater between teeth, cymbal in one hand, playing the xylo with another, literally running between instruments. There was still lots missing though. Not at all impressive from one of the most prestigious orchestras in the world on an occasion like this...

Anyway, that was soon forgotten as overall it was an uplifting experience. Also a poignant one by comparison with the DVD of the 1989 LSO/Barbican performances conducted by Bernstein himself... Berstein long since no longer with us, the tragedy of Jerry Hadley's later life, Maurice Murphy no longer with us to hunch over his trumpet and, without much apparent effort, scream out an incredible top F# that blistered through everything Bernstein threw at the final chord...

Did anything else Bernstein wrote contain such consistency of inspiration, even West Side Story? Not that I've heard. "Make our garden grow" might be a touch sentimental (done wrong anyway) but what an ending... Someone described the closing sequence as Mahlerian - pushing it a bit, but maybe not so outlandish...

[aka Calum Da Jazbo]

...welll on a much smaller scale an absolutely thrilling hour of pieces for violin and piano in the local Church in aid of the Make A Wish and Association for Spina Bifida and Hydrocephalus charities ...

Martin Cropper Violin and Anne Bolt piano [Martin is son of Peter of the Lindsay Quartet and Anne studied with Pressler in Indiana] playing Bartok First Rhapsody, a Sonata by Janacek and Beethoven 'Spring' Sonata ... i have posted about this pair before ... they have an energy and freshness in their playing which is highly engaging

and they raised a chunk of cash

[bluestateprommer]

A few days late, perhaps, but the last major concert I attended was a rare treat: Mahler 9 with the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and guest conductor Bernard Haitink. The first surprise, which took a while to sink in, was that Haitink had essentially all the stage risers removed, so that virtually all the musicians were on stage level, with only the back-desk strings and percussion elevated above stage level. Given that Orchestra Hall is not a very sympathetic venue, where to my memory the strings have always sounded weak, this move on BH's part was smart, because the strings had more presence than I can remember them having in other concerts I've heard there over the years. Also, normally the conductor enters from the door on stage right/house left, but Haitink came on stage from the "10:30" stage door (assuming the center back to be 12:00). He did walk slowly, and there was a high stool for him to sit on, but he only sat down between movements, and conducted the music standing up.

The interpretation, as you would expect, was very straight, no fuss or over-point making. The 2nd movement perhaps went slower than I was used to in places, somewhat reminiscent of hazy memories of listening to his LSO Mahler 9 Prom from 2009. Interestingly, he didn't divide the violins, which I guess he doesn't normally do in Mahler, but divided violins do help, which was apparent when I saw passages where the two violin sections bounced off each other. Very warm applause from the audience, and generous solo bows for musicians in the orchestra, even Dale Clevenger, the principal horn, who by all accounts has been shaky musically of late (but he also suffered a bereavement this past year, his wife).

Reviews for those who want to read them:

Chicago Tribune: http://www.chicagotribune.com/entert...5239316.column

Chicago Sun-Times (archived at the writer's own blog): http://viewfromhere.typepad.com/the_...nd-talent.html

[Old Grumpy]

Impossible Gentlemen - first gig of their tour - Sage Gateshead, tonight - excellent!

[StephenO]

Just back from Stephen Hough's recital at St Geo's.

After Beethoven Op 27/2, Janáček Sonata 1.X.1905 and Scriabin Sonata 5, we had a break before Scriabin 4 and the Liszt B minor. After that he seemed eager to play an encore: La fille aux cheveux de lin seems as if he was saying 'thank goodness I can relax a bit' ... Terrific performance.

Sounds like the same programe he played in his Malvern recital a couple of months ago. He was terrific then too. Stephen Hough is rapidly becoming one of my favourite pianists - a brilliant, poetic performer and interpreter but one who isn't afraid to let the music speak for itself.

Not strictly a concert , I suppose, but Patricia Routeledge gave an excellent performance last night as Myra Hess (again in Malvern) with Piers Lane at the piano. Witty and moving by turns, her readings concentrated on Dame Myra's lunchtime concerts at the National Gallery during WWII. My only criticism - an hour didn't seem nearly long enough.

[Bryn]

Last night's concert at the Schott Music Recital Room in Great Marlborough Street was a wonderful conclusion to the spring series organised by Jonathan Powell. Ivan Šiller played Bach's Goldberg Variations and Charles Ives's Concord Sonata. The Steinway baby grand had some tuning problems but they melted away in the heat of Ivan Šiller's performance. Next year Jonathan hoes to bring Ivan back to play the first Ives sonata.

[french frank]

Sounds like the same programe he played in his Malvern recital a couple of months ago. He was terrific then too. Stephen Hough is rapidly becoming one of my favourite pianists - a brilliant, poetic performer and interpreter but one who isn't afraid to let the music speak for itself.

Agreed, though young Kit Armstrong is definitely one to watch. He played a mix of Bach and Liszt last night, and although I've never really got along with Liszt in the past, his performance of the Transcendental Etude No 10 was for me the highlight of the evening. He has a very delicate touch but is also hugely virtuosic. His encore was one of Schoenberg's Small Piano Pieces, Op.19, and had the audience smiling.

(This is him eleven years ago, when he was 8 ... he has come on a lot since then )

[aeolium]

Last night I went to a concert by the Carducci Quartet, who were playing Haydn op 76 no 4, Glass 'Mishima' quartet and Beethoven op 59 no 1. Very good playing and I was glad to hear the Glass quartet which I didn't know (apparently the Carducci have recorded four of the Glass string quartets on Naxos). The Carducci have their own label Carducci Classics and have recorded works by neglected C20 composers such as Boydell, Joseph Horovitz and Graham Whettam (their website here)

[tom_960]

Just back from the Schubertiade in Schwarzenberg where I heard the Vienna Octet playing Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (string quartet plus double bass) and then Schubert's Octet. Nice to see faces familiar from the NYD concerts, but an odd choice of seating for the Schubert: the strings stayed just where they were for the Mozart, with the three wind players sitting behind in the middle, just like a mini "back desk". So eye contact between - say - first violin and clarinet was not really possible. I didn't care for this - in all three of the previous performances of this piece which I've attended in Schwarzenberg, the eight players were arranged in a horseshoe shape, and I'll never forget the electricity that was flowing between the players in a performance led by Isabelle Faust which was one of the closest experiences to heaven on earth that I've ever had.

The Vienna Octet's performances were very relaxed, deliciously so in the echt-Wienerisch trio of Mozart's minuet, but lacking in drama in the Schubert. I have to say that the whole thing felt a little bit routine. There were no cheers at the end, whereas last year, when the Belceas played the piece with friends including Michael Collins on clarinet, the audience was vociferous. But the idyllic venue, and Schubert's heavenly length, cast their spells as usual.

[ostuni]

Some superb playing in this morning's coffee concert at the Cheltenham Festival: Khatia Buniatishvili & the Escher Quartet. I hadn't heard Buniatishvili before, and had seen mixed reviews. But her Prokofiev 7th sonata was very impressive: not just for the obvious virtuosity in the moto perpetuo finale (taken very fast: not too fast for her fingers, but too fast for my brain...), but for some outstandingly sensitive playing in the first 2 movements, with some beautifully voiced chords and inner parts.

The Escher Quartet played Beethoven op 127, but their somewhat Emersonian approach suited the final piece better: Shostakovich's Piano Quintet. A marvellous performance from everyone: full-blooded playing in the Prelude, sensitively shaped delicacy in the Fugue, diamond-hard brilliance in the central Scherzo, delicate wistfulness in the Finale's opening & closing sections.

It was recorded, and will appear on R3 some time in August: highly recommended.

[3rd Viennese School]

My last concert was watching Mrs. 3rd Viennese School play violin in Upbury Manor last night. Beginners class.

It was good.

3VS

[LeMartinPecheur]

Dante Festival, E Cornwall/ W Devon 13-17 July

We've just finished our summer feast of excellent chamber music from the Dante Quartet and friends. The menu this year:

13/7

- Dvorak Two Waltzes for str 4tet Op 54 (Can anyone tell me why the first of these was as familiar as a nursery rhyme yet I don't own a recording?)

- Schumann Marchenbilder for vla & pf

- Schumann Pf trio No 3 in G min

- Dvorak Piano Quintet in A

The pianist just happened to be someone called Lars Vogt. I gather a factor in this is that he's linked with the Dantes' new violist Rachel Roberts. How nice for us!

Then a supper and a long set from Eduardo Niebla/ Carl Herring - flamenco/ jazz guitarists.

14/7

Lecture recital on Beethoven Op131, which just happened to throw in a quartet arrangement of the Barber of Seville overture. A link was made to a passage in the quartet... We were also treated to a 3rd violinist playing the theme over some of the variations to show how these were based on a harmonic/ rhythmic skeleton which implies the theme, but does not - usually - state it.

15/7

- Rossini Barber overture again

- Turina Bullfighter's Prayer

- Ravel Scherzo from Quartet ("As near as a quartet ever gets to playing a guitar", as leader Krysia Osostowicz put it)

- another set from Niebla/ Herring

- Piazzola a tango entitled 'The same pain'

- Arriaga Pastorale from 3rd quartet

- Sarasate Navarra

- Deep Water, a collaboration between the guitarists and the Dantes, sadly not a success because of balance problems, and IMHO a serious underuse of the quartet.

16/7

- Mozart K590

- Barber Quartet (the one with the Adagio)

- Gershwin Lullaby

- Dvorak American quartet

17/7

- Vivaldi Concerto in D min Op3/11 (with Dante festival orch - schoolchildren and local students, plus one or two adults - amateurs??)

- Haydn Op74/3

- Dvorak Waltz op 54/1 again, this time arr for the festival orch)

- Dvorak Viola Quintet in E flat Op 97

How does all that grab you?

[The last concert was an afternoon one, giving me plenty of time to get home for Havergal Brian's Gothic symphony - excellent planning!]

[Serial_Apologist]

Last Saturday - the 16th, in our local St Stephens Church, Dulwich, a chamber concert in support of Amnesty International.

Astraeus Ensemble

Janacek - Mladi
Beethoven - 3 movements from the Septet in E flat
Nicholas Sackman - Folio IV for horn and piano (1993)
Albeniz - Cadiz and Catalunya from Suite Espagnole
Poulenc - Sextst for piano and winds (1929)

Either I detected slight intonation problems in the first piece, or Janacek specified microtones. For the Beethoven, the group had chosen to perform the second, third and fourth movements, swapping the latter two around. The Sackman piece, with its avant-garde-sounding Roman numerals in the title, turned out to be a series of short nonedescript melodies; and I did not feel that the trio arrangement served the Albeniz piano pieces well. Relief it was to finally arrive at the Poulenc, and I had forgotten just what a marvellous work this is.

Some forty audience members were in attendance at this free event, well-known locally domiciled comedienne Jo Brand, who of course has appeared in many AI events, among them, and people were invited to place contributions in little pink envelopes at the end.

S-A

[BBMmk2]

My two prom concerts that i will be attending are looming up very fast now! Can't wait!