What was your last concert?

[LeMartinPecheur]

According to the ever-reliable slipped disc (), they are not related. Other sites confirm this.

Wonder if they hate each other?

Seriously, it must be tricky for Ryan to make his way, not being Mark when Mark's older and better-known through recordings.

[cloughie]

Wonder if they hate each other?

Seriously, it must be tricky for Ryan to make his way, not being Mark when Mark's older and better-known through recordings.

Not the most common of surnames - one of them should go on ‘Who do you think you are’ to check it out!

[Bryn]

Mark was born in Sussex, Ryan in Yorkshire. As Billy and Johnny might say, "we know a song about that, don't we?"

[richardfinegold]

Not the most common of surnames - one of them should go on ‘Who do you think you are’ to check it out!

Serge Koussevitsky prevailed upon his Nephew Fabian , who conducted the Indianapolis Symphony, to change his name to
Savitsky

[rauschwerk]

I had thought that I wouldn't care if I never heard Four Seasons again, but at Snape Maltings last Wednesday Rachel Podger and Brecon Baroque made me change my mind completely. One instrument to a part - four upper strings and four continuo players - made a completely different sound to the well-upholstered Loveday/ASMIF/Marriner recording. The whole thing was a delight from start to finish. Ms Podger's solos were full to the brim with virtuosity and fantasy and her band supported her to the hilt. In the first half we had JSB's arrangement of Op 3/9, the well known lute concerto and a a sonata and sinfonia 'Al Santo Sepolcro' which were quite new to me.

A great evening!

[bluestateprommer]

Last Friday, I heard this concert at UCSD in La Jolla. Hearing the Quartet No. 5 by Toshi Ichiyanagi, I confess to reacting "wow, tonality isn't dead!". Ichiyanagi's quartet is a very fine work indeed, with just enough "modernist" touches (e.g. glissandi) to let one know that this is a 21st-century work and not any sort of 'throwback' piece. It makes me interested to check out of Ichiyanagi's work. Chatting with the FLUX Quartet's 2nd violist, he said that the FLUX plan to travel to Japan and meet the composer, and learn more of his other quartets.

By contrast, the Bruch Octet (which uses a double bass in place of a 2nd cello) is definitely a 'throwback' piece, as it dates from 1920, the year of his death, but it sounds as though MB could have composed it 50 years earlier. It's a very well crafted and enjoyable work, if definitely nowhere near the memorability of the Mendelssohn Octet, for example. But the 8 musicians did it very well.

I moved to the back of the hall for the Dvorak in the 2nd half, as I was concerned about getting potentially overwhelmed by the piano sound where I was during the first half. In the event, the acoustic of the Conrad Prebys hall is so lively that the ensemble sounds still hit hard even at the back, with a slightly harsh glare. But again, well done by all concerned.

[teamsaint]

Just back from a concert at St Laurence, Ludlow.
The concert billed as " A Venetian Vespers" , featuring music by Monteverdi, Giovanni Gabrieli, and Francesco Cavalli, among others.
Performers were some Lacock Scholars, and a summer school ensemble and choir, conducted and introduced with very considerable class and style by Justin Doyle, ( RIAS Kammerchor, Opera North etc).
One of several highlights was the Gabrieli Magnificat a14 for three choirs, which was wonderfully effective.

A big turnout for an excellent and very interesting concert, with background to the music very well explained by Doyle.
A superb example of professional and amateur musicians combining to great effect.
More details if anybody is interested.

[Richard Barrett]

Last Friday, I heard this concert at UCSD in La Jolla. Hearing the Quartet No. 5 by Toshi Ichiyanagi, I confess to reacting "wow, tonality isn't dead!". Ichiyanagi's quartet is a very fine work indeed, with just enough "modernist" touches (e.g. glissandi) to let one know that this is a 21st-century work and not any sort of 'throwback' piece. It makes me interested to check out of Ichiyanagi's work.

Who said tonality was "dead"?

I know Ichiyanagi (Yoko Ono's first husband, and a student of John Cage) principally from his piano music, and originally from the rather startling Piano Media of 1972 which came out back then on a very interesting LP by the pianist Aki Takahashi. Here is a more recent performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YwxU5i1P-V8&list=RDYwxU5i1P-V8&t=22

More recently his work has indeed taken a turn for the more traditional, but affected by his passage through avant-garde ideas in his earlier years. I think he's certainly one of the most interesting living Japanese composers.

[rauschwerk]

Two visits to Snape this week.

On Wednesday, we had Christian Blackshaw with soloists from the Berlin Phil. in the two Mozart piano quartets and Schubert's Trout. Sitting well back in the hall (which might not have helped) I found that the piano often overpowered the strings, which was not surprising as the lid was fully open. There was a whistling hearing aid a few seats from me which made me wish (as I very rarely do) that I had stayed at home and listened to a recording. After the interval, things improved. The hearing aid was silent and the piano/strings balance somewhat better. The brisk tempi in the first and third movements of the Schubert made it a most pleasurable performance for me.

Lat night, the Takacs quartet - the first time I had heard them in concert and they were on top form. A well chosen programme: Mozart K575, Dvorak in E flat Op.50 and Mendelssohn's last quartet. For an encore they delighted us with the finale of Dvorak's American quartet. As for the playing, I can only say that it was beyond praise.

[Richard Barrett]

While you were all singing "Land of Hope and Glory" this evening I was in Utrecht at a performance of Stockhausen's Stimmung. Some would say that it's very much of its time (it's half a century old this year!), but for me only in the way that the St Matthew Passion is very much of its time. It's a beautiful conception, beautifully realised, and this evening was beautifully performed, by a Dutch group called Silbersee.

[cloughie]

While you were all singing "Land of Hope and Glory" this evening I was in Utrecht at a performance of Stockhausen's Stimmung. Some would say that it's very much of its time (it's half a century old this year!), but for me only in the way that the St Matthew Passion is very much of its time. It's a beautiful conception, beautifully realised, and this evening was beautifully performed, by a Dutch group called Silbersee.

I’ll stick to singing the Elgar, Richard, it has probably got a stronger melody line!

[Bryn]

While you were all singing "Land of Hope and Glory" this evening I was in Utrecht at a performance of Stockhausen's Stimmung. Some would say that it's very much of its time (it's half a century old this year!), but for me only in the way that the St Matthew Passion is very much of its time. It's a beautiful conception, beautifully realised, and this evening was beautifully performed, by a Dutch group called Silbersee.

How Weill. (Coat on, I'm out the the door.)

[MrGongGong]

On a narrow boat sailing through Birmingham playing a live piece entirely created from the sounds of bats recorded on the walk to the boat.
(part of an IKON Gallery project)

[cloughie]

On a narrow boat sailing through Birmingham playing a live piece entirely created from the sounds of bats recorded on the walk to the boat.
(part of an IKON Gallery project)

Reminds me of Flanders and Swan’s High Fidelity!

[MrGongGong]

While you were all singing "Land of Hope and Glory" this evening I was in Utrecht at a performance of Stockhausen's Stimmung. Some would say that it's very much of its time (it's half a century old this year!), but for me only in the way that the St Matthew Passion is very much of its time. It's a beautiful conception, beautifully realised, and this evening was beautifully performed, by a Dutch group called Silbersee.

Sounds great.

I've heard Stimmung many times and it has always been a very significant piece to me after first hearing it in Liverpool Cathedral with Singcircle in the 1970's
However, since working with Tuvan overtone singers and having heard more of the musics that inspired it, I now find the way it uses some of these types of singing styles a bit nieve.
I don't go the whole "cultural appropriation" route that some do, but it can sound ( and maybe the performance you went to avoided this and it became something else ?) a bit like a "watered down" nod to other musics?


But, having said that, it is (as you say) a beautiful conception.