What was your last concert?

[Simon B]

... And, courtesy of the Rumanian Cultural, err, something, Enescu's First Rumanian Rhapsody. I doubt if it's been heard in London done by one of the major orchestras for a long time.

By (possibly) amusing coincidence, the last performance of the Enescu by a major London orchestra was... by the LPO, a whole 18 days previously . http://https://www.lpo.org.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/5088-dancing-on-the-edge.html. Your observation stands though - prior to that it was probably years.

Rattle may still not be my cup of tea in, say, Bruckner or Strauss but has definitely brought more in the way of interesting and offbeat programmes to the LSO recently. Last week's offering was particularly interesting and brilliantly executed IMO and is on R3 tonight while I'll be at the Tue repeat of the concert that motivated your report:

Bartók: Hungarian Peasant Songs
Szymanowski: Harnasie
Stravinsky: Ebony Concerto
Osvaldo Golijov (arr Gonzalo Grau): Nazareno for two pianos and orchestra
Bernstein: Prelude, Fugue and Riffs

[HighlandDougie]

By (possibly) amusing coincidence, the last performance of the Enescu by a major London orchestra was... by the LPO, a whole 18 days previously . http://https://www.lpo.org.uk/whats-on-and-tickets/5088-dancing-on-the-edge.html.

No coincidence - the LPO/Orozco-Estrada performance was also, "Generously supported by the Romanian Cultural Institute". I wonder if the Philharmonia is performing it too?

[Bryn]

Last evening at Studio 1, Maida Vale:

UK premieres of recent works by four Icelandic composers. Cellist Sæunn Thorsteinsdóttir is the soloist in a work written for her, Páll Ragnar Pálsson's Quake, which was the overall winner at the 2018 International Rostrum of Composers. Valgeir Sigurðsson is a record producer, sound engineer, musician and composer. In 1997 he founded Greenhouse Studios in Iceland, where he worked with a wide range of international artists from Bjork, Damon Albarn and Nico Muhly.

Anna Þorvaldsdóttir’s Dreaming, inspired by imaginative listening to landscapes and nature, embodies a flowing world of sound. Haukur Tomasson’s From Darkness Woven is composed for orchestra without brass instruments and has its roots in the world of weaving and looms. Various sections of the piece had working titles like Installment, Battening, Fabric, Shuttle and Pattern.

Programme:

Haukur Tómasson From Darkness Woven (UK premiere)
Páll Ragnar Pálsson Quake* (UK Premiere)
Valgeir Sigurðsson Eighteen Hundred & Seventy-Five (UK premiere)
Anna S. Þorvaldsdóttir Dreaming (UK premiere)

To be broadcast on Hear and Now, one Saturday in March. I thought they saved the best 'til last, Anna Þorvaldsdóttir’s Dreaming. Wonderful textures and exploitation of some extended techniques. The orchestra's musicians specifically encouraged in the score to listen closely to the particularities of their individual playing. She was sat directly behind me in the audience, so I was able to thank her directly for what we had received. A name to look out for. Eye-catching dress sense, too.

[A recording of Anna Þorvaldsdóttir’s (Thorvaldsdottir's)Dreaming can be found on her Rhizoma cd, available in lossless download form from QOBUZ, or at a higher price from Banbdcamp.]

[Bryn]

Saturday evening at LSO St Luke's:

Radio 3 Open Ear recording (presumably for a future edition of Hear and Now)

Christophe Guiraud: Hierapicra Hellébores (Tom Pauwela, electric guitar)

Alex Groves: Curved Form (No. 4) (Eliza McCarthy, piano)

Crewson & Cevanne: Two Sisters and Two Machines (Cevanne, vocals.harp.electronics)

Ed Bennett: Sometimes Everything Falls Apart (Decibel, conducted by Daniele Rosina)

Egidija Medekšaitė: Malakosha (Decibel, conducted by Daniele Rosina)

John Luther Adams: Nunataks (Eliza McCarthy, piano)

Crewson & Cevanne: They Forgot and Sisa's Well (Cevanne, vocals.harp.electronics)

James Tenney: Harmonium #1 (Tom Pauwela, seven-string electric guitar)

Joe Cutler: Extended Play (Decibel, conducted by Daniele Rosina)

Mostly well worth listening out for, though I did find the Medekšaitė work to sound like a weak pastiche on Reich's Music for 18 Musicians.

[Edgy 2]

Wonderful day out at the Martin Harris Centre,University of Manchester.

Part of the 4 day Weinberg/Between East and West conference.

https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/weinberg-conference/

String Quartets 10 to 12 / Quatuor Danel
Sonata for Double Bass solo / Roberto Carrillo Garcia (principal DB with the Halle)
Piano Sonata No 6 / Michelle Assay

What a privilege for us non delegates to be invited by Prof David Fanning to gatecrash the Skype video question and answer session with Weinberg’s daughter Victoria.

This and hearing the amazing 12th Quartet live will stay with me for a long time.

A special day.

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Brilliant to hear about that, Edgy - sounds wonderful!

[MrGongGong]

Day one of this

https://britishelectroacousticnetwork.com/emas-40th-anniversary/emas-programme/

Great to hear Denis Smalley diffusing Pentes Trevor Wishart's Anna’s Magic Garden
sadly could only stay for the first half of the gig but a gathering of some of the great figures in British electroacoustic music

[Bryn]

Day one of this

https://britishelectroacousticnetwork.com/emas-40th-anniversary/emas-programme/

Great to hear Denis Smalley diffusing Pentes Trevor Wishart's Anna’s Magic Garden
sadly could only stay for the first half of the gig but a gathering of some of the great figures in British electroacoustic music

I'm sure you warned us of this before the closing date for confirmation of attendance (10th December 2018) but I must have missed it. The concerts, at least, look like something I would very much have made arrangements to attend.

[CallMePaul]

Wonderful day out at the Martin Harris Centre,University of Manchester.

Part of the 4 day Weinberg/Between East and West conference.

https://www.alc.manchester.ac.uk/music/connect/events/weinberg-conference/

String Quartets 10 to 12 / Quatuor Danel
Sonata for Double Bass solo / Roberto Carrillo Garcia (principal DB with the Halle)
Piano Sonata No 6 / Michelle Assay

What a privilege for us non delegates to be invited by Prof David Fanning to gatecrash the Skype video question and answer session with Weinberg’s daughter Victoria.

This and hearing the amazing 12th Quartet live will stay with me for a long time.

A special day.

This afterrnoon's concert was also special - Quartets 16 and 17 plus the Piano Quintet with David Fanning on piano with the Danels. Having heard the full quartet cycle for the first time I agree that #12 was my favourite; I also especvially enjoyed nos 4,6,14 and 17, but there was no weak link.

[Edgy 2]

This afterrnoon's concert was also special - Quartets 16 and 17 plus the Piano Quintet with David Fanning on piano with the Danels. Having heard the full quartet cycle for the first time I agree that #12 was my favourite; I also especvially enjoyed nos 4,6,14 and 17, but there was no weak link.

Thank you CMP for your comment.
I've become something of a Weinberg nut over the last few years,I'm familiar with the Quartets through the Danel box set and the Pacifica recordings but had never previously heard any of them live.
It's a cycle that bears comparison with that of DSCH and maybe some of the set would make into the Shostakovich starting team,but I'm not knowledgable or brave enough to say that,in fact no I am saying that
Family and other commitments meant I couldn't attend the whole 4 days but I envy you being there for the 16th and the Piano Quintet,both sure fire masterpieces IMVHO.
Did you manage to get to the interview with Weinberg's daughter,what a bonus that was.
Fascinating to hear her account of Weinberg's arrest and stories of visitors to the Weinberg household,the likes of DSCH,Kondrashin,Barshai,Gilels,Bunin,Boris Tchaikovsky etc.

[greenilex]

My favourite choir the Conchord Singers had their winter concert last night. The high point was a shortened version of Schubert’s Deutsche Messe, but the thing I enjoyed most was Faure’s madrigal from a poem by Armand Sylvestre.

Wish they had included words in the programme notes, though. I know it adds to the expense, but the pleasure for me is so much greater.

[HighlandDougie]

In brief, last night's Helen Vollam (Trombone)/BBC SO/Alexander Vedernikov at the Barbican was, if nothing else, a convincing demonstration of the current excellence of the orchestra (some young faces in evidence among the familiar old lags). Lots of young people in the hall, too (a party from the Purcell School next to and in front of us) who were rapt in their attention to the music. I'm still not wholly convinced that the trombone makes for a harmonious concertante instrument (I kept thinking of Vinko Globokar and the Third Programme's "Music in our Time") but some wonderful orchestral effects/writing (like Julian Anderson meets Messiaen). Mr Higgins might be the Malcolm Arnold de nos jours. The Vasks gave the strings the chance to shine.

I find it difficult to be critically objective about the DSCH 4th as I always get caught up in the music but I thought that it was an exceptionally fine performance - great playing from the whole orchestra, especially the all-important brass and woodwind. Vedernikov - whom I've never seen before in the flesh - reminds me of Rozhdestvensky. Very clear gestures/beat but then you get a passionate/explosive gesture. So, well worth arranging a trip to London to take in the concert (LSO on 28 February next).

[ferneyhoughgeliebte]

Opera North String Quartet; The Venue, Leeds, 20/2/19

A lunchtime freebie consisting of Webern's Langsamer Satz and Schubert's Death & the Maiden - and a packed house with more younger people in the audience than is usual at these events (including a couple of infants, who were astonishingly well-behaved).

Wonderful performances - by some distance the best performance of the Schubert I have ever heard (the same could be said of the Webern, but as I haven't heard that nearly as often, it doesn't have the same "oomph"). Marvellous ensemble, excellent balance, perfectly-judged tempi. I would have preferred the First Movement Exposition repeat to have been performed, and I noticed a couple of "oops" moments in David Greed's intonation in the top register ... but it wasn't these features that prevented it from being one of the best concerts I've ever attended ...

... it was the (middle-aged) twonk sitting immediately behind me who decided to use the occasion to practise his origami skills on his programme!

[Braunschlag]

A lunchtime freebie consisting of Webern's Langsamer Satz and Schubert's Death & the Maiden - and a packed house with more younger people in the audience than is usual at these events (including a couple of infants, who were astonishingly well-behaved).

Wonderful performances - by some distance the best performance of the Schubert I have ever heard (the same could be said of the Webern, but as I haven't heard that nearly as often, it doesn't have the same "oomph"). Marvellous ensemble, excellent balance, perfectly-judged tempi. I would have preferred the First Movement Exposition repeat to have been performed, and I noticed a couple of "oops" moments in David Greed's intonation in the top register ... but it wasn't these features that prevented it from being one of the best concerts I've ever attended ...

... it was the (middle-aged) twonk sitting immediately behind me who decided to use the occasion to practise his origami skills on his programme!

Everything said here by FHG is spot-on. There were three forumistas there and we all agreed it was a super concert, it’s becoming something of a highlight in the Leeds lunchtime season. As it was so full ‘our’ seats (it’s dog eat dog in there!) had been taken and we ended up further back. What struck me, as well as the excellence of the quartet, was the fine acoustics of the Venue recital hall. We were a fair way off but one could hear every nuance and some very hushed dynamics. It’s a travesty that there are almost no students attending these concerts, the stewards appear to vanish as soon as everyone is seated.

[Flay]

Opera North String Quartet; The Venue, Leeds, 20/2/19

Hah! I booked my own Opera North string quartet for our village hall 2 weeks ago.

I was anxious that it might be an unpopular flop, but in fact nearly 70 turned up. They played The Lark and Dvorak's American as well as some (even) lighter pieces. Andy Long (associate leader of the Orchestra of Opera North) was a delight. He entertained with jokes, chatter and musical illustrations. He wasn't bothered that people clapped between movements. In fact he took the opportunity to introduce the next movement, explaining what to look out for and they played snippets as examples.

It made for a lively, fun and attentive evening, with calls for their speedy return