Future concerts you're excited to have tickets for.....

[Simon B]

Re Bruckner 5:

Stan the man indeed. A sprightly 92 and conducting like every nuance of the piece is embedded deep in his being. There was a score (or hanky?!) on his music stand but it remained resolutely closed.

The LPO didn't put a foot wrong throughout. Standing ovation from an actually largely full and almost entirely silently attentive RFH audience.

Microphones present so presumably an R3 relay or LPO Live release to follow.

[Prommer]

It was wonderful. The hall was only about 60% full which is a shame but it is a Saturday, it is Halloween (yuck) and a rugby game was on...

Stan was the Man this evening. Standing throughout, score closed and un-consulted, he led an immensely subtle, carefully shaded and graded performance which totally convinced. It was absolutely powerful when it needed to be and there was even some jazz in the closing pages of the final movement. Those who know the piece will know what I mean. Plus as with Abbado that wonderful ascending phrase for the flutes just before the end.

There will be a CD in the from LPO Live as with numbers 7 and 3 before. Think they do need to speed up the Stan LPO Bruckner cycle a bit...

[ostuni]

Agreed - a tremendous performance. Never in the slightest bit ponderous, but never rushed, either. Those tempo changes/transitions in the 1st movement, which can so often sound awkward, were absolutely beautifully handled. And gorgeous string tone in the slow movement's 2nd subject.

[P. G. Tipps]

Wonderful to hear all went well last night!

I saw Stan conduct Bruckner 5 with the Halle in an almost empty Free Trade Hall in Manchester way back in the 1980s and I still rate that one of the finest Bruckner performances I have ever witnessed. I feel privileged to have been one of the few present. He was in his early Sixties then and I still have warm memories of him bounding onto the podium to conduct his beloved Bruckner and on numerous other occasions as well .

A modest, self-effacing man and one of the truly great Bruckner conductors, imo!

[AjAjAjH]

It is great to read that at last Stan is getting the plaudits her so richly deserves. I attended concerts during his Halle years and remember with great affection his Mahler, Brahms, his beloved Bruckner and much, much more. Now he conducts the Halle every other season and I hope he'll be back next season. I remember particularly

the previously mentioned Bruckner 5
2 performances of Mahler's Resurrection Symphony play on a Thursday and the following Sunday which were two different interpretations to my ears.
A 'religious' Verdi Requiem.
Bruckner 7 dedicated to the recently deceased Leonard Bernstein.
A most barbaric Tchaikovsky 5.

He is the oldest conductor I have ever seen conduct and the unopened score on the desk is his trademark.

[P. G. Tipps]

He is the oldest conductor I have ever seen conduct and the unopened score on the desk is his trademark.

Indeed, though not apparently in Gothenburg ... maybe he thought his memory might be going and then decided later it wasn't!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxDR3u-AfI

Some conductors look(ed) really elderly in their 70s ... Gunter Wand, for example ... but that may have been because of his limp and often being assisted onto the podium by an attractive young lady!.

For some silly reason an old 'Carry On' film always came to mind ...

[Flyposter]

I left England 10 years ago to live in the Netherlands. i am very much looking forward to hearing the BBCSO playing Elgar 2 here in Eindhoven on Thursday. The Dutch orchestras do not play Elgar very often.

[Prommer]

Indeed, though not apparently in Gothenburg ... maybe he thought his memory might be going and then decided later it wasn't!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1MxDR3u-AfI

Well, he is looking older and a little less sprightly now than in this performance from earlier last year... but now not consulting his score. Maybe he has decided that his apparently failing eyesight renders such consultation pointless... Or perhaps he feels he has finally, actually learnt it?

[Prommer]

Or has forgotten that he didn't know it?

[LeMartinPecheur]

On Fri night I'm off to Cadogan Hall with grown-up, London-dwelling older daughter and her partner. An evening of baroque twiddles (several Battenburg Concerti with supporting acts by Vivaldi and was it Telemann?).

You may detect a certain lack of excitement which makes this a tad OT for the thread title, but I have to be in London for a business meeting and looked around for something to go to on Fri night with daughter and co. Came up with a very interesting, uncharted concert of mainly Mexican music at RFH, or this much more innocuous fare at Cadogan. Daughter fancied the Mexican (she was brung up proper), her partner the twiddles. And he's much less into 'classical' music so we're playing safe

Stiw, yer carnt reelly knock yer Battenburgs I spose!

[Nick Armstrong]

On Fri night I'm off to Cadogan Hall with grown-up, London-dwelling older daughter and her partner. An evening of baroque twiddles (several Battenburg Concerti with supporting acts by Vivaldi and was it Telemann?).

You may detect a certain lack of excitement which makes this a tad OT for the thread title, but I have to be in London for a business meeting and looked around for something to go to on Fri night with daughter and co. Came up with a very interesting, uncharted concert of mainly Mexican music at RFH, or this much more innocuous fare at Cadogan. Daughter fancied the Mexican (she was brung up proper), her partner the twiddles. And he's much less into 'classical' music so we're playing safe

Stiw, yer carnt reelly knock yer Battenburgs I spose!

Do I detect the distinctive aroma of burning martyr.... ?

Hope you have a terrific evening - you may be pleasantly surprised!

Fenella and her friends will no doubt be giving their all...

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Telemann Concerto for Four Violins in G major
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4

London Concertante

Fenella Humphreys guest director/violin
Agata Darashkaite violin
David Wright harpsichord
Julian Sperry flute
Thomas Hancox flute

[LeMartinPecheur]

Do I detect the distinctive aroma of burning martyr.... ?

Hope you have a terrific evening - you may be pleasantly surprised!

Fenella and her friends will no doubt be giving their all...

Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
Telemann Concerto for Four Violins in G major
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 5
Vivaldi Concerto for Two Cellos
Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 4

London Concertante

Fenella Humphreys guest director/violin
Agata Darashkaite violin
David Wright harpsichord
Julian Sperry flute
Thomas Hancox flute

Cali: obviously I'll do my very best to enjoy, and not feel a pull across the river towards the spicier fare

I don't know much about London Concertante as a baroque orchestra - did hear them as a string sextet in Truro ten years ago doing Schoenberg, Brahms & Strauss, Adam Summerhayes leading. Do you recommend them these days?

[Nick Armstrong]

Do you recommend them these days?

To be honest, I'd never heard of them!

[kuligin]

AjAj

Thursday November 5th. Bridgewater Hall. Halle/Nikolaj Znaider. Juan Wang ('cello)

Verdi: 'Force of Destiny' Overture.
Bloch: 'Schlomo'.
Tchaikovsky: 'Manfred' Symphony.

I've called it my 'London Bus' concert. I last heard 'Schlomo' over 45 years ago and 'Manfred' over 30 years ago. I have looked for them to be programmed for years and then the two of them appear together on the same programme. Apparently this will be the first time the Halle have eve played 'Schlomo'.

AjAj

What did you make of the concert.

I thought Wang was terrific, as he was last year in Shostakovitch, so good I think I will go and hear him in Saint Saens on Wednesday.

Can't say I was very impressed by the Bloch as a piece nor by the conductor Znaider who IMHO was either too slow or too fast in the Tchaikovsky.

By the way the Halle have played the Bloch before, 14 February 1971, Raphael Sommer cello and conducted by Uri Segal according to my " life list" of concerts

[AjAjAjH]

kuligin

For what it's worth, I thought that the whole concert was terrific. Jian Wang is indeed a superb 'cellist. I remember last year's Shostakovich and Mrs AjAjAjH will be there to hear the Saint Saens and Beethoven's 7 (my favourite Beethoven Symphony) next Wednesday afternoon.

As you will have noticed from my original post both Schelomo and Manfred are amongst my favourite pieces of music - not desert island discs but high up - and I was not disappointed.

The publicity I received from the Halle indicated that this was the first time they had played it. I did not arrive in Manchester until June 1971 so the performance you mention was just before my time.

As for Nikolaj Znaider, he conducted the Shostakovich you mention last year and - in the same concert - Nielson's 3rd Symphony which I also enjoyed and you won't see me write that very often about the music of Nielson. Znaider is a superb violinist- I've heard him play the Sibelius and the Elgar concertos - I do hope that conducting won't become his chief form of music making.