Topic: What concerts are you looking forward to? (Part II)

[king ubu]

Bump

Saariaho + harp ... anyone feels like pushing me to go?

[ritter]

Bump

Saariaho + harp ... anyone feels like pushing me to go?

I'd go for the Saariaho (I don't know that particular piece, but very much like many works of this great but irregular composer). But...I saw Mendelssohn's Lobgesang many years ago conducted by Peter Maag here in Madrid, and said to myself "never again!"..I find it an very unattractive work...

[NorthNYMark]

Not one that I'm looking forward to anymore, but last night I just had a wonderful time hearing Messiaen's Quatuor pour le fin de temps by members of the Montreal Symphony Orchestra. It was my first time experiencing the work in a live setting, and it was magical. The highlights for me were the section for solo clarinet (somehow, the sonority of those single, long-held notes seemed almost unreal) and the final, achingly beautiful violin note, which the audience allowed to hang in the air for an appropriately long time before beginning their applause.

[Florestan]

Last evening, I attended a splendid concert in Bucharest:

ORCHESTRA NAŢIONALĂ RADIO
Dirijor:  CRISTIAN MANDEAL
Solistă: OXANA CORJOS – pian

M. Ravel: Ma mère l’Oye
R. Strauss: Burleske
S. Rachmaninov: Simfonia nr. 2 în mi minor, op. 27

(the first two, first listening live)

Goosebumps from start to finish, including the Burleske which the original dedicatee Hans von Buelow described as "a complicated piece of nonsense". 

And having recently heard live as well the original two-piano versions of Ma mère l’Oye I can attest to the fact that, pace Franz Liszt, there is no way the piano (even two of them) can replace a whole orchestra. 

The Rachmaninoff was epic.

[jessop]

Bump

Saariaho + harp ... anyone feels like pushing me to go?

Probably one of the most well known living composers for very good reason! I think youtuber Tim Poulus might actually have this piece up on YouTube if you'd like to give it a sample to see if you'd be interested in hearing it or not. But I guess any experiences you already have with her music would be enough reason to decide if you'd like to hear it live or not.

[SimonNZ]

Bump

Saariaho + harp ... anyone feels like pushing me to go?

Definitely. Any opportunity to hear a Saariaho work live, and that work has many subtle and unflashy charms.

I don't think there's a studio recording of Trans yet, but there is a broadcast from a Helsinki concert recently posted on the Tim Poulus YT chanel if you want to get a sense of it first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8V-FSeewlw

edit: whoops - jessop already said this

[jessop]

Apparently I'm getting a free ticket to this along with other composition students who attend a seminar hosted by the featured living composer in this concert https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2017/classical-music/hong-kong-philharmonic

[king ubu]

I'd go for the Saariaho (I don't know that particular piece, but very much like many works of this great but irregular composer). But...I saw Mendelssohn's Lobgesang many years ago conducted by Peter Maag here in Madrid, and said to myself "never again!"..I find it an very unattractive work...

Probably one of the most well known living composers for very good reason! I think youtuber Tim Poulus might actually have this piece up on YouTube if you'd like to give it a sample to see if you'd be interested in hearing it or not. But I guess any experiences you already have with her music would be enough reason to decide if you'd like to hear it live or not.

Definitely. Any opportunity to hear a Saariaho work live, and that work has many subtle and unflashy charms.

I don't think there's a studio recording of Trans yet, but there is a broadcast from a Helsinki concert recently posted on the Tim Poulus YT chanel if you want to get a sense of it first:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8V-FSeewlw

edit: whoops - jessop already said this

Thanks all for chiming in 

Never heard a note by Saariaho yet, but am somewhat hesitant about it being a harp concerto ... plus even more hesitant about "Lobgesang", but ... if I'm not asleep from the exhausting week coming up, I'll do my best to be there Sunday evening!

[Jeffrey Smith]

My opinions are somewhat reversed from Ritter's in reference to the music itself..but given that neither piece shows up in concert halls that often, I would say go.

[king ubu]

My opinions are somewhat reversed from Ritter's in reference to the music itself..but given that neither piece shows up in concert halls that often, I would say go.

Thanks again - thing is, this week starts with a concert tonight (Julia Lezhneva and the Basel Kammerorchester doing Händel and Graun) and continues with other concerts Thursday and Saturday (jazz/improv festival nights, two/three bands per night), there's possibly a concert on Friday (either that same jazz festival, or more likely a different jazz concert). Just not sure I'll be in the mood for more on Sunday, but I shall see (otherwise I would have just bought a ticket and not asked here in the first place).

[Senta]

Tuesday evening - will hear Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain (with full darkness as specified) in Rothko Chapel with the ensemble Loop38!

Saw London Sinfonietta just did a performance of this last week, anyone here go?

[eljr]

Tuesday evening - will hear Georg Friedrich Haas's in vain (with full darkness as specified) in Rothko Chapel with the ensemble Loop38!

Saw London Sinfonietta just did a performance of this last week, anyone here go?

looks very very cool

[Todd]

Next weekend, I will be seeing Paavali Jumppanen on both Saturday and Sunday, and he will be presenting Debussy's complete Preludes and four Beethoven sonatas.  These are the best possible types of solo piano recitals I can think of.  The weekend after that, I will be heading down to a local abbey to hear three works I've never heard before: Ralph Vaughan Williams' Mass in G minor for double choir, Arvo Part's Magnificat, and Maurice Durufle's Lord's Prayer.  It's a first time hearing anything from any of those composers in person.  May's a good month for live music this year.

[jessop]

The perks if being in a choir is getting free tickets to the orchestra we are associated with.

On Thursday I'm going with a friend to see a Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Concert conducted by Benjamin Northey and with soloist Stefan Cassomenos, who actually premiered a work of mine back in February.

Beethoven: Coriolan overture
Beethoven: Piano Concerto no. 5

Sibelius: Symphony no. 2

[jessop]

Apparently I'm getting a free ticket to this along with other composition students who attend a seminar hosted by the featured living composer in this concert https://www.artscentremelbourne.com.au/whats-on/2017/classical-music/hong-kong-philharmonic

This concert was amazing btw. The composer Fung Lam, who had his work Quintessence performed in the first half, is a very friendly person and I got to speak to him a little bit during interval. I've never sat in premium reserve before so I had no idea how incredible it really is to feel the finale of Mahler's first symphony vibrating through one's body. Jaap van Zweden is an   a m a z i n g   conductor. After Mahler 1 there was an extensive applause and Zweden came back on stage after leaving and gave a very cheeky looking grin to the orchestra and audience as he brought out the score of the encore hidden behind the Mahler still on the stand. A quick upbeat and then the orchestra launched into Ride of the Valkyries! Absolutely perfect. The only thing in the concert which was forgettable was Mozart's 4th violin concerto. They played it safe and brought nothing new or interesting to the music.

[Drasko]

Kemal Gekic recital in a fortnight. He'll be playing Liszt and Bach: eight of the Transcendental Etudes interspersed with seven Preludes & Fugues from WTC.

[Spineur]

June 1st Salle Gaveau, Paris

Dame Felicity Lott, soprano
Mathilde Borsarello Herrmann, violon
Cécile Grassi, alto
Gauthier Herrmann, violoncelle
Jean-Michel Dayez, piano

H. Berlioz : La Captive
E. Chausson : Le temps des lilas
R. Hahn : La dernière valse
G. Fauré : quatuor avec piano n°1 op15 (instrumental)
G. Fauré : Après un rêve (instrumental)
M. Ravel : Shéhérazade
J. Massenet : Élégie

[GioCar]

Tonight

Mahler: Symphony No.7
Paavo Järvi conducting the Filarmonica della Scala

I've never heard him with Mahler, I'm quite intrigued. And the 7th is high on my list.

[jessop]

It is likely that I see Król Roger tomorrow night as well as next weekend. Got another free ticket! Looking forward to it.

[Brewski]

Last Friday heard one of Alan Gilbert's final concerts with the New York Philharmonic, and my review is below. The best part was the order, exactly as you see below: started with Brahms, ended with the two newer works after intermission. A few people left, but most stayed for the whole thing.

Brahms: Violin Concerto (w/Leonidas Kavakos)
Anna Thorvaldsdottir: Aeriality (2010-11)
Esa-Pekka Salonen: Wing on Wing (2003-04)

http://newyorkclassicalreview.com/2017/05/gilbert-creatively-disrupts-concert-tradition-with-the-philharmonic/

--Bruce