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

[Lisztianwagner]

Tomorrow in Milan:

Richard Wagner
Siegfried

Director: David McVicar

Siegfried Klaus Florian Vogt
Mime Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Der Wanderer/Wotan Michael Volle
Alberich Ólafur Sigurdarson
Fafner Ain Anger
Erda Anna Kissjudit
Brünnhilde Camilla Nylund
Stimme des Waldvogels Francesca Aspromonte

Simone Young & Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala

[ritter]

Tomorrow in Milan:

Richard Wagner
Siegfried

Director: David McVicar

Siegfried Klaus Florian Vogt
Mime Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Der Wanderer/Wotan Michael Volle
Alberich Ólafur Sigurdarson
Fafner Ain Anger
Erda Anna Kissjudit
Brünnhilde Camilla Nylund
Stimme des Waldvogels Francesca Aspromonte

Simone Young & Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala

Enjoy! Looks very appealing!

[Lisztianwagner]

Enjoy! Looks very appealing!

Thank you, Rafael! Das Rheingold and Die Walküre were beautiful, I hope Siegfried will be as well, it is my favourite opera of the Ring Cycle.

[Der lächelnde Schatten]

Tomorrow in Milan:

Richard Wagner
Siegfried

Director: David McVicar

Siegfried Klaus Florian Vogt
Mime Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke
Der Wanderer/Wotan Michael Volle
Alberich Ólafur Sigurdarson
Fafner Ain Anger
Erda Anna Kissjudit
Brünnhilde Camilla Nylund
Stimme des Waldvogels Francesca Aspromonte

Simone Young & Orchestra del Teatro alla Scala

I wish I was there with you --- Simone Young is an excellent conductor, especially in Germanic repertoire. Enjoy!

[Lisztianwagner]

I wish I was there with you --- Simone Young is an excellent conductor, especially in Germanic repertoire. Enjoy!

Thank you, John! She did very well both in Das Rheingold and Die Walküre, I hope Siegfried will be great too.

Eheh, there's still Götterdämmerung and the entire Ring Cycle next year if you want.  

[pjme]

I'll have to wait a full year, but on june 21st 2025 the Antwerp SO will perform three Belgo/Flemish works!
Good and rare.... I'll try to be there.

Conductor is Karel Deseure.

Worldpremiere of Danses macabres by Erik Desimpelaere  after Brueghel's  The triumph of death

https://www.erikdesimpelaere.com/Partituren%20composities/Danses-macabres/Danses%20Macabres%20-%20preview.pdf

Denise Tolkowsky's (very muscular) pianoconcerto (1958). The work was written for her husband Alex De Vries (1919-1964)

https://www.svm.be/componisten/tolkowsky-denise?language=en


Daniel Sternefeld's second symphony "Brueghel"

https://www.svm.be/componisten/sternefeld-daniel?language=en (several YT videos with Sternefeld's compositions, including the second symphony).

Yesterday, Antwerp was very busy with tourists trying to survive in the scorching heat (ca 33-34 °C). In the superb queen Elisabeth concerthall is was good to stay however and a mostly elderly public enjoyed an unusual concert.

Erik Desimpelaere's (°1990) "Danses macabres" were premiered and proved to be an often virtuoso tour the force for large orchestra, with a prominent role for bells (tubular, church, glockenspiel, celesta, brake drums, metal boxes...). Desimpelaere states that Bruegels "Triumph of death" is full of movement, it is almost "a choreography of death".
Four dances are connected with slower interludes that lead to a wild finale. It is all over in ca 15 minutes, was  extremely well played and I wouldn't mind hearing it again.
In ca 1957-1958, Denise Tolkowsky (1918-1991) wrote her only pianoconcerto for her husband Alex de Vries
Her life is marked by the horrors of two worldwars, the suicide of de Vries in 1964....Alex Devries had a promissing carreer and performed with Ansermet,  Zecchi., Sternefeld...
Apparently he loved the Khatchaturian pianoconcerto (Vega recording with Charles Bruck/Paris Opera Orch.) and that is audible (at least in the first movement) in Tolkowskys work.
Both Tolkowsky and de Vries als loved the virile, expressionistic qualities of Prokofiev and Bartok , and in the fast movements a percussive-martellato style is apparent.
The first movement is an extended Allegro full of pumping, rythmical themes (deep strings + timpani), the odd jazzy wink to Gershwin and a blazing finale.
The slow movement is a very dark and somber Andante mesto - that occasionally even has a Tsjaikovskian lyricism.
The finale is an Allegro furioso "sur les rythmes d'une danse Cosaque".
Pianist Wouter Valvekens and conductor Karel Deseure clearly loved resurrecting this rare work and gave it a spectacular performance.
Deseure then conducted Daniel Sternefelds second symphony, another work inspired by Bruegel paintings. I do have the BRTPhO/Minsky recording on Phaedra , but hadn't listened to it inyears. it is a substantial (ca 35-36 minutes) workd scored for large forces (6 horns, two harps, harpsichord, marimba, xylophone, celesta, glockenspiel, wind & thundermachines)- the bas clarinet and a saxophone get extended solos .... This Bruegel symphony is stylistically very different from the first - a more traditionally conceived symphony.
Late in his career (ca 1980 -1982) Sternefeld had heard and conducted all the great masters - from Stravinsky and Bartok to Messiaen and Boulez and knew the orchestra inside out... The orchestra shines and glows...it is almost a concerto for orchestra!
I got the impression that all the muscians of the Antwerp orchestra loved performing even the trickiest runs, slow or fast melodies (based on old Flemish songs), rythmical wizardries ...lots of smiles and happy faces!
I dare say    that twice -I think- some sort of "eternal moment" appears....helped by the 13th century Palästina Lied (Walther von der Vogelweide) in the slow movement,  and in the last movement, when a solo viola and the alto sax play around " Een Venusdiercken heb ic uitvercoren" , a ca 1544 Antwerp lovesong.

https://youtu.be/Yma3u64ZikM?si=srrYaaF6h9c6ATGl

https://youtu.be/DgCE_3bP-K4?si=1Tg_jjW7gNPuprLR

https://youtu.be/JS7i39JfePs?si=WjWyXuR3LmhMmZgA
Still, I think that the first symphony hangs bettter together and is more of a coherent musical/artistic statement.
Anyway, I loved every minute of this (literaly) unique concert. Time passed by ....

[brewski]

Tonight at 8:00 pm EDT, livestreamed from Roulette in Brooklyn, a 90th birthday concert for Terry Riley, with an enormous group of great musicians.

The Holy Liftoff (2024) with Claire Chase, flute
In C (1964)

[brewski]

Today, one of the following livestreams, all happpening in about an hour, and each appealing for different reasons. (Most likely all three will be archived.)

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchester / Alan Gilbert / Yo-Yo Ma, cello / Kayhan Kalhor, kamancheh
Kayhan Kalhor: Venus in the Mirror, double concerto for cello and kamancheh
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

SWR Sinfonieorchester /Giedrė Šlekytė / Jean-Guihen Queyras, cello
Dvořák: Cello Concerto
Zemlinsky: Die Seejungfrau

WDR Sinfonieorchester / Cristian Măcelaru / Julia Fischer, violin
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

[Iota]

WDR Sinfonieorchester / Cristian Măcelaru / Julia Fischer, violin
Brahms: Violin Concerto
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 10

That looks interesting.

[brewski]

That looks interesting.

It was superb. Fischer was terrific in the Brahms, and the Shostakovich was marvelous. I didn't realize, but this may have been Măcelaru's final regular appearance with the WDR ensemble before he is in Cincinnati. Before the program began, he came onstage with a spokeswoman, who gave a nice-sounding speech in German. And then after the Shostakovich, they did an encore, a spirited reading of the overture to Glinka's Ruslan and Ludmila.

Not sure how long the YouTube link will be up, but it is for the time being.

[Iota]

Great thanks, that sounds very good, I'll check it out. I generally like Julia Fischer very much, and love Shostakovich 10.

[Wanderer]

Opera and ballet this week in Paris:

Gioacchino Rossini: Il Barbiere di Siviglia

Rosina: Isabel Leonard
Figaro: Mattia Olivieri
Basilio: Luca Pisaroni
Fiorello: Andres Cascante
Il Conte d'Almaviva: Levy Sekgapane
Berta: Margarita Polonskaya
Bartolo: Carlo Lepore

Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra national de Paris

Direction musicale: Diego Matheuz
Chef des Choeurs: Alessandro Di Stefano
Mise en scène: Damiano Michieletto



Piotr Ilyitch Tchaikovsky: La Belle au bois dormant

Orchestre de l'Opéra national de Paris

Direction musicale: Sora Elisabeth Lee
Chorégraphie: Rudolf Noureev