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

[king ubu]

Enjoy it tonight, my friend - looking forward to reading your review...

Thanks, I sure will! Queued 40 minutes earlier to buy the programme ... so many weirdos and complicated folks there, amazing. You have to draw a number when it's crowded, and there were two desks open. To tend to ca. 15 customers in line before me took them so long ... I went out to buy a newspaper in the meantime, and in the end when it was my turn, I was given the programme for free, "since you had to wait that long" 

Anyway, I wanted to write more about the concerts in Milan, but the first week back in the office was crazy (and of course I had two more concerts and some other evening appointments, too) ... for those that read German, my write-ups can be found over here (first one on jazz and food, second on classical and art):
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/2017-jazzgigs-konzerte-festivals/page/2/#post-10085501
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/konzertimpressionen-und-rezensionen/page/3/#post-10088767

Also over there is my German write-up on the Giardino Armonico/Sandrine Piau and Labèque sisters concerts:
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/konzertimpressionen-und-rezensionen/page/3/#post-10088919

But I will make it a point to report about "Médée" in English, too!

[listener]

SCHOENBERG Pelléas and Mélsande  on Monday with the Vancouver S.O. and guest conductor Lahav Shani.
First half will be BRAHMS Piano Concerto 1 with Kyril Gerstein
Shani has re-sat the orchestra with 1st and 2nd violins divided.   Picture from Saturday attached

[king ubu]

Zurich Opera, 18 February 2017

MÉDÉE
Marc-Antoine Charpentier

Conductor: William Christie
Producer: Andreas Homoki
Stage design: Hartmut Meyer
Costumes: Mechthild Seipel
Light design: Franck Evin
Choreographische Beratung: Katrin Kolo
Chorus master: Jürg Hämmerli
Dramaturgy: Werner Hintze, Fabio Dietsche

Médée: Stéphanie D'Oustrac
Jason: Reinoud Van Mechelen
Créon: Nahuel Di Pierro
Créuse: Mélissa Petit
Oronte: Ivan Thirion
L'Amour, Captif de l'Amour, Premier Fantôme: Florie Valiquette
Nérine: Carmen Seibel
Arcas, Second Corinthien, La Jalousie: Spencer Lang
Un Argien, La Vengeance: Roberto Lorenzi
Une Italienne: Sandrine Droin
Premier Corinthien, Un Argien, Un Démon: Nicholas Scott
Cleone: Gemma Ni Bhriain
Deuxième Fantôme: Francisca Montiel

Harpsichord: Paolo Zanzu
Lute: Brian Feehan, Juan Sebastian Lima
Cello: Claudius Herrmann
Gamba: Martin Zeller
Violone: Dieter Lange

Orchestra La Scintilla
Chor der Oper Zürich
Members of Les Arts Florissants

Phenomenal in every respect, one of the best opera nights ever, and quite likely to be the highlight of this still young year. How amazing to witness a cast that is really at home in the language in question - not that I actually understood it word by word, but none of the minor to major diction and pronounciation and accent problems that we usually just have to accept when watching opera (and in that respect: what a huge difference to the Milan "Don Carlo"). I've become tolerant long ago about this, but what a huge different to have a fully idiomatic cast! William Christie strictly insists on this, as he mentioned during the matinee in presentation of this new production a few weeks back - the show last night was actually the final one again already - and I fully endorse this, now that I have been able to witness the wonderful results.

So many great things, it's really hard to find words.

Let's start with the play itself. What a wonderful opera, finding a perfect balance between words and music. There's no fat to it, it's just perfect. No vocal girlands, no show-offery, no nothing, just a perfect synchronisation between what is sung and how it is sung (and played). This is not a sequence of numbers with star arias and all that, but really a play. And Homoki's production and stage direction actually made it work in a way that even the Divertissements were quite perfectly integrated into the whole, sort of echo chambers of the main plot.

The choir, enlarged by an haute-contre section from Les Arts florissants, did a wonderful job (as I've come to expect by now - Zurich opera can be really proud of such a fine choir). So did La Scintilla, the HIP orchestra of Zurich opera. They were enlarged by several guests as well, mainly in the winds section, which had a lot of work to do and did just fine. Christie had a harpsichord to play and conduct from, but to his right there was another harpsichord, as well as a small organ. As I could not see much of the orchestra during the play (I could see the recorders and that was pretty cool, too), I don't know how much of the harpsichord continuo was played by Christie himself. The continuo section was really good anyway, bleding into a wonderful and varied sound, using different combinations of the instruments at hand (including the organ I mentioned).

The stage itself was set up very simple, using a second floor that could be lifted to disappear and was often lowered so it was merely a step up from the ground level. On top you would have different colours than downstairs, the lower area was also opened up to the back a few times, but mostly just to let people (or devils) appear and disappear - very effective, and very nice to look at, too. There was hardly any furniture or other stuff on the stage, which fit the unfolding tragedy perfectly well, I found.

And as the tragedy has been mentioned, it really sempt to be the tragedy of Stéphanie d'Oustrac. She was outstanding in the title role, both as a singer as well as an actress - she really became Medea. Yet at the same time it got pretty clear how much love Charpentier must have had for that character, so far beyond any moral categories mankind is used to - not to say a monster. The melodies Chapentier wrote for his Médée are truly beguiling, again and again. Van Mechelen did an outstanding job as well. Most beautiful where the - quite many - moments when they sang at a very low volume. Those pianissimo moments, a few soft harpsichord tones added ... what tension, what vibrancy! At some moments I felt as if I were watching a forbidden scene - the intimacy generated by those very quiet moments was amazing. Of course this again was made possible by the fact that d'Oustrac really filled that role perfectly well, vibrant and intense. The other roles, both larger and smaller, were all cast very well, too. What I found interesting, and it was certainly determined only in part by my own preferences, is how much this is about Medea, the monster, and how relatively little sympathy came up for Créuse (Mélissa Petit was excellent, not her fault at all!) by comparison. Créuse, at least as far as the play seems to tell us, is not the one to blame really for the events that are to unfold - yet it's Medea, the independent and strong character that captures the attention, that is front and center, albeit her doings are horrible beyond belief. This of course creates tension as well, which again is held back or counterbalanced ingeniously by Charpentier's music.

So yeah, great night at the opera!

[SurprisedByBeauty]

The Luxury of Excellence | The Sound of Broken Hearts | Beethovenian Seething | Desperate Dissonance | To Hell and Back:



Review: Mahler 10 With Yannick Nézet-Séguin

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2017/02/19/review-mahler-10-with-yannick-nezet-seguin/#454f33724fe7

[HIPster]

Thanks, I sure will! Queued 40 minutes earlier to buy the programme ... so many weirdos and complicated folks there, amazing. You have to draw a number when it's crowded, and there were two desks open. To tend to ca. 15 customers in line before me took them so long ... I went out to buy a newspaper in the meantime, and in the end when it was my turn, I was given the programme for free, "since you had to wait that long" 

Anyway, I wanted to write more about the concerts in Milan, but the first week back in the office was crazy (and of course I had two more concerts and some other evening appointments, too) ... for those that read German, my write-ups can be found over here (first one on jazz and food, second on classical and art):
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/2017-jazzgigs-konzerte-festivals/page/2/#post-10085501
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/konzertimpressionen-und-rezensionen/page/3/#post-10088767

Also over there is my German write-up on the Giardino Armonico/Sandrine Piau and Labèque sisters concerts:
http://forum.rollingstone.de/foren/topic/konzertimpressionen-und-rezensionen/page/3/#post-10088919

But I will make it a point to report about "Médée" in English, too!

Hi king ubu!

Wonderful, just wonderful. 

I loved your review of the opera.  Are you familiar with this recording:

[asin]B0012BT1BU[/asin]

I dig this group in general.  This is a nice release.

Any chance you could post the review of Roscoe Mitchell plays Coltrane in the Jazz section?  In English of course.

That show looked awesome as well.

Cheers.

[king ubu]

Hi king ubu!

Wonderful, just wonderful. 

I loved your review of the opera.  Are you familiar with this recording:

[asin]B0012BT1BU[/asin]

I dig this group in general.  This is a nice release.

Any chance you could post the review of Roscoe Mitchell plays Coltrane in the Jazz section?  In English of course.

That show looked awesome as well.

Cheers.

Thank you kindly, sir! I have no recordings of d'Oustrac's so far but have an eye on several, including that disc you mention (I have a few discs by/with Amarillis though). EDITED to add: none of her solo discs ... as for the opera recordings (a few CDs, a few DVD/BDs) they're all of repertoire I've not come around to thoroughly explore (Lully, Rameau, the Destouches on Glossa ...)

Re: Roscoe Mitchell, as I have typed a few sentences into one of my mobile devices while still on vacation (and as the German report isn't substantially different), allow me to just give the link right here. This was written in response to the Paris report quoted there (I know the guy, we were both at Météo festival in Mulhouse last summer, where Mitchell played the festival's great closing set).

[HIPster]

Excellent king ubu! 

Thanks again for sharing your thoughts on these shows.

Cheers.

[king ubu]

Thanks for your interest, HIPster!

Next up, tomorrow night, again at Zurich opera:

Raphaël Pichon, Dirigent
Julie Fuchs, Sopran
Orchestra La Scintilla

Programm

Jean-Philippe Rameau (1683-1764)
Zaïs: Ouverture
Platée: Récit et air de la Folie «Formons les plus brillants concerts... Aux langueurs d'Apollon»
Les Boréades: Entrée de Polymnie

Castor et Pollux: Prélude de tambour voilé et scène funèbre
Castor et Pollux: Air de Télaïre «Tristes apprêts, pâles flambeaux»

Les Paladins: Entrée très gaye de troubadours
Les Boréades: Contredanse en rondeau
Les Boréades: Ariette d'Alphise «Un horizon serein»

Pause

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Zoroastre: Air tendre en rondeau
Les Indes galantes: Air de Phani «Viens, hymen»

Christoph Willibald Gluck (1714-1787)
Orphée et Eurydice: Introduction au second acte/ Danse des furies
Orphée et Eurydice: Danse des Ombres heureuses
Orphée et Eurydice: Récit, Air et Duo (Eurydice) «Mais d'où vient qu'il persiste à garder le silence.../ «Fortune ennemie, quelle barbarie»

Jean-Philippe Rameau
Les Fêtes d'Hébé: Tambourin en rondeau
Dardanus: Chaconne
Les Indes galantes: «Régnez, plaisirs et jeux» (Zima)

[ritter]

Just got tickets for Alberto Ginastera's Bomarzo at the Teatro Real here in Madrid (on 5 May), staged by Pierre Audi and conducted by David Afkham... 

[Spineur]

Just got tickets to
1) Jeanne d'arc au Bucher, Arthur Honegger Oratorio, Opera de Lyon
2) Lohengrin, Richard Wagner, Opera de Paris in February.

I am going to buy some recordings of these works to do my preparation.

I attended Lohengrin at the Paris Opera under the direction of Philippe Jordan ( ).  The staging (Claus Guth) was the same as the one shown in La Scala last year.
Altogether it was quite wonderful, especially the orchestra part.  With Philippe Jordan, you get to hear everything (including flutes, clarinets and hoboe), not just the the string and the brass as in a number of recordings.

The sets were quite nice, and there were some interesting ideas in Claus Guth staging (Elsa and his brother as children/ the black and white dresses for Ortrud and Elsa referring to the black and white swans), but not everything worked.  His portrait of Lohengrin as a fragile man, trying to find his own path, goes so much against Wagner music and the libretto, that you end up lost.  What were his real intentions ?  Was it a reference to Wagner ?  I wish he would have been more explicit.

Probably one of Wagner most tragic opera, where he introduced the leitmotivs and wrote some truly innovative and beautiful music

[ritter]

Thanks for the impressions on the Paris Lohengrin, Spineur. It seems to have been a nice evening at the opera... My last Lohengrin (in Berlin last December) was only so-so, with a rather poor staging (IMHO) by Kaspar Holten, but ably conducted by Axel Kober. I've seen Philippe Jordan live twice (Ariadne auf Naxos at the Bastille some years ago now, and Parsifal in Bayreuth in 2012) and was very favourably impressed both times,

Now, one work I really want to sse fully satged is Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher. What a wonderful piece! It's announced in Madrid for the 2017-18 season, I believe. 

[eljr]

Looking forward to: Benefit Concert Celebrating Philip Glass's 80th Birthday, March 16 at Carnegie Hall

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2017/3/16/0730/PM/Tibet-House-US-30th-Anniversary-Benefit-Concert-Celebrating-Philip-Glasss-80th-Birthday/

[Pat B]

Yesterday I saw an undergrad senior at the local university play the second half of Philip Glass's Etudes. (She played the first half last fall, which I missed.) I enjoyed both the music — with only #12 really sounding like a lot of other Glass — and the performance.

[Kontrapunctus]

The Venice Baroque Orchestra with violin soloist Nicola Benedetti this Saturday:

Galuppi: Concerto a Quattro No. 2 in G Major

Avison: Concerto Grosso No. 8 in E Minor, after D. Scarlatti

Geminiani: Concerto Grosso for strings in D Minor, "La Follia"

Vivaldi: Concerto in D Major for violin, strings and basso continuo, RV 212a, "Per la solennità della S. lingua di S. Antonio in Padua"

Vivaldi: The Four Seasons

[Brian]

I don't know if this is gonna be recorded, or not, but...

Mahler 2
Pittsburgh
Honeck
June 2-4, 2017

Might be time to visit my brother!

[NikF]

Prelude: 6.45pm in the Recital Room Thomas Dausgaard introduces the Sixth Symphony by Langgaard.

Strauss: Four Last Songs
Wagner: Prelude and Liebestod from Tristan and Isolde
Wagner: Prelude to Act I of Parsifal 
Langgaard: Symphony No.6 'Heaven-Storming'

Coda - Members of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland in a short recital of chamber music by Langgaard.

Thomas Dausgaard - Conductor
RSNO
Erin Wall - Soprano

[North Star]

Looks like some great programming, Nik!

[NikF]

Yeah, it is. And if you keep in mind some of this is still relatively new to me in different ways then it's going to be a good and cool evening indeed -
Strauss - although I like them I've never attended a live performance of the four last songs.
Wagner - I've only the most passing familiarity with these pieces.
Langgaard - completely unknown.

Good stuff. 

[North Star]

Good stuff. 

Rather like all those diagonals in that avatar  The blue coat/dress brings to mind Mark Knopfler's Long Cool Girl. . .

[NikF]

Rather like all those diagonals in that avatar  The blue coat/dress brings to mind Mark Knopfler's Long Cool Girl. . .

It does, yes. She has legs for days. For days.
It's not my photo though. Another photographer covering that show sent it to me without realising she and I had split up.

Anyway, to keep this on topic...
...there are a number of other concerts I haven't listed (because I don't know how many tickets I should buy yet) that I'm looking forward to. One features Korngold's Symphony in F sharp which I haven't heard and there's a Sibelius 5 programmed with 'Canzonetta, Scene with Cranes, Valse triste from Kuolema'. And the season closes with Mahler 7 and then the following week Mahler 3 - both of which I haven't attended live performances of. All in all I think there's something almost every week. And although I'm not seriously considering it, there's a nice apartment for sale overlooking and within metres of the concert hall. Serendipity?