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

Started by Siedler, April 20, 2007, 05:34:10 PM

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bhodges

Quote from: André on October 13, 2021, 05:23:50 PM
Thanks for the info, Bruce. I listened to the whole concert. I think Wang's performance was indeed very special. Not sure I enjoyed the rest, a strange hodgepodge if you ask me. The idea of linking the last two works without a pause - not even one second ! - is a strange one. The logic behind it escaped me.  :(

Here's my theory. The opening four notes of the Beethoven are so freighted with expectation, that Yannick chose to subvert those by not giving the audience time to think about them. A huge risk, of course, but perhaps one he thought would shake up people's anticipation of the piece. (Honestly, just speculation -- I have no idea.) And the Habibi piece was inspired somewhat by Beethoven, so perhaps Yannick thought it better to link the two like this.

It would be interesting to take a poll of those in the audience: "Did it work for you?" My guess: It did for maybe 50% of listeners, perhaps fewer. I thought it was a worthy experiment, but as usual, YMMV.

--Bruce

Karl Henning

Quote from: Brewski on October 13, 2021, 06:06:09 PM
Here's my theory. The opening four notes of the Beethoven are so freighted with expectation, that Yannick chose to subvert those by not giving the audience time to think about them. A huge risk, of course, but perhaps one he thought would shake up people's anticipation of the piece. (Honestly, just speculation -- I have no idea.) And the Habibi piece was inspired somewhat by Beethoven, so perhaps Yannick thought it better to link the two like this.

It would be interesting to take a poll of those in the audience: "Did it work for you?" My guess: It did for maybe 50% of listeners, perhaps fewer. I thought it was a worthy experiment, but as usual, YMMV.

--Bruce

Funny placement of the Overture .....
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

André

Quote from: k a rl h e nn i ng on October 13, 2021, 07:34:24 PM
Funny placement of the Overture .....

Yup. The 'standard' programming would have been overture, concerto, symphony. Obviously there was a strong experimental bias in the concert's layout. And why not ?

One (surely unintended) adverse side effect was that the Habibi work - a fine one - didn't have a chance to register in the mind. It was instantly swept away by that célébrissime opening fate motif...

Brian

Quote from: André on October 14, 2021, 12:12:34 PM
One (surely unintended) adverse side effect was that the Habibi work - a fine one - didn't have a chance to register in the mind. It was instantly swept away by that célébrissime opening fate motif...
Larry Rachleff, formerly of the San Antonio and Rhode Island symphonies, had a policy of always performing world premiere works twice in a row for exactly this reason. (Those symphonies never commissioned super big long premieres, only sub-15-minutes.) He'd always grab a microphone at the start and say, "It can be hard to fully appreciate something totally new after hearing it once. So we're going to play it twice."

Papy Oli

Quote from: Brian on October 15, 2021, 07:37:27 AM
Larry Rachleff, formerly of the San Antonio and Rhode Island symphonies, had a policy of always performing world premiere works twice in a row for exactly this reason. (Those symphonies never commissioned super big long premieres, only sub-15-minutes.) He'd always grab a microphone at the start and say, "It can be hard to fully appreciate something totally new after hearing it once. So we're going to play it twice."

On a slight tangent, this reminds me of a story I read once about Neil Young. After he released one of his darkest albums "Tonight's the Night" in the mid seventies, he started a concert once by stating he'd play "songs they had not heard before" and played the new album in full, to very lukewarm reception. He then told the crowd he'd next play "songs they had heard before". The audience cheered loudly, expecting to finally hear all his famous songs from "Harvest" and the likes...he then proceeded to play Tonight's the Night again...  ;D         
Olivier

Brian

YouTube video of last night's livestream from Wigmore Hall: the Pavel Haas quartet playing three of Brahms' four quintets: piano with Boris Giltburg, and string with their former violist Pavel Nikl rejoining the group. (Luosha Fang is the new violist in the PHQ; she joined earlier this year.)

Wanderer

I'll be in Paris next week. While, during previous visits, I've attended concerts at la Philharmonie, Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Maison de Radio France and other venues, I've never been at the Parisian opera. Well, this time there will be Der fliegende Holländer at the Opéra Bastille (Groissböck/Merbeth/Zwierko/Weinius/Atkins/Konieczny/Orchestre et Choeurs de l'Opéra national de Paris/Lintu) and Lacotte's ballet Le Rouge et le Noir (d'après Stendhal) with music by Massenet at the Palais Garnier.

And upon return to Athens, there will be the Staatskapelle Berlin and Barenboim playing the Schumann and Brahms Fourth Symphonies at the Megaron. Looking forward to them all.

foxandpeng

#6167
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall this evening... first classical music event for us, for a while...

Strauss Don Juan  (18')
Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto (World Premiere, co–commissioned with Frankfurt Radio, Swedish Radio, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Aspen Music Festival, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and Viola Commissioning Circle)  (18')
- INTERVAL (20') -
Dag Wíren Serenade for Strings  (15')
Jean Sibelius Symphony No.5   (31')

Andrew Manze conductor
Lawrence Power viola
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

André

That's a great program, Danny. Enjoy and report, please !

:)

Mirror Image

Quote from: foxandpeng on October 21, 2021, 05:07:19 AM
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall this evening... first classical music event for us, for a while...

Strauss Don Juan  (18')
Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto (World Premiere, co–commissioned with Frankfurt Radio, Swedish Radio, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Aspen Music Festival, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and Viola Commissioning Circle)  (18')
- INTERVAL (20') -
Dag Wíren Serenade for Strings  (15')
Jean Sibelius Symphony No.5   (31')

Andrew Manze conductor
Lawrence Power viola


A great program. Lawrence Power is a phenomenal violist.

bhodges

Quote from: foxandpeng on October 21, 2021, 05:07:19 AM
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall this evening... first classical music event for us, for a while...

Strauss Don Juan  (18')
Anders Hillborg Viola Concerto (World Premiere, co–commissioned with Frankfurt Radio, Swedish Radio, Basel Sinfonieorchester, Aspen Music Festival, Netherlands Radio Symphony Orchestra and Viola Commissioning Circle)  (18')
- INTERVAL (20') -
Dag Wíren Serenade for Strings  (15')
Jean Sibelius Symphony No.5   (31')

Andrew Manze conductor
Lawrence Power viola


What a fantastic program. Would love to hear the Hillborg premiere. And agree with all the comments on Power, who is one of the world's great violists.

--Bruce

foxandpeng

#6171
Quote from: André on October 21, 2021, 05:19:45 AM
That's a great program, Danny. Enjoy and report, please !

:)

Quote from: Mirror Image on October 21, 2021, 06:48:12 AM
A great program. Lawrence Power is a phenomenal violist.

Quote from: Brewski on October 21, 2021, 07:58:50 AM
What a fantastic program. Would love to hear the Hillborg premiere. And agree with all the comments on Power, who is one of the world's great violists.

--Bruce

Cheers all! What a great night! I'm not a huge lover of the Don Juan, but it was well played, and great to hear :)

As for the Hillborg, for me it was the highlight of the evening. If you like Hillborg's clarinet concerto and VC, it was very much of the same world. Lots of double bass slaps, lots of oomph from the orchestra, lots of energy from Power, and certainly a piece that I am looking forward to hearing again. The finale ends with a real flourish in the climax that had the audience responding loudly and enthusiastically. Manze was a dervish conducting, and Hillborg was beaming when he took his bows. I did try to snap the structure that was projected behind the orchestra to share here, but the phone police were on me immediately :)

The Wiren was my wife's favourite, and again, it was filled with passion! Excellent stuff. The Sibelius 5 was characteristically beautiful!

Good to be out and good to retire to the Philharmonic pub afterwards for drinks and fine architecture with marble boobage aplenty, if you like that sort of thing. No masks in evidence really, apart from in small numbers, and the COVID passport stuff was required but not hugely adhered to, as my wife's NHS app refused to work but they let her in on a nod once they'd asked about double vaccination.
"A quiet secluded life in the country, with the possibility of being useful to people ... then work which one hopes may be of some use; then rest, nature, books, music, love for one's neighbour — such is my idea of happiness"

Tolstoy

André

Quote

As for the Hillborg, for me it was the highlight of the evening. If you like Hillborg's clarinet concerto and VC, it was very much of the same world

I have these two concertos. Very good stuff indeed !

bhodges

Next week at Carnegie, two of my faves, Leonidas Kavakos and Yuja Wang. I don't know the Busoni at all (a plus).

Bach - Violin Sonata in E Major, BWV 1016
Busoni - Violin Sonata No. 2
Shostakovich - Violin Sonata

https://www.carnegiehall.org/Calendar/2021/11/04/Leonidas-Kavakos-Violin-Yuja-Wang-Piano-0800PM

--Bruce

vandermolen

I've been invited, by a thoughtful colleague, to hear Sir James MacMillan's 'Christmas Oratorio' (90 mins) in London in December. I hope to go there.
"Courage is going from failure to failure without losing enthusiasm" (Churchill).

'The test of a work of art is, in the end, our affection for it, not our ability to explain why it is good' (Stanley Kubrick).

Karl Henning

Quote from: vandermolen on October 26, 2021, 10:45:11 AM
I've been invited, by a thoughtful colleague, to hear Sir James MacMillan's 'Christmas Oratorio' (90 mins) in London in December. I hope to go there.

Nice!
Karl Henning, Ph.D.
Composer & Clarinetist
Boston MA
http://www.karlhenning.com/
[Matisse] was interested neither in fending off opposition,
nor in competing for the favor of wayward friends.
His only competition was with himself. — Françoise Gilot

Mirror Image

Quote from: vandermolen on October 26, 2021, 10:45:11 AM
I've been invited, by a thoughtful colleague, to hear Sir James MacMillan's 'Christmas Oratorio' (90 mins) in London in December. I hope to go there.

Excellent, Jeffrey. 8) Maybe you'll get a chance to chat with the composer.

bhodges

Tuesday night at 7:00pm EDT, the excellent percussion and piano quartet Yarn/Wire is livestreaming its concert from Miller Theatre at Columbia University. Program:

Zeno Baldi Laminar Flow for piano and percussion quartet (2020-21), world premiere
Thomas Meadowcroft Walkman Antiquarian for grand piano, sampler, and two percussion (2013)

RSVP (free) here:

https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSeCeySW39g4UDz7XIo84_0Ak39CsHNfEjKKGClaDvzN7ikbAg/viewform?ct=t(EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_nov-2021-newsletter_COPY_01)

--Bruce

classicalgeek

I'm on Vashon Island (in the middle of Puget Sound, south of Seattle) for the weekend, to see an old college friend perform in Cavalleria Rusticana at the Vashon Opera, a small local company.

https://www.vashonopera.org/seasons/2021-2022-season/cavalleria-rusticana
https://www.limmiepulliam.com/

I tutored Limmie in music theory, thus his connection to little old me. What an amazing voice...
So much great music, so little time...

Original compositions and orchestrations: https://www.youtube.com/@jmbrannigan

bhodges

Next week, a concert by ekmeles, the 6-voice a cappella ensemble that specializes in new music. (The word "ekmeles" is Greek, meaning "unwanted sounds.") They will be repeating a microtonal work written for them, Primo Libro by James Weeks, director of Exaudi, the choral group in London.

http://ekmeles.com/wp/2021/10/primo-libro/

--Bruce