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

[bhodges]

On June 1, this concert, broadcast live on WQXR:

The Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Möst, Music Director and Conductor
Nikolaj Szeps-Znaider, Violin

G. Walker Sinfonia No. 4, "Strands"
Szymanowski Violin Concerto No. 2
Schubert Symphony No. 9, "Great"

--Bruce

[The new erato]

Andsnes and Hamelin playing the Rite of Sping + Adams and some Schumann in Bergen in a weeks time.

Followed by the Bergen Orchestra playing the Rite of Spring and Gries concerto (with Paul Lewis) a few days later.

[Brian]

Paul Lewis is touring the Grieg globally - I will see him do it in Dallas in January. Not necessarily repertoire I expect from him but should be nice to see anyway.

[André]

Bought a ticket to the Orchestre Métropolitain's final concert this season on June 18, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.

Brahms: concerto no 2, with Seong-Jin Cho
Stravinsky: Chant funèbre
Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps
Ravel: La Valse

[Iota]

Snape Maltings, August 21st, 5pm: Simon Rattle, Bruckner and Sibelius.
Down near the stage in the cheap seats... happy for a meet-up if anyone else is attending!
(Do we wear red roses or bowler hats or something, so we can recognise each other??!)

Won't be at the concert, but just thought I'd say I like your new avatar, which seems very apt. Not a photo I've seen before. Which is also true of the interesting Britten quote in your strapline.

Wearing one's avatar as a badge might be a quick way to identify fellow GMG-ers ..

[Mirror Image]

Bought a ticket to the Orchestre Métropolitain's final concert this season on June 18, Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducting.

Brahms: concerto no 2, with Seong-Jin Cho
Stravinsky: Chant funèbre
Boulanger: D'un matin de printemps
Ravel: La Valse

Nice program! The Boulanger is especially gorgeous.

[Mirror Image]

Another premium gig being sold off at half-price due to lack of demand:

Mahler Adagio from Symphony No 10
Berg Seven Early Songs
Sibelius Symphony No 5

Oslo Philharmonic
Klaus Mäkelä conductor
Lise Davidsen soprano

A nice program. Mäkelä or Davidsen haven't impressed me, but the Oslo Philharmonic is a fine orchestra.

[Brian]

At half price, I'd definitely risk it! 

[bhodges]

Yeah that was kinda what I thought too.

Originally I wasn't going to bother with this one as I have other stuff this weekend and didn't feel like racing around.  But orchestras of this calibre may choose not to tour here in future if it means playing to 3/4 empty halls.

True. And the program looks great.

Tomorrow night, another livestream from the Minnesota Orchestra, the penultimate concert with conductor Osmo Vänskä, and Sphinx Virtuosi in the first two works. Xavier Foley is a renowned bass player, and wrote his piece for Sphinx based on the hymn, "Lift Every Voice and Sing." Soloist in the Mendelssohn is violinist Erin Keefe (also Vänskä's wife).

XAVIER FOLEY - Ev'ry Voice (2020)
GINASTERA - Finale furioso, from Concerto for Strings
MENDELSSOHN - Concerto for Violin, Piano and Orchestra
JAAKO KUUSISTO - Symphony [2022, world premiere]

https://mnorch.vhx.tv/videos/live-6-3-vanska-and-keefe

--Bruce

[TheGSMoeller]

Nashville Symphony & Chorus | Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Mary Wilson, soprano | Michaela Martens, mezzo-soprano | Nicholas Phan, tenor | Dashon Burton, baritone

Christopher Farrell – Continuum (75th Anniversary Commission | World Premiere)
Augusta Read Thomas – Brio
Beethoven – Symphony No. 9, "Choral"


Sunday June 5th - My first time seeing the 9th performed live since I played it back in 1995! Not familiar with the soloists besides Burton who is part of Roomful of Teeth. 

[bhodges]

Tomorrow, not one, but two concerts with ensembles from the PYO Music Institute. (Writing an article on them for The Strad.) Very interested in the Guilmante, since I don't recall ever hearing the hall's magnificent pipe organ.

https://pyomusic.org/about/

--Bruce

* * * * *

Sunday, 5 June, 3:00pm
Perelman Theater
Philadelphia Young Artists Orchestra
Rosalind Erwin, conductor
Kai Freeman, violin (winner, Eighth Annual Young Artists Solo Competition)
Brahms: Academic Festival Overture
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (Movement 1)
Rimsky-Korsakov: Scheherazade

Sunday, 5 June, 7:00pm
Verizon Hall
Philadelphia Youth Orchestra
Louis Scaglione, conductor
Peter Richard Conte, organ
David Kim, violin
Guilmante: Symphony No. 2 in A major
Mendelssohn: Violin Concerto (complete)
Holst: The Planets

[bhodges]

Tomorrow:

Mahler Symphony No.2 (Resurrection)

Philharmonia Orchestra & Chorus
Santtu-Matias Rouvali conductor
Mari Eriksmoen soprano
Jennifer Johnston mezzo-soprano

Looks great! Not familiar with any of the personnel except the orchestra, which is wonderful. Do report back.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis Friday night, more Mahler, the Eighth, for Osmo Vänskä's final concerts with the orchestra. They are recording the performances (audio and video), for their almost-complete Mahler cycle, which is excellent so far.

It will be a family affair, with my 92-year-old mother and one of my brothers also in the audience.

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, Symphony of a Thousand

Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Sarah Wegener, soprano
Jacquelyn Wagner, soprano
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo
Jess Dandy, mezzo
Barry Banks, tenor
Julian Orlishausen, baritone
Christian Immler, bass-baritone
Minnesota Chorale, Kathy Saltzman Romey, artistic director
National Lutheran Choir, David Cherwien, artistic director
Minnesota Boychoir, Mark S. Johnson, artistic director
Angelica Cantanti Concert Choir, Elizabeth Egger, conductor

--Bruce

[Mirror Image]

Santtu-Matias Rouvali is the 37-year old Finn who this year replaced Esa-Pekka Salonen as the Philharmonia's Principal Conductor.  Salonen did some great things here – like the Bartok series in his first season: how many opportunities do you get to hear Cantata profana in concert?  I was sorry to see him go, and unsure what to make of Rouvali, whose appointment came out of leftfield.  But going by last night's performance, we may be in luck.

A good Resurrection is not something to be missed, so I will generally go to one unless there's a good reason not to.  It doesn't always work out - Harding with the LSO was pretty disappointing - Welser-Möst conducting the Clevelanders was really disappointing - but last night was a good one.  I wasn't sure to begin with, as he took the first movement unusually slowly, emphasising the drama - reminded me a bit of Bernstein in the way he pushed the envelope about as far as it would go without collapsing horribly (though his conducting style is very different: clear and expressive, not overtly emotional.)  But it did work, and from then on all fell into place quite naturally, leading to a Finale that raised the roof.

The concert was broadcast live and available to download on BBC Radio 3, though this cannot convey (especially with the BBC's rather brutal compression) just how LOUD this was.   You didn't so much hear the percussion as feel it wallop you in the chest.

Also good to see the hall packed out - however there was no ignoring the age profile of the audience: I would estimate at least half were elderly – by which I mean: even older than me.  This used not to be the case: my first Resurrection was Tennstedt conducting the LPO some time in the 80s, and that audience was mostly young (or young-ish) and very enthusiastic.  It looked like last night might have been the very same audience, only a lot older now, with not much of a younger audience coming along behind.  The issue can't be cost: the cheapest regular tickets were only 13 pounds, students only 6.  What kind of a night out can you get for 6 quid anywhere else?  It looks like the younger audience just isn't there in any significant numbers.  Hence those events for which the older audience doesn't turn out are all only about 1/4 full.

Recently I was booking for next season at the Wigmore Hall (chamber music venue, mostly older audience), which has some exciting-looking programs: a Pavel Haas Quartet residency; Olli Mustonen playing all Prokofiev sonatas over two evenings; the Silesian Quartet playing Weinberg and Bacewicz; and more.  Not being a member, I had to wait until the public booking opened, hoping to pick up some decent tickets out of what was left - only to find on the day that I had pretty much a free choice of any seat I wanted, anywhere. Good for me ... but not so good for the future, I don't think.

You have to keep in mind that the classical listening audience is a small one. I mean we're talking about a niche market here --- it's only a fraction of the audience for rock music for example. It's the way it has always been and will continue to be. I'm not certain what kind of future classical music has, but I'm glad that live concerts are still happening and broadcasts of so many of these concerts are widely available for everyone to hear online.

[Brian]

Well, ultralinear can correct me if I'm wrong, but up until the pandemic Wigmore Hall used to sell out pretty frequently. And there was the post recently about the Oslo Philharmonic. The implication seems to be that the audience has gotten significantly smaller - or simply concerned about leaving the house - just in the last two years.

[Mirror Image]

At least I know that if I'm ever in London during a concert season, I won't have any difficulty buying tickets.

[Brian]

I plan to visit London next summer. Looks like Wigmore Hall has published the list of which artists will be there in 2023, but not the actual concert programs, which seems to be done only through this calendar year.

Are the Proms also underattended now?

[VonStupp]

Looks great! Not familiar with any of the personnel except the orchestra, which is wonderful. Do report back.

Meanwhile, in Minneapolis Friday night, more Mahler, the Eighth, for Osmo Vänskä's final concerts with the orchestra. They are recording the performances (audio and video), for their almost-complete Mahler cycle, which is excellent so far.

It will be a family affair, with my 92-year-old mother and one of my brothers also in the audience.

Mahler: Symphony No. 8 in E-flat major, Symphony of a Thousand

Minnesota Orchestra
Osmo Vänskä, conductor
Sarah Wegener, soprano
Jacquelyn Wagner, soprano
Carolyn Sampson, soprano
Sasha Cooke, mezzo
Jess Dandy, mezzo
Barry Banks, tenor
Julian Orlishausen, baritone
Christian Immler, bass-baritone
Minnesota Chorale, Kathy Saltzman Romey, artistic director
National Lutheran Choir, David Cherwien, artistic director
Minnesota Boychoir, Mark S. Johnson, artistic director
Angelica Cantanti Concert Choir, Elizabeth Egger, conductor

--Bruce

I will also be attending, but on Sunday. My day is sold out, as I assume the whole weekend is in Minnesota.

Regardless of ones views on Vänskä's Mahler, the 8th is always an event to behold. Have fun tonight!

VS

[Mirror Image]

Oh, to be in Berlin!

https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/en/saison-2021-22/lost-generation/

[bhodges]

I will also be attending, but on Sunday. My day is sold out, as I assume the whole weekend is in Minnesota.

Regardless of ones views on Vänskä's Mahler, the 8th is always an event to behold. Have fun tonight!

VS

I don't think you will be disappointed. 

My sole, minor quibble: my seat turned out to be right next to a squad of 10 extra brass players in the balcony. They were great, but sort of drowned out the other instruments in the final minutes of each movement.

Also, video will be available in July, on the orchestra's website.

--Bruce

[Wanderer]

l'll attend this, as well, on 8 June. I'm not very fond of Marion Cotillard's portrayal of the role in the Soustrot recording, however this is a favourite work that one doesn't get the chance to hear live every day. And I am really looking forward to the ondes Martenot contributions. 😎

Equipo artístico
Director musical | Juanjo Mena
Director de escena | Àlex Ollé (La Fura dels Baus)
Escenógrafo | Alfons Flores
Figurinista | Lluc Castells
Videocreador | Franc Aleu
Iluminador | Joachim Klein
Director del coro | Andrés Máspero

Reparto
Jeanne d' Arc | Marion Cotillard
Padre Dominique | Sébastien Dutrieux
La Virgen | Sylvia Schwartz
Marguerite | Elena Copons
Catherine | Enkelejda Shkoza
Porcus | Charles Workman
Heraldo | Torben Jügens

PRÓLOGO

LA DAMOISELLE ÉLUE
La doncella bienaventurada
Claude Debussy
Cantata sobre el poema La doncella bienaventurada (1847) de Dante Gabriel Rossetti

Música de Claude Debussy (1862-1918)

Estrenada en la Salle Érand de París el 8 de abril de 1893

Estreno en el Teatro Real

Nueva producción del Teatro Real, en coproducción con la Ópera de Frankfurt

Reparto
Soprano | Camilla Tilling
Mezzosoprano | Enkelejda Shkosa
Coro y Orquesta Titulares del Teatro Real
Pequeños Cantores de la Comunidad de Madrid

I did not know what to expect regarding the staging of these two seemingly disparate works, however it proved to be a very memorable evening. The Debussy cantata was performed as ethereally as it should (great playing from the orchestra), the action on stage being appropriately static, divided on two levels like in so many El Greco paintings. This two-plane division of the stage was carried out to Jeanne d'Arc au bûcher, which followed immediately without a break (a great transitorial coup de théâtre). Cotillard was excellent in the role, as was, more or less, everyone else. The staging emphasized the bizarre aspect of the visions. Costumes weren't as uniformly successful, however I was not too close to the stage to be bothered by incongruous details. Musically, both vocally and orchestrally, the score was allowed to unfold organically and was performed with panache, great conviction, enthusiasm and beauty of tone; beauty where required, force where it mattered. In the final cathartic climax, some of Cotillard's lines ("J'ai cassé! J'ai rompu!") were rather inaudible. It did not matter. The burning itself was handled convincingly and the effects used were not distracting. And after several warm rounds of applause, we were let out of the theatre just as the setting sun had set the sky and the clouds on fire.