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

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Yes! Rouse's Symphonies 3 & 4 just came out on Dacapo, with the New York Philharmonic and Alan Gilbert - really interesting CD. His flute concerto is magnificent; BIS Records CEO Robert von Bahr chose it as the last thing he heard before a life-threatening surgery. (Spoiler alert: he lived to hear more music.)

Thank you very much for enlightening me on this. I will check his music out soonish I hope.

[SimonNZ]

Me: 'Evolve' for clarinet, violin and piano (world premiere)

Congratulations! Was the concert recorded?

[ComposerOfAvantGarde]

Congratulations! Was the concert recorded?

Thanks! The audio was. They will send me a recording.

[Obradovic]

Coming Monday 13 FEB at the Athens Megaron

J.S. Bach: Brandenburg Concertos BWV1046-51

Armonia Atenea
George Petrou

[Spineur]

For once there are decent concerts in Grenoble around a special Beethoven week-end
-> Prazak quartet
-> Abdel Rahman el Bacha
and a few more.  I bought tickets for those two.

Goethe said of Beethoven

"I have never met an artist more powerfully concentrated, more energetic, more interior ... But unfortunately his personality is quite untamed"

It is precisely this unbridled side that I love in Beethoven's music, and the Prazak quartet transmits it exactly as it is by setting it on fire. On the program of the first concert, they played the quartets
Op18 no5
Op 135 no16
Op 131 no13
In these last two quartets, there are fortissimos fff, and it must be heard "live" to realize what this means. I'm not just talking about the reduction of the dynamics unavoidable with the CD, but of the sensation that the instrumentalists give: they push madly with their bows on the strings to the point of breaking some of the bow hairs during the attack. We say to ourselves "Beethoven is indeed an untamed creature".

I really like this quartet because they really set Beethoven on fire (the Italiano is the opposite).

El Bacha played Opus 87 and Op 90, and then with Prazak a wind quintet transcribed for string quartet and piano (Op. 16). What is interesting in a live piano concert is the palette of touches (the color of the pianists) that recordings only partially render (their phrasing goes through much better). It is this touch that I found interesting in El Basha playing. But when he teamed up with the Prazak, the concert took on a whole new dimension: his natural reserve flew away and he followed in Prazak's footsteps with the 'con fuoco' approach.

This was very good. El Bacha gives a master class tomorrow open to the public, but unfortunately I cant go.

[Kontrapunctus]

How about one I was looking forward to and attended yesterday? 

Words fail when trying to describe Lukas Debargue's recital in Berkeley yesterday. He combines mind-blowing technique with the sense that he a co-creator of the music. This is easily one of the most amazing recitals I have yet heard.

Program:

Scarlatti: Sonata K. 132
Chopin: Ballade No.4
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit

Intermission

Medtner: Sonata in F Op.5

Encores
Scarlatti K.208 and K.24

Curtain call after the Medtner:


Chatting with him backstage:


His "autograph"!

[SurprisedByBeauty]

How about one I was looking forward to and attended yesterday? 

Words fail when trying to describe Lukas Debargue's recital in Berkeley yesterday. He combines mind-blowing technique with the sense that he a co-creator of the music. This is easily one of the most amazing recitals I have yet heard.

Program:

Scarlatti: Sonata K. 132
Chopin: Ballade No.4
Ravel: Gaspard de la Nuit

Intermission

Medtner: Sonata in F Op.5

Encores
Scarlatti K.208 and K.24

Curtain call after the Medtner:
Chatting with him backstage:
His "autograph"!

How very neat! His programs do look interesting by all means, and anyone who so strategically plans and programs Scarlatti seems bound to be worth lending special ears to.

[king ubu]

... 'cept that at his Milan concert, which he opened with four Scarlatti sonatas, those didn't work for me very well at all. Romanticised rubato Scarlatti, just the way I don't feel like hearing it. He went on with Gaspard and after the break topped things with a pretty adventurous Liszt sonata that was, I found, the best part of the concert. First encore sounded familiar but I couldn't pin it down, second was a horrible take on Thelonious Monk's "'Round Midnight", which he totally ignored as a composition and mood piece, instead just taking as starting-point for a rambling, crowd-pleasing bit of show-offery. But the Liszt was very interesting (if not really outstanding), I found.

[Kontrapunctus]

His Berkeley performance of Gaspard was the most hair-raising I have ever heard. The only other Medtner Op.5 I have heard is Hamelin's, and Debargue's was infinitely more interesting and gripping!

[NikF]

Join presenter Stephen Johnson, the BBC SSO and Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard for an introduction to Langgaard's music, exploring the composer's unique sound-world, through a number of his works, including a complete performance of the intensely dramatic and taut Fourth Symphony. 

Langgaard: Prelude to Antichrist (c.8 mins) (UK Premiere)
Langgaard: Symphony No.4 'Løvfald' ('Leaf-fall') (c.22 mins)

I've no idea who Langgaard is or what his music sounds like - and I don't intend to remedy that before the concert - but the opportunity to hear something new on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps after some lunch?) is too good an opportunity to miss.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Join presenter Stephen Johnson, the BBC SSO and Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard for an introduction to Langgaard's music, exploring the composer's unique sound-world, through a number of his works, including a complete performance of the intensely dramatic and taut Fourth Symphony.

Langgaard: Prelude to Antichrist (c.8 mins) (UK Premiere)
Langgaard: Symphony No.4 'Løvfald' ('Leaf-fall') (c.22 mins)

I've no idea who Langgaard is or what his music sounds like - and I don't intend to remedy that before the concert - but the opportunity to hear something new on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps after some lunch?) is too good an opportunity to miss.

Wow wow wow!
You will NOT regret that, methinks... and every GMG-Langgaardian is surely ready to second that notion. Awesome program.

[NikF]

Wow wow wow!
You will NOT regret that, methinks... and every GMG-Langgaardian is surely ready to second that notion. Awesome program.

Well, that's good to know. I'm certainly looking forward to it.
And now I'm even more tempted to have a listen beforehand. But I won't.

[SurprisedByBeauty]

Well, that's good to know. I'm certainly looking forward to it.
And now I'm even more tempted to have a listen beforehand. But I won't.

Absolutely. Be surprised. Langgaard doesn't need pre-studying to work his magic. Don't even listen to short, very different chamber pieces like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aav2wCZF12A.
But do, eventually, add this disc to your collection, for it is muhvelous! http://amzn.to/2lmvjI1

[NikF]

Absolutely. Be surprised. Langgaard doesn't need pre-studying to work his magic. Don't even listen to short, very different chamber pieces like this: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aav2wCZF12A.
But do, eventually, add this disc to your collection, for it is muhvelous! http://amzn.to/2lmvjI1

Thanks. Suggestions and insights are always appreciated. I've ordered that CD and it can sit in the unplayed shelves until after the concert.

[Brian]

Join presenter Stephen Johnson, the BBC SSO and Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard for an introduction to Langgaard's music, exploring the composer's unique sound-world, through a number of his works, including a complete performance of the intensely dramatic and taut Fourth Symphony.

Langgaard: Prelude to Antichrist (c.8 mins) (UK Premiere)
Langgaard: Symphony No.4 'Løvfald' ('Leaf-fall') (c.22 mins)

I've no idea who Langgaard is or what his music sounds like - and I don't intend to remedy that before the concert - but the opportunity to hear something new on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps after some lunch?) is too good an opportunity to miss.

Whoa!!!

[Karl Henning]

Join presenter Stephen Johnson, the BBC SSO and Chief Conductor Thomas Dausgaard for an introduction to Langgaard's music, exploring the composer's unique sound-world, through a number of his works, including a complete performance of the intensely dramatic and taut Fourth Symphony.

Langgaard: Prelude to Antichrist (c.8 mins) (UK Premiere)
Langgaard: Symphony No.4 'Løvfald' ('Leaf-fall') (c.22 mins)

I've no idea who Langgaard is or what his music sounds like - and I don't intend to remedy that before the concert - but the opportunity to hear something new on a Sunday afternoon (perhaps after some lunch?) is too good an opportunity to miss.

Wow wow wow!
You will NOT regret that, methinks... and every GMG-Langgaardian is surely ready to second that notion. Awesome program.

Duly seconded.

[NikF]

I should have posted this from the outset -

'During the interval (c.30 minutes), members of the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland will give a short chamber music recital in the Recital Room which will include the Sextet for flute, oboe, cor anglais, clarinet, bassoon and military drum, which Langgaard composed in 1922-23 (free to ticket-holders – limited seating availability).

The two works in the BBC SSO's concert will be recorded for future broadcast on BBC Radio 3.'

http://www.bbc.co.uk/events/evbhn3

[North Star]

That looks like a thoroughly awesome afternoon indeed.

[king ubu]

Tomorrow night: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Médée" at Zurich opera - final performance, William Christie conducting, Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Reinoud Van Mechelen singing ... looking forward very, very much!

[GioCar]

Tomorrow night: Marc-Antoine Charpentier's "Médée" at Zurich opera - final performance, William Christie conducting, Stéphanie d'Oustrac and Reinoud Van Mechelen singing ... looking forward very, very much!

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