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

[GioCar]

On topic - looking forward tremendously (and that's the understatement of the month!) to "Fin de partie", György Kurtág's opera after Beckett, to be premiered in November at la Scala - opening night with GioCar (hey there  ) and second night hopefully with another friend.

Details:
http://www.teatroallascala.org/en/season/2017-2018/opera/fin-de-partie.html

The former season Sciarrino, this season Kurtág... going together to a world premiere at La Scala is almost a tradition for us 

[king ubu]

The former season Sciarrino, this season Kurtág... going together to a world premiere at La Scala is almost a tradition for us 

That would be a good tradition to establish for sure! 

Another one here has been the Lucerne Theatre starting its season with a 20c opera. In 2016 it was an outstanding production of Nono's "Prometeo", in 2017 it was Ligeti's "Le Grand macabre" (which I'll skip in Zurich in the 2018/19 season - didn't enjoy it enough to catch it again so soon). But in the upcoming season, they don't have anything alike, alas (some interesting projects and stuff, for sure, one about Mahler's "Kindertotenlieder" with Matthew Herbert for instance) ... but if they pick up that tradition again, I'll continue attending, too!

[Cato]

The clock has ticked!

On June 28th I will be hearing (along with the gracious and fetching Mrs. Cato    ) the Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg in London, England, with Esa Pekka-Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Actress Barbara Sukowa will be the Sprecherin for the section Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd: her wild, shouting interpretation on a DGG recording  from the early '90's was something else!       I will be interested to hear if she repeats the interpretation!

[asin]B000025WWW[/asin]

That looks very appealing! I must confess I haven't heard the Abbado recording, but I should...and Frau Sukowa is a great actress IMO. She was outstanding as Hannah Arendt in the film by Margarethe von Trotta.

You must hear Barbara Sukowa's interpretation, just for the experience: after 25 years, I am still not sure it is appropriate, but it is certainly unique! 

We leave today for the Cleveland airport: the airplane for Iceland takes off at 12:30 A.M. (Oy!  I am not a night owl, but will need to push myself), and after a 5-hour pause in Iceland, we will land in London on Wednesday evening.

We will do the usual sightseeing, and plan to include the Roman ruins at Bath and good ol' Stonehenge!  Gurrelieder on the 28th!

[NikF]

The first two are Friday. Saturday and the third a couple of days earlier.

Mozart: String Quartet in D K575
Dvořák: String Quartet in F Op 96 'The American'
Dohnányi: Piano Quintet No 1

-

Mozart: String Quartet in B flat K589
Dvořák: String Quartet in E flat Op 51
Dohnányi: Piano Quintet No 2 

Takács Quartet
Marc-André Hamelin - Piano

----

Prokofiev: Sonata in D for solo violin Op 115
Schumann: Violin Sonata No 1
Takemitsu: Distance de fée
Arvo Pärt: Fratres
Ravel: Violin Sonata in G

Viktoria Mullova - Violin
Katia Labèque - Piano

[NikF]

Currently doing a series of performances (plus a recording for Chandos) of L'enfance du Christ by Berlioz. Andrew Davis is conducting.

I missed this post. Congrats, oor jessop. Good stuff.

[Brian]

Wow, Nik, those are all three super awesome.

Jessop, I love that piece, and although it is perhaps not seasonal right now, I look forward to listening to y'all's recording in 18 months or so

[NikF]

Wow, Nik, those are all three super awesome.

Yeah, I'm looking forward to them.

There's also these during the following week -

Mozart: Piano Quartet No 1 in G minor K478
Schubert: Piano Sonata in A minor D784
Schubert: Piano Quintet in A D667 'Trout' 

Four string principals from the Berliner Philharmoniker – Noah Bendix-Balgley, Máté Szucs, Martin Löhr and Matthew McDonalald
Christian Blackshaw - Piano

/

Shostakovich String Quartet No 7
Schubert String Quartet No 13 in A minor D804 'Rosamunde'
Ravel String Quartet 

Pavel Haas Quartet

- but I'm doing some work elsewhere during that month and so had to choose only one week. Still, it's a nice problem to have.

[Draško]

On Sunday:

Francois Couperin - Lecons de Tenebres
Radoslava Varagic, Zorica Pavlovic (sopranos)
New Trinity Baroque Ensemble

I've really enjoyed this. Live performances of French baroque in Belgrade are still quite rare, and this one was pretty decent. Ms. Vorgic (whom I misspelt originally) particularly showed some fine tone and articulation in the first Lecon. Basso continuo consisted of chamber organ, viola de gamba and couple of theorbos, and in between the motets they performed a couple of Marais pieces for gamba and couple of de Visee pieces for lute/theorbo. A fine concert altogether.

[GioCar]

On Sunday, the final concert of our annual subscription

Mahler: Symphony no.9
Herbert Blomstedt conducting the Filarmonica della Scala

[André]

I saw the ad on the Scala billboards...*sigh*

[king ubu]

On Sunday, the final concert of our annual subscription

Mahler: Symphony no.9
Herbert Blomstedt conducting the Filarmonica della Scala

Nice! I'll hear Blomstedt next Friday at Tonhalle, Julia Fischer playing the Mendelssohn concerto (a favourite that I've so far not heard in performance), followed by Mahler 1.
Tomorrow, Manfred Honeck is subbing for Haitink (who fell, it seems, and while alright has to take a break), FP Zimmermann will play the Beethoven concerto (preceded by the Egmont overture, and then they will do Brahms 4, which I find somewhat uninspiring in that it replaces Schumann 2 ... either way, don't know Honeck and am curious, but mostly am looking forward to my first Beethoven VC in concert, and also to hearing FP Zimmermann again, whom I heard with the Brahms concerto some three or four years ago).

Futhermore, just got my huge pile of tickets for Tonhalle's 2018/19 season - lots of goodies to come! 

[Cato]

The clock has ticked!

On June 28th I will be hearing (along with the gracious and fetching Mrs. Cato    ) the Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg in London, England, with Esa Pekka-Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Actress Barbara Sukowa will be the Sprecherin for the section Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd: her wild, shouting interpretation on a DGG recording  from the early '90's was something else!       I will be interested to hear if she repeats the interpretation!

[asin]B000025WWW[/asin]

Tomorrow is the big day! 

A soprano named Camilla Tilling - a more British name would be hard to invent  - will pinch hit for the scheduled one.

I am typing with one finger on a "pad" so no review until next week! 

TOO TEDIOUS!   0:)

[ritter]

Tomorrow is the big day! 

Enjoy!!! 

A soprano named Camilla Tilling - a more British name would be hard to invent  - will pinch hit for the scheduled one.

She's Swedish, though. 

[Karl Henning]

Huzzah! A Cato sighting!

[Cato]

Enjoy!!! 
She's Swedish, though. 

I just discovered that!   

[Cato]

The clock has ticked!

On June 28th I will be hearing (along with the gracious and fetching Mrs. Cato    ) the Gurrelieder by Arnold Schoenberg in London, England, with Esa Pekka-Salonen conducting the Philharmonia Orchestra.

Actress Barbara Sukowa will be the Sprecherin for the section Des Sommerwindes Wilde Jagd: her wild, shouting interpretation on a DGG recording  from the early '90's was something else!       I will be interested to hear if she repeats the interpretation!

[asin]B000025WWW[/asin]

WOW!  Just WOW!  The Philharmonia Orchestra is one sharp, nuclear-powered orchestra!  We had front row balcony seats and could see everything and hear (just about) everything perfectly!  I was not disappointed at all with the orchestra or most of the soloists!   

Barbara Sukowa softened her hootin' 'n' hollerin' interpretation of the Sprecherin part somewhat: she sounded great!

The orchestra filled the stage and filled the hall with great sound when power was required, and became delicate and chamber-like, when that was required.  The concert was a sell-out, and a semi-standing ovation was given at the end.

Only one thing (or two): the singers for Waldemar (Robert Dean Smith) and Tove (Camilla Tilling) lacked the vocal power to be heard over the orchestra at times: for Waldemar's last song in Part II, the fist-shaking threat against God, Mr. Smith lost the battle for his imprecation to be heard ("...mit meiner wilde Jagd, ins Himmelreich ein!" did not sound as mighty as it should have).

The choirs were also extremely good.  And as far as the conducting goes, Esa Pekka-Salonen was on target, no strange tempi or additions or subtractions:  a fairly slow pace at times, but nothing eccentric, and when speed was called for, the engines were cranked up!

The good part: you can hear the exact same concert via Radio 3 BBC!  Perhaps the engineers were able to bring out the two main voices via microphone magic!

See/Hear:

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b0b7hvgv

[ritter]

Thanks for the review, Cato, and congratulations for what appears to be e been a great concert! 

Seeing Gurrelieder live is quite an experience. I had the chance of doing so here in Madrid four years ago (conducted by Eliahu Inbal) and really enjoyed it.

[Cato]

Thanks for the review, Cato, and congratulations for what appears to be been a great concert! 

Seeing Gurrelieder live is quite an experience.   I had the chance of doing so here in Madrid four years ago (conducted by Eliahu Inbal) and really enjoyed it.

Amen!  Mrs. Cato enjoyed it very much, especially the singer handling Klaus Narr!  (Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke) 

[TheGSMoeller]

Bought my first 3-concert subscription of the year for the Nashville Symphony. there are a few concerts I want to see in the winter and spring but waiting to get closer before I pick the dates. Every piece on these programs will be a first time seeing performed live for me, with the exception of Psalms which I've actually performed. But this might be the best 3-concert stretch in such a small time that I've ever had planned, every piece on this list is great.


October 6th
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor | James Ehnes, violin
Beethoven – Violin Concerto
John Adams – Harmonielehre  Live Recording


November 3rd
Victor Yampolsky, conductor | Behzod Abduraimov, piano
Mussorgsky – Dawn on Moscow River from Khovanshchina
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 8


November 17th
Hans Graf, conductor
R.Strauss – Serenade in E-flat Major
Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé

[André]

Great stuff! The first with Beethoven/Ehnes and Harmonielehre is mouth-moutering ! I heard the Adams in Cologne a few years ago. Memorable. A disc doesn't convey its sonic impact.