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

[Mahlerian]

Friday, August 24, 8:00
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Nelsons

Looking forward to hearing this work live.

[king ubu]

Tomorrow night:

Chamber Orchestra of Europe   
LUCERNE FESTIVAL ALUMNI
Heinz Holliger Dirigent
Zoltán Fejérvári Klavier (Kurtág)
Sir András Schiff Klavier (Beethoven)
Miklós Perényi Violoncello

Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951)
Kammersinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur für fünfzehn Soloinstrumente op. 9

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Klaviersonate Es-Dur op. 27 Nr. 1 Sonata quasi una fantasia

György Kurtág (*1926)
... quasi una fantasia ... für Klavier und im Raum verteilte Instrumentalgruppen op. 27 Nr. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Klaviersonate cis-Moll op. 27 Nr. 2 Sonata quasi una fantasia

György Kurtág (*1926)
Doppelkonzert für Klavier, Violoncello und zwei im Raum verteilte Kammerensembles op. 27 Nr. 2

Heinz Holliger (*1939)
COncErto? Certo! cOn soli pEr tutti (... perduti? ...)! für Orchester

[TheGSMoeller]

Friday, August 24, 8:00
Mahler: Symphony No. 3 in D minor
Tanglewood Festival Chorus, Boston Symphony Orchestra, cond. Nelsons

Looking forward to hearing this work live.

*drools*

[Mahlerian]

*drools*

I'll be sure to provide a write-up soon afterwards.

[Que]

Currently on my way to the opening of the Early Music Festival in Utrecht.

Three concerts by the Huelgas Ensemble this afternoon:

ABOUT THE CONCERT: A polyphonic marathon as a prelude to the Festival. During three consecutive concerts the Huelgas Ensemble sings a whole alphabet of Burgundian composers together. One for each letter. It concerns composers who were employed by the Burgundian court, with a special exception for the prince of polyphony, Josquin. The singers go with Paul Van Nevel through excerpts from masses, motets and chansons of famous and to-be-discovered masters such as Champion, Divitis, Binchois, De Orto, Van Weerbeke and many others. With Anonymus and Incertus an ode is given to the many nameless polyphonists and their breathtaking contributions to the polyphonic repertoire of the 15th century.

[king ubu]

Tomorrow night:

Chamber Orchestra of Europe   
LUCERNE FESTIVAL ALUMNI
Heinz Holliger Dirigent
Zoltán Fejérvári Klavier (Kurtág)
Sir András Schiff Klavier (Beethoven)
Miklós Perényi Violoncello

Arnold Schönberg (1874–1951)
Kammersinfonie Nr. 1 E-Dur für fünfzehn Soloinstrumente op. 9

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Klaviersonate Es-Dur op. 27 Nr. 1 Sonata quasi una fantasia

György Kurtág (*1926)
... quasi una fantasia ... für Klavier und im Raum verteilte Instrumentalgruppen op. 27 Nr. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven (1770–1827)
Klaviersonate cis-Moll op. 27 Nr. 2 Sonata quasi una fantasia

György Kurtág (*1926)
Doppelkonzert für Klavier, Violoncello und zwei im Raum verteilte Kammerensembles op. 27 Nr. 2

Heinz Holliger (*1939)
COncErto? Certo! cOn soli pEr tutti (... perduti? ...)! für Orchester

The Kurtág was totally amazing! They kept the first gallery/balcony closed in order to spread the instrumental groups around the entire room - just as originally intended. I sat on the second balcony, so stereo spread or whatever wasn't ideal, but the sound at KKL is so transparent, it really didn't matter.

Schiff doing Beethoven (including the "meh" sonata - why is it meh actually? it's surely not a favourite of mine, but I never considered it "meh" either) was quite nice - they played the LvB and Kurtág without applause in between, the musicians were waiting on stage and at their positions in the gallery during the sonatas, Holliger and Fejérvári (and for the second part Perényi) sat on chairs behind the grand piano, then Fejérvári took Schiff's place (and for the second Kurtág piece, Schiff turned the pages for Fejérvári).

The opening Schönberg, played in its original chamber version with single strings, was great as well - it actually hit me quite hard. I definitely need to explore Schönberg's music some (or rather: a lot) more!

The Holliger piece at the end was a bit of a hodge podge I felt, but it was full of interesting sonic combinations and unexptected sounds that couldn't quite be matched with what instruments you saw on stage - I like that aspect of his orchestral work a lot, that he achieves unknown sounds again and again (and this time without too many exotic instruments on stage ... the Kurtág had uprights and cimbaloms and harps and lots of percussion, the Holliger was pretty regularly cast).

Now looking forward to my second concert at this year's Lucerne festival, coming up on Thursday (right after a night at Willisau jazz festival nearby):

Sinfoniekonzert 13
Berliner Philharmoniker | Kirill Petrenko | Yuja Wang
Dukas | Prokofjew | Schmidt

Berliner Philharmoniker     
Kirill Petrenko    Dirigent
Yuja Wang    Klavier

60. Luzerner Bühnenjubiläum der Berliner Philharmoniker

Paul Dukas (1865–1935) La Péri, ou La Fleur d'immortalité 
Sergej Prokofjew (1891–1953)  Konzert für Klavier und Orchester Nr. 3 C-Dur op. 26 
--
Franz Schmidt (1874–1939)  Sinfonie Nr. 4 C-Dur 

[Mahlerian]

The opening Schönberg, played in its original chamber version with single strings, was great as well - it actually hit me quite hard. I definitely need to explore Schönberg's music some (or rather: a lot) more!

Well, that's a matter of course! 

In all seriousness, though, the Chamber Symphony is an amazing work, and I think one of the top 10 most brilliant pieces of the 20th century by anyone.

Franz Schmidt (1874–1939)  Sinfonie Nr. 4 C-Dur

Oh, the Schmidt symphony!  Sounds great.  Do you know the work well already?

[king ubu]

Oh, the Schmidt symphony!  Sounds great.  Do you know the work well already?

Nope - should I squeeze in a pre-listen? I was planning to just go there, read the programme notes and otherwise be surprised (but I think I have a recording of it somewhere, maybe more than one).

[Mahlerian]

Nope - should I squeeze in a pre-listen? I was planning to just go there, read the programme notes and otherwise be surprised (but I think I have a recording of it somewhere, maybe more than one).

Not necessarily, and if you want to go in blind, so to speak, by all means do so.  It's just that the work reveals a lot of detail with familiarity.

[king ubu]

Not necessarily, and if you want to go in blind, so to speak, by all means do so.  It's just that the work reveals a lot of detail with familiarity.

Oh, I'm sure about that ... but the time is tight and I have heard just a tiny bit of music by Schmidt so far - so yeah, I'll go blind this time (and who knows, maybe one day when I'll be more familiar, I'll get another chance to hear it in concert ...)

Btw, as far as Schönberg goes, I came to grips (or so it feels) with the piano music a few months ago - and I enjoy it immensely! I'll certainly follow up on all of this, but it needs a lot of time, of course.

[listener]

My tickets for a few Vancouver Symphony concerts arrived today.  It's a lacklustre season but I picked programs with POULENC 2-Piano Concerto, BARTOK Piano Concerto 3 (Tiberghien), DVORAK: Stabat Mater, SHOSTAKOVICH: Symphony 9 + KORNGOLD Violin Conc. and RODRIGO; Guitar concerto (Aranjuez).  I will have to miss the DUTILLEUX Symphony 2 due to a schedule clash.

[NikF]

Daniel Ciobanu: Piano

C Silvestri – Bacanale
Beethoven – Sonata op 27 no 2 "Moonlight"
Enescu – Carillon Nocturne
Ernesto Lecuona – 3 Dances from the "Suite Espagnole"
Sergey Prokofiev, Sonata no 2
Alexander Scriabin, 3 Preludes op 11, nos 9, 10, 11
Igor Stravinsky/Guido Agosti, The Firebird

http://www.phas.org.uk/venues/
The concert is being held in the library.

e: Can't remember if I already posted it, but I'll also be at the BBC SSO opening night -

Aaron Copland: Fanfare for the Common Man
Augusta Read Thomas: Brio(European Premiere)
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue
Leonard Bernstein: Songfest

Thomas Dausgaard - Cond.
SSO
Marc-André Hamelin - Piano

[king ubu]

Sunday - w/o Pintscher who has resigned from his Lucerne post with immediate effectivity ... not sure what happened, but I do hope they'll find someone better than "NN" to replace him in time!

Here's the news bit about his immediate resignation:
https://www.lucernefestival.ch/en/news/97

I've got a ticket or two for him doing stuff at Tonhalle in the season that'll soon (finally! I'm starving!) start ...

--

Kosmos Stockhausen 5
Pierre-Laurent Aimard
So, 09.09. | 11.00 Uhr | Nr. 18346
Kirchensaal MaiHof

Pierre-Laurent Aimard    Klavier

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)
KLAVIERSTÜCKE I-XI

--

Open Box 1: Impro-Box
Joke Lanz | Gilles Grimaître
So, 09.09. | 16.00 Uhr
Luzerner Theater, Box 

Joke Lanz   Turntables
Gilles Grimaître   Keys & Electronics

--

Kosmos Stockhausen 6
London Symphony Orchestra | Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY | Rattle | Ward | NN
Stockhausen
So, 09.09. | 18.30 Uhr | Nr. 18363
KKL Luzern, Luzerner Saal

London Symphony Orchestra     
Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY   
Sir Simon Rattle    Dirigent
NN   Dirigent
Duncan Ward    Dirigent

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)
GRUPPEN für drei Orchester

--

Sinfoniekonzert 24
Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY | NN | London Symphony Orchestra | Rattle
Messiaen | Nono
So, 09.09. | 19.30 Uhr | Nr. 18348
KKL Luzern, Konzertsaal

Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY     
NN   Dirigent  (Nono) 

London Symphony Orchestra     
Sir Simon Rattle    Dirigent  (Messiaen)

Olivier Messiaen (1908–1992)
Et exspecto resurrectionem mortuorum für Bläser und Schlagzeug 

Luigi Nono (1924–1990)
No hay caminos, hay que caminar ... Andrej Tarkowskij für sieben Orchestergruppen

--

Kosmos Stockhausen 7
London Symphony Orchestra | Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY | Rattle | Ward | NN
Stockhausen
So, 09.09. | 21.00 Uhr | Nr. 18364
KKL Luzern, Luzerner Saal

London Symphony Orchestra   
Orchester der LUCERNE FESTIVAL ACADEMY     
Sir Simon Rattle    Dirigent
NN   Dirigent
Duncan Ward    Dirigent

Karlheinz Stockhausen (1928–2007)
GRUPPEN für drei Orchester

[Judith]

Wonderful concert yesterday evening in York
Steven Isserlis and friends performing

Brahms Scherzo. FAE
Schumann Slow movement of violin concerto ( arr himself)
Faure String Quartet
Messiaen Vocalise for Cello and Piano
Beethoven Cello Sonata in A Major
Encore Schumann 4th sketch for Pedal Piano

The other musicians were
Anthony Marwood
Irene Rival
Violin

Elvind Ringstad Viola
Ian Brown Piano

Such a lovely evening🎼🎼

[Draško]

Backward to this time. Last night was the opening of the Belgrade Philharmonic 18/19 season.

Beethoven - Symphony No.5
Bartok - Duke Bluebeard's Castle

Adriana Bastidas-Gamboa (mezzo)
Balint Szabo (bass)
Belgrade Philharmonic
Gabriel Feltz (cond.)

Beethoven was well played but I prefer concepts with less color and more pulse and momentum.

Bartok was excellent. It's an opera that works maybe even better as concert performance with full complement of symphony orchestra, which not every orchestra pit can accommodate. Feltz additionally placed four trumpets and trombones on the balcony, for the fifth door, with truly hair rising effect. Singers were pretty good. Romanian/Hungarian bass is a native speaker which is always a plus. Colombian mezzo's enunciation wasn't as clear but the voice was strong enough, with bit of vibrato, to ride the full orchestra and the scream was valiant. The performance was semi staged, insofar that there was multicolored lighting and three veiled ballerinas appeared briefly as previous wives. The orchestra was superb throughout. All in all quite decent start of the season. 

Next bgf concert for me is in fortnight, Lugansky and Vedernikov, Brahms 2nd piano Concerto and Sibelius 2nd Symphony.
 

[Kwoon]

I plan to see the Czech Philharmonic Orchestra perform Dvorak's cello concerto on Nov 1, with Bychkov conducting and Alisa Weilerstein playing cello. I look forward to this concert because I have never seen this concerto in a live performance.

[Draško]

Tonight:

Brahms - Piano Concerto No.2
Sibelius - Symphony No.2

Nikolai Lugansky (piano)
Belgrade Philharmonic
Alexander Vedernikov (cond.)

[André]

Kwoon, Milos: very nice programs, artists. Please report!

[Draško]

Kwoon, Milos: very nice programs, artists. Please report!

The Brahms was very good. It's a piece that plays to Lugansky strengths. He has superb technique, there wasn't even a smudge let alone a wrong note anywhere to be heard, and he has really fine beautiful big rounded sound, no fear of being drowned by orchestra. It also downplays his weaknesses, if I'm being kind I'd say that he is not the most imaginative of pianists. Most of his solo performances bore me to sleep. But in big concertos playing straight, with beautiful tone, without any excess is perfectly fine and he does it superbly (his set of Rachmaninov concertos is my favorite modern recording). So the Brahms was highly enjoyable and quite beautiful, if not the most insightful and ear opening.

The Sibelius 2nd was fine, well played (though winds weren't quite at their most sparkling, error free but workmanlike) but at nearly 50 minutes bit broad for my current tastes (Berglund kind of got me used to zippier Sibelius). Second movement becomes bit of dirge at that tempo, but on the other side opening of it becomes quite magical. The contrast between scherzo proper and trio I felt was too strong and the final peroration was positively brucknerian, for better or worse.

[TheGSMoeller]

Tomorrow...

Nashville Symphony | Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor | James Ehnes, violin

PROGRAM
Beethoven – Violin Concerto
John Adams – Harmonielehre