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

[king ubu]

tonight:

Kammerorchester Basel
Heinz Holliger, Leitung
Patricia Kopatchinskaja, Violine

Franz Schubert (1797 - 1828)
Sinfonie Nr. 4 c-Moll D 417 ("Tragische")
Sinfonie Nr. 6 C-Dur D 589 («kleine C-Dur Sinfonie»)

Sofia Gubaidulina (*1931)
«Die Leier des Orpheus» für Violine, Schlagzeug und Streichorchester

Holy holy! Schubert with new ears! Sequence was 4, Gubaidulina, 2 short Holliger encores and after the break 6 (which is an opera in guise of a symphony, right? And it surely is close to beating Rossini on his own turf ...)

[TheGSMoeller]

Holy holy! Schubert with new ears! Sequence was 4, Gubaidulina, 2 short Holliger encores and after the break 6 (which is an opera in guise of a symphony, right? And it surely is close to beating Rossini on his own turf ...)

That's awesome, ubu! I think that's a great program.

[Brian]

Friday in Dallas:

Copland - Appalachian Spring
Beethoven - Concerto No. 2
Elgar - Enigma

Jonathan Biss
DSO
Miguel Harth-Bedoya (subbing for injured David Zinman)

I just got off the phone with the pianist, who did his best to convince me that No. 2 is not the runt of Beethoven's litter.

Next Tuesday:

Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances
Bach - Brandenburg No. 2
Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence

Dallas Chamber Orchestra
With the Fort Worth Symphony principal trumpet

[king ubu]

That's awesome, ubu! I think that's a great program.

It's been a while since I played Schubert's six early symphonies (I guess Hanover/Goodman is a favourite), and I was kinda unprepared for that. However, I think Holliger is an outstanding musician and as he is embarking on a Schubert project (performing - and recording, it seems - all of Schubert's symphonies), I was curious. The main attraction though was the Gubaidulina piece, which indeed didn't disappoint. A harsh, but at times extremely quiet piece, the solo violin is intervowen with the orchestra much of the time, dialoguing with the (solo) cello or the violin of the concertmaster (and there's also a bit of solo work for one of the double basses) ...

But the Schubert was really outstanding as well, and I guess the programme notes have a point when they say: if those six were composed not by Schubert but by some unknown dude, they'd be looked at (and probably accepted) as the wondrously fresh pieces they are, full to the brim with amazing melodies, orchestrated with great mastery, with a rich amount of variations (instead of throwing in more and more new material), and with so much charm on top of it all ... and No. 6 must be one of the most humorous pieces ever composed (albeit I guess the situation that made Schubert compose it, the fact that he was about to fail - or was made to fail - as an opera composer, wasn't exactly all that funny).

[Brian]

Friday in Dallas:

Copland - Appalachian Spring
Beethoven - Concerto No. 2
Elgar - Enigma

Jonathan Biss
DSO
Miguel Harth-Bedoya (subbing for injured David Zinman)

I just got off the phone with the pianist, who did his best to convince me that No. 2 is not the runt of Beethoven's litter.

Next Tuesday:

Bartok - Romanian Folk Dances
Bach - Brandenburg No. 2
Tchaikovsky - Souvenir de Florence

Dallas Chamber Orchestra
With the Fort Worth Symphony principal trumpet

Update to the last line - our chamber symphony has recruited a trumpeter from the Canadian Brass to step in for the Bach.

[TheGSMoeller]

Tomorrow...

Nashville Symphony | Victor Yampolsky - conductor | Behzod Abduraimov - piano

Mussorgsky – Dawn on Moscow River from Khovanshchina
Tchaikovsky – Piano Concerto No. 1
Shostakovich – Symphony No. 8

Yampolsky is a Russian-born conductor and musician. He was a member of the Moscow Philharmonic as both violinist and assistant conductor, under the direction of Kyrill Kondrashin. In 1973 Yampolsky took a job as a violinist in the Boston Symphony, and then moved to full-time conductor in 1977. Since 1984 he has been the director of conducting and ensembles at Northwestern University, which current Nasvhille SO Music Director Giancarlo Guerrero studied there under Yampolsky. I listened to a recent podcast with Guerrero where he spoke about inviting his former teacher to conduct the NSO.

[Draško]

Tomorrow, harpsichord recital:

Frederick Haas (on modern locally made instrument, I presume)

F.Couperin - 2eme Ordre (exc.)
Bach - 3 P&F from Book II WTK (886, 876, 871)
F.Couperin - 21eme Ordre
Scarlatti - 6 Sonatas (K 224, 236, 331, 332, 335, 299)

[NikF]

Next weekend -

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 Classical
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Ken Johnston: Three movements from 'All Those Men Who Marched Away'
Poulenc: Gloria

RSNO
Sondergard - Conductor
Alexander Gavrylyuk - Piano
Elin Rombo - Soprano
  

[ritter]

Next weekend -

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 Classical
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Ken Johnston: Three movements from 'All Those Men Who Marched Away'
Poulenc: Gloria

RSNO
Sondergard - Conductor
Alexander Gavrylyuk - Piano
Elin Rombo - Soprano
 

Enjoy, NikF! The Poulenc Gloria (a work I have a soft spot for) should provide a radiant and luminous conclusion to that program.

[NikF]

Enjoy, NikF! The Poulenc Gloria (a work I have a soft spot for) should provide a radiant and luminous conclusion to that program.

Thanks, ritter. Yeah, it's the chance to attend a live performance of the Poulenc that's prompted taking some time off. I'm looking forward to it.

[vandermolen]

Next weekend -

Prokofiev: Symphony No.1 Classical
Tchaikovsky: Piano Concerto No.1
Ken Johnston: Three movements from 'All Those Men Who Marched Away'
Poulenc: Gloria

RSNO
Sondergard - Conductor
Alexander Gavrylyuk - Piano
Elin Rombo - Soprano
 

Sounds like a great concert. Hope you enjoy it.

[NikF]

Sounds like a great concert. Hope you enjoy it.

Thanks, vandermolen! I'm sure I will.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Shostakovich – Symphony No. 8

That's an amazing piece to hear live. It's good that some of the less commonly performed DSCH symphonies are catching on - the 8th used to be an extreme rarity in concert.

[TheGSMoeller]

That's an amazing piece to hear live. It's good that some of the less commonly performed DSCH symphonies are catching on - the 8th used to be an extreme rarity in concert.

I agree! This was the first time seeing the 8th live in concert, and as expected seeing it live enhanced the quality of a work I've known for decades. I've now seen DSCH's 5th (twice), 8th, 10th and 15th in concert. Would love to see 11th or 14th.

[pjme]

Last Friday in Utrecht / the Netherlands (in remembrance ofthe end of WWI)

Claude Debussy/Alphons Diepenbrock: Berceuse héroique
Matthijs Vermeulen: La veille for mezzo and orchestra (on a poem by François Porché) 1914/ orch.1931
Maurice Ravel: Concerto pour la main gauche
Rudi Stephan: Musik für orchester (1912)
Maurice Ravel: La valse

Excellent performances by the Dutch Radio PhO / Kevin John Edusei
Eve-Maud Hubeaux, mezzo
Severin von Eckardstein, piano
Unusual and well chosen combination of works.
Diepenbrock was hoping to conduct Debussy's own orchestration of the Berceuse, but due to the war the score could not be sent to Amsterdam. Diepenbrock decided to make his own version.
Vermeulen's(substantial) song "La veille" I find very impressive, moving and still actual: all wars are gruesome and hopelessly cruel. Vermeulen's orchestra sounds at first dark and icy, flirts with a loud and angry march and drifts away in a pessimistic prayer.
Hubeaux has a beautiful voice, but was occasionally overpowered by the orchestra.
Read more : https://www.matthijsvermeulen.nl/en/compositions/songs/la-veille/

Edusei and von Eckardstein (both tall and thin) had power and elegance in the concerto (and the brillant spectacle of La valse). Kevin John Edusei later led the Dutch Radio  Phil in Stephan's "Musik", a late-late Romantic symphonic poem that moves from dark despair (incl. solo cello & violin) via a fugue to an unexpected "positive" triumph. Strange...
P.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I agree! This was the first time seeing the 8th live in concert, and as expected seeing it live enhanced the quality of a work I've known for decades. I've now seen DSCH's 5th (twice), 8th, 10th and 15th in concert. Would love to see 11th or 14th.

I've managed to hear live 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 15, some of them more than once (hey, I did live in Russia for several years). But the 8th was with LPO/Jurowski, on tour in Chicago a few years ago.

[TheGSMoeller]

I've managed to hear live 1, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 10, 11, and 15, some of them more than once (hey, I did live in Russia for several years). But the 8th was with LPO/Jurowski, on tour in Chicago a few years ago.

Impressive list!
I will say that I would gladly see 15th again over any of the others if I had the chance, such a fascinating piece and amazing to see live.

[Obradovic]

Jenůfa at our National Opera next week.

Grandmother Buryjovka: Ines Zikou
Laca Klemeň: Frank van Aken
Števa Buryja: Dimitris Paksoglou
Kostelnička Buryjovka: Sabine Hogrefe (14, 21, 24/10) - Julia Souglakou (19, 27/10, 2/11)
Jenůfa: Sarah-Jane Brandon ( 14, 21, 24/10) - Maria Mitsopoulou (19, 27/10, 2/11)
Foreman at the Mill: Yanni Yannissis
Mayor: Dimitris Kassioumis
The Mayor's Wife: Margarita Syngeniotou
Karolka: Artemis Bogri
Pastuchyňa: Barunka Preisinger
Barena: Varvara Biza
Jano: Miranda Makrynioti
Tetka: Anastasia Kotsali

For God's sake, they played the (now obsolete) Kovarovic orchestration of the final duet... Only (?) here in Greece these things...

[shirime]

Seeing Die Meistersinger von Nürnberg next week. And on the 1st of December I'm seeing Munich Chamber Orchestra perform some Lachenmann.

[NikF]

Mozart: Oboe Quartet K370
Finzi: Prelude and Fugue for String Trio
Finzi: Interlude for Oboe and String Quartet
Mozart: String Quartet No19 K465 Dissonance

RSNO members.

I'm in town for the concert detailed earlier in the thread and must remember to arrive early to pick up already purchased tickets for this one. Finzi is one of many composers I haven't heard, but it'll be cool to hear some of his work for the first time.