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

[shirime]

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.

I think it's always exciting hearing music for the first time, especially live in concert. Also, I absolutely adore Mozart's 19th quartet. I hope you enjoy the concert!

[NikF]

I think it's always exciting hearing music for the first time, especially live in concert. Also, I absolutely adore Mozart's 19th quartet. I hope you enjoy the concert!

Yeah, it is. I go so far as to avoiding reading anything about the music beforehand.
Thanks.

[shirime]

Yeah, it is. I go so far as to avoiding reading anything about the music beforehand.
Thanks.

Curiously do you often make an effort to see things in concert that you've never heard before? It's what I typically do. I can't quite work out what it is exactly, but there's something a bit more thrilling about discovering something new. With world premiered there seems to be a more engaged atmosphere or something like that in the auditorium as everyone is in the same process of discovery together.

[NikF]

Curiously do you often make an effort to see things in concert that you've never heard before? It's what I typically do. I can't quite work out what it is exactly, but there's something a bit more thrilling about discovering something new. With world premiered there seems to be a more engaged atmosphere or something like that in the auditorium as everyone is in the same process of discovery together.

Sometimes with UK or world premieres, yes. Obviously, once upon a time the well known pieces in the repertoire had a premiere too. Although I try not to compare further than that if you stand back far enough you can see that new works are part of the whole, and so to seek out the new is fitting and right and even natural.

And I think I know what you mean by the engaged atmosphere in the auditorium, because on a few occasions I've even noticed small pockets of the audience applauding and yelling in a manner more akin to a pop concert. You ever heard a section of the crowd behaving in that way?

An example from last week - and I thought interesting that it was clearly billed 'Pintscher Conducts Pintscher' -

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Pintscher: Un despertar (An awakening) (Second Cello Concerto) UK Premiere
Mozart: Symphony No 39 in E flat major, K543

I had tickets, but at the moment I'm busy with stuff that took precedence. But look at that lineup - usually I'd be all over that.

[vandermolen]

Last night I attended an Armistice concert in the local church. Highlights of the first half for me were Finzi's 'Farewell to Arms' and the Agnus Dei from Britten's War Requiem. The second half featured a long work 'Dona Nobis Pacem' by a local composer Andrew Campling. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was the highlight of the concert. The music (settings from the Psalms, Wilfred Owen  and Geoffrey Kennedy) was interspersed with readings from the diary of the composer's grandfather who had been a chaplain with the British army on the Westen Front. The diary had only been discovered after the death of the composer's grandfather in 1973. I hope that the work is recorded one day - it certainly deserves to be.

[shirime]

Sometimes with UK or world premieres, yes. Obviously, once upon a time the well known pieces in the repertoire had a premiere too. Although I try not to compare further than that if you stand back far enough you can see that new works are part of the whole, and so to seek out the new is fitting and right and even natural.

And I think I know what you mean by the engaged atmosphere in the auditorium, because on a few occasions I've even noticed small pockets of the audience applauding and yelling in a manner more akin to a pop concert. You ever heard a section of the crowd behaving in that way?

An example from last week - and I thought interesting that it was clearly billed 'Pintscher Conducts Pintscher' -

Ravel: Le tombeau de Couperin
Pintscher: Un despertar (An awakening) (Second Cello Concerto) UK Premiere
Mozart: Symphony No 39 in E flat major, K543

I had tickets, but at the moment I'm busy with stuff that took precedence. But look at that lineup - usually I'd be all over that.

I'm all over that programme as well, big Pintscher fan here, and he's brilliant at Ravel as he is in his own music.

I love the idea of thinking of all music as if it were indeed new, and performing it as such, because chances are there are people in the audience for whom it is unfamiliar music. 

[NikF]

Last night I attended an Armistice concert in the local church. Highlights of the first half for me were Finzi's 'Farewell to Arms' and the Agnus Dei from Britten's War Requiem. The second half featured a long work 'Dona Nobis Pacem' by a local composer Andrew Campling. I wasn't sure what to expect but it was the highlight of the concert. The music (settings from the Psalms, Wilfred Owen  and Geoffrey Kennedy) was interspersed with readings from the diary of the composer's grandfather who had been a chaplain with the British army on the Westen Front. The diary had only been discovered after the death of the composer's grandfather in 1973. I hope that the work is recorded one day - it certainly deserves to be.

That concert sounds interesting and good. Also, very fitting, respectful, and moving, as befitting the occasion.

[NikF]

I'm all over that programme as well, big Pintscher fan here, and he's brilliant at Ravel as he is in his own music.

I love the idea of thinking of all music as if it were indeed new, and performing it as such, because chances are there are people in the audience for whom it is unfamiliar music.

Exactly, yes. And I'm one of them, someone who is still unfamiliar with huge parts of the standard concert repertoire. But even then, as my knowledge grows, ear becomes more attuned and taste develops, there's more that's 'new' revealed on subsequent performances.

Re: Pintscher - I can say that I've heard him conduct a number of works now and without fail there's something almost (for want of a better term) 'vital' in the performances. Best I can describe it is that I come away with the impression of being completely exposed to the piece, but in a way that was delivered without exaggerating or being overblown. Kind of like what the saying 'an iron fist inside a velvet glove' imparts.

[pjme]

Last saturday I attended a remembrance concert in Antwerp.
It was labeled a "concervertelling" - a concert tale.
Two actors told/recited poems (Emile Verhaeren, Paul Van Ostaijen, Daan Boens and August Van Cauwelaert) and diary fragments (Virginie Loveling).
Short fragments from rather wel known works (Richard Strauss Alpensymphony, Debussy's Berceuse héroique, Alban Berg's Bruchstücke from Wozzeck) were combined with some new music by Peter Vermeersch(born 1959), some Belgo/Flemish compositions (Jef Van Hoof's Symphonic suite nr 1, Paul Gilson's Suite à la manière ancienne, Lodewijk Mortelmans' Elegy nr.1). Two works -also integrated in the general dramaturgy - were performed in entirety: Edward Elgar's A voice in the desert and Frits Celis' Preludio e narrazione (1983) for soprano and orchestra.
Celis (°1929) highly impressive work uses "The parents" by Anton Van Wilderode, a poem inspired by Käthe Kollwitz :

"Kollwitz reworked the motif of the bereaved parents multiple times as both a print and a sculpture. She planned the sculpture to serve as a memorial to her son Peter who was killed in World War I. She struggled with this image and wrote in her journal, "Yet again I am not finished with the War series. Done the sheet 'Parents' over again. Suddenly it looks entirely bad to me. Far too bright and hard and distinct. Pain is totally dark." Yet in the end, Kollwitz succeeded in capturing the grief of the bereaved parents that she knew only too well."
Source: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/56194/the-parents-kaethe-kollwitz



https://artsandactivities.com/the-grieving-parents-kathe-kollwitz/

Excellent pereformances by the Antwerp SO under Giancarlo Andretta. Soprano Liesbeth Devos has a wonderful lyric voice. She sang a brillant orchestral version (Georges D'Hoedt) of Debussy's "Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons" , was suitably dramatic in the Celis "Narrazione" and sweetly moving in Elgar's "A voice in the desert".

The last work on the program was Lodewijk De Vocht's symphonic poem "In ballingschap - In exile (a prayer for my fatherland)". De Vocht managed to escape from heavily bombed Antwerp in 1914 - one day before Antwerp was occupied by the German army.

https://www.youtube.com/v/VAlEvftJSa8

[vandermolen]

Last saturday I attended a remembrance concert in Antwerp.
It was labeled a "concervertelling" - a concert tale.
Two actors told/recited poems (Emile Verhaeren, Paul Van Ostaijen, Daan Boens and August Van Cauwelaert) and diary fragments (Virginie Loveling).
Short fragments from rather wel known works (Richard Strauss Alpensymphony, Debussy's Berceuse héroique, Alban Berg's Bruchstücke from Wozzeck) were combined with some new music by Peter Vermeersch(born 1959), some Belgo/Flemish compositions (Jef Van Hoof's Symphonic suite nr 1, Paul Gilson's Suite à la manière ancienne, Lodewijk Mortelmans' Elegy nr.1). Two works -also integrated in the general dramaturgy - were performed in entirety: Edward Elgar's A voice in the desert and Frits Celis' Preludio e narrazione (1983) for soprano and orchestra.
Celis (°1929) highly impressive work uses "The parents" by Anton Van Wilderode, a poem inspired by Käthe Kollwitz :

"Kollwitz reworked the motif of the bereaved parents multiple times as both a print and a sculpture. She planned the sculpture to serve as a memorial to her son Peter who was killed in World War I. She struggled with this image and wrote in her journal, "Yet again I am not finished with the War series. Done the sheet 'Parents' over again. Suddenly it looks entirely bad to me. Far too bright and hard and distinct. Pain is totally dark." Yet in the end, Kollwitz succeeded in capturing the grief of the bereaved parents that she knew only too well."
Source: https://collections.artsmia.org/art/56194/the-parents-kaethe-kollwitz



https://artsandactivities.com/the-grieving-parents-kathe-kollwitz/

Excellent pereformances by the Antwerp SO under Giancarlo Andretta. Soprano Liesbeth Devos has a wonderful lyric voice. She sang a brillant orchestral version (Georges D'Hoedt) of Debussy's "Noël des enfants qui n'ont plus de maisons" , was suitably dramatic in the Celis "Narrazione" and sweetly moving in Elgar's "A voice in the desert".

The last work on the program was Lodewijk De Vocht's symphonic poem "In ballingschap - In exile (a prayer for my fatherland)". De Vocht managed to escape from heavily bombed Antwerp in 1914 - one day before Antwerp was occupied by the German army.

https://www.youtube.com/v/VAlEvftJSa8

I love the Kollwicz sculpture of the grieving parents.

[vandermolen]

That concert sounds interesting and good. Also, very fitting, respectful, and moving, as befitting the occasion.

Indeed, it was very moving - especially the new work I had never heard before. Thanks 

[king ubu]

last night:

Lisa Batiashvili Violine
Gautier Capuçon Violoncello
Jean-Yves Thibaudet Klavier

Dmitri Schostakowitsch Klaviertrio Nr. 1 c-Moll op. 8
Maurice Ravel Klaviertrio a-Moll
--
Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy Klaviertrio Nr. 2 c-Moll op. 66

Quite wonderful indeed! I really wish there'd be more occasions to hear chamber music on such a high level, there's hardly anything (voices, of course!) that I find so beguiling. Batiashvili and Capuçon's tones meshed fabulously, their interactions were splendid, so alive that at times you got the illustion of improvisation. The Shosti was a nice and tasty opener, dark, brooding, with a cutting sharpness at times. The Ravel then almost seemed like a somewhat restrained continuation, and the trio built even more intensity, ending the second movement with a bang that evinced sighs of relief from the audience. The Mendelssohn, after the break, was quite different of course but probably my favourite of the evening. They did two encores (first sounded like a slow movement of something Russian - Tchaiko? -, second was a charming little thing ... they may have been arrangements, I don't really know, neither sounded very familiar).

--

Tonight:

Il Giardino Armonico
Giovanni Antonini Leitung
Patricia Kopatchinskaja Violine

Antonio Vivaldi
Violinkonzert C-Dur RV 191
Violinkonzert Es-Dur RV 253 "La Tempesta di mare"
Violinkonzert D-Dur op. 11 Nr. 2 RV 208 "Grosso Mogul"
Konzert g-Moll RV 157 für Streicher und Basso continuo
Konzert e-Moll RV 550 für vier Violinen, Streicher und Basso continuo aus "L'Estro Armonico" op. 3

plus short pieces by L. Francesconi, S. Movio, A. Cattaneo, M. Stroppa and G. Sollima, as well as "L'âme ouverte" by G. Scelsi

[shirime]

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

Meistersinger was good fun! Final thing I'm seeing in Melbourne this year before flying to Munich. I have a bunch of operas I'm seeing there: Otello, Jenufa, Die Zauberflöte, Die verkaufte Braut and Hansel und Gretel.

[North Star]

Meistersinger was good fun! Final thing I'm seeing in Melbourne this year before flying to Munich. I have a bunch of operas I'm seeing there: Otello, Jenufa, Die Zauberflöte, Die verkaufte Braut and Hansel und Gretel.

Surely you mean Prodaná nevěsta. Or are the doing it (and Jenůfa, or Její pastorkyňa?) in German? In any case, that all looks fantastic.

[shirime]

Surely you mean Prodaná nevěsta. Or are the doing it (and Jenůfa, or Její pastorkyňa?) in German? In any case, that all looks fantastic.

Hmm actually I'm not sure if they're doing it in Czech or German....it's one of those operas whose title seems to be known in the local language and I've just got used to seeing the title in German because that's how it's written on the company's website.

[North Star]

Hmm actually I'm not sure if they're doing it in Czech or German....it's one of those operas whose title seems to be known in the local language and I've just got used to seeing the title in German because that's how it's written on the company's website.

Ah.

[Obradovic]

At the Athens Megaron

Tomorrow 18 NOV

C. Saint-Saëns: Danse macabre op.40
S. Rachmaninov: Piano Concerto No.3 op.30
A. Glazunov: From the Middle Ages op.79: Prelude (only...)
S. Prokofiev: 5 pieces from the Romeo and Juliet-Suites No.1 & 2

Nikolai Lugansky, piano
Russian National Orchestra
Mikhail Pletnev

13 DEC

L.v. Beethoven: Leonore Overture No.2 op.72a
                        Symphony No.5 op.67
C. Saint-Saëns: Piano Concerto No.2 op.22

Fazıl Say, piano
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Roger Norrington

[TheGSMoeller]

Earlier tonight last night I saw..

Nashville Symphony & Chorus| Hans Graf, conductor

R.Strauss – Serenade in E-flat Major
Stravinsky – Symphony of Psalms
Ravel – Daphnis et Chloé

Seeing Ravel's Daphnis et Chloé live was amazing, I encourage anyone who has the opportunity to seize it. The orchestration is brilliant, and being able to visually experience the many parts of the score come together was a real treat. I now have a newfound respect, and love for Ravel's massive opus. My wife, who enjoys going to the symphony but is not familiar with any of the composers/works we see, was even completely spellbound the entire time.

We like to sit on one of the side balconies as the seats are more comfortable than most other areas, we ended up going right above the orchestra/choir, which we had never done before. I took this pic during intermission using the panorama feature, offers a decent idea of our view.

[Judith]

Yesterday evening, went to a wonderful recital in Harrogate performed by Stephen Hough.

Bach ( trans Busoni) Chaconne in D Minor
His own piano sonata no 4 ( Vida Breve)
Chopin Piano Sonata in B flat minor op 35
Chamber Fantasy on Carmen Busoni
Liszt Funerailles
Mephisto Waltz
Mephisto waltz no 1

Met him afterwards (for second time as met him at a previous recital)as he was signing autographs. He's really nice🎹🎹🎼🎼

[NikF]

Changing plans present opportunities. Next month -

Anna Clyne: Masquerade
Dvořák: Cello Concerto in B minor
Sibelius: Symphony No 2 in D major

BBC SSO
Pablo Ferrández: cello
Alpesh Chauhan: Conductor