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

[Papy Oli]

    Unknown/Unknown 1975 (First date with the future Mrs. Rock. No memory of who conducted)

distracted, were you ?   

[André]

I completed my Mahler bucket list in 2007 with the Eighth and Tenth 

1. Louis Lane/Cleveland 1972
   Maazel/Vienna Phil 1995

2. Ormandy/Cleveland 1972
    Unknown/Unknown 1975 (First date with the future Mrs. Rock. No memory of who conducted)
    P.Järvi/Frankfurt RSO 2010

3. Chailly/Gewandhaus 2006

4. Maazel/Cleveland (with Von Stade) 1979

5. Bamert/Cleveland 1975
    Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin 2007
    Welser-Möst/Cleveland 2009
   
6. Szell/Cleveland 1967
    Abbado/Cleveland 1972
    Segerstam/Rheinland-Pfalz 1994

7. Tennstedt/Cleveland 1978
    Barenboim/Staatskapelle Berlin 2007

8. Boulez/Staatskapelle Berlin 2007

9. Haitink/Cleveland 1973
    Pesek/Royal Liverpool 1990

10. Harding/Vienna Phil 2007

Great lineup, Sarge ! Regardless of conductorial fame or preference of work, which concert did you like most ?

[king ubu]

Thursday night:

Musikkollegium Winterthur
Thomas Zehetmair
Carolin Widmann, violin

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ouvertüre zur Oper "Die Zauberflöte", KV 620

Dieter Ammann
"unbalanced instability", Konzertsatz für Violine und Kammerorchester (2012/13)

Johannes Brahms
Sinfonie Nr. 4 e-Moll, op. 98

[Brahmsian]

Great lineup, Sarge ! Regardless of conductorial fame or preference of work, which concert did you like most ?

My money is on Szell/Cleveland for the 6th. 

[Sergeant Rock]

distracted, were you ?   

Yes, she was very distractible 

Sarge

[shirime]

Ah I forgot earlier, but tomorrow night I'm seeing Hänsel und Gretel, then Otello on Thursday followed by Fidelio (in Berlin) on Friday.

[Sergeant Rock]

Great lineup, Sarge ! Regardless of conductorial fame or preference of work, which concert did you like most ?

My money is on Szell/Cleveland for the 6th. 

Szell's Sixth was the first time I heard that Mahler symphony. I came in blind, not knowing what to expect, and was devastated emotionally. I remember thinking, why are people applauding this tragic conclusion? But I loved it and it's been my favorite Mahler ever since and one of my favorite concerts. But I think Haitink's Ninth ranks along side it. It was an amazing performance, intensely moving. It was also the first time I saw a conductor conduct the audience too, with his left arm raised like a traffic cop to silence the crowd until a proper period had passed between the last dying note and the eruption of bravos and applause...and when that eruption came it was epic 

Segerstam's Sixth too was special, with a third hammer blow. Welser-Möst's Fifth, with an exceptionally slow funeral march and a breathless and flawless Finale was a real rush. To complete a Top 5: Ormandy's Resurrection.

Sarge

[André]

Thanks, Sarge. Great memories make for great posts !! 

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

December 8:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Edward Gardner, conductor
Erin Wall, soprano
Wagner: Overture to Rienzi
Strauss: Four Last Songs
Nielsen: Symphony No. 4 ("The Inextinguishable")

And the very next day (Sunday, Dec. 9), going to this:

University of Chicago Presents
Tallis Scholars
A Renaissance Christmas
Works by Palestrina, Josquin, Byrd and others
3 p.m. Rockefeller Memorial Chapel

Never heard 'em live, so this will be a first for me.

[shirime]

Ah I forgot earlier, but tomorrow night I'm seeing Hänsel und Gretel, then Otello on Thursday followed by Fidelio (in Berlin) on Friday.

Hänsel und Gretel was alright. The singers were excellent but they needed the prompt quite often, the orchestra weren't playing well until the final act, the production was suitably frightening.

[king ubu]

Dec 6:

Musikkollegium Winterthur
Thomas Zehetmair
Carolin Widmann (violin)

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart
Ouvertüre zur Oper ,,Die Zauberflöte", KV 620

Dieter Ammann
,,unbalanced instability", Konzertsatz für Violine und Kammerorchester (2012/13)

Johannes Brahms
Sinfonie Nr. 4 e-Moll, op. 98



Dec 9:

Quatuor Ebène

Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett Nr. 1 F-Dur op. 18 Nr. 1

Johannes Brahms
Streichquartett Nr. 1 c-Moll op. 51 Nr. 1

Ludwig van Beethoven
Streichquartett Nr. 16 F-Dur op. 135

[NikF]

In Focus: Sibelius

'Arguably Finland's finest composer, Jean Sibelius was deeply inspired by the natural wonders of his homeland, and many of his works seem to evoke the deep forests and broad expanses of the Finnish landscape. He was also a defining figure in Finnish nationalism, embodying in his music the freedom and pioneering spirit of his emerging nation. Linked to our performances of his Violin Concerto and Seventh Symphony, join us in exploring Sibelius' unique sound world created during the turbulence of the late 19th and early 20th centuries. 
This event is perfect for anyone who wants to dig deeper into the world of music's great figures'

I bought a ticket for this. I'm not sure how much I'll get from it, but I'll take my chances.

[Draško]

Tomorrow night:

Beethoven: Leonore overture No. 3
Saint-Saëns: Violin Concerto No. 3
Janáček: Sinfonietta

Barnabas Kelemen, violin
Belgrade Philharmonic
Gabriel Feltz (con.)

[shirime]

A few words on Otello....

Anja Harteros and Gerald Finley were incredible as Desdemona and Iago respectively. Kaufmann sounded like he was struggling in comparison to everyone else; it is a demanding role, certainly, but his voice cracked often enough that it took me out of the experience. Furthermore, I'm not sure about beginning the opera with a very weak Otello because his demise isn't as much of a downward spiral as it perhaps should have been. I'll see how it goes the next three times I'm seeing it.

Today I'm off to Berlin to see Fidelio.

[Ainsi la nuit]

I'm hearing Janáček's Sinfonietta for the first time live tomorrow, played by the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra under the conductor Lawrence Renes. It's one of my favourite orchestral pieces, so it's surely going to be a magical evening!

[JBS]

A few words on Otello....

Anja Harteros and Gerald Finley were incredible as Desdemona and Iago respectively. Kaufmann sounded like he was struggling in comparison to everyone else; it is a demanding role, certainly, but his voice cracked often enough that it took me out of the experience. Furthermore, I'm not sure about beginning the opera with a very weak Otello because his demise isn't as much of a downward spiral as it perhaps should have been. I'll see how it goes the next three times I'm seeing it.

Today I'm off to Berlin to see Fidelio.

The idea of a weak Othello can be consistent with the Shakespearean role, at least. He is an outsider, probably a client of some group of Venetian aristocrats, who started as the social inferior of everyone around him.  That inferiority could help explain why he thinks Desdemona betrayed him, and why Cassio was her lover, and why he trusts Iago, who is like Otello the social inferior of those around him (his wife, after all, is simply the personal attendant of Desdemona).

On such a premise, the tragedy is that of a newcomer who perceives rejection even when he is not being rejected.
(Or am I totally misunderstanding what you meant by a weak Otello?)

[shirime]

The idea of a weak Othello can be consistent with the Shakespearean role, at least. He is an outsider, probably a client of some group of Venetian aristocrats, who started as the social inferior of everyone around him.  That inferiority could help explain why he thinks Desdemona betrayed him, and why Cassio was her lover, and why he trusts Iago, who is like Otello the social inferior of those around him (his wife, after all, is simply the personal attendant of Desdemona).

On such a premise, the tragedy is that of a newcomer who perceives rejection even when he is not being rejected.
(Or am I totally misunderstanding what you meant by a weak Otello?)

This is what I considered as well when watching it. I do like that portrayal, but in Kaufmann's performance I didn't get much of a sense of Otello having changed much at all from the start to the end of the opera.

On another topic: Fidelio in Berlin.....my girlfriend and I took the train in the afternoon but after some rain the train had 'technical problems' so for a while we were sitting around going nowhere. If we arrived on time, we would have had about an hour to get from the station to Staatsoper Unter den Linden, but as things were we only had 20 minutes to put our suitcase in a locker and get there. We arrived with about thirty seconds to spare.......and just when we had settled down instead of the Fidelio overture I expected, it was Leonore overture no. 3! Nobody told me they do this weird version of Fidelio in Berlin!!! Granted, I actually really like how Leonore 3 fits musically with the opera better than the Fidelio overture of the 1814 version. The highlight of the evening was Klaus Florian Vogt and Florestan; this guy has an extraordinary dynamic range, amazing projection, control and he can act with his voice like no one else I've heard. He was a bit more impressive than Gerald Finley's performance of Iago back in Munich.

Also, it was nice to see Harry Kupfer's production, but I felt at many times that the setting became more of a background element and the opera seemed to play itself in a more traditional way.

[shirime]

Last night I saw Otello again, this time conducted by Petrenko, so the orchestra actually sounded much better and the balance with the voices was particularly good. Harteros and Finley were both brilliant and Finley's timbral control resulted in a dramatically compelling Iago. Harteros implemented portamento very naturally and musically and gave an overall beautiful performance as Desdemona. The weak link again was Kaufmann who, although he was better last night than the first time I saw him, didn't have the same capacity to project his voice and lacked the same level of musicality as the other soloists when it came to really articulating and shaping each phrase. His character was lost to me, but every other character felt very present and very real.

[shirime]

Last night saw a concert by students from the Musikhochschule. Programme was some choral music by Brahms and Gottwald spliced between movements of Mahler's 9th Symphony. I really liked the programming idea and the performances were all wonderful, I just wish there was an intermission at some point during the two hour concert!

On Friday I'm seeing BRSO perform some Zimmermann and Adams and on Saturday I'm seeing Otello for the third time. I am hoping Kaufmann adds something of musical quality to his performance next time (or at least be able to project his voice); I've heard that it usually takes a few performances for him to be at his best.

[André]

Thanks for these posts, Shirime.

Very interesting concerts. Who said the classical scene was just yet another Schéhérazade and Rach 2 evening ?