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

[André]

Hope you enjoy them all!

For me the highlight of your concert menu would be the Korngold concerto with Baráti - a truly wonderful violinist.

[Brian]

Let me know what you think. I heard him conduct the Montreal Symphony yesterday in Debussy (Nocturnes), Dutilleux (cello cto) and Tchaikovsky (symph no 1). The orchestra made a fine noise but there is something in his conducting that failed to convince me.

I've seen Heras-Casado once before. He's an excitable guy on the podium and got a lively response from our local band, but I am definitely under the impression that his specialty is music of an earlier era than what was on your Montreal program.

[Papy Oli]

Hope you enjoy them all!

For me the highlight of your concert menu would be the Korngold concerto with Baráti - a truly wonderful violinist.

I am sure I will, André !

I do not know anything really by Korngold, (other than some AMZ samples when i checked a Previn (i think) CD out). That will be a discovery for me.

[André]

I've seen Heras-Casado once before. He's an excitable guy on the podium and got a lively response from our local band, but I am definitely under the impression that his specialty is music of an earlier era than what was on your Montreal program.

Indeed.

I was sitting in the rear balcony (facing the conductor) so his facial expressions were somewhat distracting, something I would probably not notice if looking at his backside. The Tchaikovsky first is something he has conducted often in the past couple of years. He didn't have a score. In the Debussy he did use one, but was in good command throughout. Indeed, it was the best moment of the concert IMO. The Dutilleux proved a harder task, I think: he had his nose in the score all the time, rarely looking at the orchestra, turning the pages with a loud snap every 30 seconds. Not quite what I was hoping for.

[Karl Henning]

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[Judith]

Yesterday evening at Leeds Town Hall
Russian Philharmonic of Novosibirsk

Performing

Rimsky Korsakov
Capriccio Espagnol

Rachmaninov
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

Tchaikovsky
Symphony no 6

Soloist. Sergei Redkin
Conductor Thomas Sanderling

Loved the Tchaikovsky and the other two were performed well also🎼🎼

[vandermolen]

Ben-Haim Symphony 1 at the Proms

Weinberg's Third Symphony and Dorothy Howell's Lamia also at the Proms

[Florestan]

Yesterday evening at Leeds Town Hall
Russian Philharmonic of Novosibirsk

Performing

Rimsky Korsakov
Capriccio Espagnol

Rachmaninov
Rhapsody on a theme of Paganini

Tchaikovsky
Symphony no 6

Soloist. Sergei Redkin
Conductor Thomas Sanderling

Loved the Tchaikovsky and the other two were performed well also🎼🎼

Wow! What a great program! Wish I were there.

[kyjo]

Friday evening's upcoming concert!

Bacewicz - Concerto for string orchestra

Paderewski - Piano Concerto in A minor

Mendelssohn - Symphony No. 3 in A minor 'Scottish'

Janina Fialkowska - piano
Gemma New - guest conductor
Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra

Really looking forward to this concert.  Only recently familiar with the Paderewski concerto, and have not yet heard the Bacewicz work.

Very cool program! I love all three of those works, especially the gorgeous Paderewski. It's always great to see an orchestra take risks and program lesser-known works.

[Judith]

Last weekend saw local Leeds Symphony Orchestra

Rossini Overture. Eduardo et Cristina
Borodin In the Steppes of Central Asia
Poulenc Ballet Suite. Les Biches
Shostakovich Symphony no 5


Conductor Martin Binks

Lovely performances of all works. They performed really well. I do like to support local orchestras🎼🎼

[Brian]

Next weekend:

Brahms: Violin Concerto
Berlioz: Symphonie fantastique

Unfortunately Renaud Capuçon bowed out due to illness today and was replaced by someone named Blake Pouliot. Appears to be a Canadian young prodigy. Huh. Bummer - Capuçon is a star with a big Brahms affinity.

Anyway... Dallas SO/Pablo Heras-Casado

Pouliot and the band started off tentatively, and Pouliot a bit prone to wrong notes and mishaps, at the beginning of the Brahms. But everything improved considerably as the piece went along - already by the point of a solo cadenza in which Pouliot really sold the quasi-improvisatory writing - and on to a really roaring finale. Unusually for such a youngster, Pouliot has the interpretive chops and personality and just needs to work on hitting all the notes, rather than the other way 'round; he really put an individual stamp on the piece throughout with little bits of phrasing, different levels of vibrato when playing the same phrase twice, etc. And, again, the finale roared.

If he plays like that, he can wear whatever he wants. Of course, he already does wear whatever he wants...for this concert, it was a black long-sleeve T-shirt, an enormous black scarf that dangled to his knees, and jeans which were different shades of blue on each leg, with a big white spot over his man-parts and printed-or-painted flames coming up the sides of the legs. For an encore, he graciously acknowledged that we all had come expecting Capuçon and thanked us for welcoming him, then played his own transcription of "The Last Rose of Summer."

Heras-Casado lived up to his reputation and recordings in the Berlioz - fast (except the slow movement), technically precise, exciting as hell. Maybe a bit too fast in places, but in a guilty pleasure kind of way. In particular, for the last 20 seconds of the Symphonie, he whipped the orchestra up into a wild concluding accelerando, just to prove that they were virtuosic enough to handle it - which they were. (A lot like the end of the Fischer/Budapest Mahler 1, if you own that CD.)

[JBS]

Pouliot's debut album is coming out, coincidentally, with the announcement that he is the recipient of the Women's Musical Club of Toronto's 2018 Career Development Award, presented every three years to an exceptional young performing artist. What does the $20,000 prize mean to Pouliot?

"I can pay rent! It's wonderful and very helpful," he enthuses, explaining how costs add up for artists setting out on a solo career. "Before every concert, I'm making sure my bow is re-haired, that I have new strings on my instrument, that my clothes are dry-cleaned. As well, I want to develop my own personal aesthetic, so I'm making sure that I'm buying custom-made clothing, doing research and finding unique pieces to wear and having them adjusted so they're comfortable to play in. All of this costs money. It's not like I'm making enough that I can just walk into Versace's office and say, 'Design me a suit!'"

https://www.cbcmusic.ca/posts/19705/blake-pouliot-womens-musical-club-prize-ravel

[Papy Oli]

The absolute favourite for the first time In May next year :

Mahler -  'Resurrection' Symphony No.2
The Hallé - Sir Mark Elder - Anne Schwanewilms soprano - Alice Coote mezzo-soprano - Hallé Choir

That was last night. That was very special indeed. Fantastic to grasp even more details and contrasts than on the recordings, the tensions and the emotions of the work. The Urlicht was spot on by Alice Coote (not so keen however on the voice of the soprano, too much vibrato and warble for me). The first movement initially felt bit a more restrained than I would normally like but I admit it did serve the work so well when it had to hit the powerful and louder moments throughout. Food for thought when I listen again to my CD's. Lots of moments of sheer tingles and welling up, just about held it together (Sitting in the upper circle, level with the top of the choir, I got choked up on the choir's quiet entry of Aufersteh'n...and then on the Was Erstanden is, das muss vergehen bit....)

2 quirky things :

- there was a loud audience sneeze in between the two pizzicato closing the second movement. Couldn't have been better timed 

- That was my girlfriend's first exposure to Mahler. I had told her that she should expect to hear some instruments off stage at some point but i think she forgot my mention when the time came in the last movement. i caught her from the corner of my eye, with a face scouting a completely immobile orchestra left right center and all over again, wondering who the fudge was actually playing at that moment  0:) She found the work a bit too bombastic for her own tastes  but did appreciate the extremes in emotion and enjoyed the soloists and choir.

Added bonus:
Last night was also the final appearance of their orchestra leader/1st violin. They did an encore as a farewell to her with Ralph Vaughan Williams' Serenade to Music. what a gorgeous piece and choir singing. will have to check my RVW edition if it is there.

Cherry on the icing on the top of the cake : Last night's concert was broadcast live by Radio 3 and is available for a month here :   

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00057jc

FYI, the sneeze is at 37'36 

[Pat B]

That was my girlfriend's first exposure to Mahler... She found the work a bit too bombastic for her own tastes

My experience (the 6th) was similar, then I spent many years not listening to Mahler. Eventually, I heard the 4th on the radio, and his time came.

[TheGSMoeller]

Purchased my 3-pack subscription to Nashville Symphony's 2019-2020 season. I usually see two or three more concerts throughout the season but with a wonky schedule it's easier to go light with three shows, receive the subscription benefits and pick up a few single-shows when i have time. A few of the others I'm interested in are DSCH's 4th Symphony, Symphonie Fantastique (maybe my 5th time seeing it live?), Beethoven's Eroica, and Bruckner's 9th. But for starters I picked up these...


September 14th:
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor | Garrick Ohlsson, piano
Adolphus Hailstork – An American Port of Call
Barber – Piano Concerto
Tchaikovsky – Symphony No. 5


October 26th:
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor | Karen Gomyo, violin
Dvořák – Slavonic Dance No. 1, Op. 46
Brahms – Violin Concerto
John Adams – My Father Knew Charles Ives  Live Recording
Ives – Three Places in New England


April 11th:
Nashville Symphony
Giancarlo Guerrero, conductor
Mahler | Cooke – Symphony No. 10


I'm most excited for the October concert, anytime Ives is being performed is a treat, and 3 Places is great. And to see the Brahms VC, it's my favorite violin concerto and I've never seen it performed live before! I may cry! 

[ritter]

Will be seeing Richard Strauss's operatic swan song Capriccio this evening at the Teatro Real here in Madrid. Asher Frisch conducts, and the staging (a coproduction with the Zurich Opera Haus) is by Christof Loy. The cast, led by Malin Byström as Countess Madeleine, consists of singers all unknown to me (but who have received positive reviews).

[GioCar]

Tomorrow evening at La Scala, Korngold's Die tote Stadt, with our GMG fellow king ubu, who kindly provided tickets for two from Zurich 

A premiere for La Scala, and for me as well, since I'm not familiar at all with that opera. Let's see, I'm very curious.
A good cast conducted by Alan Gilbert, a new production by Graham Vick.

[Judith]

Lovely concert yesterday evening from Endellion String Quartet at The Venue, Leeds College of Music.

Performing

Haydn String Quartet op 20 no 6, Bartok String Quartet op 17 no 2 and Beethoven String Quartet  no 1 op 59 (Razumovsky). 

Such a lovely evening🎻🎻🎼🎼

[Wanderer]

Coming Wednesday, Greek National Opera

D. Shostakovich: Lady Macbeth of the Mtsensk District

Y. Yannissis, S. Sozdateleva, S. Semishkur / Vassilis Christopoulos

Dir: Fanny Ardant

I went to the one after that, on 22 May. Very impressive singing from Svetlana Sozdateleva, an excellent ensemble overall. The orchestra seemed to really enjoy the score and they excelled - even impressed -  in it (ethereal subtlety not being one of their strong characteristics, this score was a relishing fit for them). Ardant's production was traditional in a good way; contemporary touches were not lacking and were in good taste, social critique was present but subtle, the preoccupations of the work and not the director's extraneous fantasies were the focus of the staging. A slight set mishap just before a critical junction of the plot required a short intermission, raising tension and suspense. As far as I'm concerned, perhaps the best overall presentation at the new opera house yet.

[Wanderer]

Tomorrow evening at La Scala, Korngold's Die tote Stadt, with our GMG fellow king ubu, who kindly provided tickets for two from Zurich 

A premiere for La Scala, and for me as well, since I'm not familiar at all with that opera. Let's see, I'm very curious.
A good cast conducted by Alan Gilbert, a new production by Graham Vick.

How did you like it? After finally seeing Das Wunder der Heliane in Berlin last year, this is the other Korngold opera I want to see in the theatre and have made a ticket request for the Munich production in November.