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

Started by Siedler, April 20, 2007, 05:34:10 PM

Previous topic - Next topic

0 Members and 5 Guests are viewing this topic.

Archaic Torso of Apollo

At Ravinia this Friday, a nicely balanced Latin-themed program:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Claude Debussy:   Ibéria from Images pour orchestre
Maurice Ravel:      Piano Concerto
Gabriela Ortiz:      Téenek (Invenciones de territorio)
Aaron Copland:      El Salón México
José Pablo Moncayo:   Huapango

formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

bhodges

Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 01, 2022, 11:00:30 AM
At Ravinia this Friday, a nicely balanced Latin-themed program:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Claude Debussy:   Ibéria from Images pour orchestre
Maurice Ravel:      Piano Concerto
Gabriela Ortiz:      Téenek (Invenciones de territorio)
Aaron Copland:      El Salón México
José Pablo Moncayo:   Huapango

What a great program! I'm a big fan of Conrad Tao (who performs a lot of new music), and would love to hear what he does with the Ravel.

--Bruce

Brian

Quote from: Archaic Torso of Apollo on August 01, 2022, 11:00:30 AM
At Ravinia this Friday, a nicely balanced Latin-themed program:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Carlos Miguel Prieto, conductor
Conrad Tao, piano

Claude Debussy:   Ibéria from Images pour orchestre
Maurice Ravel:      Piano Concerto
Gabriela Ortiz:      Téenek (Invenciones de territorio)
Aaron Copland:      El Salón México
José Pablo Moncayo:   Huapango
Will be curious about the Gabriela Ortiz, as the Dallas Symphony is getting one of her works (maybe a premiere) next year, coupled to Gabriela Montero performing her own piano concerto.

Archaic Torso of Apollo

Quote from: Brewski on August 01, 2022, 11:03:42 AM
What a great program! I'm a big fan of Conrad Tao (who performs a lot of new music), and would love to hear what he does with the Ravel.

Quote from: Brian on August 01, 2022, 11:15:10 AM
Will be curious about the Gabriela Ortiz, as the Dallas Symphony is getting one of her works (maybe a premiere) next year, coupled to Gabriela Montero performing her own piano concerto.

Yeah, this was a good one. Conrad Tao was a new name to me, but he nailed the Ravel and gave us an encore (some Art Tatum). The conductor (Prieto) talked to the audience about the music, and he was mercifully brief and on point.

The Ortiz piece, which kicked off the Mexican-flavored second half, was very heavy on complex rhythms and percussive atmosphere; there was a sense of Latin American folk rhythms subjected to some kind of psychotropic process; the result was quite lurid. Prieto told us to watch out for a mambo at the end, but that was hard to discern. On first listen an interesting experience, but I admit that the more established follow-ups, by Copland and Moncayo, made a bigger impression.

I liked the second half more than the first, but I've never been a big fan of those French Impressionists anyway. Still, the whole concert was fun, and was a great example of the sort of colorful, extroverted program that works best at these summer, outdoor festivals.
formerly VELIMIR (before that, Spitvalve)

"Who knows not strict counterpoint, lives and dies an ignoramus" - CPE Bach

Brian

What concerts are you tragically going to miss?

This fall, I fly out of a city 6 hours before Fazil Say plays a recital in it.  :(

Wanderer

Well, in February I'll either miss Tristan und Isolde at Opéra Bastille or Peter Grimes at Palais Garnier. 🤷‍♂️

Wanderer

#6406
October in Vienna: Schmidt's Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln, a Haydn 2032 concert (Symphonies Nos. 36, 16 & 13) by Antonini and Kammerorchester Basel and Rigoletto and Jenůfa at the Staatsoper. Looking forward to them all, especially Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln (a great favourite!) and Asmik Grigorian's Jenůfa.


Franz Schmidt
Das Buch mit sieben Siegeln
(Aus der Offenbarung des Johannes - Oratorium für Solisten, Chor, Orchester und Orgel)

Grosser Saal, Musikverein

Wiener Symphoniker

Singverein der Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde in Wien

Ingo Metzmacher, Dirigent

Christian Elsner, Tenor

Stephen Milling, Bass

Siobhan Stagg, Sopran

Dorottya Láng, Mezzosopran

Maximilian Schmitt, Tenor

Jan Martiník, Bass

Robert Kovács, Orgel



Joseph Haydn
Symphonie Es-Dur, Hob. I:36
Symphonie B-Dur, Hob. I:16
Symphonie D-Dur, Hob. I:13


Brahms-Saal, Musikverein

Kammerorchester Basel
Giovanni Antonini, Dirigent




Giuseppe Verdi
RIGOLETTO

*       Musical Direction Pier Giorgio Morandi
*       Production Pierre Audi
*       With Benjamin Bernheim, Simon Keenlyside, Erin Morley, Evgeny Solodovnikov, Monika Bohinec

Leos Janáček
JENUFA
*       Musical Direction Tomáš Hanus
*       Production David Pountney
*       With David Butt Philip, Michael Laurenz, Violeta Urmana, Asmik Grigorian

pjme

#6407
September 17 - Arnhem - the Netherlands - I hope to be there...

Ed Spanjaard - dirigent
Nikkie Treurniet - sopraan
Drew Santini - bariton
Brabant Koor
Peter Blok - declamator

Herman Strategier: Requiem in memoriam matris et fratris
Herman Strategier: Arnhemsche Psalm (1955)

Herman Strategier's oratorio "Arnhemsche Psalm" will be performed in Musis Sacrum in Arnhem. Due to the corona vicissitudes, the performance originally planned for 2020 had to be postponed. The board of the foundation is very pleased that the performance can now continue.
Phion Orchestra (the merged Orchestra of the East and the Gelders Orkest ), Ed Spanjaard conductor.
https://www.phion.nl/?gclid=CjwKCAjwo_KXBhAaEiwA2RZ8hPxRAnKy_t6uMzNZdpV9_4LFPVEjF0gBk2IWbq4ylRyO071T1e6X6BoCMlsQAvD_BwE
In addition to the Arnhem Psalm, Herman Strategier's "Requiem" will also be performed. He wrote this work in memory of, among others, his only brother who died in the Neuengamme concentration camp in the light of the liberation in 1945. Both works fit very well in the commemoration of the Battle of Arnhem, which is commemorated annually in September.
https://www.hermanstrategier.nl/agenda/index.html
https://donemus.nl/composer/herman-strategier/

bhodges

Tonight at 7pm (EDT), the Curtis Symphony Orchestra in works by students at the Curtis Institute:

ALISTAIR COLEMAN - Atria
ELISE ARANCIO   - Casimir
ADRIAN WONG - Skyglow
MAYA MIRO JOHNSON - Cover Song
LEIGHA AMICK - Cascade
NATHAN SEAN BALES - To Love

Free livestream here:
https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC5SZkTtx8UgwU_0Ot6qRTTA

--Bruce

pjme

#6409
Tomorrow, in Rotterdam:
Ligeti
Atmosphères
Pijper
Tweede symfonie
https://webshop.donemus.nl/action/front/sheetmusic/4199/Symphonie+no.+2
Mahler
Eerste symfonie

After reading an article in the newspaper, I found out that Rotterdam is remembering Willem Pijper, who died 75 years ago.
https://www.willempijper.nl/jubileumjaar
Moreover, the second symphony will be performed ! great, I will report later.

LKB

I'm still planning on communing with the VPO for Bruckner's Eighth in March under Thielemann. I may attend the night before for Brahms as well, if my friends want me there.
Mit Flügeln, die ich mir errungen...

pjme

#6411
Yesterday I traveled to Rotterdam / De Doelen concert hall for a quite unique concert of the Rotterdam Philharmonic.
For me the highlight and reason to go was the performance of Pijpers second symphony (1921), in its original scoring. The orchestra is huge in a mega-Mahlerian/Straussian way and adds to a large body of strings and wood winds, 8 horns, 4 trumpets, 4 trombones and a tenor horn, 4 harps an organ, three pianos, 6 mandolins and 4 percussionists.
The Doelen stage was so crammed that "only" two pianos were installed and "only" 3 mandolins were used (played by violinists).
(Fellow composer Otto Ketting made a version of the symphony for a normal orchestra).
It is a short work (ca. 22-25 minutes) in two movements : Allegro maestoso / Lento, molto rubato-Più leggiero-Più mosso, maestoso
Pijper has listened (& witnessed) eagerly to his avant-garde: Stravinski and Le sacre (fysical exitement) , Debussy's Iberia (swooning habanera, castanets, tambourine, the langurous and intoxicating charms of Les parfums de la nuit ), Milhaud (biting bi-tonality, more exotic rythms and snappy percussion) and makes a bold and often loud statement: I'm 27 years old and I will "unleash sound avalanches on you" (as he wrote in a letter).!
'Everything worked,' Pijper wrote after a performance of his Second Symphony. 'The music had the audience in a vice-like grip throughout.' His magnum opus was soon consigned to oblivion....no orchestra was able (willing) to raise the 112 musicians required!
Pijper is also a meticulous craftsman and the entire composition is based on the continual variation of a tiny melodic idea ("germ cell technique).

Lahav Shani led  these 100+ forces in a performance that, if I remember correctly, was slower than Roelof van Driestens recording with the Rotterdam PhO in 1986.
Surely, it is a musical (Art deco) oddity, but I loved every minute of its energy. There were a lot of young people in the hall and one could feel the tension.
. But it is so good to hear such a work live, to see it programmed (twice, tomorrow it will be performed in Berlin -
https://www.berliner-philharmoniker.de/konzerte/kalender/details/54574/), to keep it alive.
After the interval the Rotterdammers proved once again to be a superb orchestra in Mahler's first symphony. Pijper was present at numerous performances of Mahlers music in Utrecht and Amsterdam. He knew well how (loud) 8 horns can sound....

https://www.youtube.com/v/zLQolCbFf4Q

bhodges

On Thursday at noon (EDT, 7:00pm Helsinki time), this enticing offering from the Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra. PS, they are livestreaming many of their concerts this fall and into the spring of 2023.

R. STRAUSS: Metamorphosen
WAGNER: Tristan and Isolde, Act II

SUSANNA MÄLKKI: conductor
Helsinki Philharmonic Orchestra

STUART SKELTON: Tristan, tenor
LISE LINDSTROM: Isolde, soprano
JENNY CARLSTEDT: Brangäne, mezzo-soprano
MARKUS NIEMINEN: Kurwenal, baritone
BRINDLEY SHERRATT: King Marke, baritone
ROLAND LIIV: Melot, tenor

https://www.helsinkikanava.fi/en/web/helsinkikanava/player/event/home?eventId=190585775

--Bruce

bhodges

Some concerts on medici.tv in the next few days that look promising. I've only highlighted ones available to anyone (with free registration). The site has many more offerings for subscribers. The Mäkelä program tomorrow looks wild.

8 September
Orchestre de Paris
Klaus Mäkelä — Conductor
Saariaho - Asteroid 4179: Toutatis
R. Strauss - Also sprach Zarathustra, Op. 30
Jimmy López - Aino
Dusapin - A Linea
Scriabin - Poem of Ecstasy

10 September
2022 Tsinandali Festival in Georgia
Vilde Frang — Violinist
Kian Soltani — Cellist
Julien Quentin — Pianist
Ravel - Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello in A minor
Mendelssohn - Trio for Piano, Violin and Cello No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 66

11 September
2022 Tsinandali Festival in Georgia
Vilde Frang — Violinist
The Pan-Caucasian Youth Orchestra
Vasily Petrenko — Conductor
Shostakovich - Violin Concerto No. 1
Prokofiev - Symphony No. 5

--Bruce

ritter

#6414
Just bought a ticket for a concert performance of Felipe Pedrell's opera La Celestina, tomorrow evening at the Teatro de la Zarzuela here in Madrid.

Pedrell (1841-1922) is widely considered the "father of modern Spanish music", and he was a teacher of (among others) Granados, Albéniz, Turina and Falla. His music is seldom performed (not to mention recorded) nowadays, but his name may ring a bell to fans of Falla (a movement of his orchestral suite Homenajes is tilted Pedrelliana) or of Roberto Gerhard (who wrote a Sinfonía, "Homenaje a Pedrell, the last movement of which --again titled Pedrelliana-- is also a standalone piece).

La Celestina, in four acts to a libretto adapted by the composer from Francisco de Rojas' Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (an undisputed classic of late 15th century Spanish literature) was composed in 1902, but apparently has never been performed complete. Casals performed excerpts in 1921 in a concert in homage to Pedrell, and at the beginning of this a century some scenes were conducted in Barcelona by Antoni Ros Marbà and released on CD. I have that CD, and it has some stunning passages.

The work is thought to be part of Pedrell's attempts to establish a "national Spanish operatic style" (as opposed to zarzuela), and is bound to be interesting at least.

Guillermo García Calvo will conduct the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, and the roster of soloists includes some established names of the Spanish operatic scene, such as mezzo Maite Beaumont, baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez, and bass Simón Orfila.


bhodges

Quote from: ritter on September 08, 2022, 06:42:09 AM
Just bought a ticket for a concert performance of Felipe Pedrell's opera La Celestina, tomorrow evening at the Teatro de la Zarzuela here in Madrid.

Pedrell (1841-1922) is widely considered the "father of modern Spanish music", and he was a teacher of (among others) Granados, Albéniz, Turina and Falla. His music is seldom performed (not to mention recorded) nowadays, but his name may ring a bell to fans of Falla (a movement of his orchestral suite Homenajes is tilted Pedrelliana) or of Roberto Gerhard (who wrote a Sinfonía, "Homenaje a Pedrell, the last movement of which --again titled Pedrelliana-- is also a standalone piece).

La Celestina, in four acts to a libretto adapted by the composer from Francisco de Rojas' Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (an undisputed classic of late 15th century Spanish literature) was composed in 1902, but apparently has never been performed complete. Casals performed excerpts in 1921 in a concert in homage to Pedrell, and at the beginning of this a century some scenes were conducted in Barcelona by Antoni Ros Marbà and released on CD. I have that CD, and it has some stunning passages.

The work is thought to be part of Pedrell's attempts to establish a "national Spanish operatic style" (as opposed to zarzuela), and is bound to be interesting at least.

Guillermo García Calvo will conduct the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, and the roster of soloists includes some established names of the Spanish operatic scene, such as mezzo Maite Beaumont, baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez, and bass Simón Orfila.

Do not know Pedrell at all, but he certainly has some impressive students! (Said as a fan of pretty much all of them.) Sounds like an unusual evening, so good for you, for taking the plunge.

--Bruce

bhodges

Next week, the Momenta Quartet marks Mexican Independence Day with this program by Carrillo, a microtonal pioneer.

Julián Carrillo: String Quartet No. 5 (1937)
​Julián Carrillo: String Quartet No. 11 (1962)

The other three programs look great, too, each curated by a different member of the quartet.

https://www.momentaquartet.com/home/momenta-festival-vii-september-15-18-2022

--Bruce

pjme

Also in De Doelen / Rotterdam:
After the second symphony (apparently also a success in the Berliner Philharmonie) , Pijpers 5 string quartets will be performed by the Matangi quartet as a "theatrical concert".

Pijper strijkkwartet nr. 1 - 5
credits
Matangi Kwartet | Viride Kwartet | Robin Coops regie en performance | Maze de Boer scenografie |  Wout van Tongeren dramaturgie

and on september 17th  Digital Concert hall:
Berliner Philharmoniker
Kirill Petrenko Dirigent
Wolfgang Koch Bariton (Il prigioniero)
Ekaterina Semenchuk Mezzosopran (La madre)
Wolfgang Ablinger-Sperrhacke Tenor (Il carceriere, Il grande Inquisitore)
Caspar Singh Tenor (Erster sacerdote)
Oliver Boyd Bariton (Zweiter sacerdote)
Rundfunkchor Berlin

Iannis Xenakis
Empreintes

Bernd Alois Zimmermann
Sinfonie in einem Satz (2. Fassung von 1953)

Luigi Dallapiccola
Il prigioniero (Der Gefangene), Oper in einem Prolog und einem Akt (konzertante Aufführung)

Brian

Tomorrow we're going to the free Sunday afternoon concert at an American musical institution, the Spreckels outdoor concert organ pavilion in Balboa Park, San Diego. Apparently the world's largest outdoor pipe organ - I can't imagine there are many competitors - it presents a free hour of music every week.

The programming is overtly populist, but tomorrow Bach's Toccata in A minor BWV 561, two Saint-Saens pieces, and a work by Buxtehude share the program with...well... Bohemian Rhapsody and Imagine. I'm thinking we'll leave before Imagine starts.

ritter

#6419
Quote from: ritter on September 08, 2022, 06:42:09 AM
Just bought a ticket for a concert performance of Felipe Pedrell's opera La Celestina, tomorrow evening at the Teatro de la Zarzuela here in Madrid.

Pedrell (1841-1922) is widely considered the "father of modern Spanish music", and he was a teacher of (among others) Granados, Albéniz, Turina and Falla. His music is seldom performed (not to mention recorded) nowadays, but his name may ring a bell to fans of Falla (a movement of his orchestral suite Homenajes is tilted Pedrelliana) or of Roberto Gerhard (who wrote a Sinfonía, "Homenaje a Pedrell, the last movement of which --again titled Pedrelliana-- is also a standalone piece).

La Celestina, in four acts to a libretto adapted by the composer from Francisco de Rojas' Tragicomedia de Calisto y Melibea (an undisputed classic of late 15th century Spanish literature) was composed in 1902, but apparently has never been performed complete. Casals performed excerpts in 1921 in a concert in homage to Pedrell, and at the beginning of this a century some scenes were conducted in Barcelona by Antoni Ros Marbà and released on CD. I have that CD, and it has some stunning passages.

The work is thought to be part of Pedrell's attempts to establish a "national Spanish operatic style" (as opposed to zarzuela), and is bound to be interesting at least.

Guillermo García Calvo will conduct the Orquesta de la Comunidad de Madrid, and the roster of soloists includes some established names of the Spanish operatic scene, such as mezzo Maite Beaumont, baritone Juan Jesús Rodríguez, and bass Simón Orfila.
Well, despite its historic significance, the performance of Pedrell's La Celestina on Friday evening was a disappointment.

The opera has some great moments, such as the opening chorus —used by both Falla and Gerhard in their musical homages to Pedrell—, parts of the long duet between Celestina and Melibea in Act II, the dinner party at Celestina's house —and her subsequent murder— in Act III, and Melibea's suicide in Act IV, accompanied by a chorus a bocca chiusa —and let us not forget that this work was composed two years before the first performance and publication of Puccini's Madama Butterfly—. But, the vocal writing is ungrateful and clumsy, and the setting of the classic text is too literal and handled in such a way that it was unintelligible most of the time (imagine the pandemonium of some  segments of Die Meistersinger going on for very long stretches, but without the humour or the musical riches). Thus, dramatically, the opera does not work at all (perhaps a staging might help in that respect). On the plus side, the heavy, Wagnerian orchestration had some beautiful moments, and Pedrell's incorporating of some popular rhythms (e.g. a jota and a zortziko in the aforementioned dinner scene) showed the distinguished musicologist he was.

The performance was fine, with the female leads and the low male voices doing an excellent job. The tenor lead, though, gave what is possibly the worst performance I have ever  encountered from a professional singer. Granted, the tessitura and veristic vocal writing of the score are devilish, but in the first two acts he sang everything in an unnuanced, steady forte that made his interventions painful to the listener (and all the time with his arms crossed across his chest, something that was even highlighted by some critics in the newspapers today, and that I at least don't recall having seen before). After the intermission, he had lost his voice almost completely, and would only sing a phrase here and phrase there, turning some duets into monologues of the soprano.

Conductor Guillermo García Calvo (who can only be commended for this exhumation) could have controlled the dynamics of the orchestra a bit more thoughtfully.

So, it took 120 years for La Celestina to be performed, and I doubt it'll be performed again in the next 120 years!