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

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

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not edward

Quote from: bhodges on May 26, 2008, 12:09:25 PM
:o You got that right!  Do report back, please.  What will you be hearing?
The program appears to be a mixture of vocal works (Lilitù, Hô, Litanie, Sauh I and II, CKCKC, Ogloudoglou, chamber works (Okanagon and I Presagi) and the bass-and-ensemble Yamaon. Since the last three are amongst my favourite Scelsi works, I'm pumped about this. ;)

The following Thursday, I'm looking forward to this one, too:

A concert featuring the Montreal-based Transmission ensemble (Lori Freedman, clarinet; Guy Pelletier, flutes; Clemens Merkel, violin; Julie Trudeau, cello; D'Arcy Gray, percussion; Brigitte Poulin, piano). Repertoire to include works by Pierre Boulez (Dérive), Iannis Xenakis (Plekto), Tristan Murail (13 couleurs du soleil couchant), Georges Aperghis (Quatre pieces fébriles) and Claude Vivier (Paramirabo).
"I don't at all mind actively disliking a piece of contemporary music, but in order to feel happy about it I must consciously understand why I dislike it. Otherwise it remains in my mind as unfinished business."
-- Aaron Copland, The Pleasures of Music

bhodges

Wow, two excellent programs!  I think the only Scelsi I've heard of those is Okanagon.  And that Transmission program almost sounds even more winning.  Rhetorical rant: why no Xenakis on programs?  At Carnegie Hall next season, there is not a single Xenakis piece being performed, by anyone.  That just seems really odd.  Anyway, will be interested in your comments on that one, too.

I just heard Dérive on Saturday night by an excellent group new to me, the Xanthos Ensemble from Boston.  They did a beautiful job with it, and I was thinking that it might be a piece to which I'd point people who historically don't care for Boulez.

--Bruce

ChamberNut

OK, this is a concert I'll be attending in the middle of my living room, with popcorn and soda.  :D

Airing on PBS, June 11th

Bruckner - Symphony No. 5

Cleveland Orchestra
Franz Welser-Most

Recorded at the Abbey of St. Florian in Linz, Austria, during the 2006 Brucknerfest.

bhodges

On Saturday, the annual Bang on a Can marathon gets underway at 6:00 p.m., ending 12 hours later at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  Here is the complete schedule, and at the moment I'm planning to stay for the entire thing.  (We'll see how that goes.  ;D)

Things I'm most looking forward to hearing:

Birtwistle: Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Petpetuum (by Alarm Will Sound, scheduled for around 7:00 p.m.)
Gudmunsen-Holmgreen: Convex-Concave-Concord (Bang on a Can All Stars, around 10:30 p.m.)
Reich: Daniel Variations (SIGNAL, around midnight)
Stockhausen: Stimmung (Toby Twining Music, about 5:00 a.m.)

--Bruce

MDL

Quote from: bhodges on May 28, 2008, 08:06:48 AM
On Saturday, the annual Bang on a Can marathon gets underway at 6:00 p.m., ending 12 hours later at 6:00 a.m. Sunday morning.  Here is the complete schedule, and at the moment I'm planning to stay for the entire thing.  (We'll see how that goes.  ;D)

Things I'm most looking forward to hearing:

Birtwistle: Carmen Arcadiae Mechanicae Petpetuum (by Alarm Will Sound, scheduled for around 7:00 p.m.)
Gudmunsen-Holmgreen: Convex-Concave-Concord (Bang on a Can All Stars, around 10:30 p.m.)
Reich: Daniel Variations (SIGNAL, around midnight)
Stockhausen: Stimmung (Toby Twining Music, about 5:00 a.m.)

--Bruce

Blimey! I don't think I'd have the stamina. Still, that's quite a programme and if you make it all the way through and stay awake, I'd imagine that listening to Stimmung at that time of night/morning, when you're probably a bit woozy, should be quite an experience. Good luck with that. Drink lots of coffee.

J.Z. Herrenberg

Coming Sunday I will be at the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, with two of my best friends. On the menu - Messiaen, François d'Assise. I like many of Messiaen's organ pieces and the Turangalila Symphony, but this enormous opera (duration and the forces required) is new to me.
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

bhodges

#706
Quote from: Jezetha on May 29, 2008, 06:18:59 AM
Coming Sunday I will be at the Muziektheater in Amsterdam, with two of my best friends. On the menu - Messiaen, François d'Assise. I like many of Messiaen's organ pieces and the Turangalila Symphony, but this enormous opera (duration and the forces required) is new to me.

I'm very envious.  Do report back!  (I have a friend from here who is going to see it, too: Pete Matthews, whose blog is called Feast of Music.  Just in case you happen to run into him!  Edit: just checked his blog, and he'll be there on Sunday, too!)

--Bruce

bhodges

Quote from: MDL on May 29, 2008, 06:09:36 AM
Blimey! I don't think I'd have the stamina. Still, that's quite a programme and if you make it all the way through and stay awake, I'd imagine that listening to Stimmung at that time of night/morning, when you're probably a bit woozy, should be quite an experience. Good luck with that. Drink lots of coffee.

;D  I'm planning to take a nap Saturday afternoon, so I'll be able to stay up with no problem.  It should be lots of fun, since the venue has huge expanses of glass (see below), and they're predicting thunderstorms "after midnight." 

--Bruce

J.Z. Herrenberg

Quote from: bhodges on May 29, 2008, 07:59:14 AM
I'm very envious.  Do report back!  (I have a friend from here who is going to see it, too: Pete Matthews, whose blog is called Feast of Music.  Just in case you happen to run into him!  Edit: just checked his blog, and he'll be there on Sunday, too!)

--Bruce

I'll be looking out for him... And I'll report back, of course!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

MDL

Quote from: bhodges on May 29, 2008, 08:57:52 AM
;D  I'm planning to take a nap Saturday afternoon, so I'll be able to stay up with no problem.  It should be lots of fun, since the venue has huge expanses of glass (see below), and they're predicting thunderstorms "after midnight." 

--Bruce

That looks fantastic. Very, very, very stupidly, for reasons that I cannot even begin to fathom, I missed a performance of Stimmung a few years ago that was held at the top of the Swiss Re building in London. I suppose Stimmung has never really been my favourite Stockhausen work (although I've just bought the new Theatre of Voices recording and actually quite like it). But I missed the chance to catch the view from one of London's tallest buildings. I've been banging my head with the fridge door ever since.




MDL

So I've finally booked my Proms tickets:

July 27: Messiaen: La Transfiguration. (I'm also going to the Southbank Transfiguration later in the year.)
August 2: Stockhausen Day: Gruppen (x2), Klang 13th Hour, Klang 5th Hour, Harmonien, Kontakte. Late-night concert: Stimmung.
Augst 22: Mahler: Symphony No.5, Stockhausen: Punkte. The third part of this concert consists of Schubert and Beethoven, but I doubt I'll stick around for that. It would be such an anticlimax after the Stockhausen.
September 7: Messiaen: Saint Francis of Assisi (complete concert performance).

There are many other concerts that I'm tempted by, including Haitink/CSO Mahler Symphony No.6, Rattle/BPO Messiaen Turangalila, but I don't want to overdo it.
I often end up having to miss at least one concert for one reason or another.

Solitary Wanderer

'I lingered round them, under that benign sky: watched the moths fluttering among the heath and harebells, listened to the soft wind breathing through the grass, and wondered how any one could ever imagine unquiet slumbers for the sleepers in that quiet earth.' ~ Emily Bronte

Brian

This July 10th or 12th, I'll be seeing the Cactus Pear Music Festival in the following works:

MENDELSSOHN String Quintet Op 18
GOETZ Piano Quintet
BRAHMS The Greatest Clarinet Quintet of All Time

It should be unforgettable.  0:)

Shrunk

I know it's not the kind of thing usually posted in this thread, but I'm looking forward to seeing Leonard Cohen this Saturday, on his first concert tour in 14 years.

Reviews and videos from the first show on the tour here.

A quote from that show: "This is the first time in 14 years I have stood before you in this position as a performer. (Back then) I was just a kid of 60 with crazy dreams."

bhodges

Quote from: MDL on June 01, 2008, 04:18:04 AM
So I've finally booked my Proms tickets:

July 27: Messiaen: La Transfiguration. (I'm also going to the Southbank Transfiguration later in the year.)
August 2: Stockhausen Day: Gruppen (x2), Klang 13th Hour, Klang 5th Hour, Harmonien, Kontakte. Late night concert: Stimmung.
Augst 22: Mahler: Symphony No.5, Stockhausen: Punkte. The third part of this concert consists of Schubert and Beethoven, but I doubt I'll stick around for that. It would be such an anticlimax after the Stockhausen.
September 7: Messiaen: Saint Francis of Assisi (complete concert performance).

There are many other concerts that I'm tempted by, including Haitink/CSO Mahler Symphony No.6, Rattle/BPO Messiaen Turangalila, but I don't want to overdo it.
I often end up having to miss at least one concert for one reason or another.

Wow, so you're hearing Stimmung, too!  (Among all the other great-sounding items.)  I had a great time Saturday night (actually Sunday morning  :D) hearing it at dawn, as the sun was coming up.  And birds were chirping, high up in the upper reaches of the building, which was wild.  (The singers noticed them and looked up, smiling.)

This performance was 80 minutes but apparently it can go on 2 or 3 hours, depending on the choices the performers make in the score.  I was totally transported by it.

--Bruce

MDL

Quote from: bhodges on June 03, 2008, 07:31:01 AM
Wow, so you're hearing Stimmung, too!  (Among all the other great-sounding items.)  I had a great time Saturday night (actually Sunday morning  :D) hearing it at dawn, as the sun was coming up.  And birds were chirping, high up in the upper reaches of the building, which was wild.  (The singers noticed them and looked up, smiling.)

This performance was 80 minutes but apparently it can go on 2 or 3 hours, depending on the choices the performers make in the score.  I was totally transported by it.

--Bruce

Bruce, that sounds fantastic! I've listened to my CD and can imagine how, if you're in the mood, you can lose yourself in this piece.

But I do hope that the Proms performance of Stimmung doesn't spread over three hours, otherwise I've got a bloody long walk home from Kensington (cab drivers who work the posh parts of London won't take anybody to my part of town after midnight - not because it's rough but because they can get more money staying in the posh areas - and the night buses running at that time of night on Saturday are utterly terrifying).

bhodges

#716
Quote from: MDL on June 03, 2008, 03:32:30 PM
Bruce, that sounds fantastic! I've listened to my CD and can imagine how, if you're in the mood, you can lose yourself in this piece.

But I do hope that the Proms performance of Stimmung doesn't spread over three hours, otherwise I've got a bloody long walk home from Kensington (cab drivers who work the posh parts of London won't take anybody to my part of town after midnight - not because it's rough but because they can get more money staying in the posh areas - and the night buses that time of night on Saturday are utterly terrifying).

It was really, really beautiful.  Oh, and FYI, at 5:30 in the morning, there must have been 500 people there, hearing the thing.  :o  Here is the New York Times review by Steve Smith (also there the entire 12 hours), with the Stockhausen mentioned at the very end.

I suspect most people don't stretch the piece much beyond an hour or so, mostly because of the singers' stamina.  (Someone let me know if I'm wrong.)  They sit on the floor, cross-legged, which can't be very comfortable for very long, and since it's just nonstop vocalizing...well, I know Wagner tests people even longer, but... :-\

Edit: After seeing another thread, I couldn't resist playing with www.churchsigngenerator.com, one of my fave sites... ;D

--Bruce

MDL

Quote from: bhodges on June 03, 2008, 03:41:34 PM
It was really, really beautiful.  Oh, and FYI, at 5:30 in the morning, there must have been 500 people there, hearing the thing.  :o  Here is the New York Times review by Steve Smith (also there the entire 12 hours), with the Stockhausen mentioned at the very end.

I suspect most people don't stretch the piece much beyond an hour or so, mostly because of the singers' stamina.  (Someone let me know if I'm wrong.)  They sit on the floor, cross-legged, which can't be very comfortable for very long, and since it's just nonstop vocalizing...well, I know Wagner tests people even longer, but... :-\

Edit: After seeing another thread, I couldn't resist playing with www.churchsigngenerator.com, one of my fave sites... ;D

--Bruce

www.churchsigngenerator.com

Ha! I've not seen that site before. Snork! No, don't start me off again!

Seriously, thanks for the info about Stimmung. I'm actually really excited about Stockhausen Day and the Mahler 5/Stockhausen Punkte concert. I'll let you know how they pan out.

J.Z. Herrenberg

#718
Quote from: MDL on June 03, 2008, 04:13:49 PM
www.churchsigngenerator.com

Ha! I've not seen that site before. Snork! No, don't start me off again!

Seriously, thanks for the info about Stimmung. I'm actually really excited about Stockhausen Day and the Mahler 5/Stockhausen Punkte concert. I'll let you know how they pan out.

Snork?! That word is always used on The Archers message board (BBC Radio Four) to describe a screen-splattering reaction to reading something funny when you're sitting behind your computer with coffee (or tea)!
Music gives a soul to the universe, wings to the mind, flight to the imagination and life to everything. -- Plato

The new erato

Gurreleider - yesterday. Pretty amazing and awe-inspiring.