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

[bhodges]

Tonight, Australian pianist Lisa Moore, "New York's queen of avant-garde piano," in a program of Sam Adams, John Adams, Martin Bresnick, Janáček, Debussy and Halim El-Dabh.

The venue is interesting: Klavierhaus, a piano showroom, with seating limited to only 50 people.  I love the intimacy of settings like this.

--Bruce 

[Gabriel]

Concerts I have attended recently:

Schönberg: Violin concerto, Pelléas et Melisande. Hahn/Eötvös/Orchestre Philharmonique de Radio France.

Berlioz: Symphonie Fantastique, Lélio. Muti/Depardieu/Orchestre National de France.

Mozart: Le nozze di Figaro. Minkowski/Les musiciens du Louvre/Priante/Peretyatko/Spagnoli/Kovalevska/Bonitatibus.

Prokofiev: Alexander Nevsky, excerpts from Romeo and Juliet. Sokhiev/Diadkova/Orchestre National du Capitole du Toulouse.

Mozart: Opera arias. Damrau/Rhorer/Le cercle de l'Harmonie.


Soon:

Wagner: Die Feen. Minkowski/Les musiciens du Louvre.

J. S. Bach: Matthäuspassion. Malgoire/La Grande Écurie et la Chambre du Roy/Agnew/Pasichnyk.

Schumann, Beethoven, Debussy, Chopin. Ivan Moravec.

[AB68]

 
Very much looking forward to these concerts. Alot of Beethoven with some of my favourite pianists.

Friday april 17:
Leif Ove Andsnes, piano
Bach: Toccata in E minor, BWV 914
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 13 in E flat major Op 27 No 1
Beethoven: Piano Sonata No 14 in C# minor Op 27 No 2 'Moonlight'
Schumann: Kinderszenen op.15
Chopin: Waltz in D Flat Major, Op. 70, No. 3
Chopin: Waltz Op.42
Chopin: Ballade No 3 in Ab major Op 47

Friday may 8:
Radu Lupu, piano
Ludwig van Beethoven:
Sonate Nr. 10 G-Dur op. 14 Nr. 2
Sonate Nr. 9 E-Dur op. 14 Nr. 1
Sonate Nr. 8 c-Moll op. 13 »Pathétique«
Franz Schubert:
Sonate Nr. 21 B-Dur D 960

Saturday may 9:
Berliner Philharmoniker/Kirill Petrenko
Lars Vogt, piano
Ludwig van Beethoven
Klavierkonzert Nr. 3 c-Moll op. 37
Edward Elgar
Symphonie Nr. 2 Es-Dur op. 63

[Novi]

The seasonal listening begins :

Dunedin Consort

Bach's Matthew Passion
Director - John Butt, Evangelist - Nicholas Mulroy, Christus - Peter Kooij
Choristers of St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh

Sounds like it's not OVPP this year, given the participation of the Choristers. John Butt seems to like to tweak things a bit every year. The Dunedin Matthew Passion is an Easter staple here, and I've heard it done with a couple of female ripieno singers, as well as with a handful of children.

[bhodges]

This Saturday night at Carnegie, another fascinating program from David Robertson and St. Louis.  I like that the two soloists each have their own turn, then join to perform together in the Saariaho.

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson, Music Director and Conductor
Karita Mattila, Soprano
Anssi Karttunen, Cello

Wagner: "Good Friday Music" from Parsifal  
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Canto di speranza for Cello and Orchestra
Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 
Kaija Saariaho: Mirage for Soprano, Cello, and Orchestra (NY Premiere) 
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 

--Bruce

[DavidRoss]

This Saturday night at Carnegie, another fascinating program from David Robertson and St. Louis.  I like that the two soloists each have their own turn, then join to perform together in the Saariaho.

Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson, Music Director and Conductor
Karita Mattila, Soprano
Anssi Karttunen, Cello

Wagner: "Good Friday Music" from Parsifal  
Bernd Alois Zimmermann: Canto di speranza for Cello and Orchestra
Sibelius: Luonnotar, Op. 70 
Kaija Saariaho: Mirage for Soprano, Cello, and Orchestra (NY Premiere) 
Sibelius: Symphony No. 5 in E-flat Major, Op. 82 

Mattila singing Luonnotar, then the new Saariaho piece, and followed by the Fifth!  Sounds like a real treat, Bruce...I'm envious. 

[Opus106]

This one.

[Brian]

Tonight!

RAVEL | Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No 2
CASTELLANOS | Santa Cruz de Pacairigua
TCHAIKOVSKY | Symphony No 4

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel

[bhodges]

Tonight!

RAVEL | Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No 2
CASTELLANOS | Santa Cruz de Pacairigua
TCHAIKOVSKY | Symphony No 4

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel

His Tchaik 4 with the Israel Philharmonic last December was one of the most exciting performances of that piece I've heard in years.  You are in for a great treat tonight. 

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Tonight, the third night of the MATA Festival, celebrating music of young composers.  First half of the program is the NOW Ensemble (new to me), with Bing and Ruth (ditto) on the second half.  If nothing else, some cool titles!

NOW Ensemble
Jascha Narveson: Nice Boots [2008]
Patrick Burke: Hypno-germ [2006]
Greg Spears: Quiet Songs [2006]
David Crowell: sCrAmBLe SuIt [2007]
Missy Mazzoli: Magic With Everyday Objects [2007]

INTERMISSION

Bing and Ruth
Music by composer/leader David Moore
Put Your Weight Into It [2007]
City Lake/Tu Sei Uwe [2009] 2009 MATA commission
Rails [2008]
Broad Channel [2005]
In This Ruined House [2008]
...and then it rained [2007]
Little Line in a Round Face [2009]

--Bruce

[Novi]

The seasonal listening begins :

Dunedin Consort

Bach's Matthew Passion
Director - John Butt, Evangelist - Nicholas Mulroy, Christus - Peter Kooij
Choristers of St Mary's Cathedral
St Mary's Episcopal Cathedral, Palmerston Place, Edinburgh

Sounds like it's not OVPP this year, given the participation of the Choristers. John Butt seems to like to tweak things a bit every year. The Dunedin Matthew Passion is an Easter staple here, and I've heard it done with a couple of female ripieno singers, as well as with a handful of children.

Well, turns out it was OVPP after all – ripieno choristers .

The Matthew Passion is one of my favourites and the yearly performance is becoming quite a tradition, although the first I've been to at this venue. The acoustics of St Mary's weren't as bad as its cavernous space would suggest. Some of the faster segments (and some were pretty fast) lost a bit of clarity, but overall, it wasn't bad. I did, however, freeze my butt off, which made for quite an appropriate sense of Lenten deprivation .

Peter Kooij had an understated gravitas as Christus, although he seemed to have his head buried in the score or eyes glued to John Butt for much of the piece. I should add that this didn't really affect his performance or projection as such, but it seemed strange that even a line as important as 'Eli, Eli, lama asabthani?' was sung without looking up at all. This was all the more noticeable in comparison to Nicholas Mulroy's Evangelist. Mulroy has a great sense of the dramatic progression of the narrative and does a wonderful job of delivering the story to the audience.

I like Susan Hamilton's voice; there's a kind of freedom to her approach that mightn't suit a more reverential take on Bach but works well here. I suspect it's largely a matter of taste, as last year I almost came to blows with the chap next to me who hated her voice. He hated OVPP as well. For that matter, he wasn't particularly fond of HIP interpretations anyway, which left me wondering why he was at a Dunedin Consort gig in the first place .

The only weak point I felt was the soprano in the second chorus. She didn't blend quite so well and a couple of times was just a little ahead of the beat in her entries such that the chorus seemed a little ragged. Minor quibbles though.

One thing I gather the naysayers object to is the perceived lack of weight, say, in the crowd scenes. I don't have a problem with this; the four person chorus packs greater weight relative to the solo parts. What struck me for the first time the other night was that it seemed a little odd to have no separation between the solo part and his role in the chorus. So, for instance, the Evangelist finishes declaiming and jumps straight into the chorus. It would be good to hear another take on the piece one day, although it seems to me that OVPP is the performance mode du jour for straightened times: no choir, dispense with chorus master, save on part hire ... 

[ChamberNut]

Tonight!

RAVEL | Daphnis et Chloe, Suite No 2
CASTELLANOS | Santa Cruz de Pacairigua
TCHAIKOVSKY | Symphony No 4

Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra of Venezuela
Gustavo Dudamel

Brian, I'm curious - how was the concert with your friends? 

[Lilas Pastia]

What an absolutely incredible evening of music.  Just another WOW moment in my classical music journey.  I had yet to ever hear Saint-Saens' Piano Concerto No. 2, and that was a major highlight of the evening....both the work and the incredible performance left me spellbound, and I gave a rousing standing ovation (along with the rest of the crowd!)  The young Inon Barnatan was just so much fun to watch, what a terrific, electrifying performance! 

And the evening capped off with an overwhelming performance of Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition (orch. Ravel).  Shivers up my arms and the back of my neck from the opening to the intro of the Great Gate of Kiev right to the end.  One of the greatest concerts, and certainly my favorite concert this season!  0:)

Kammer-Nuss, I see you haven't gotten much response here - and that's ok, IMO it's mainly a thread where you expand on why (oh, why?) we are expending ridiculous sums to hear particular concerts. I myself am all excited about the new Montreal SO season, although posting the contents here would probably not raise more than a quarter of an eyebrow in terms of interest.

The concert you attended was perfectly gauged, and programmed with much savoir-faire. You didn't mention the Ravel Mother Goose opener, but as you go along in this life (if you keep on listening to classical music - an addictive habit), you'll find this to be a  piece you still want to hear 50 years hence (assuming you're under 30). One of the most magical works of music ever written, and one of Ravel's imperishable masterpieces (along with the PCs, Daphnis, the Quartet and Trio). Saint-Saëns' second PC is an incredible barnstormer of a piece, where the composer devilishly keeps his poise and classical mien, fully expecting the listener to ridiculously jump up and down at the end - what a piece!! And of course, Mussorgsky's Ravel orchestrated masterpiece is the ultimate orchestral showstopper - and, something Ravel understood uncanningly - the epitome of instrumental showstopper. A good conductor will hold the massed forces and individual solos/section in perfect balance, and keep an iron-fisted rythmic underpinning to bring the work to its exhilarating close.

Look for that kind of program: it has all the ingredients to a totally satisfying evening. Later on, you will make up your choices based on your preferences. But you will always remember those evenings at the symphony where you're all giddy at the end. Before it becomes an intellectual/aesthetic quest, music is about the senses, and the muses.

[ChamberNut]

I myself am all excited about the new Montreal SO season, although posting the contents here would probably not raise more than a quarter of an eyebrow in terms of interest.

I will have to go look at the OSM website, Lilas.  The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's new 2009/2010 season was also unveiled.  A good series of concerts, but nothing that I'm extraordinarily excited about, compared to the past three years (I'm still waiting for Bruckner  ).  I am extremely happy to hear that our young, very talented and enthusiastic conductor, Alexander Mickelthwate, has signed on for another three years! 

Of note Lilas, Kent Nagano and the OSM is performing a concert in Winnipeg at the end of January 2010, part of their 2010 Canadian Tour.   :)The concert will include Weber's 'Oberon Overture', Beethoven's 'Piano Concerto No. 1' (Till Fellner of Austria as soloist) and Stravinsky's 'Firebird'.

[Lilas Pastia]

I will have to go look at the OSM website, Lilas.  The Winnipeg Symphony Orchestra's new 2009/2010 season was also unveiled.  A good series of concerts, but nothing that I'm extraordinarily excited about, compared to the past three years (I'm still waiting for Bruckner  ).  I am extremely happy to hear that our young, very talented and enthusiastic conductor, Alexander Mickelthwate, has signed on for another three years! 

Of note Lilas, Kent Nagano and the OSM is performing a concert in Winnipeg at the end of January 2010, part of their 2010 Canadian Tour.   :)The concert will include Weber's 'Oberon Overture', Beethoven's 'Piano Concerto No. 1' (Till Fellner of Austria as soloist) and Stravinsky's 'Firebird'.

I'm pretty sure the OSM's concerts will be broadcast by the CBC. But it's not the same as being there when it happens (just like you  experienced in that Ravel etc concert). One of my most cherished concerts was with the OSM under Aldo Ceccato (very little-known conductor) playing Tchaikovsky's second symphony, with Radu Lupu as soloist in the Grieg concerto. Yawn stuff for the jaded concert listener, but even the newbie I was could testify it was a high voltage, high-artistry content program.

I haen't heard of of before. I suspect he'll be on the canadian concert schedule for the next few year, and I'll make sure I go out and hear what all the fuss is about!

[stingo]

Previn Plays and Conducts
Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 24
Strauss: Sinfonia Domestica
Philadelphia Orchestra
Andre Previn
Verizon Hall

Heard this concert on Saturday, and I was very grateful for the chance to see Andre Previn play and conduct the Mozart concerto. He slowly made his way to the piano, but when he sat down, he was in full command of the assembled forces. And he certainly can play too - I really enjoyed the first movement cadenza a lot. The audience approved as well. After intermission, he returned to the podium aided by a silver headed walking stick, and then concertmaster David Kim. There was noticeable quieting in the applause as Previn stepped onto the podium, but once he'd made it, the applause resounded through the hall. He sat down, and commenced with a very good (to my ears) performance of the Strauss. About the only negative in the performance was a somewhat ragged entrance by the horns, but that's a niggling negative in the context of all the excellent music making.

[bhodges]

Tonight, this free concert by Klangforum Wien, at the Austrian Cultural Forum.  The venue is small: the concert hall seats roughly 70 people, which includes a small balcony!

Enno Poppe: Trauben
György Kurtág: Pilinszky János
Clemens Nachtmann: Moto non perpetuo
Michael Jarrell: Assonance III
Saed Haddad: Le Contredesir
Hanspeter Kyburz: Danse aveugle

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Saturday, this program conducted by BSO Assistant Conductor, Shi-Yeon Sung:

Sibelius, The Bard
Grieg, Pf Cto (Nelson Freire)
Copland, Suite from Appalachian Spring
Bartók, Suite from The Miraculous Mandarin

[Sef]

Not quite a concert, but I am looking forward to attending a workshop held by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra on Saturday at which my daughter is playing!

[bhodges]

Not quite a concert, but I am looking forward to attending a workshop held by Gustavo Dudamel and the Simon Bolivar Youth Orchestra on Saturday at which my daughter is playing!

How great!  Do let us know how it goes!  Is it perhaps a lecture-demonstration, with the orchestra playing something? 

--Bruce