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

[bhodges]

Just returned from a quite amazing recital by violinist Hilary Hahn, with Valentina Lisitsa at the piano.  Program:

Ysaÿe: Sonata in E Minor for Solo Violin
Ives: Sonata No. 4
Brahms: Selections from Hungarian Dances (arr. Joseph Joachim)
Ives: Sonata No. 2
Intermission
Ysaÿe: Sonata in E major for Solo Violin
Ysaÿe: Rêve d'Enfant for Violin and Piano
Ives: Sonata No. 1
Bartók: Romanian Folk Dances
Encore:
Paganini: Cantabile

It had been awhile since I'd heard Hahn live--maybe five years--and she has really grown as an artist.  The Ives sonatas were the main event for me, and they were stunning, but the surprises were the Ysaÿe works.  And I never thought I would write "stirring" and "Paganini" in the same sentence, but there you go.

The venue was Town Hall, in a series called "Free for All," which is exactly as it sounds.  Tickets are distributed, first-come-first-served, on the day of the concert. 

--Bruce

[MishaK]

Friday June 19
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

New World Symphony

Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello


Dvorák -   Carnival Overture
Dvorák -   Cello Concerto
Dvorák -   Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)

Love it, Love it, Love it.

I'm planning to go to this one as well. Heard the Emersons and Kahane yesterday.

[bhodges]

Tonight, this concert, by counter)induction:

Lee Hyla: Ciao Manhattan
Salvatore Sciarrino: Centauro Marino
Eric Moe: Dead Cat Bounce
Douglas Boyce: Deixo | Sonata
Kyle Bartlett: adagio sostenuto

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Tonight, this concert, by counter)induction:

Lee Hyla: Ciao Manhattan
Salvatore Sciarrino: Centauro Marino
Eric Moe: Dead Cat Bounce
Douglas Boyce: Deixo | Sonata
Kyle Bartlett: adagio sostenuto

--Bruce

This concert was excellent--a fine reminder of the many superb young musicians out there dedicated to contemporary music.  I especially liked the Sciarrino (for violin, viola, cello, piano and clarinet), in which the strings and wind play very soft figures, regularly interrupted by fortissimo barrages on the piano.

Next up: this concert on Friday:

Either/Or

Feldman: Why Patterns?
Stockhausen: Klavierstück IX

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Looking forward to this concert on Saturday, since I have not heard a note of Maazel's own music. 

Lorin Maazel, conductor
New York Philharmonic

Maazel: Monaco Fanfares
Maazel: Farewells
Sibelius: Symphony No. 2

--Bruce

[stingo]

My last concert of the '08-'09 concert season is this Sunday at 2pm:

Berlioz: Requiem
Paul Groves, Tenor
The Philadelphia Singers Chorale
Philadelphia Orchestra
Verizon Hall

[op.110]

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I'm looking forward to taking my girlfriend to Central Park, bringing a few bottles of wine, and getting hammered while listening to Mahler 1. I'm sure many forum-ers in the tri-state area will be attending this concert. I'm on a tight budget (unemployed and just recently graduated college), otherwise I'd really want to watch Mahler Symphony No. 8 performed by the NYPhil.

[bhodges]

My last concert of the '08-'09 concert season is this Sunday at 2pm:

Berlioz: Requiem
Paul Groves, Tenor
The Philadelphia Singers Chorale
Philadelphia Orchestra
Verizon Hall

That sounds great.  Paul Groves has a beautiful voice...

I'm on a tight budget (unemployed and just recently graduated college), otherwise I'd really want to watch Mahler Symphony No. 8 performed by the NYPhil.

FYI, you can listen to the Thursday (June 25) Mahler 8 concert on the radio (and I suspect, online).

--Bruce

[stingo]

Don't know if it's been mentioned before, but I'm looking forward to taking my girlfriend to Central Park, bringing a few bottles of wine, and getting hammered while listening to Mahler 1. I'm sure many forum-ers in the tri-state area will be attending this concert. I'm on a tight budget (unemployed and just recently graduated college), otherwise I'd really want to watch Mahler Symphony No. 8 performed by the NYPhil.

Umm a couple of bottles of wine, Central Park, Mahler's 1st and your girlfriend? WTF more do you want?

[MishaK]

Friday June 19
Chicago Symphony Orchestra

New World Symphony

Sir Mark Elder, conductor
Alisa Weilerstein, cello


Dvorák -   Carnival Overture
Dvorák -   Cello Concerto
Dvorák -   Symphony No. 9 (From the New World)

Love it, Love it, Love it.

Went to this last night. Wasn't impressed. Elder is rather unimaginative. No real new insigths. Weilerstein has potential but needs to work on her articulation. Woodwinds were magnificent last night, though.

[MDL]

I've booked my Proms tickets, a miserly credit-crunch total of three. Compared to last year's Stockhausen and Messiaen binges, this year's festival isn't as interesting (to me, obviously), but there still some goodies.

September 2

Xenakis Nomos gamma (15 mins)
Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead (20 mins)
interval
Xenakis Aïs (18 mins)
Shostakovich Symphony No.9 in E flat major (25 mins)
Leigh Melrose baritone
Colin Currie percussion
BBC Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson conductor

September 4

Ligeti Atmosphères (9 mins)
Mahler Kindertotenlieder (27 mins)
Schoenberg Five Orchestral Pieces, Op.16 (19 mins)
interval
R Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra (34 mins)
Matthias Goerne baritone
Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester
Jonathan Nott conductor

September 7

Mendelssohn Piano Concerto No.1 in G minor, Op.25 (20 mins)
interval
Mahler, compl. Cooke Symphony No.10 (80 mins)
Saleem Abboud Ashkar piano
Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra
Riccardo Chailly conductor

[bhodges]

I've booked my Proms tickets, a miserly credit-crunch total of three. Compared to last year's Stockhausen and Messiaen binges, this year's festival isn't as interesting (to me, obviously), but there still some goodies.

September 2

Xenakis Nomos gamma (15 mins)
Rachmaninov The Isle of the Dead (20 mins)
interval
Xenakis Aïs (18 mins)
Shostakovich Symphony No.9 in E flat major (25 mins)
Leigh Melrose baritone
Colin Currie percussion
BBC Symphony Orchestra
David Robertson conductor

Wow, leave it to David Robertson to come up with this program!  He does it over and over, combining things that no one else does.  The other two concerts you bought look excellent, too, but this is particularly intriguing.  Here in NYC, I have yet to see any of Xenakis's orchestral works performed.

This Saturday night I am looking forward to hearing Lorin Maazel's final concert as music director of the New York Philharmonic, in the Mahler Eighth Symphony.  But before that, on Wednesday night, this free one:

Wed., June 24, 7:00 pm
Baryshnikov Arts Center
Messiaen: Visions de l'Amen (Marilyn Nonken and Sarah Rothenberg, pianos)

--Bruce

[MDL]

This Saturday night I am looking forward to hearing Lorin Maazel's final concert as music director of the New York Philharmonic, in the Mahler Eighth Symphony. 

Nice one. I saw Maazel conducting Mahler 8 in the Albert Hall back in the early '90s. It was pretty impressive apart from his leaden treatment of the dancing woodwind writing that is supposed to make a contrast in the slow, heavy orchestral intro of the second movement. Sounds like a minor point, but it bugs me almost two decades later...! 

[bhodges]

Nice one. I saw Maazel conducting Mahler 8 in the Albert Hall back in the early '90s. It was pretty impressive apart from his leaden treatment of the dancing woodwind writing that is supposed to make a contrast in the slow, heavy orchestral intro of the second movement. Sounds like a minor point, but it bugs me almost two decades later...! 

Not minor at all, and I can imagine...  And on a potentially related topic, he is somewhat prone to micro-management, which I hope will not be the case this week.  The first of four performances is tonight, so I'll be eager to see some reports tomorrow. 

--Bruce

[Lilas Pastia]

Away for a caribbean vacation last week, which means I missed the Nézet-Séguin Bruckner 8  . A recording will come forth in a few months, but still...

[Drasko]

Away for a caribbean vacation last week, which means I missed the Nézet-Séguin Bruckner 8  . A recording will come forth in a few months, but still...

Caribbean vacation or Nezet-Seguin....hmmm...you chose wisely

Just recieved program for Belgrade Philarmonic's next subscription season. Some interesting and even few completely unexpected items. More Sibelius than in previous ten years put together: Symphonies Nos.1 & 5, Tapiola, Lemminkainen Legends and Violin Concerto and quite a bit Scandinavian stuff generally: Grieg Symphony in C (never heard of), Klami Kalevala Suite and something I never thought I'd hear live, let alone here in Belgrade - Leifs' Geysir Other not so often played repertoire include Myaskovsky's 6th Symphony, Copland's 3rd and Appalachian Spring, also yet unannounced program led by Lothar Zagrosek, of the entartete musik fame, could be very interesting. Of soloists Andrei Gavrilov playing Prokofiev's 5th Concerto could be highlight of the season.   

[Lilas Pastia]

I always choose wisely  !

Lucky devil! I dream of a Leifs first half concert made of Geysir, Dettifoss, and Hekla. Double scotch during, and Strauss walzes after intermission. 

[Drasko]

I always choose wisely  !

Lucky devil! I dream of a Leifs first half concert made of Geysir, Dettifoss, and Hekla. Double scotch during, and Strauss walzes after intermission. 

Interesting idea, but no the concert will consist of
Leifs - Geysir
Tchaikovsky - Rococo Variations (arrangement for trumpet )
Grieg - Symphony in C

I just hope I'll be sufficiently dizzy and deaf after Leifs to just half hear that Tchaikovsky transcription.

[hildegard]

Last night's Rodgers & Hammerstein's South Pacific, with the wonderful bass-baritone voice of David Pittsinger as Emile de Becque.



OK, not exactly a concert, but the de Becque role was written for Enzio Pinsa and is traditionally performed by an opera singer. As such, he outshone the rest of the cast.

News is Pittsinger so much wanted to do SP, he passed on a commitment to do Thais with Renee Fleming at the Met. 

[bhodges]

Tonight at (Le) Poisson Rouge--and at 9:30, on the late side!  In just a little over a year, this place has turned into one of the most interesting venues in NYC, programming classical music (new and old) alongside rock, jazz and all sorts of other music.  But the amount of classical is huge, maybe 50%.  It's like having a "classical music nightclub" nearby, where you can listen to music while having drinks and snacks.  Anyway, looking forward to:

ModernWorks

Ge Gan-Ru: String Quartets 1, 4 and 5

--Bruce