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

[owlice]

From the Listening thread, addressed to our esteemed owlice:

Karl, first concert is listed here: http://www.good-music-guide.com/community/index.php/topic,429.msg355761.html#msg355761

Works later in the season include Rautavaara's Incantations and Leshnoff's Starburst. Some new works, some old works, and even some Mozart, but only because I couldn't get a work I wanted without it!!

[ChamberNut]

Tomorrow night's chamber music concert:

HAYDN
Trio in E flat major, Hob XV:29
for piano, violin and cello

KODALY
Duo, op. 7
for violin and cello

BRAHMS
Trio in C major, op. 87
for piano, violin and cello

Gwen Hoebig, violin
Desmond Hoebig, cello
David Moroz, piano

Great, great night of music.  I knew I was in for something special regarding the Kodaly Duo, a work I had never heard before.  Right before the performance I braced myself, for something told me I was in for an amazing ride...and what a ride it was!  What an amazing piece, and what a performance it was by the Hoebig brother and sister duo.    I was truly blown away.  0:)

[bhodges]

Great, great night of music.  I knew I was in for something special regarding the Kodaly Duo, a work I had never heard before.  Right before the performance I braced myself, for something told me I was in for an amazing ride...and what a ride it was!  What an amazing piece, and what a performance it was by the Hoebig brother and sister duo.    I was truly blown away.  0:)

A marvelous piece, Ray!  I have only heard it live once, about 15 years ago, and then bought a recording (on Harmonia Mundi, if I recall), which has his Sonata for Solo Cello, which you might enjoy since you liked the Duo.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Tonight:

Opening night at the Met, with Puccini's Tosca in a new production by Luc Bondy.  Karita Mattila sings the title role, with James Levine conducting.  

Going with friends to see it outside on the plaza at Lincoln Center, where the production will be broadcast live.  (They're also showing it on a huge screen in Times Square.)  It's going to be a beautiful night here in NYC, so this could be a lot of fun.

Edit: Opera Chic has a few photos from the dress rehearsal, here.

--Bruce

[springrite]

Not sure if I will have tickets yet, but my friend and fellow GMG'er Squarez is looking to get me a couple of tickets for this Thursday (24th)'s performance by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Abbado. They will perform Mahler 4 and a few Mozart concert arias. THe 24th is Vanessa's birthday. A concert featuring Vanessa's favorite composer seems to be the perfect birthday gift.

[Novi]

Not sure if I will have tickets yet, but my friend and fellow GMG'er Squarez is looking to get me a couple of tickets for this Thursday (24th)'s performance by the Lucerne Festival Orchestra under Abbado. They will perform Mahler 4 and a few Mozart concert arias. THe 24th is Vanessa's birthday. A concert featuring Vanessa's favorite composer seems to be the perfect birthday gift.

Wow, that sounds pretty good - hope you can get some tickets. Who's singing?

[springrite]

Wow, that sounds pretty good - hope you can get some tickets. Who's singing?

I have no idea, but I know at least the singer is NOT local.

[bhodges]

Tonight:

Opening night at the Met, with Puccini's Tosca in a new production by Luc Bondy.  Karita Mattila sings the title role, with James Levine conducting.  

Going with friends to see it outside on the plaza at Lincoln Center, where the production will be broadcast live.  (They're also showing it on a huge screen in Times Square.)  It's going to be a beautiful night here in NYC, so this could be a lot of fun.

Edit: Opera Chic has a few photos from the dress rehearsal, here.

--Bruce

Well, I feel like one of the few people around who actually liked the Met's new Tosca.  While not perfect (the ending, in particular, needs some technical shoring up), the musical values were terrific, given the outstanding work of Marcelo Álvarez (Cavaradossi), Karita Mattila (Tosca) and most of all George Gagnidze (Scarpia) who turned out to be an excellent last-minute replacement for Juha Uusitalo.  James Levine and the orchestra just sounded fabulous, making me realize I don't have a good modern version (recording) of this piece.

But the production by Luc Bondy got soundly, loudly booed during the curtain calls.  I am not sure I really understand why, since it wasn't that far-out--actually not "far-out" at all.  (And not nearly as "out there" as things by say, Calixto Bieito.)  What it seems to me: a general hand-wringing for the loss of Franco Zeffirelli's lavish, much-loved production, which PS, may or may not make the best case for the opera.  It's a shame, since this new one emphasizes the dramatic intensity and doesn't have the singers dwarfed by the set.

--Bruce

[Harpo]

Carnegie Hall, Oct. 17

       Takács Quartet
·· Edward Dusinberre, Violin
·· Károly Schranz, Violin
·· Geraldine Walther, Viola
·· András Fejér, Cello


SCHUMANN  String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1 
WOLFGANG RIHM  Quartet No. 11 (NY Premiere) 

BEETHOVEN  String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1, "Razumovsky" 

[Brian]

Carnegie Hall, Oct. 17

       Takács Quartet
·· Edward Dusinberre, Violin
·· Károly Schranz, Violin
·· Geraldine Walther, Viola
·· András Fejér, Cello


SCHUMANN  String Quartet in A Minor, Op. 41, No. 1 
WOLFGANG RIHM  Quartet No. 11 (NY Premiere) 

BEETHOVEN  String Quartet in F Major, Op. 59, No. 1, "Razumovsky" 

*jaw hits floor*

That sounds incredible! I just heard the Tokyo Quartet do the Beethoven 59/1 live, but the Takács ... that will be an incredible experience. 

[springrite]

Just returned with Vanessa from Lucerne Fesival Orchestra's concert under Abbado. It was Vanessa's first LIVE classical concert and is a birthday gift she very much enjoyed. The playing was magnificent and Abbado was on top form. The soprano was good but the voice did not seem to fit the role since it lack the naivete that's called for. That would be my only complaint.

I saw many old friends at the concert, many of whome flew in from other parts of China just to attend this concert. Abbado is very much loved in China.

[karlhenning]

Abbado has earned all the love.

[springrite]

Abbado has earned all the love.

Indeed!

BTW, the soprano is Hanisch. (not sure about spelling)

[bhodges]

Just returned with Vanessa from Lucerne Fesival Orchestra's concert under Abbado. It was Vanessa's first LIVE classical concert and is a birthday gift she very much enjoyed. The playing was magnificent and Abbado was on top form. The soprano was good but the voice did not seem to fit the role since it lack the naivete that's called for. That would be my only complaint.

I saw many old friends at the concert, many of whome flew in from other parts of China just to attend this concert. Abbado is very much loved in China.

Great story, and glad the concert was good.  I love Abbado, and the Lucerne group seems to be doing great work.  (I haven't gotten any of their DVDs yet, but they already have a few.)

Tonight, this excellent-sounding concert.  I've heard the Harvey piece just a year or so ago, and think it's a tremendous piece, and I don't recall ever hearing the Stockhausen live.

Talea Ensemble
"Points of Contact: Stockhausen's Kontakte and Beyond"
@ Roulette

Jonathan Harvey: Tombeau de Messiaen (1994) for piano and tape
James Tenney: Ergodos II (for John Cage) (1964) for tape with instrumental responses
Karlheinz Stockhausen: Kontakte (1960) for piano, percussion and 4-channel electronic sounds

--Bruce

[owlice]

Tonight, a little Brahms, a little Tchaikovsky, and a little Higdon. Tomorrow, my ears will likely be filled by other people's music choices (Jimmy Buffet has been mentioned, alas), but tonight, I get a great orchestra, pleasant companionship, and wonderful music, and I'm really looking forward to it!

(Tomorrow, I ride in a charity fundraiser at which my team will have a camp, which is where the music-not-of-my-choice will be. I think it's a ruse to keep me on my bike!!)

Bruce,

How was last night's concert?

[bhodges]

Tonight, a little Brahms, a little Tchaikovsky, and a little Higdon. Tomorrow, my ears will likely be filled by other people's music choices (Jimmy Buffet has been mentioned, alas), but tonight, I get a great orchestra, pleasant companionship, and wonderful music, and I'm really looking forward to it!

(Tomorrow, I ride in a charity fundraiser at which my team will have a camp, which is where the music-not-of-my-choice will be. I think it's a ruse to keep me on my bike!!)

Bruce,

How was last night's concert?

Hi owlice, nice to see Jennifer Higdon on your list!  I like what I've heard from her very much.  If you are inclined toward chamber music, check out the CD by eighth blackbird that has her sextet, Zaka--fantastic.

Concert last night was terrific: two early electronic artifacts from the 1960s (not to seemingly dismiss the Stockhausen as such), which were really well done.  (Caveat: I had never heard either the Tenney or the Stockhausen live.)

I was lucky to hear Jonathan Harvey's Tombeau de Messiaen last year in an equally fine performance; I like it better every time I hear it.  The taped part is actually another piano, tuned slightly differently than the tempered live piano, which creates a marvelous array of microtonal sounds.  This performance was in a much smaller space, so the twangy microtones were really "in your face." 

Tonight I'm returning to the same space (Roulette) to hear the Talea Ensemble and the International Contemporary Ensemble collaborate on an entire evening of music by Mario Diaz de León, who is completely new to me.  De León was in rock and hardcore bands in the 1990s, before starting to write for classical instruments (with electronics) in 2001.  Could be very interesting...

Then on Sunday, Talea is doing Janáček's "Intimate Letters" Quartet and a piece by Georges Aperghis, at a really odd-sounding venue: the Roger Smith Hotel (47th and Lexington).  Now that could be really weird. 

--Bruce

[owlice]

Back from the Baltimore SO; that was fun!

Tonight's playbill includes this text:

Tonight's program introduces a theme that will run throughout the BSO's 2009-2010 season: the diverse folk and ethnic traditions that have enriched classical music over the centuries. Brahms' Hungarian Dances celebrate this German composer's love of Hungarian gypsy music while Jennifer Higdon's Concerto 4-3 was inspired by the bluegrass music of her childhood home in East Tennessee.

Really? That inspiration, though present, didn't seem quite as prevalent as the jazz influence, but what else are you going to do with two violins and a bass?

The concerto had three movements with very little break between them; the three movements were The Shadows, Little River, and Roaring Smokies. I was a bit surprised that the soloists were amplified; wasn't expecting that. The work started with solo violin being used as a percussion instrument, a quiet rhythmic noise that eventually escalated to string frenzy with all three instruments. All three instruments were used as percussion instruments, with the bass sometimes being banged on with a clenched fist (aren't all fists clenched? How could a hand be a fist without being clenched?), and sometimes with a flat hand. The second movement used the orchestra very little; this movement, with many quiet and introspective places, seemed nearly an extension of the first movement cadenza, not musically, but structurally. The last movement was a rip-roaring tear through the strings of Time for Three, the featured trio.

It's obvious these three guys play together a lot; in fact, there were many many times when it seemed they were playing for each other, rather than for an audience. Though our seats were nearly dead center, we saw an awful lot of one violinst's back; he played to the bass player throughout most of the concerto. This didn't affect the sound, but did make me feel occasionally like a voyeur into a private playgroup.

The violinists were dressed in black suits for their concert appearance; the bass player wore black pants and a medium purple button-down shirt that he wore open at the neck and untucked everywhere; his left sleeve was also rolled up. My companion's underbreath comment was something about this not being the 9:30 Club.

Regardless of how they are dressed, these guys can play. Fiddle, classical, jazz -- it was all there. At one point in the first movement, the massed strings imitated the trio, but couldn't match the trio's fiddle technique; that was noticeable (to me, anyway).

They played an encore which left the BSO bass players open-mouthed; oh, the things the bass player did to his instrument, and oh, the sounds he got out of it! Pretty amazing.

The concerto was presented in the middle of the concert; Brahms opened the evening's music: Hungarian Dances no. 1, 3, and 10. Very well-played, these were; the orchestra sounded great!

The Tchaikovsky 4th Symphony closed the concert. After the first movement of this work, a gasped, unvoiced "wow" came from somewhere in the hall. Great playing, great sound, great music.

[MDL]

Gyorgy Kurtag: Stele, Op.33
Gustav Mahler: Symphony No.2 (Resurrection)

Vladimir Jurowski conductor
Adriana Kucerova soprano
Christianne Stotijn mezzo-soprano
London Philharmonic Choir


This will be a good test of the Festival Hall's revamped acoustics. I've heard great things about Jurowski, particularly in Russian music, but his Mahler is a bit of an unknown quantity. Should be exciting at least.

[stingo]

Looking forward to the start of my orchestral season in Philadelphia this year:

BARBER Adagio for Strings
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No 2
BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique
Yuja Wang, piano
Charles Dutoit, conductor

I believe this will be my first time hearing Barber's Greatest Hit live, which I'm very much looking forward to. Prokofiev's concerto was previously unknown to me (listened to recordings of it via rhapsody) but it's quite a difficult work to play from the sounds of it. The Berlioz is part of Dutoit's initiative to have Berlioz' large scale works performed (last year's concert season for me ended with Berlioz' Requiem) - and it has been a while since I've heard this piece live.

[karlhenning]

Looking forward to the start of my orchestral season in Philadelphia this year:

BARBER Adagio for Strings
PROKOFIEV Piano Concerto No 2
BERLIOZ Symphonie Fantastique

Yuja Wang, piano
Charles Dutoit, conductor

I believe this will be my first time hearing Barber's Greatest Hit live, which I'm very much looking forward to. Prokofiev's concerto was previously unknown to me (listened to recordings of it via rhapsody) but it's quite a difficult work to play from the sounds of it. The Berlioz is part of Dutoit's initiative to have Berlioz' large scale works performed (last year's concert season for me ended with Berlioz' Requiem) - and it has been a while since I've heard this piece live.

Beautiful program!