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

[MishaK]

A powerhouse of a concert.  I'm hearing the same one here in a few weeks, and can't wait. 

--Bruce

You're in for a treat. Best CSO performance I've heard in a while. Dufour was in top form, as were both soloists in the Bartok.

[mahler10th]

Three days to go before at last I will hear some Hans Rott played live.  I am slabbering at the mouth for the occassion.  It will make my stay in this dreadful, dirty city a little brighter.  AND there's Mahler 1 on the bill too.  I'll be paying close attention to the opening naturals and try to experience listening to it for the FIRST time (tho' I've heard it so many times).  It will be great to see and hear it live.

[karlhenning]

Oh, but in a sense it will be the first you've ever heard it, John.  Hearing a piece live in the space is always a much richer experience.

[mahler10th]

Oh, but in a sense it will be the first you've ever heard it, John.  Hearing a piece live in the space is always a much richer experience.

Thank you Karl, you are very much correct!

[bhodges]

Three days to go before at last I will hear some Hans Rott played live.  I am slabbering at the mouth for the occassion.  It will make my stay in this dreadful, dirty city a little brighter.  AND there's Mahler 1 on the bill too.  I'll be paying close attention to the opening naturals and try to experience listening to it for the FIRST time (tho' I've heard it so many times).  It will be great to see and hear it live.

I don't know Rott's work that well--certainly have never heard any live.  If I recall, isn't his name included in the composers whose names are engraved around the balcony of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw? 

Anyway, coupled with the Mahler, you are in for a treat.  Nothing like being in a good hall and watching the orchestra just blast away. 

--Bruce

[mahler10th]

I don't know Rott's work that well--certainly have never heard any live.  If I recall, isn't his name included in the composers whose names are engraved around the balcony of the Amsterdam Concertgebouw? 

Anyway, coupled with the Mahler, you are in for a treat.  Nothing like being in a good hall and watching the orchestra just blast away. 

--Bruce

Thank you Bruce.  I'll be posting an indepth review here on Sunday.  I didn't know about his possible name engraving on the Concertgebouw balcony - I'll find out about that!

[karlhenning]

This weekend at Symphony Hall:

Mozart, Symphony № 38 in D ("Prague"), K.504
Elgar, Violin Concerto in b minor, Opus 61

Nikolaj Znaider, violin
Sir Colin Davis, guest conductor

[mahler10th]

It is eminently possible I might go to one of these.  I am spoilt for choice really, because

A ]  Paavo Jarvi has taken a very serious interest in Hans Rott, and he's doing something in America with the first Symphony in Cincinnati, a concert which I cannot attend because a large Ocean is waving around between Liverpool and Cincinnati,  stopping such antics.  So I could get to see him doing it in Frankfurt in March.
B]  The other concert is in the Netherlands, and I have never been to the Netherlands, menaced as I am by the sheer hieght of all the Dutch people I've ever known.     Anyway, Jarvi in Frankfurt sounds great, but to visit Holland, hear the Symphony, visit some famous places including the Concertgebouw, perhaps meet a GMGer or two, come home and write about it all sounds much more appealing...but still, I think the most interesting performance will be Jarvi, because he speaks with some passion for the work, and he might for all we know come out with a Rott 1 release which will prove to be reference material, because he's well capable of that.

Here's my choices, I'll figure things out as the time gets nearer.

March 13-20, 2010 Symphony No. 1 in E major
Noordhollands Jeugdorkest
Bas Pollard
March 13/14, 2010: Hoorn/NL, Oosterkerk
March 20, 2010: Amsterdam/NL, Posthoornkeerk

April 14-17, 2010 Symphony No. 1 in E major
hr-Sinfonieorchester
Paavo Järvi
April 14-16, 2010: Frankfurt a.M./D, Alte Oper
April 17, 2010: Aschaffenburg/D, Stadthalle 

[MishaK]

I'm sure Järvi will be superb. I just heard him conduct Martinu, Ravel and Nielsen with the Frankfurt RSO last month and it was excellent. The orchestra sounds leagues better under him than it ever did under his predecessor Hugh Wolff.

[mahler10th]

I have just returned from the above concert.  More later.   

[Lilas Pastia]

John, you got me confused - what symphony no. 1 in E major are you referring to?

[mahler10th]

John, you got me confused - what symphony no. 1 in E major are you referring to?

Hans Rott.  Sorry about that.

[Lilas Pastia]

Thanks.

So, how was that concert?

[Brian]

A week ago...

BARBER | Symphony No 1
MAHLER | Symphony No 1

Marin Alsop led the Houston Symphony in one of the finest HSO performances I've seen; Alsop really, really knows the Barber (conducting from memory), and she did a terrific job emphasizing the piece's unity of form. The previous (and first) time I saw the Barber live, it had seemed more rhapsodic, more impulsive. Not so here. Great oboe solo. The Mahler was splendiferous, first time I've heard any Mahler live; a sonic spectacular! In the third movement, "Frere Jacques" was commenced by the full bass section, not just a soloist.

Tonight:

MILHAUD | Le boeuf sur le toit
RAVEL | Piano Concerto
MILHAUD | La creation du monde
GERSHWIN | Rhapsody in Blue

A very intelligent program considering the union of jazz and classical music! The Milhaud pieces were a delight, though I think Le boeuf went on a little long and would rather have seen it in ballet form (the scenario involves a policeman being decapitated by a ceiling fan!). Pianist Kirill Gerstein was simply brilliant in the Ravel and Gershwin; the Ravel slow movement, the most beautiful music on the program, was also the evening's highlight. In the Rhapsody, Gerstein really made the solos his own, jazzing the rhythms and adding his own embellishments, new chords and other (very tasteful!) delights. I can't count the number of times I grinned at his gutsy improvisations. Only blemish: the clarinetist totally blew the opening solo, managing the glissando well but then falling apart in a web of wrong notes. It was fairly painful - but luckily not a harbinger of things to come. Hans Graf conducted with greater engagement than usual, although I think some of the violins faked their way through, or played as unobtrusively as possible through, Le boeuf.

[Sergeant Rock]

In the third movement, "Frere Jacques" was commenced by the full bass section, not just a soloist.

I'm sorry to hear she chose to do it that way. It's far more effective with just a single bass. Other than that I'm happy you heard Mahler live finally! It's always an overwhelming experience, both sonically and emotionally (for me). It took me four decades to hear all the symphonies live. The Sixth was my first (Szell and his Clevelanders in 1967); exactly 40 years later I finally heard the Tenth (played by the Vienna Phil, Harding conducting at the Alte Oper in Frankfurt).

Sarge

[MishaK]

Today:

Civic Orchestra of Chicago
David Robertson, conductor

Webern -   Passacaglia, Op. 1
Webern -   Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10
Webern -   Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6
Mahler -   Adagio from Symphony No. 10

And tickets are FREE!

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Webern -   Passacaglia, Op. 1
Webern -   Five Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 10
Webern -   Six Pieces for Orchestra, Op. 6

Shoot, why'd I ever leave Chicago? I would kill to hear so much Webern live.

Tomorrow though I get my consolation prize - Rozhdestvensky conducting Bruckner's 3rd, plus a couple of Beethoven overtures.

[mahler10th]

SATURDAY 16th JANUARY 2010
Vasily Petrenko
Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra @ Philharmonic Hall

Bach /Mahler Suite
Rott Scherzo (from Symphony in E)
Mahler Symphony No. 1

First, the venue.
Liverpool Philharmonic Hall is, acoustically, brilliant, even from the second cheapest seats.     The
Hall is now first on my internal cache of preferred venues, simply because of the sheer quality of
the sound experience.
The enclosed picture shows where I was sitting, but the stage looks much further away in the pic
than it does in situ.  From a musical point of view, it is clear the planners who created the
new Hall in 1939 (to replace the old burnt down one) had the dynamics of listening in mind.  I
knew I was in for a treat when the instruments started wailing in wait of the conductor.
Meanwhile I went to the pre-concert talk, which was supposed to cover all three pieces in the
concert, but to my delight the speakers stuck to the subject of Hans Rott, and managed to cover
the other two pieces with only minuites left!  However, I was disappointed to learn absoloutely
nothing new about Hans Rott that I don't already know, so there were NO titbits for my Rott
screenplay.  Also, the guest speaker was fairly nervous, and tended to speak about one thing and
veer off onto something else without completing his threads.  Still, it was interesting if unintelligible to people there who had never heard of Rott.  My opinion was that I could have taken the place of the learned music professor and made the damn thing sound open and eminently more exciting for the assembled concert pre-talk attendees.  He made the whole occassion of an interesting talk comletely boring, despite attempts by his younger host to inject some life into the discussion.  Anyway...

It appeared to be a sell-out concert. 

Well.  The concert began with the Mahler Bach Transcriptions. When Vasily Petrenko came out to
conduct it seemed the laws of Physics had been re-arranged, because he looked younger than the
last time I saw him (on TV).  Anyway, he swept through the Mahler Bach, it was nice, but not
something I can comment on as it's not something I intend to get or listen to, so I don't know
what to say about it.    But it was the first time I'd heard these orchetsrations to very familiar
Bach music:

Two pieces from Suite Two BMV 1064 (O'ture and Rondeau & Badinerie), and two from Suite Three BMV 1068 (Air and Gavottes I &II) all arranged in 1909 by Mahler.  All  I can say is it was Bachs music,
brisk, Mahler orchestrated, and it was a very nice opening for what was to come...

What was to come next, ending the first half of the concert, was a twelve minute showpiece of the
scherzo of Rotts only Symphony.  Well...like Henning and so many others here say, you really
haven't heard it until you've REALLY heard it...LIVE and dangerously close to your face and ears. 
The opening fanfare came in swiftly and strong, and when the basses started squiggling down to the
main theme, they weren't bounced down in near glissando (like I've heard Jarvi do) or stepped down
(like many others), they came in an incremental fashion, plenty of fortissimo from the basses but
brilliantly articulated to take us into the main dance-like theme. I would expect this kind of
carry on from a conductor like Boulez.  But Vasily isn't Boulez.  On this account though, he's as
good as...So the Rott piece played, and as usual the triangle dinked away in the right places,
something I only get a real sense of at a live performance - the triangle is always so much more
present in a concert hall.  Yep, and here comes the timpani, everything is rolling and sweeping just the way it should, nine minuites in and Petrenko is sqauring his orchestra up for the finale.  He pulls the whole thing off beautifully, all the banging and swooning goes off on stage like fireworks.  I wish I had the technical ability to explain more.  Anyway Vasily ends the piece with his baton in the air, an I immediately stood up and clapped my hands sore.  I also shouted...only one other person shouted - from the expensive seats.  But the applause was longlasting and hopefully enough to get Petrenko and his brigade ready for the second half of the concert - Mahlers 1st.

Aye. Mahlers 1st.     Woo Hoo, etc. 
It took off slowly.  The natural A's at the beginning...well, they were there and they played...but the magic wasn't in it.  I want to hear those collective opening'A's literally vibrate with a magical life of their own, promising all kinds of wonders to come. Vasily didn't do this.  The opening sequence was well drawn out, beautifully played, but where was that sense of life and expectancy from the humming A's?  It just wasn't there for me. 
Anyway. Everything is measured and beautifully played, and as always in a LIVE performance, there are some wee wonders that you just don't get in front of the music system.  One thing I will say for Petrenko, he is not afraid, in certain passages throughout this Symphony, of bringing the orchestra to a near halt before opening up the next passage.  But this tecnique, and a wonderful timpani acoustic, proved itself by bringing pretty much the rest of the work alive.  The listening experience was close to Inbal, Petrenko playing and phrasing sections which promote a feeling of dialogue - Petrneko is like a painter telling a story with this symphony, big flourishing strokes and sound resonance you would pay a lot more than my measly £16 seat to hear.  Vasily also let us know that this was intense stuff by scaring the hell out of everybody who expected the usual pause between movements - he crashed into that cry of a broken heart less than a few seconds later, just as the usual round of "between movements" coughing started - the coughing was englfed in a huge splash of Stürmisch bewegt- Energisch, surprising the packed house.  Pretty soon we were all in sobbing awe as the Orchestra absoloutely hit the money with the biggest, death defying fourth movement I've ever heard.
WOW.

It was a fantastic night.  Petrenko and the Orchestra lost Mahlers opening magic, but made up for it by blinding us with everything else.  The best concert I've been to in years.

[karlhenning]

Splendid review, thank you, John!

[Sergeant Rock]

Splendid review, thank you, John!

Seconded.

John, two questions: Did Petrenko use a single bass or the entire section at the beginning of the funeral march? Did he reinforce the two final notes of the symphony (the cuckoo theme) à la Bernstein or play it straight? And a third question: Have you made a decision yet about the Rott concert in Frankfurt?

Sarge