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

[Renfield]

I believe I got my inevitable comeuppance for that Gerontius I had tickets for, in the last Edinburgh International Festival, and didn't show up:

Mahler 3rd and 8th sold out, just as I muster the money for tickets.


Would anyone who has tickets and is reading this render themselves available for me to murder, so as to go in their place?

Edit: Pletnev too. But that does include the Tchaikovsky concerto, so I had little hopes to begin with.

[secondwind]

We enjoyed the NSO's Scheherazade and Rite of Spring last night--two pieces that always transport me to other worlds.  Scheherazade was lush and enchanting, if you like that sort of thing (and I do).  Thr Rite of Spring was if anything a better performance--and a good way for Fischer to cap off his time here.  Next season Eschenbach arrives.

[Elgarian]

Scheherazade was lush and enchanting, if you like that sort of thing (and I do).

Yes, please.

[knight66]

I believe I got my inevitable comeuppance for that Gerontius I had tickets for, in the last Edinburgh International Festival, and didn't show up:

Mahler 3rd and 8th sold out, just as I muster the money for tickets.

I assume the 3rd is the Runnicles performance? I have not checked the EF programme It is repeated at the London Proms, I have a ticket for it there...perhaps you can manage a trip to London if there are tickets left.

Mike

[Renfield]

I assume the 3rd is the Runnicles performance? I have not checked the EF programme It is repeated at the London Proms, I have a ticket for it there...perhaps you can manage a trip to London if there are tickets left.

Mike

But isn't Bělohlávek conducting in London? Setting aside what an event the Mahler 8th is in its own right, I'm not quite sure I'd bet the cost of a trip to London on his Mahler conducting.

(Though I am currently gauging if I can attend the Beethoven 9th by Vänskä and the Minnesota Orchestra, in August.)

[bhodges]

Tonight, this concert by the Orchestra of the League of Composers/ISCM:

Milton Babbitt: Transfigured Notes (NY Premiere)
Elliott Carter: On Conversing with Paradise (NY Premiere)
Joan Tower: Purple Rhapsody (NY Premiere)
D.J. Sparr: DACCA:DECCA:GaFfa (World premiere)
Jason Treuting:  oblique music for 4 plus (blank) (World premiere)

--Bruce

[Renfield]

Jason Treuting:  oblique music for 4 plus (blank) (World premiere)

Very interesting title. What kind of piece is it?

[bhodges]

Very interesting title. What kind of piece is it?

Treuting is one of the four players in So Percussion--a superb quartet that plays here often--so I'm assuming that it's for percussion and orchestra.  But I'll know more tonight!

--Bruce

[Renfield]

Treuting is one of the four players in So Percussion--a superb quartet that plays here often--so I'm assuming that it's for percussion and orchestra.  But I'll know more tonight!

--Bruce

Thanks. Looking forward to your impressions, then!

[Sergeant Rock]

Today I bought tickets for the opening concert of the Rheingau Musik Festival. The festival takes place every year during the summer and fall months. Venues are in various locations in the Rheingau wine region. Many of the concerts are already sold out (for example, those featuring Mutter and Grimaud--I tell ya, sex sells  ) but surprisingly a few seats were still available for the opening concert: Mahler Second, P. Järvi conducting the HR Sinfonieorchester (formerly RSO Frankfurt). It will take place in the grand basilica at Kloster Eberbach, a former monastery, now a state winery.



More Mahler is on the schedule in July: the Rückert Lieder with Hampson and the First Symphony, Eschenbach conducting the Schleswig-Holstein Festival Orchestra; a Mahler recital by Christian Gerhaher; and the Ninth conducted by Gergiev.

There is much Schumann this year (his 200th birthday), including a concert we'll probably attend, featuring the Cello Concerto played by Jean-Guyen Queyras, RSO Stuttgart, Norrington (Dvorak 7 and Wagner Flying Dutchman Overture also on the program). Complete concert list can be seen here.

Sarge

[bhodges]

What a gorgeous venue!  Great that you snagged tickets for the opening Mahler (and I'm surprised, too, that there were any available), but many other offerings look tasty.  And on a non-classical note, was surprised and pleased to see The Manhattan Transfer doing a concert!  Some friends just saw them here a few weeks ago (in the now-iconic Allen Room, part of the Jazz at Lincoln Center complex), and said they were still rockin' it. 

Anyway, will look forward to hearing about that Mahler, and whatever else looks intriguing to you.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

On Saturday night, the final concert of the NY Phil's season:

New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Christine Brewer, soprano
Jane Henschel, mezzo-soprano
Anthony Dean Griffey, tenor
Eric Owens, bass-baritone
New York Choral Artists
Joseph Flummerfelt, director

Magnus Lindberg: Al largo (world premiere)
Beethoven: Missa solemnis

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Tonight, this concert of works for two pianos, by members of the American Modern Ensemble.  I've heard the Corigliano Chiaroscuro once before, and it's fascinating, requiring the two pianos to be tuned a quarter tone apart, and the Rzewski is a beast of a piece, intended to evoke the sounds of a cotton mill.

Stephen Gosling, piano
Blair McMillen, piano

John Adams: Hallelujah Junction
Mary Ellen Childs: Kilter
John Corigliano: Chiaroscuro
Amanda Harberg: Subway
Doug Opel: Dilukkenjon
Robert Paterson: Deep Blue Ocean (world premiere)
Frederic Rzewski: Winnsboro Cotton Mill Blues

--Bruce

[bhodges]

On Thursday, this concert by the Talea Ensemble, one of the best new music groups around:

Eliot Gattegno, saxophone
Elizabeth Weisser, viola
Steven Beck, piano
Alex Lipowski, percussion

Karlheinz Stockhausen: Tierkreis (1975)
John Cage: Etudes Australes (1975) *selections
Beat Furrer: A due (1997)
Alex Mincek: Nucleus (2010)
Mario Garuti: Il demone meridiano (1997) *US PREMIERE

--Bruce

[Sid]

Two concerts I am looking forward to in two weeks here in Sydney, Australia:

"Trioz" with Kathryn Selby (piano) & Cathy McCorkill (clarinet)

Beethoven - Clarinet Trio
Bruch - Piano Trio
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Australian Youth Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder (conductor)
Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo-soprano)

Brett Dean - Ampitheatre
Mahler - Wunderhorn songs (selections)
Shostakovich - Symphony 10

[bhodges]

Two concerts I am looking forward to in two weeks here in Sydney, Australia:

"Trioz" with Kathryn Selby (piano) & Cathy McCorkill (clarinet)

Beethoven - Clarinet Trio
Bruch - Piano Trio
Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time

Australian Youth Orchestra
Sir Mark Elder (conductor)
Ekaterina Gubanova (mezzo-soprano)

Brett Dean - Ampitheatre
Mahler - Wunderhorn songs (selections)
Shostakovich - Symphony 10

Sid, both concerts look excellent--a good performance of the Messiaen is an intense experience--but the second one is especially appealing.  Elder is a wonderful conductor, and I recall hearing that singer in Prokofiev's War and Peace at the Met a couple of years ago.  And the Dean piece looks interesting.  Do report back. 

Tomorrow night, an all-Edgard Varèse program, with members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)--a preview of their upcoming Lincoln Center Festival concert:

Varèse: Density 21.5 (1936), with Claire Chase, flute
Varèse: Un Grand Sommeil Noir (1906), with Samantha Malk, soprano
Varèse: Amériques (New York premiere of 8-hand piano version) (1929), with Jacob Greenberg, Amy Williams, Amy Briggs and Thomas Rosenkranz

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Tomorrow night, an all-Edgard Varèse program, with members of the International Contemporary Ensemble (ICE)--a preview of their upcoming Lincoln Center Festival concert:

Varèse: Density 21.5 (1936), with Claire Chase, flute
Varèse: Un Grand Sommeil Noir (1906), with Samantha Malk, soprano
Varèse: Amériques (New York premiere of 8-hand piano version) (1929), with Jacob Greenberg, Amy Williams, Amy Briggs and Thomas Rosenkranz

You are in for a treat, Bruce!  I heard Amys play this (with two other pianists, IIRC) in Cambridge last November (gosh, I think it was last year), and that 'reduction' of Amériques is a stunner!

[bhodges]

Oh cool, glad to hear!  The concert is at the Yamaha Piano Salon, which may be a fairly small space, so we may be really blasted out.    (I mean that in a good way.)

--Bruce

[Sid]

Bruce, you are so fortunate to be able to see the music of Varese live. He is one of my favourite composers, more for the way he makes me think and pushes my boundaries, than for the actual music. I'm unlikely to ever see anything by him here in Sydney, but who knows. & yeah, I am looking forward to going to those two concerts I posted earlier. They will be on the same day! It will be quite intense with the Messiaen & Shostakovich on the same day. Can't wait...

[bhodges]

Bruce, you are so fortunate to be able to see the music of Varese live. He is one of my favourite composers, more for the way he makes me think and pushes my boundaries, than for the actual music. I'm unlikely to ever see anything by him here in Sydney, but who knows. & yeah, I am looking forward to going to those two concerts I posted earlier. They will be on the same day! It will be quite intense with the Messiaen & Shostakovich on the same day. Can't wait...

Wow, I can't believe those concerts are on the same day--you're going to either be exhausted, or so excited you can't sleep.   

So PS, WQXR is streaming tonight's Varèse concert live online (and they may archive it for later listening), here:

http://www.wqxr.org/articles/q2-music/2010/jun/22/varese-live-on-ice/

--Bruce