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

[Sid]

Will go to this  one at Sydney Conservatorium tomorrow night:

Cocktail Hour - A Glorious Spanish Feast (7.30pm)

11 April 2011

Faculty and their guests present a program of chamber music concerts featuring repertoire that ranges from baroque to contemporary music.

Perfomers
Georg Pedersen cello
Natalia Sheludiakova piano

Program
Cassado Suite for solo cello
de Falla Popular Spanish Suite
Plus works by Granados, Albeniz & Sarasate.

[Brian]

Tomorrow...

BACH | St Matthew Passion [in English]
James Gilchrist, Evangelist - Jeremy White, Christ
Carolyn Sampson - Iestyn Davies - Ben Hulett - Roderick Williams
The Bach Choir
Florigelium
David Hill

A friend in the choir snagged me a ticket. I've never heard this work before (!) and am looking forward both to it and to the traditional picnic lunch at the interval. The weather in London is simply glorious this weekend.

Well, at about 3:11 p.m. today James Gilchrist stood, quietly chatted mid-chorale with conductor David Hill, and dashed offstage. After a short interval it was announced that he was being taken to the hospital and that they had simply no idea what had happened to him but he needed immediate attention. The rest of the work (they'd gotten through about 120 minutes) was excised of anything with a part for the Evangelist - that is, nearly everything.

A choir member told me afterwards that Gilchrist had suddenly gone blind in one eye! That's extremely scary - hope he's okay.

[Brian]

A choir member told me afterwards that Gilchrist had suddenly gone blind in one eye! That's extremely scary - hope he's okay.

Apparently he was coming down with a migraine. He'll be fine.

[Sid]

Will go to this  one at Sydney Conservatorium tomorrow night:

Cocktail Hour - A Glorious Spanish Feast (7.30pm)

11 April 2011

Faculty and their guests present a program of chamber music concerts featuring repertoire that ranges from baroque to contemporary music.

Perfomers
Georg Pedersen cello
Natalia Sheludiakova piano

Program
Cassado Suite for solo cello
de Falla Popular Spanish Suite
Plus works by Granados, Albeniz & Sarasate.

I enjoyed this concert. Here was the full program:

G. Cassado (1897-1966)
Suite for Cello Solo
     Prelude - Fantasia
     Sardana - Danza
     Intermezzo e Danze Finale

M. de Falla (1876-1946)
Popular Spanish Suite (transc. cello & piano)
     El Pano Moruno
     Nana
     Cancion
     Polo
     Asturiana
     Jota

E. Granados (1867-1916)
Spanish Dance No. 5 - Andaluza (Playera) from 12 Spanish Dances (transc. cello & piano)

P. de Sarasate (1844-1908)
Zapateado (transc. cello & piano)

M. de Falla
Ritual Fire Dance (transc. cello & piano by Gregor Piatigorsky)

The recital opened with a solo cello work & the rest of the pieces were transcriptions for cello & paino. I had not heard anything by Cassado before, but I was familiar with the other pieces in other shapes and forms. Cellist-composer Cassado's cello suite was a very imaginative piece which often had an improvisatory feel. I particularly liked the last movement which had a bit of plucking (like with a guitar) and harmonies that reminded me of a troubadour song from the middle ages. de Falla's famous set of Seven Popular Spanish Songs - from which we heard six (not all of them were transcribed) has a very earthy feel, employing elements of Spanish folk music like flamenco. Granados is one of my favourite Spanish composers and this the 5th of his Spanish Dances is the most famous. It's my favourite & cellist Georg Pederson said it was his favourite as well. Compared to the more vigorous and dissonant de Falla, the Granados sounded more refined and restrained, but still just as emotional in other ways. About the Sarasate, a fun flashy piece, Pedersen jokingly introduced it as "Now I'll attempt to play a piece originally for violin with my cello. I might end up enjoying it much more than you!" This piece left everyone with a smile on their face. Then to finish up, an encore of de Falla's famous Ritual Fire Dance, transcribed by Pedersen's teacher, the great Russian cellist Gregor Piatigorsky. The piece lost none of it's intensity in this chamber version.

All in all, this was a great recital. The audience was made up of all ages, from children aged 6 accompanied by their parents to adults of all ages. It's good to go to a more mixed recital like this, as often I go to concerts where I am lost in a sea of grey heads. I look forward to going to more recitals by this excellent cellist, who gives quite a few throughout the year at the Sydney Con, of which he is a senior lecturer. His accompanist on the piano Natalia Sheludiakova also did a great job...

[Florestan]

Excellent, Sid, that was a real treat!

[Sid]

Excellent, Sid, that was a real treat!

Thanks for reading. I must add that I really liked cellist Georg Pedersen's sense of humour which is very European (he's originally from Denmark). He'll be doing a number of other recitals at the Sydney Con later on in the year which I plan to go to. He's an excellent performer and always programs some very interesting repertoire...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

17 July 2011 - Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 1, 'The Gothic'.


Brianites, unite (in London)!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2011/july-17/5

[Sid]

17 July 2011 - Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 1, 'The Gothic'.


Brianites, unite (in London)!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2011/july-17/5

That will be awesome!!! I'm an avid attendee of chamber recitals & concerts, but I wouldn't mind seeing one of those very large scale works live. They're not often done here in Sydney (I'd hazard a guess that Brian's Gothic has never been done live on our shores). I'm not familiar with that work, but I have read quite a bit about it here & elsewhere, and it has a simply legendary reputation (some people even think it outdoes Mahler's 8th or Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, the only comparable things). Messiaen's Turangalila was played here about a decade ago (with Thibaudet as pianist), but I missed that. Maybe these huge works - in terms of the forces used & their length - kind of daunt me.

Have a good time at the concert, and I'll be interested to read what you think of it after you go...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

That will be awesome!!! I'm an avid attendee of chamber recitals & concerts, but I wouldn't mind seeing one of those very large scale works live. They're not often done here in Sydney (I'd hazard a guess that Brian's Gothic has never been done live on our shores). I'm not familiar with that work, but I have read quite a bit about it here & elsewhere, and it has a simply legendary reputation (some people even think it outdoes Mahler's 8th or Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, the only comparable things). Messiaen's Turangalila was played here about a decade ago (with Thibaudet as pianist), but I missed that. Maybe these huge works - in terms of the forces used & their length - kind of daunt me.

Have a good time at the concert, and I'll be interested to read what you think of it after you go...

Thanks! Getting tickets will be nerve-wracking, but I hope I'll come through... If I do, of course I will be describing the single most important concert of my life!


As a matter of fact, 'The Gothic' was performed in Brisbane only a few months ago, on 22 December! Google "Brisbane Gothic"...

[Sid]

Thanks! Getting tickets will be nerve-wracking, but I hope I'll come through... If I do, of course I will be describing the single most important concert of my life!


As a matter of fact, 'The Gothic' was performed in Brisbane only a few months ago, on 22 December! Google "Brisbane Gothic"...

Well as they say "you learn a new thing every day." I'm not surprised that it was performed in Brisbane. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra can be excellent in the large scale repertoire. I've got a ABC classics recording of them doing Bruckner's 7th under Karajan acolyte Muhai Tang. Yes, our symphony orchestras have come a long way in the past 25 years (or even less!). Looks like some Queenslanders are not as conservative as the rest of the country tends to unfairly stereotype them as, being open to listening to such lengthy and complex music...

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

Well as they say "you learn a new thing every day." I'm not surprised that it was performed in Brisbane. The Queensland Symphony Orchestra can be excellent in the large scale repertoire. I've got a ABC classics recording of them doing Bruckner's 7th under Karajan acolyte Muhai Tang. Yes, our symphony orchestras have come a long way in the past 25 years (or even less!). Looks like some Queenslanders are not as conservative as the rest of the country tends to unfairly stereotype them as, being open to listening to such lengthy and complex music...

Got the HBS Newsletter yesterday. You might want to note in your listening diary:


The Brisbane Gothic is scheduled to be broadcast on 4MBS on Saturday 4 June at 8pm, Brisbane time (UTC+10h),  which is  9 hours ahead of UK BST, so equivalent to 11am the same day in the UK.  As 4MBS is available online, HBS members worldwide with Internet access will be able to hear the performance for themselves.  Just searching for '4MBS listen online' will easily find their website. 

[Brahmsian]

17 July 2011 - Havergal Brian, Symphony No. 1, 'The Gothic'.


Brianites, unite (in London)!


http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2011/july-17/5

I think it is a must that our dear young GMG Brian attend this concert!   

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

I think it is a must that our dear young GMG Brian attend this concert!  

Yes, he owes it to his name. 

[Sid]

Going to this one tonight & a friend might come as well -

Australia Ensemble @ University of New South Wales

Saturday April 16, 8pm

Sir John Clancy Auditorium UNSW

Theatre in Music: Surrealist Dreams and Sydney Harbour Anecdotes

Johann STRAUSS Jr (1825-1899): Emperor Waltz (Kaiser-Walzer), Opus 437 for flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano (1889/1925)

Barry CONYNGHAM (b 1944): Showboat Kalang for flute, clarinet, piano, two violins, viola, cello - commissioned by the Albert H. Maggs Foundation for performance by the Australia Ensemble @UNSW (2010)

Arnold SCHOENBERG (1874-1951): Pierrot Lunaire for reciter-singer, flute/ piccolo, clarinet/ bass clarinet, violin/viola, cello, voice, piano (1912)

Info below from the website:

http://www.ae.unsw.edu.au/programs/subscriptionSeries.html

Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire has been regarded as one of the great events of modern music since its sensational first performance in 1912; but its density and quickness of reference and allusion do not always communicate fully with an audience in a standard concert-hall performance. This performance furthers the strongly theatrical intentions of its composer by adding a dancer to mime the moods and gestures of Pierrot as universal, moon-struck clown, in company with special lighting and projection of words and images to go with the reciter-singer's delivery of the decadent poetic texts and the dazzling brilliance of the instrumental writing. The Australian composer Barry Conyngham has written a companion work of theatrical potential in his Showboat Kalang, which evokes in altogether more affectionate style an older period of Sydney Harbour's waterborne entertainment and the dances for which the showboat musicians, including the composer's father, played on harbour cruises. Images and sounds combine with mime and spotlit dance movement in this mostly light-hearted, sometimes serious recollection of an earlier pleasure-loving harbour city; and Johann Strauss Jr's Emperor waltz, in an arrangement attributed to Schoenberg, takes us back to the public mood of another pleasure-loving city, Vienna, where some of Pierrot's hallucinations seem to originate.

[Sid]

Going to this one tonight & a friend might come as well -

Australia Ensemble @ University of New South Wales

Saturday April 16, 8pm

Sir John Clancy Auditorium UNSW

Theatre in Music: Surrealist Dreams and Sydney Harbour Anecdotes

Johann STRAUSS Jr (1825-1899): Emperor Waltz (Kaiser-Walzer), Opus 437 for flute, clarinet, string quartet and piano (1889/1925)

Barry CONYNGHAM (b 1944): Showboat Kalang for flute, clarinet, piano, two violins, viola, cello - commissioned by the Albert H. Maggs Foundation for performance by the Australia Ensemble @UNSW (2010)

Arnold SCHOENBERG (1874-1951): Pierrot Lunaire for reciter-singer, flute/ piccolo, clarinet/ bass clarinet, violin/viola, cello, voice, piano (1912)

Info below from the website:

http://www.ae.unsw.edu.au/programs/subscriptionSeries.html

Schoenberg's Pierrot Lunaire has been regarded as one of the great events of modern music since its sensational first performance in 1912; but its density and quickness of reference and allusion do not always communicate fully with an audience in a standard concert-hall performance. This performance furthers the strongly theatrical intentions of its composer by adding a dancer to mime the moods and gestures of Pierrot as universal, moon-struck clown, in company with special lighting and projection of words and images to go with the reciter-singer's delivery of the decadent poetic texts and the dazzling brilliance of the instrumental writing. The Australian composer Barry Conyngham has written a companion work of theatrical potential in his Showboat Kalang, which evokes in altogether more affectionate style an older period of Sydney Harbour's waterborne entertainment and the dances for which the showboat musicians, including the composer's father, played on harbour cruises. Images and sounds combine with mime and spotlit dance movement in this mostly light-hearted, sometimes serious recollection of an earlier pleasure-loving harbour city; and Johann Strauss Jr's Emperor waltz, in an arrangement attributed to Schoenberg, takes us back to the public mood of another pleasure-loving city, Vienna, where some of Pierrot's hallucinations seem to originate.

A friend and I went to this concert, with a multimedia aspect (dance & visuals) & we enjoyed it. The choreographer/dancer in the Conyngham & Schoenberg was Connor Dowling, from the Sydney Dance Company. The reciter-singer in the Schoenberg was Fiona Campbell (mezzo soprano) from the Australian Opera.

Strauss' Emperor Waltz, in an arrangement attributed to Schoenberg, was not quite what I expected. I had only heard Strauss' original work for orchestra before. This arrangment was not run of the mill or chliched by any means. I liked how there were solos for each instrument.

Barry Conyngham is a fairly prominent Australian composer in his sixties. He studied with fellow Australian Peter Sculthorpe and the Japanese composer Toru Takemitsu. Like their work, Conygham's music is of a late c20th modern/experimental style. This work was about the history of the Showboat Kalang, a vessel which plied the waters of Sydney harbour from the 1930's to 1960's. The composer's father worked as a banjo player in the dance bands that played on this vessel. The boat was also refitted  for war service in Papua New Guinea and Borneo during WW2. Then it came back to Sydney to be a pleasure boat again, but was eventually broken up and ended it's "life" in 1972. This was an interesting piece, that changed mood and style to fit in with what the particular scene was about. It was a journey through Australian history from 1938 to the present. The most dissonant and loud part was in the 1942 scene, when Japanese midget submarines came into Sydney harbour and torpedoed another boat. I remember seeing these actual subs, which were salvaged from the harbour after being attacked & sunk, in an exhibition at the Sydney Maritime Museum on a high school excursion. The music of some others scenes echoed the music that would have been played on the Kalang - eg. the foxtrot and waltz. At the very begining and end of the piece, there was a recording of banjo music from the 1930's. This was an interesting piece, bought to life by the lighting and dancing.

Schoenberg's seminal Pierrot Lunaire was also brought to life by the dancer. I thought that the middle section describing the 'atrocities' was the darkest rendition of this I had ever heard. Perhaps it was because I'm familiar with recordings of it sung by sopranos, but here the voice was deeper and darker, more mysterious (mezzo-soprano). I had listened to the recordings a lot during the past fortnight, so I was so familiar with the piece, that I anticipated most of what happened. The dancer was in a clown outfit, black chequered tights and white painted face, with a black robe that was used to interesting effect. There was one flicker of colour, a red ribbon which appeared and disappeared quickly during the pivotal 'atrocity' scene. There are a lot of references to blood and gore in the text, which was projected in English translation on a screen.

All up this was a very enjoyable evening. Even though I was quite tired after a busy day, I decided to go. These performances aren't repeated, it's just the one night. The friend and I plan to go to their next one next month, which will be a conventional concert of works by Liszt, Richard Meale & Beethoven (the great string quartet Op. 132)...

[Sid]

Most likely going to this one tonight, at Sydney Conservatorium -

Cocktail Hour - About Sensuality and Freedom (6.00pm)

18 April 2011

Faculty and their guests present a program of chamber music concerts featuring repertoire that ranges from baroque to contemporary music.

Perfomers
Kirstin Williams violin
Susan Blake cello
Gerard Willems piano

Program
Debussy
Violin Sonata in G Minor, L 140
Cello Sonata, L 135
Piano Trio in G Major, L 3

[The new erato]

Quite unexpectedly I came across an advertisement of a staged performance of Handels Theodora by Bergen Opera, and very good indeed it was. Of course not even a middlign performmance can ruin the glories of Handels melodies (for me he is the prime master of glorious melody), but this performance was far better that that, good (international) singers; and the story is convincing and have a fine, dramatic flow.

[MDL]

Having paid £29 for Maazel's Philharmonia Mahler 2 on Sunday 17th at the Royal Festival Hall, London, SeeFilmFirst has given me a free ticket for the next concert in this series: Mahler 6 on Tuesday 19th. No doubt my seat will be in one of the stranger parts of the hall; last time I had a freebie, I was sat in the very front row, directly behind Esa-Pekka Salonen.

[Sid]

Most likely going to this one tonight, at Sydney Conservatorium -

Cocktail Hour - About Sensuality and Freedom (6.00pm)

18 April 2011

Faculty and their guests present a program of chamber music concerts featuring repertoire that ranges from baroque to contemporary music.

Perfomers
Kirstin Williams violin
Susan Blake cello
Gerard Willems piano

Program
Debussy
Violin Sonata in G Minor, L 140
Cello Sonata, L 135
Piano Trio in G Major, L 3

Just a note to say this recital has been cancelled due to illness, but it will be rescheduled at some stage. I'll post it again when that happens (after I see it)...

[bhodges]

Looking forward to this concert on Sunday afternoon:

Talea Ensemble
Roger Smith Hotel

Janáček: Piano Sonata 1.X.1905 (1905)
Derek Bermel: Language Instruction (2003)
Drew Baker: Inter (2007)

--Bruce