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

[bhodges]

On Sunday, at the annual Bang on a Can Marathon, the Talea Ensemble is doing Fausto Romitelli's last piece, An Index of Metals (2003), following their success last year with Romitelli's Professor Bad Trip.

--Bruce

[Papy Oli]

Sunday 19 June 2011
Aldeburgh Festival
Matthias Goerne baritone
Pierre-Laurent Aimard piano
Schubert Winterreise D911

If this was what someone's of Goerne's calibre does sound like live, then I have nothing more to do than just sit back, take stock of what I've experienced at Snape last night, and just be grateful for that sort of musical blessing. You can forget about the "keep on chewing" Aimard, the creaky seats and the fidgetty audience... Goerne's singing was just mesmerizing and intense and that made for a very special evening indeed. Period.

You can surely expect a longer review of this concert from Brian who was here too yesterday  (Nice to meet you Brian, hope you enjoyed your afternoon trip to Suffolk !  what was that Kodaly recommendation again ?  )   

[Brian]

If this was what someone's of Goerne's calibre does sound like live, then I have nothing more to do than just sit back, take stock of what I've experienced at Snape last night, and just be grateful for that sort of musical blessing. You can forget about the "keep on chewing" Aimard, the creaky seats and the fidgetty audience... Goerne's singing was just mesmerizing and intense and that made for a very special evening indeed. Period.

You can surely expect a longer review of this concert from Brian who was here too yesterday...

No no I haven't got much more to say than that... Goerne's voice took me a few minutes to get used to - it is not instantly "pretty" or warm like Christian Gerhaher's, but Goerne had total emotional commitment, very natural singing, and in Aimard an accompanist who was good if maybe never really noticeably interesting. Often the pauses between songs were minimal, or there weren't any, which led to some very pleasing transitions and also some audience members not knowing when to cough 

Papy Oli is definitely right, Snape Maltings is a wonderful place to take in a concert. A very intimate hall and the sound in the very last rows is as good as it might be halfway to the front of Wigmore Hall.

Very good to meet you too, sir, a delightful evening it was - and the Kodaly you should try are the Dances of Galanta and the Hary Janos Suite. I have a good PentaTone CD with Lawrence Foster and the Gulbenkian Orchestra (Lisbon), and the recordings by Antal Dorati are also superb... extend my apologies to your credit card 

[Brian]

I foolishly checked the Concertgebouw website and discovered this upcoming stretch right at a time when I have nothing else brewing...

    Dvořák - Serenade in E, op. 22
    Mozart - Symfonie nr. 38 in D, KV 504 'Praagse'
    Mozart - Sinfonia concertante in Es, KV 364
Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Thomas Zehetmair violin/conductor
8 July

    Mozart - Vioolconcert in G, KV 216
    Schönberg - Kammersymphonie nr. 1, op. 9
    Mozart - Symfonie nr. 41 in C, KV 551 'Jupiter'
Radio Chamber Philharmonic, Thomas Zehetmair violin/conductor
9 July

    Brahms - Hongaarse dansen nrs. 17-21 (ork. Dvořák)
    Brahms - Dubbelconcert in a, op. 102
    Dvořák - Achtste symfonie in G, op. 88
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski, James Ehnes, Alisa Weilerstein
12 July

    Sjostakovitsj - Eerste vioolconcert in a, op. 77
    Sibelius - Vierde symfonie in a, op. 63
Orchestre de la Suisse Romande, Marek Janowski, Simone Lamsma
13 July

Now obviously 1. I can't afford to go to all these 2. I probably can't afford to go to any of them 3. I have a thesis to write  so actually the reason I'm posting them here is as a reminder to myself to see if it's feasible after another week or so of thesis-working and penny-pinching. And maybe to check Eurostar's rates... so tempting...

[bhodges]

(after heaving a large sigh, looking at those Concertgebouw programs...)

On Saturday night (if I don't cave in and go more than once), Alan Gilbert and the New York Philharmonic end the season with Janáček's The Cunning Little Vixen. What bodes well is the participation of Doug Fitch, who did such a memorable job last year with Ligeti's Le Grand Macabre - he's staged, costumed and directed the opera.

--Bruce

[JerryS]

The last few summers I've been making a little weekend trip to catch a full afternoon and evening of concerts at the Round Top Festival Institute in rural Texas between Austin and Houston. http://festivalhill.org/ This Saturday afternoon begins with Beethoven's Serenade in D for flute, violin and viola, op. 25 and String Trio No. 2 in D, Op. 8 "Serenade". The festival orchestra conducted by Christoph Campestrini will perform Mahler's 9th Symphony. The 9th is one of my favorite symphonies and I've never heard it live, so I'm eager to hear the young musicians meet the challenge!

Saturday evening we'll hear more chamber music:

Gustav Mahler: Quartet for piano and strings
Arthur Berger: Quartet for flute, oboe, clarinet and bassoon
Erwin Schulhoff: Concertino for flute, viola and double bass
Francis Poulenc: Sonata for horn, trumpet and trombone

Always a great musical experience at Round Top!

[Brian]

Erwin Schulhoff: Concertino for flute, viola and double bass

That is a terrific little piece. I never managed to make it to Round Top, so do report back. 

[MDL]

Got free tickets for tonight's bash at the Royal Festival Hall:


Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2
Interval
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Christian Tetzlaff violin

[MDL]

Well done you!

Had to pay for mine 

Oops. Foot, meet mouth. You'll have a better seat, though.

[bhodges]

Got free tickets for tonight's bash at the Royal Festival Hall:


Zoltán Kodály: Dances of Galánta
Béla Bartók: Violin Concerto No.2
Interval
Béla Bartók: Concerto for Orchestra

Esa-Pekka Salonen conductor
Christian Tetzlaff violin

Fantastic! Just heard Salonen do Bartók here this spring, and loved it. And love Tetzlaff, but haven't heard him in that particular piece.

Well done you!

Had to pay for mine 

Worth paying for! You guys have a great time, and let us know how it went.

--Bruce

[MDL]

Fantastic! Just heard Salonen do Bartók here this spring, and loved it. And love Tetzlaff, but haven't heard him in that particular piece.

Worth paying for! You guys have a great time, and let us know how it went.

--Bruce

It was a splendid concert. The Concerto for Orchestra was undoubtedly the highlight; I've heard Salonen and the Philharmonia play this piece before, and a beautiful performance it was that night; lucid and balanced. But tonight, there was a touch more wit in the second movement, a stronger hint of desperation in the third and the fifth went off like a rocket. I don't know the Kodaly that well, but it sounded snappy to me, and the audience loved it.

[bhodges]

It was a splendid concert. The Concerto for Orchestra was undoubtedly the highlight; I've heard Salonen and the Philharmonia play this piece before, and a beautiful performance it was that night; lucid and balanced. But tonight, there was a touch more wit in the second movement, a stronger hint of desperation in the third and the fifth went off like a rocket. I don't know the Kodaly that well, but it sounded snappy to me, and the audience loved it.

Thanks! Very much in line with my impressions of Salonen here. Would have loved to have heard the Kodály, which doesn't seem to show up on concerts all that often.

This weekend looking forward to:

Saturday, June 25
New York Philharmonic
Alan Gilbert, conductor
Doug Fitch, director

Janáček: The Cunning Llittle Vixen

Sunday, June 26
Talea Ensemble
"On Late Style"

Scelsi: String Quartet No. 4
Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

--Bruce

[Brahmsian]

Beethoven: String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132

--Bruce

Ahh, I am sooooo jealous, Bruce.   

[bhodges]

Ahh, I am sooooo jealous, Bruce.   

The Beethoven should be quite interesting, since the Talea Ensemble does almost exclusively pieces from the 21st and late 20th centuries. PS, apparently all four members of the quartet have to have two instruments for this concert, since the Scelsi requires some kind of unusual tuning.

--Bruce

[JerryS]

That is a terrific little piece. I never managed to make it to Round Top, so do report back. 

The Schulhoff Concertino for flute, viola and double bass was a lot of fun for the musicians and the audience. The flute switches to piccolo for some sections, what extremes of pitch! Violist Nancy Buck was superb in the Schulhoff as well as in Beethoven chamber works heard earlier in the day. She teaches at Arizona State University.

The Festival Orchestra did amazingly well with the Mahler 9th. Here's the 2nd movement posted by the Round Top Festival Institute:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMwkjft9jQU&feature=player_embedded

[Coco]

Last night: Kalmar and the Grant Park Orchestra played Lutosławski's Musique funèbre and Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The strings sounded excellent in the Luto — especially during those thick swarming harmonies at the climax of the piece. The Mahler I was not familiar with beforehand and wasn't expecting it to be so subdued. I think a few people were also expecting something else and walked out during the course of the piece. I was slightly bored by the inordinate number of statically pastoral movements until the gloomy "Farewell" movement. I think I would enjoy the piece whilst listening at home more than in a concert setting, but it was an enjoyable show.

[Papy Oli]

A couple of concerts at Snape to look forward to... 

18/08/11
Louis Lortie - piano
Liszt - Années de pèlerinage (complete)

09/09/11
Quatuor Mosaïques
Haydn Quartet Op.20 No.3
Beethoven Quartet Op.135 in F
Mozart Quartet K458 in B flat 'The Hunt'

[J.Z. Herrenberg]

My temperature is slowly rising at the prospect of Brian's 'Gothic' at the Royal Albert Hall, July 17th. Still have to pinch myself at the thought I will be there...

[karlhenning]

Zowie!

[MishaK]

Tomorrow:

Rheingau Musikfestival

WDR Sinfonieorchester Köln
Eliahu Inbal

Richard Wagner
»Siegfried-Idyll«

Anton Bruckner
Sinfonie Nr. 9 d-Moll WAB 109