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

[KeithW]

I was just about to post the same.   Bruckner fans will of course understand the significance of performing the Te Deum after the (incomplete) 9th.  Though I'm racking my brains to recall when I last heard it done like that.

What I do recall clearly is hearing Nézet-Séguin conduct the CBSO in the 9th a few years ago, and being struck by the resemblance to Giulini.  (With whom N-S studied for a while, I only found out afterwards. )

Still a few good seats available, as of this morning.

I'll be there - managed to be in the UK for this!

[cjvinthechair]

I was just about to post the same.   Bruckner fans will of course understand the significance of performing the Te Deum after the (incomplete) 9th.  Though I'm racking my brains to recall when I last heard it done like that.

What I do recall clearly is hearing Nézet-Séguin conduct the CBSO in the 9th a few years ago, and being struck by the resemblance to Giulini.  (With whom N-S studied for a while, I only found out afterwards. )

Still a few good seats available, as of this morning.

Readers of my feeble posts will realise I'm clueless, but curious. Thus I had no idea that the 9th was incomplete (was it simply the composer's death, and has someone else tried to/succeeded in scoring any plans for the remainder ?), nor do I know the significance of the running order.
Any enlightenment welcome !
Thanks.                                    Clive.

[bhodges]

Speaking of the Bruckner Ninth, I'm hearing it in a few weeks with Rattle and Berlin in the recent completion:

Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle, Music Director and Conductor
Carnegie Hall

Feb. 23
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Dvorak: The Golden Spinning-Wheel, Op. 109
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Feb. 24
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (completed performance edition by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca, rev. 2011)

Feb. 25
Camilla Tilling, Soprano
Bernarda Fink, Mezzo-Soprano
Westminster Symphonic Choir
Joe Miller, Conductor

Wolf: "Frühlingschor" from Manuel Venegas
Wolf: "Elfenlied"
Wolf: "Der Feuerreiter"
Mahler: Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection"

--Bruce

[madaboutmahler]

Speaking of the Bruckner Ninth, I'm hearing it in a few weeks with Rattle and Berlin in the recent completion:

Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle, Music Director and Conductor
Carnegie Hall

Feb. 23
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Dvorak: The Golden Spinning-Wheel, Op. 109
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Feb. 24
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (completed performance edition by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca, rev. 2011)

Feb. 25
Camilla Tilling, Soprano
Bernarda Fink, Mezzo-Soprano
Westminster Symphonic Choir
Joe Miller, Conductor

Wolf: "Frühlingschor" from Manuel Venegas
Wolf: "Elfenlied"
Wolf: "Der Feuerreiter"
Mahler: Symphony No. 2, "Resurrection"

--Bruce

You have no idea how jealous I am!

[bhodges]

Let me see...I bet it's that little piece by that Mahler guy... 

--Bruce

[madaboutmahler]

Let me see...I bet it's that little piece by that Mahler guy... 

--Bruce

Mainly!
But I'd do a lot to see all of those concerts!

[North Star]

Mainly!
But I'd do a lot to see any of those concerts!

Fixed it.

[Lisztianwagner]

Speaking of the Bruckner Ninth, I'm hearing it in a few weeks with Rattle and Berlin in the recent completion:

Berliner Philharmoniker
Sir Simon Rattle, Music Director and Conductor
Carnegie Hall

Feb. 23
Debussy: Prélude à l'après-midi d'un faune
Dvorak: The Golden Spinning-Wheel, Op. 109
Schoenberg: Verklärte Nacht
Elgar: Enigma Variations, Op. 36

Feb. 24
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9 (completed performance edition by Samale-Phillips-Cohrs-Mazzuca, rev. 2011)

Watching the Berliner Philharmoniker live must be absolutely amazing, you're very lucky!
Enjoy the concerts!

[MishaK]

I hope Rattle has worked on his Bruckner 9 some more. Last I heard him do the first three movements (ca. 2003 or 2004) with the BPO it was horribly aimless. Great opportunity though to hear the rarely performed last movement completion. I must say I prefer the latest Samale-Cohrs-Philips-Mazzucca to the Carragan version.

[bhodges]

Watching the Berliner Philharmoniker live must be absolutely amazing, you're very lucky!
Enjoy the concerts!

Yes, it's a treat to hear them, and in general I do like Rattle. Depending on what they play, I don't hear them every time they come, but these concerts are more interesting than usual.

I hope Rattle has worked on his Bruckner 9 some more. Last I heard him do the first three movements (ca. 2003 or 2004) with the BPO it was horribly aimless. Great opportunity though to hear the rarely performed last movement completion. I must say I prefer the latest Samale-Cohrs-Philips-Mazzucca to the Carragan version.

I've not heard any of the last movement completions (and may not before the concert) so it will be even more interesting on that criterion alone. Without going into too much detail, do you like the final movement as completed?

--Bruce

[MishaK]

There are a couple of things worth hearing in preparation for the 9th finale completion. I would urge you to hear Harnoncourt's lecture and performance of the original surviving excerpts, which are on the second disc appended to his recording of the first three movements with the VPO. This will give you a good idea of how much is original Bruckner and how much is educated guess/pure fiction. Some earlier versions of the S-C-P-M completion were made before some additional original Bruckner fragments were discovered and are inferior for that reason alone (see e.g. Inbal's recording). The latest Carragan completion exists on a fine recording with Markus Bosch/Aachen. The latest S-C-P-M completion I believe is on Gerd Schaller's recording. I like hearing the finale once in a while. At least the first two thirds of it. Beyond that it starts getting a little sketchy. The downer is the lack of an authentically Brucknerian final fugue and coda, for which there are no sketches at all. But the first part is worth hearing, especially for seeing how one of the secondary themes of the first movement becomes the main theme of the finale. To me the S-C-P-M completion sounds more convincing than the Carragan.

[bhodges]

Thanks, this is all very, very helpful. 

--Bruce

[MishaK]

BTW, all the recordings mentioned in my post above, including the Harnoncourt lecture, are on Spotify, if you're using that.

[cjvinthechair]

This Wikipedia article is pretty good on the state of the symphony at the time of Bruckner's death and the various attempts subsequently to complete it.

It was Bruckner's suggestion that, if he didn't live to finish it, his Te Deum should be used as a substitute Finale.  Though this may have been for personal reasons as much as musical.  The symphony as a whole is dedicated "to the beloved God" whom he expected, with some trepidation, shortly to meet.  You don't often hear the two works programmed together like this, and my memory of the last time I did is that I didn't feel it worked terribly well.  Though that may have had something to do with the personnel on that occasion.  If I had to bet on somebody to make it work, Nézet-Séguin is probably as good as any.  Not everything that he attempts comes off, but he'll give it a damned good try.

Ah, excellent, thank you !

[MishaK]

The following week (24th Oct) there is also this:

Mozart Violin Concerto 5
Bruckner Symphony 7
Stanislaw Skrowaczewski / London Philharmonic
Hilary Hahn violin

Availability for this one is slightly better, but still not a whole lot left.  Skrowaczewski is very old now.  I saw him a couple of years ago in St Florian (conducting the Bruckner Orchester Linz in the 5th) and it really wasn't that great. 

I heard him do Bruckner 2 with BRSO maybe two years ago and it was stupendous. Blame the acoustics for your bad experience in St. Florian.

[Mirror Image]

June 26, Avery Fisher Hall:

Dutilleux: Metaboles
Dutilleux, String Quartet "Ainsi la Nuit"
Dutilleux: Cello Concerto "Tout un Monde Lontain"

Yo-Yo Ma, Cello
Alan Gilbert, Dirigent
New York Philharmonic

Good to see Dutilleux get some play here in the States. I bet Metaboles is going to white hot. I'm not about Yo-Yo Ma in Dutilleux's Tout un Monde Lontain. I haven't heard anything intresting from Yo-Yo Ma since Finzi's Cello Concerto.

[KeithW]

Tonight at the Barbican: Andreas Scholl and Kammerorchester Basel performing Bach.  I went to pick up my ticket earlier and saw the BBC external broadcast vans outside.  Not being broadcast live, but they may be capturing it for a later date.

[jlaurson]

Looking back at, in delight:

Mozart Woche Salzburg: "You must hear Ébène!"
http://ionarts.blogspot.com/2012/02/mozart-woche-salzburg-you-must-hear.html

And looking forward to: Das Rheingold, tomorrow.

[Mirror Image]

I believe his mother, Yoko Takebe,  still plays the violin for the New York Philharmonic. I can hear from here what will happen during rehearsals if Gilbert says out loud: "hey, Ma, you made a wrong note" - and Yo-Yo answers: "it's not me, it's her..."

[B_cereus]

I shall be in Manchester, England next week to see Hilary Hahn play Mozart... travel & hotel booked... Yay