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

[milk]

If you had a choice of seeing Evgeny Kissin playing Scriabin or Zinman/Kremer/Tonhalle playing Beethoven's violin concerto which would you choose?

[Bruckner is God]

April 10, 2014. Avery Fisher Hall, NYC.
NY Pilharmonic. Christoph von Dohnanyi, conductor
Paul Lewis, piano
Brahms Piano Concerto no. 1
Schumann Symphony no. 2

[Cato]

In May, the Toledo Symphony plays the Bruckner Symphony #0 at the Roman Catholic Cathedral.

And then one week later, at the Toledo Museum of Art's Peristyle Concert Hall, the orchestra will play the Mahler Symphony #5.

And Mrs. Cato and I will be there for both concerts!

[HIPster]

If you had a choice of seeing Evgeny Kissin playing Scriabin or Zinman/Kremer/Tonhalle playing Beethoven's violin concerto which would you choose?

Beethoven   

Enjoy, whichever you choose, milk!

[milk]

Beethoven   

Enjoy, whichever you choose, milk!

Thanks for the opinion.
Price may end up being a factor (here in Japan). I wanted to see Chailly/Gewandhausorchester last week, but the cheapest tickets were about 120$ - and those were sold out by the time I made the call. I have to check again about the comparative prices of these two concerts. It isn't that expensive in the States or Europe is it?

Here are the upcoming concerts I'm considering (I know the Demus recitals are 50$):
14.3.26 (Wed)19:00  Phoenix Hall Piano Quartet (non-famous Japanese musicians): Dvorak Mozart
14.4.7 (Mon) 19:00 Phoenix Hall Maximilian Hornung (cello) + piano (Naoko Kawamura): Beethoven, etc.
14.4.8 (Tue) 19:00 Izumi Hall Sayaka Shoji (violin) and Menahem Pressler (piano): Mozart, Schumann, etc.
14.4.12 (Sat) 14:00 Doshisha Imadegawa Jorge Demus: Bach, etc. 
14.4.13 (Sun) 15:00 Symphony Hall Evgeny Kissin piano: Scriabin
14.4.13 (Sun) 14:00 Festival Hall Zinman/Kremer: Violin Concerto Beethoven
14.4.18 (Fri) 19:00 Ashiya Jorge Demus Beethoven, Chopin
14.4.26 (Sat) 14:00 Hyogo Performing Arts Center Small Hall: Tabea Zimmermann solo viola Bach

[Cato]

Thanks for the opinion.
Price may end up being a factor (here in Japan). I wanted to see Chailly/Gewandhausorchester last week, but the cheapest tickets were about 120$ - and those were sold out by the time I made the call. I have to check again about the comparative prices of these two concerts. It isn't that expensive in the States or Europe is it?

No!  I once heard the Berlin Philharmonic under Claudio Abbado play Schoenberg's Pelleas und Melisande and Beethoven's Fourth Symphony on tour here in the U.S. for under $50.

[North Star]

Thanks for the opinion.
Price may end up being a factor (here in Japan). I wanted to see Chailly/Gewandhausorchester last week, but the cheapest tickets were about 120$ - and those were sold out by the time I made the call. I have to check again about the comparative prices of these two concerts. It isn't that expensive in the States or Europe is it?

Here are the upcoming concerts I'm considering (I know the Demus recitals are 50$):
14.3.26 (Wed)19:00  Phoenix Hall Piano Quartet (non-famous Japanese musicians): Dvorak Mozart
14.4.7 (Mon) 19:00 Phoenix Hall Maximilian Hornung (cello) + piano (Naoko Kawamura): Beethoven, etc.
14.4.8 (Tue) 19:00 Izumi Hall Sayaka Shoji (violin) and Menahem Pressler (piano): Mozart, Schumann, etc.
14.4.12 (Sat) 14:00 Doshisha Imadegawa Jorge Demus: Bach, etc. 
14.4.13 (Sun) 15:00 Symphony Hall Evgeny Kissin piano: Scriabin
14.4.13 (Sun) 14:00 Festival Hall Zinman/Kremer: Violin Concerto Beethoven
14.4.18 (Fri) 19:00 Ashiya Jorge Demus Beethoven, Chopin
14.4.26 (Sat) 14:00 Hyogo Performing Arts Center Small Hall: Tabea Zimmermann solo viola Bach

It varies quite a bit. Tickets to our local symphony are rather cheap, but in Helsinki especially the ones with some famous soloists/conductors can be expensive, although students, pensioners, etc do get discounts.
The Demus and Zimmermann concerts look particularly nice out of those.

[milk]

It varies quite a bit. Tickets to our local symphony are rather cheap, but in Helsinki especially the ones with some famous soloists/conductors can be expensive, although students, pensioners, etc do get discounts.
The Demus and Zimmermann concerts look particularly nice out of those.

I believe Zimmermann is playing Hindemith as well. It does look interesting. I saw Demus play WTC here last year and I thought it was a really daring, masterful, performance. They had a recording of it but they wanted more than 100$ for it.

[North Star]

I believe Zimmermann is playing Hindemith as well. It does look interesting. I saw Demus play WTC here last year and I thought it was a really daring, masterful, performance. They had a recording of it but they wanted more than 100$ for it.

She has indeed been endorsing Hindemith's music quite a bit; recording all of it and performing it just about as much as possible.
That is some outrageous pricing!

[milk]

She has indeed been endorsing Hindemith's music quite a bit; recording all of it and performing it just about as much as possible.
That is some outrageous pricing!

The recording and concerts are organized by his students here. The concerts are maybe reasonably priced (I think it was about 50$) but I don't know what they're thinking with the recording. Maybe they expect that his students will dutifully pay the price (as they probably will).

I just noticed that Sigiswald Kuijken will perform Bach on the viola da spalla here in June! Mikhail Pletnev is coming in May. Some nice stuff to break up the usually boring and extremely uncreative programing here in Osaka.

[ritter]

Off to La Coruña in northwest Spain to see the venerable Stanisław Skrowaczewski conduct the Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia in the Emperor concerto and Bruckner's Fourth tomorrow night 

The concert in La Coruña last Saturday was memorable...Skrowaczewski, pianist Francesco Piemontesi and the local Orquesta Sinfónica de Galicia all received a well-deserved standing ovation.

The Beethoven concerto offered was the First, and not the "Emperor" as I wrongly expected (with the benefit of hindsight, the Fifth concerto and Bruckner's Fourth would have been a bit too much for one evening  ). 30-year old Piemontesi (whom I had never heard) is an outstanding artist: his clean but sweet tone, superb phrasing, virtuosity and infectious joy (so important in the last movement's scherzando sections) are clearly out of the ordinary, and made me want to hear more of him soon. He gave us Debussy's Spanish-inflected La Sérénade interrompue (from book one of the Preludes) as an encore; here perhaps his style (with much use of pedal) was  not so close as to what I most enjoy in Debussy, but in any case, it was very well played.

Bruckner's Fourth (never my favourite of his symphonies  ) was a wonderful experience under 90-year old maestro Skrowaczewski (who, in any case, looks fit and dynamic  ). Highlights of the performance were, IMO, the contrast in the scherzo between the "hunting" passages of the horns and the Ländler of the trio, and also the alternation between the phrases of the brass and the strings' ostinati in the finale. The crowning re-apparition of the symphony's opening theme at the very end of the last movement (deftly defined as "blinding light" by the author of the program notes) was breathtaking.

As mentioned, huge success and standing ovation. You could see Skrowaczewski and Piemontesi very happy with the outcome... Me and my local hosts could shake hands with both of them backstage after the concert, and I felt privilgeged to have been able to thank them in person.

A great concert by all accounts 

[Mirror Image]

Looking forward to the "Concord Symphony" tonight, with MTT & SFS at the WKH.

apropos:

The following interview with Kent Nagano, exclusively on Charles Ives.

In English... (but also in German, for those who prefer it)

The Profound Existentialism of Charles Ives: Kent Nagano in Conversation




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/343/The-Profound-Existentialism-of-Charles-Ives-Kent-Nagano-in-Conversation.aspx

Kent Nagano über Charles Ives




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/344/Kent-Nagano-uber-Charles-Ives.aspx

Links aren't working, Jens.

[Sergeant Rock]

Thanks for the opinion.
Price may end up being a factor (here in Japan). I wanted to see Chailly/Gewandhausorchester last week, but the cheapest tickets were about 120$ - and those were sold out by the time I made the call. I have to check again about the comparative prices of these two concerts. It isn't that expensive in the States or Europe is it?

The cheapest seats to see the orchestra on their home turf in Leipzig are 6 Euro. Almost twenty times more expensive in Japan   The premium seats at the Gewandhaus are 57.50 Euro. Mrs. Rock and I saw Chailly conduct Mahler 3 there a few years ago. Our seats were, I think, around 30 Euro each.

Sarge

[North Star]

Links aren't working, Jens.

Try now:

Looking forward to the "Concord Symphony" tonight, with MTT & SFS at the WKH.

apropos:

The following interview with Kent Nagano, exclusively on Charles Ives.

In English... (but also in German, for those who prefer it)

The Profound Existentialism of Charles Ives: Kent Nagano in Conversation




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/343/The-Profound-Existentialism-of-Charles-Ives-Kent-Nagano-in-Conversation.aspx

Kent Nagano über Charles Ives




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/344/Kent-Nagano-uber-Charles-Ives.aspx

[Brian]

Friday night!

Brahms | Tragic Overture
Chopin | Piano Concerto No 2
Dvorak | The Water Goblin
Janacek | Sinfonietta

Jan Lisiecki, piano
Dallas Symphony Orchestra and All Their Trumpet-Playing Friends
Jakub Hrusa

I've seen Jakub Hrusa before, and he's pretty good. I could take or leave the entire first half of the program, but the Janacek is such a great piece to see live that I forced my parents to come up to Dallas to see it with me.

[jlaurson]

Links aren't working, Jens.

Thanks! Fixed.

Oh, and also many thanks to North Star, for also fixing it!!!!!

Looking forward to the "Concord Symphony" tonight, with MTT & SFS at the WKH.

apropos:

The following interview with Kent Nagano, exclusively on Charles Ives.

In English... (but also in German, for those who prefer it)

The Profound Existentialism of Charles Ives: Kent Nagano in Conversation




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/343/The-Profound-Existentialism-of-Charles-Ives-Kent-Nagano-in-Conversation.aspx

Kent Nagano über Charles Ives




http://konzerthaus.at/magazin/Home/tabid/41/entryid/344/Kent-Nagano-uber-Charles-Ives.aspx

[milk]

The cheapest seats to see the orchestra on their home turf in Leipzig are 6 Euro. Almost twenty times more expensive in Japan   The premium seats at the Gewandhaus are 57.50 Euro. Mrs. Rock and I saw Chailly conduct Mahler 3 there a few years ago. Our seats were, I think, around 30 Euro each.

Sarge

This confirms what I thought. Well, I guess it is expensive to fly everyone over here. Still, prices are inflated in Japan. The new rise in consumption tax doesn't help either. Nor does the recent weakening of the yen. It's a shame that classical music in Japan is generally accepted as being for the rich, old, and well-connected. Maybe that contributes to the programming being so boring. 
On another note, I found at that Sigiswald Kuijken's Viola da spalla concert in Kansai is sold out three months in advance! So it's impossible to get tickets for that. That really upset me. I was even thinking of trying to contact him or waylay him at his hotel to beg for a ticket. I doubt it would be successful. But I have a friend who got tickets to a rock show that way.   

[jlaurson]

M3 with MTT & SFS tonight.

[listener]

For anyone with the inclination, time, and money to get to Victoria BC for Saturday evening:
György Ligeti : Poeme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes
György Ligeti : Ramifications
Ana Sokolovic : Nine Proverbs
Paul Frehner : Ochus Bochus
György Ligeti : Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Tania Miller : conductor
Roger Admiral : pianist - Website

[North Star]

For anyone with the inclination, time, and money to get to Victoria BC for Saturday evening:
György Ligeti : Poeme Symphonique for 100 Metronomes
György Ligeti : Ramifications
...
György Ligeti : Concerto for Piano and Orchestra

Now there's a cool program!

Tonight:

Brahms: PC no. 2 & Symphony No. 1
Paavali Jumppanen (piano), Johannes Gustavsson & Oulu SO