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

[Jaakko Keskinen]

Soon I'll be entering into magical world of Debussy's Pelleas and Melisande...

[Papy Oli]

Week-end after next at Snape :

The Cardinall's Musick

William Byrd
Christe qui lux es et dies
Ad Dominum cum tribularer

Benjamin Britten - From Sacred and Profane, Op.91 (1975)
  St Godric's Hymn
  Yif ic of luve can
  Ye that pasen by

Tomas Luis de Victoria (Tenebrae Responsories)
  Amicus meus
  Eram quasi agnus innocens
  Animam meam

Britten - Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Op.51

Francis Poulenc - Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
  O magnum mysterium
  Quem vidistis pastores
  Videntes stellam
  Hodie Christus natus est

Byrd - Mass Propers for the Epiphany
  Ecce advenit
  Surge illuminare
  Reges Tharsis
  Vidimus stellam

Britten Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi, Op.86

Byrd - Descendit de caelis

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Surge illuminare / Et ambulabant gentes

[EigenUser]

Tonight! Messiaen's Oiseaux Exotiques at Juilliard in NYC! Then drinks* with Bruce afterward! Should be fun.

*For me, cranberry juice, or bitters and club soda (I don't drink...)

[ritter]

Went to the premiere of Glass's new opera The Trial (based on the Kafka story) last week.  Enjoyed the production but was especially impressed by the music: attractive and well-crafted to suit the drama.

Mr. Glass is producing operas at a surprisingly quick rate: The Perfect American (Madrid 2013), Spuren der Verirrtten (Linz 2013) and now this The Trial (London 2014)  . Glad you enjoyed it, Soapy Molloy 

The next concert I myself am looking forward to is in late November (21, 22 and 23), with Schoenberg's Gurrelieder at the Auditorio Nacional here in Madrid. The lineup is as follows:

Christine Brewer (sop)
Catherine Wyn-Rogers (ms)
José Ferrero & Andreas Conrad, tenors
Albert Dohmen, bass and speaker
Spanish National Chorus & Spanish radio-Television Chorus
Spanish National Orchestra
Eliahu Inbal, conductor.

Must be great to experiemnce this mammoth composition live, and Inbal should be great at it!

[Christo]

Will stay two days in Dublin for a conference, next week. Booked:
National Concert Hall, Friday 24 October 2014, 8pm
SIBELIUS Karelia Suite
LINDBERG Helikon Wasp [20'] Irish premiere
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor

RTÉ NSO, CHRISTIAN LINDBERG trombone & conductor

[Brian]

Will stay two days in Dublin for a conference, next week. Booked:
National Concert Hall, Friday 24 October 2014, 8pm
SIBELIUS Karelia Suite
LINDBERG Helikon Wasp [20'] Irish premiere
TCHAIKOVSKY Symphony No. 5 in E minor

RTÉ NSO, CHRISTIAN LINDBERG trombone & conductor

What a treat! Christian Lindberg has become a talented conductor, and his first-ever professional performance as a trombonist was doing Tchaikovsky's Fifth under the baton of Evgeny Svetlanov. He admitted last year (with the release of his recording of the symphony) that that experience had a profound effect on how he interprets the piece.

[Mookalafalas]

Saw the Ingolf Wonder tonight and an enthusiastic thumbs up.  You can tell he is happy to be there and enjoys playing, which is a big plus.  And the playing was glorious.  He brought out the poetry in Liszt, which may not be what everybody wants to see, but for me it was a revelation. 

[Christo]

What a treat! Christian Lindberg has become a talented conductor, and his first-ever professional performance as a trombonist was doing Tchaikovsky's Fifth under the baton of Evgeny Svetlanov. He admitted last year (with the release of his recording of the symphony) that that experience had a profound effect on how he interprets the piece.

Great to learn! So far, I only knew him as a trombonist, thanks to BIS mostly, I suppose. Your story of his personal quest with Tchaikovsky's Fifth adds more to the experience than I could have hoped. It happens to be my only free evening, so yes, I was already happy to book this concert. And now even more. :-)

[NorthNYMark]

I'm looking forward to the Alexander String Quartet's annual residency at my university this coming week.  On Thursday, they will be giving a presentation for my Modern European Art class, demonstrating how different ideas associated with modernism can be manifested in music. That night, they will be performing their main public concert, and the program looks very interesting:Webern's Langsamer Satz and Five Pieces, Bartok's Second Quartet, a new work by a visiting music faculty member, Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C minor, and Beethoven's first Rasumowsky quartet. 

[Brian]

I'm looking forward to the Alexander String Quartet's annual residency at my university this coming week.  On Thursday, they will be giving a presentation for my Modern European Art class, demonstrating how different ideas associated with modernism can be manifested in music. That night, they will be performing their main public concert, and the program looks very interesting:Webern's Langsamer Satz and Five Pieces, Bartok's Second Quartet, a new work by a visiting music faculty member, Mozart's Adagio and Fugue in C minor, and Beethoven's first Rasumowsky quartet.

Wow, you're a lucky so-and-so! They're not just great musicians, they're nice guys too. That program is mouthwatering (expect High Romantic scope in the Beethoven; the new [Foghorn] recording is sheer bliss). If you get a chance to chat with Sandy (cellist), tell him that Brian from MusicWeb ordered their earlier Beethoven box set to compare to the new one, and is now happily drowning in all their Beethoven quartet albums.

[NorthNYMark]

Wow, you're a lucky so-and-so! They're not just great musicians, they're nice guys too. That program is mouthwatering (expect High Romantic scope in the Beethoven; the new [Foghorn] recording is sheer bliss). If you get a chance to chat with Sandy (cellist), tell him that Brian from MusicWeb ordered their earlier Beethoven box set to compare to the new one, and is now happily drowning in all their Beethoven quartet albums.

I will definitely let him know!  As it so happens, I listened to that Foghorn performance for the first time last night, and I agree with you--it is stunning. A few years ago, they performed Op. 130 with the Grosse Fuge as the ending, and it practically blew the roof off of the place (it was also my first time hearing the work, which tells you what a classical newbie I am).  I had just begun my relative obsession with the string quartet literature just before their visit last year (too late to schedule a class visit); they played Haydn, Britten (which was particularly wonderful), and Ravel.

[EigenUser]

The Juilliard concert was great! My friend and I greatly enjoyed the Adams Son of Chamber Symphony and loved the Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques. The gong/tam-tam crescendos before the prairie-chicken calls were so loud and intense that the lady in front of us kept ducking her head each time! That piece is much, much louder than it seems on recordings! We met with Bruce afterward and had a really wonderful time! I'll be back for the Ligeti concert for sure!

[bhodges]

The Juilliard concert was great! My friend and I greatly enjoyed the Adams Son of Chamber Symphony and loved the Messiaen Oiseaux Exotiques. The gong/tam-tam crescendos before the prairie-chicken calls were so loud and intense that the lady in front of us kept ducking her head each time! That piece is much, much louder than it seems on recordings! We met with Bruce afterward and had a really wonderful time! I'll be back for the Ligeti concert for sure!

Wish I could have heard this concert, but had to cover another one (Bartok Nos. 1, 3 and 5 by the Chiara String Quartet). But great to meet you and your friend afterward - enjoyed the conversation a lot.

Juilliard has a ton of great stuff every month, and much of it is free. I will likely be at that Ligeti concert, too.

--Bruce

[Cosi bel do]

I started the season late with Vasily Petrenko's Mahler 7th (with the Orchestre philharmonique de Radio France), last friday.

Now looking forward to Chicago & Muti this saturday (but a little annoyed that Scriabin's 3rd symphony was changed to Tchaikovsky's 4th actually... Well at least he kept La Mer...).

And then only a few weeks before Grigory Sokolov : Bach Partita 1, Beethoven op. 10/3, Chopin 3rd sonata

[kishnevi]

Wish I could have heard this concert, but had to cover another one (Bartok Nos. 1, 3 and 5 by the Chiara String Quartet). But great to meet you and your friend afterward - enjoyed the conversation a lot.

Juilliard has a ton of great stuff every month, and much of it is free. I will likely be at that Ligeti concert, too.

--Bruce

I posted this in the concert announcement thread just now, but may as well repeat the link here.
https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=4750&id=2884
Samuel Rhodes with players from the Juilliard School this Wednesday at the Jewish Theological Seminary

[bhodges]

I posted this in the concert announcement thread just now, but may as well repeat the link here.
https://www.wizevents.com/register/register_add.php?sessid=4750&id=2884
Samuel Rhodes with players from the Juilliard School this Wednesday at the Jewish Theological Seminary

Thanks, that looks great (though I'm unable to go). In addition to Rhodes, I can also vouch for the Israeli Chamber Project, an excellent group with terrific players.

--Bruce

[Florestan]

Tuesday, October 28
Athenaeum Concert Hall, Bucharest

Andrei Gavrilov plays Chopin, Rachmaninoff, Scriabin, Prokofiev (works tba)

[Papy Oli]

Week-end after next at Snape :

The Cardinall's Musick

William Byrd
Christe qui lux es et dies
Ad Dominum cum tribularer

Benjamin Britten - From Sacred and Profane, Op.91 (1975)
  St Godric's Hymn
  Yif ic of luve can
  Ye that pasen by

Tomas Luis de Victoria (Tenebrae Responsories)
  Amicus meus
  Eram quasi agnus innocens
  Animam meam

Britten - Canticle II: Abraham and Isaac, Op.51
***********
Britten Canticle IV: The Journey of the Magi, Op.86

Francis Poulenc - Quatre motets pour le temps de Noël
  O magnum mysterium
  Quem vidistis pastores
  Videntes stellam
  Hodie Christus natus est

Byrd - Mass Propers for the Epiphany
  Ecce advenit
  Surge illuminare
  Reges Tharsis
  Vidimus stellam

Byrd - Descendit de caelis

Giovanni Pierluigi da Palestrina - Surge illuminare / Et ambulabant gentes

Superb singing last night. Really enjoyed the Byrd and Victoria, and the Poulenc was a nice discovery.

I just can't get into Britten though...  I was sitting in Britten's temple, surrounded by Britten worshippers who applauded his 2 canticles louder that all the other works put together...and there I was, just painfully waiting for these 2 works to finish....Thankfully they were either side of the interval.... 

[Cosi bel do]

Salle Pleyel
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti

Felix Mendelssohn: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt
Claude Debussy: La Mer
Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski: Symphony no. 4

This concert yesterday left me quite the same impression than the last one I had seen by the CSO, at the beginning of Muti's tenure (I believe it was 3 years ago). Same impression, but slightly aggravated.
The CSO is still magnificent, the best orchestra I've ever heard in  a concert, with the Berliner Philharmoniker (but I haven't heard the BP with such perfection for around 15 years, even if I've attended great performances by them), and the Concertgebouw. Technical perfection all the way, a brass section with no equivalent that just give you chills at each entry, great solos (except surprising little imperfections by the oboe, and 1st flute but I've heard about their recent trouble in this section...).
But Muti ? Really, what is he up to ? He has always been an excellent conductor but with the tendency of being a little superficial, and to conduct everything like a Verdi opera (you know, with him, on any fortissimo you believe Otello is going to come out on stage). But I think the problem is quite deeper today. The last time, he already had given a frankly boring Shostakovich's 5th (one of my favourite scores, and it is really difficult for me not to enjoy it performed). And this time, it was worse. La Mer was soooo slow... and you couldn't see any kind of picture behind all those details. The only possible comparison would be with recordings like Davis's (with Boston), or Baudo's (with the LPO) : a magnificent orchestra but absolutely not a wave, not a breeze on this sea. More like a Dead Sea to me.
It was not really better in Tchaikovsky's 4th. Again, one of the slowest interpretations I've heard. But in itself it's not a problem. Bernstein's vision in his DG live recording is objectionable, but still very personal, passionate, full of contrasts. Nothing like that here : Muti takes it slow and doesn't change this tempo one bit during each movement. And everything with him is, again, so neat but superficial, so... deprived of any life, really. The only comparison I could make is with the late Maazel.
I really hope all Muti/CSO concerts are not like that. Because if it is the case, I really feel sorry for the audience there...
I'm happy I didn't decide to take tickets for their second concert today. And just being able to say that really is a pity

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Salle Pleyel
Chicago Symphony Orchestra, Riccardo Muti

Felix Mendelssohn: Meeresstille und glückliche Fahrt
Claude Debussy: La Mer
Piotr Ilitch Tchaïkovski: Symphony no. 4
[snip]

I really hope all Muti/CSO concerts are not like that. Because if it is the case, I really feel sorry for the audience there...
I'm happy I didn't decide to take tickets for their second concert today. And just being able to say that really is a pity

Thanks for the review. No, they're not all like that. While I think Muti is a pretty good conductor (and the orchestra seems to love him), my problem with him is the overly conservative programming. He doesn't go outside the standard rep very often, and when he does, it's usually to conduct some piece of operatic fluff, like the overture to Indigo and the Forty Thieves. Luckily we have guest conductors to do more innovative programs, but I still miss the programming of the Barenboim/Boulez years.