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

[Cosi bel do]

Yes that's another issue. I'm not sure I would have attended this concert if I had known the program would be that. When it was announced, the second part was Scriabin's 3rd symphony, not Tchaikovsky's 4th...
It's good to hear a little about your feeling, because it is hard to know much about the CSO's actuality (except, as I said, it is one of the most impressive orchestras when on tour). I just have a chance to hear it live every 3 or 4 years... There are not even many new recordings on the market.
Yes Muti was always loved by orchestras and by the audience everywhere (a little mystery for me, even if he's an excellent musician for sure, and a great opera conductor).

Barenboim/Boulez rulezzzzz

[Karl Henning]

I love the Tchaikovsky, but I certainly understand the quarrel, when one was expecting a comparative rarity like the Skryabin!

[Florestan]

I defy you all to find a more conservative stance than that of Romanian SOs. I have long ceased to subscribe to their concerts, or even to buy occasional tickets: besides the fact that raising a child leaves me not much spare time, whatever they play I have on CD or LP, in a much better performance. Heck, they don´t even play Enescu besides one of the two Rhapsodies once in a blue moon. 

That being said, i will certainly attend to the Romanian National RSO´s most adventurous concert this season:

Vineri, 19 decembrie 2014, ora 19

Dirijor: TIBERIU SOARE

A. Berg: Concertul pentru vioară şi orchestră În memoria unui înger
                        Solist: ALEXANDRU TOMESCU – vioară

G. Mahler:  Simfonia a IV-a în sol major
                      MĂDĂLINA BARBU – soprană
                      VIRGIL ZVORIŞTEANU – vioară

It´s Romanian but I can safely bet you all got the idea all right. 

[milk]

I'm thinking of attending a performance of Reich's Different Trains (by musicians who do not appear to be especially famous) here in Osaka, Japan. I'm not sure what I think of this particular composition but performances of modern music are extremely rare here so I think I'll give it a shot.

[Christo]

It´s Romanian but I can safely bet you all got the idea all right. 

Love to see it in Romanian!  looks like a fine concert indeed!

[Florestan]

Tuesday, October 28
Athenaeum Concert Hall, Bucharest

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

That was a once-in-a-lifetime concert.

He eventually played 8 Nocturnes by Chopin and after the break Prokofiev, Piano Sonata no. 8 and 3 pieces from op. 75

I have never ever heard the Nocturnes played like that. Pure poetry, but not for the fainthearted and much less for the purists. Gavrilov played them manly, even muscular; dreams and passions, yes, but those of a man; Romanticism, yes, but not the academy-for-young-ladies type. Genuine Romanticism meant struggle, conflict and restlessness - and this is exactly what Gavrilov delivered.

The Prokofiev Sonata he played in the same vein. After an Andante dolce which he took rather Allegro but all the more disturbing and ominous, the Andante sognando was like a remembrance of things past, a vivid and ipso facto painful recollection of more tranquil times irretrievably lost. And then bang!, the raw energy of the final Vivace had me - and not only me - on the edge of my seat.

A Rachmaninoff prelude as an encore ended a most memorable concert. Gavrilov is the best pianist I have ever seen live, Nikolai Demidenko coming to a close second and Evgeny Kissin and Boris Berezovsky tied on third.

[TheGSMoeller]

Lyric Opera of Chicago's production of Puccini's Tosca.
I have a ticket voucher to redeem so will probably go in March. I will miss Tatiana Serjan in the leading role, but instead get Hui He, who supposedly amazed in Lyric's Aida a few years back.

[Cosi bel do]

Wow, just saw on my calendar I have less than a month to go before going to Berlin for the newest production of Britten's Turn of the Screw, by Ivor Bolton and Claus Guth

[madaboutmahler]

The most incredible Mahler 9 last Sunday. LSO/Harding. Absolutely out of this world in the final pages, such an intensity but spiritual release in the final bars.. Harding kept the silence for at least a minute after the final fade away. Simply outstanding.

[bhodges]

In November:

Stockhausen: Originale (1961) - This appears to be only the 5th production (including the 1961 premiere), and the musicians and cast assembled for this version look excellent.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Originale

--Bruce

[Cosi bel do]

The most incredible Mahler 9 last Sunday. LSO/Harding. Absolutely out of this world in the final pages, such an intensity but spiritual release in the final bars.. Harding kept the silence for at least a minute after the final fade away. Simply outstanding.

Good to know, I hope the LSO will be on top of its form the next time I see them (it's not been the case each time I've seen them in Paris for quite some time now). It should be in June in Mahler 1st this time (with Haitink, in the new Philharmonie in Paris).

[stingo]

Must be the night for it. Just in from hearing Mahler's 2nd in Philadelphia with Nézet-Séguin conducting.

[stingo]

Funnily enough, last night I was imagining how it might sound conducted by N-S (whom I have seen in a few things, but not that one.)  So how was it in reality?

I very much enjoyed it. The band was excellent as always, but the soloists were really good and the choir was fantastic. That ending... wow...

[madaboutmahler]

Tonight at the Festival Hall in London:

Mahler Symphony No.2
London Philharmonic
Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor, substituting for Jaap van Zweden

Been a long time since I heard a really great Resurrection.  Don't know if the change of conductor increases or decreases the chances of that.

Was going to go to that but forgot it was soon, didn't know about the change of conductor either. How was it?
Saw Harding in the Resurrection at the Proms this summer which was pretty sensational, but not the extent of his 9th I saw last week!

[Brian]

Tonight at the Festival Hall in London:

Mahler Symphony No.2
London Philharmonic
Andrés Orozco-Estrada conductor, substituting for Jaap van Zweden

Been a long time since I heard a really great Resurrection.  Don't know if the change of conductor increases or decreases the chances of that.

One "Texan" to another. Dallas leader Jaap van Zweden has recently had surgery (I think for his shoulder); Orozco-Estrada is the new director in Houston.

[madaboutmahler]

Yes, I was always intending to go to the Harding 9th, but, like you, somehow I managed to forget about it until reminded (too late) by your earlier post-concert posting.  Stupid.   And then this morning I read a review in the Sunday Times, the gist of which was: this was a once-in-a-lifetime experience.  I cannot express adequately how pissed off I am to have missed that.

Last night's Resurrection was not in the same league.  It was pretty good - and any pretty good performance makes for a stirring experience - but not one of those that leave you feeling: this is as good as it gets.  I thought the conductor did well, I doubt van Zweden would have done better.  Choir and soloists were good also.  If there was a deficiency anywhere, it had to be the orchestra.  This may be an unreasonable thing to say, but I hardly ever get much sense of cohesion about the LPO, they always seem more like a bunch of people gathered together as if by chance.  Particularly the strings - and last night I thought the violas noticeably weak.  Which is how I came to be speculating about how different it might have been with different performers.  Nézet-Séguin with the Philadelphia Orchestra sounds like a good combination, I'm rather jealous of that one too.

Sorry you missed the Harding 9th! I really hope they pair up for more Mahler in the near future as yes, it was out of this world.
I see what you mean about the LPO sadly.. I have been left slightly disappointed by recent performances of theirs I have heard.. to be honest, in my opinion, that may be partially down to Jurowski, their principal conductor, who seems to restrain them quite a lot. What an orchestra it used to be, making some of my favourite Mahler recordings of all time with Tennstedt, but nowadays it just can't compare with the LSO, or the Philharmonia.

[madaboutmahler]

Exactly my view also.  In fact, the last time I heard the Royal Philharmonic (playing Shostakovich) I was struck by how together they were, and I thought at the time, does this mean the LPO are now the 4th rank orchestra in London??   I don't know about Jurowski: while I applaud the imaginative programming, there is definitely something going on with that orchestra...

The RPO are certainly very good at the moment! Hmmm... don't forget the BBC orchestras too! It's fascinating to compare the London orchestras.. they are remarkably different from each other!
Concerning Jurowski - I saw the LPO twice over the BBC Proms this season. The first was with the young Robin Ticciati doing Der Rosenkav, it was absolutely fantastic, so much excitement and conviction from the orchestra. But later in the season, with Jurowski at the helm for The Planets/Schoenberg 5 pieces/Scriabin Prometheus, the orchestra just felt so much more restrained and that must have been the conductor.. I know players in the orchestra who tell me that Jurowski doesn't seem to place enough trust in the players, holding them back..

[EigenUser]

I'm going to Philadelphia tonight with a friend to see the NCPA Orchestra (from China) and Yuja Wang. The program is:

Qigang Chen - Wu Xing ("The Five Elements")
Ravel - Piano Concerto in G major
Tchaikovsky - Symphony No. 5

Should be fun. We were going to see Mahler 2 last week, but all reasonably-priced tickets were sold out.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I see what you mean about the LPO sadly.. I have been left slightly disappointed by recent performances of theirs I have heard.. to be honest, in my opinion, that may be partially down to Jurowski, their principal conductor, who seems to restrain them quite a lot. What an orchestra it used to be, making some of my favourite Mahler recordings of all time with Tennstedt, but nowadays it just can't compare with the LSO, or the Philharmonia.

I just heard the LPO/Jurowski in Chicago last month, doing DSCH 8 among others, and was really impressed. No sense of "restraint" certainly. Also from what I've read Jurowski has been quite good with them, especially with regard to innovative and unusual programming.

[Brian]

I just heard the LPO/Jurowski in Chicago last month, doing DSCH 8 among others, and was really impressed. No sense of "restraint" certainly. Also from what I've read Jurowski has been quite good with them, especially with regard to innovative and unusual programming.

I side with you here. Jurowski's ongoing Tchaikovsky cycle is one of the best ever recorded. (Check out the warm glow on the strings in the First.) I was in the concert hall for the Fifth and it just about burned the house down - wild thrill ride, the exact opposite of restraint. Also got to see him do a magnificent Zemlinsky Lyric Symphony which should be released on CD next year.