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

[bhodges]

Just saw this in Philly. It was great!

Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Ludovic Morlot, conductor

BERIO: Sinfonia
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1

Happy to hear this! Looking forward to seeing it at Carnegie tomorrow night.

--Bruce

[EigenUser]

I bet that Berio was cool. I'd love to see that work performed.

Well, here it is after it was performed :

[Mirror Image]

Well, here it is after it was performed :

Cool, but you always have the craziest shots.

[bhodges]

Just saw this in Philly. It was great!

Curtis Symphony Orchestra
Ludovic Morlot, conductor

BERIO: Sinfonia
MAHLER: Symphony No. 1

This was a fantastic concert (at Carnegie Hall). We got a lovely bonus, too, which I had never heard: Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque (conducted by Conner Gray Covington, studying at Curtis since 2015).

Sinfonia is so much fun to hear live, and there is much more to the piece than the famous central movement, in which Berio takes the middle Scherzo from Mahler's Second Symphony and grafts on all sorts of other musical references. (My favorite quote might be the brief appearance of Ravel's La Valse.)

Hard to believe a student orchestra can tackle these, as well as Mahler's First, with such confidence, and they did a beautiful job with all three. 

--Bruce

[The new erato]

V-W 9 and Job with Andrew Davis and the Bergen Phils tonight.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

V-W 9 and Job with Andrew Davis and the Bergen Phils tonight.

Looks great. Davis conducted VW 9 with the CSO a few years ago, but I missed it.

[MishaK]

Coming up over here: the alpha and omega of DSCH as a symphonist on one program:

Feb. 5 & 6

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Gennady Rozhdestvensky conductor

Shostakovich Symphony No. 1
Shostakovich Symphony No. 15

I went to the Friday performance. What did you think?

[(poco) Sforzando]

This was a fantastic concert (at Carnegie Hall). We got a lovely bonus, too, which I had never heard: Busoni's Berceuse élégiaque (conducted by Conner Gray Covington, studying at Curtis since 2015).

Sinfonia is so much fun to hear live, and there is much more to the piece than the famous central movement, in which Berio takes the middle Scherzo from Mahler's Second Symphony and grafts on all sorts of other musical references. (My favorite quote might be the brief appearance of Ravel's La Valse.)

Hard to believe a student orchestra can tackle these, as well as Mahler's First, with such confidence, and they did a beautiful job with all three. 

--Bruce

Wish I had known about this. Sometimes these student orchestras outdo the majors - as was also the case when Levine did the Carter Symphonia with the Juilliard. Bruce, did you hear the Berio under Maazel at the NYP (somewhat incongruously coupled with the Brahms 4th)?

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

I went to the Friday performance. What did you think?

Liked it - the idea of putting the first and last DSCH symphonies on one concert was interesting, and Rozhdestvensky is great to watch from the front (I saw him several times in Moscow, but always from the back).

Some good solo work too, especially in the 15th.

[MishaK]

Liked it - the idea of putting the first and last DSCH symphonies on one concert was interesting, and Rozhdestvensky is great to watch from the front (I saw him several times in Moscow, but always from the back).

Some good solo work too, especially in the 15th.

Yeah. I thought the middle two movements of 15 didn't hang together so well. Some friends of mine went to both performances and thought Saturday's was the better one. I sat in the lower balcony, but a friend of mine also sat in the terrace and reported the same as you did, that Rozh's face (and especially eyebrows) are really expressive and you don't get that sitting behind him. ;-)

Btw, if you want another helping, Rozh is subbing for Muti this week (Mozart/Kurtag/Tchaikovsky program) as Muti is recovering from an emergency hip surgery.

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Yeah. I thought the middle two movements of 15 didn't hang together so well.

Actually I was thinking during the second mvt. that Shostakovich's tendency to write really long, bleak slow movements as he got older maybe wasn't always the best aesthetic judgment and could use some trimming here and there. But I don't know if my reaction is the composer's fault or the conductor's.

While the scherzo didn't provide sufficient contrast, it was interesting to hear it slowed down a bit, bringing out the grotesque instrumental effects more.

Btw, if you want another helping, Rozh is subbing for Muti this week (Mozart/Kurtag/Tchaikovsky program) as Muti is recovering from an emergency hip surgery.

I wasn't planning to go to any of those, but it's sad that Muti is having health problems again.

[MishaK]

I wasn't planning to go to any of those, but it's sad that Muti is having health problems again.

Well, falling down and needing hip surgery is more an accident than "health problems". That said, it's odd that he insisted on first going home to Italy (where he fell) right after an exhausting Asian tour only to then return to Chicago, when he could have just gone straight to Chicago.

[bhodges]

Wish I had known about this. Sometimes these student orchestras outdo the majors - as was also the case when Levine did the Carter Symphonia with the Juilliard. Bruce, did you hear the Berio under Maazel at the NYP (somewhat incongruously coupled with the Brahms 4th)?

The Curtis ensemble is every bit as good as say, the Juilliard Orchestra. There were a few - very few - indications that this is a "student group," but not many. My only quibble with the Berio was that the vocalists, despite being miked (which they should be) were still a bit far back in the mix. I know Berio's instructions are that they should be "half-heard" or something like that (unfortunately I don't have a score), but still, the sound mixer could have turned up the volume j-u-s-t a little bit more. But this feels like carping when overall, the performance was so robust and entertaining.

I did hear the Berio with Maazel - remember it as a positive experience, and a somewhat surprising one, since Sinfonia doesn't seem like something Maazel would have liked, but there you go.

--Bruce

[bhodges]

Today heard the final dress rehearsal for Puccini's Manon Lescaut at the Met - an opera I had never heard before, but for excerpts here and there. Liked it quite a bit, including the handsome new production by Sir Richard Eyre. (The updating to 1941 generally works well, but with a few casualties in the suspension of disbelief that I will not reveal here.)

The leads were Kristine Opolais and Roberto Alagna - both quite good, and I was surprised by Alagna, since his voice is not what it once was. Never mind: he can still sing, and with beautiful resonance, too.

An equal draw was the fabulous Met Orchestra, led by Fabio Luisi. He is one of the Met's "regulars" (at least now, before he starts his new appointment in Florence), and the ensemble sounded wonderful, with lots of shading and drama.

--Bruce

[jlaurson]

Fresh from Forbes:




JAN 5, 2015
Washington's National Symphony And Lang Lang In Vienna

...In such proximity to the Super Bowl, a football analogy will have to fit the bill: The National Symphony
Orchestra is to American orchestras what the...

...BA-Dam!! Christopher Rouse rips the score of his 1986 8- or 9-minute symphonic overture open with a loud,
butts-from-seats-jolting chord before plinking and plonging away, harp-supported, and moving on with great
gaiety in the woodwind section. The tuba engages in sounds that would make juveniles giggle; the neglected
strings are allowed a word in, edgewise, here and there. Eventually the music works up an appetite and goes
through more notes than the Cookie Monster through Oreos. Me want demisemiquaver!...

...And the antics? Even trying to look away, the occasional glance at the pianist is impossible and whenever it
occurs, it is met by the spectacle of a young man looking like a self-satisfied juvenile hamster who does the slow
face-pan to the audience – ecstatic stop – very-moved head-swivel – slow semi-circle back to the music – briefly
arrested movement along with transfixed-by-beauty-of-his-own-playing stare. Lang Lang's gestures and
mimicking during a concert would make for primo live-blogging, if mobile phones weren't so taboo during
classical concerts...


(Image courtesy [= stolen from] American Ambassador to Austria, Alexa Wesner)

http://www.forbes.com/sites/jenslaurson/2016/02/10/washingtons-national-symphony-and-lang-lang-in-vienna/#149124a71520

[bhodges]

Tomorrow night, when the temperature here is going to be close to EFFING ZERO:

New York Philharmonic
Semyon Bychkov, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

But to paraphrase the U.S. Post Office: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night - nor subzero temperatures that should have all decent people at home with a glass of whiskey - stays these couriers idiots Mahler nuts dedicated listeners from the swift completion of their appointed rounds hearing the Mahler Sixth live."



--Bruce

[EigenUser]

TONIGHT!

[(poco) Sforzando]

Tomorrow night, when the temperature here is going to be close to EFFING ZERO:

New York Philharmonic
Semyon Bychkov, conductor

Mahler: Symphony No. 6

But to paraphrase the U.S. Post Office: "Neither snow nor rain nor heat nor gloom of night - nor subzero temperatures that should have all decent people at home with a glass of whiskey - stays these couriers idiots Mahler nuts dedicated listeners from the swift completion of their appointed rounds hearing the Mahler Sixth live."



--Bruce

That's EFFING ZERO actual, not counting wind chill. Stay safe, you guys. I don't want to read about Frozen Posters in tomorrow's Times.

--Sfz
(sitting at 6:30 in his warm home, after just coming back from the NYC Ballet where the temperature outside is already 10 degrees F.)

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Don't know if I can make it to this one, coming up in a couple of weeks, but I will certainly try:

Chicago Symphony Orchestra
Esa-Pekka Salonen, conductor
Yo-Yo Ma, cellist
Beethoven: Overture to King Stephen
Lutoslawski: Symphony No. 3
Salonen: Foreign Bodies
Shostakovich: Cello Concerto No. 1

I've heard the Lutoslawski live once, but that was years ago.

[EigenUser]

TONIGHT!

Ha! I beat Bruce to this thread.

It was awesome! Even that accidental "double hammer" at the first strike was forgivable.