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

[brewski]

Plus a live performance of the Requiem? - that's a must-listen!

Right?

PS, for those who may not know, you can do a free, 7-day trial of the Digital Concert Hall, which is great if there is a concert (or two) that you want to catch. The regular price for a year is not unreasonable: $16 per month, or $151 per year. (For some of us, less expensive than a trip to Berlin. )

-Bruce

[Todd]

I'm on the fence as to whether I should attend the Emerson String Quartet farewell tour stop this summer.  They will be playing Schumann's Piano Quintet and LvB's Op 131. 

Also, Stewart Goodyear is coming to town to play his own Piano Sonata, along with Adolphus Hailstork's The Blue Bag and James Lee III's Ad Anah? (How Long?), the latter two with Anthony McGill.  This alone seems like it would make a good recording program.  The concert then switches to a performance of eleven miniatures played by the Catalyst Quartet.  The only composer I know is Joan Tower, and the youngest is Paul Mekailian, born in 1998.

[Ganondorf]

Reporting back from yesterday's Turandot. Highly mixed feelings, leaning towards negative.

For starters, another anxiety attack at opera! What else is new?  Thankfully it only lasted for roughly first 20 minutes of the opera.

The singer of Calaf was, at least vocally, awful. His sound constantly kept drowning under the orchestra sound. Turandot's singer was better but not brilliant, the same goes for Liú. These two were the strongest ones (unless one counts the chorus as a character which was decent). Timur didn't make much of an impression. Ping Pang and Pong acted well enough but unfortunately I found their voices rather bland. I was disappointed by conducting of Hannu Lintu and his orchestra which is sad since he was well with Die Walküre and is going to conduct Siegfried in March to where I have tickets also. The orchestra messed up almost all the greatest parts.

General comments about the opera: Is it just me or are those riddles presented by Turandot ridiculously easy? Are we really supposed to believe that according to P-trio countless suitors have already lost their heads to these juvenile enigmas?

Another comment: Calaf and Turandot are jerkasses. Calaf has an unhealthy, all-consuming obsession with Turandot which leads him, among other things, into maliciously gloating in act 3 how the entire city will perish if they won't find out his name. Granted, if Calaf told his name, HE would die but that gloating still seems unnecessarily nasty.

Oh, and I see why Puccini found it impossible to compose Turandot's last scene. Making Turandot suddenly change her ways and expecting Calaf to be considered worthy of sympathy after continuing with his obsession even after Liü's death was an impossible task and certainly Alfano was not up to it. His music, unlike Puccini's lacks punch.

A great opera on the whole, beforementioned dramaturgical shortcomings notwithstanding (plus blatant racism) but a rather awful performance.

[Florestan]

Reporting back from yesterday's Turandot. Highly mixed feelings, leaning towards negative.

For starters, another anxiety attack at opera! What else is new?  Thankfully it only lasted for roughly first 20 minutes of the opera.

The singer of Calaf was, at least vocally, awful. His sound constantly kept drowning under the orchestra sound. Turandot's singer was better but not brilliant, the same goes for Liú. These two were the strongest ones (unless one counts the chorus as a character which was decent). Timur didn't make much of an impression. Ping Pang and Pong acted well enough but unfortunately I found their voices rather bland. I was disappointed by conducting of Hannu Lintu and his orchestra which is sad since he was well with Die Walküre and is going to conduct Siegfried in March to where I have tickets also. The orchestra messed up almost all the greatest parts.

General comments about the opera: Is it just me or are those riddles presented by Turandot ridiculously easy? Are we really supposed to believe that according to P-trio countless suitors have already lost their heads to these juvenile enigmas?

Another comment: Calaf and Turandot are jerkasses. Calaf has an unhealthy, all-consuming obsession with Turandot which leads him, among other things, into maliciously gloating in act 3 how the entire city will perish if they won't find out his name. Granted, if Calaf told his name, HE would die but that gloating still seems unecessarily nasty.

Oh, and I see why Puccini found it impossible to compose Turandot's last scene. Making Turandot suddenly change her ways and expecting Calaf to be considered worthy of sympathy after continuing with his obsession even after Liü's death was an impossible task and certainly Alfano was not up to it. His music, unlike Puccini's lacks punch.

A great opera on the whole, beforementioned dramaturgical shortcomings notwithstanding (plus blatant racism) but a rather awful performance.

But such glorious music...

[Ganondorf]

But such glorious music...

Agreed. 

[Florestan]

Agreed. 

I am a Prima la musica, poi le parole guy. The only operas I know in which there is a clear and obvious connection between music and libretto all throughout are Mozart's and Carmen. In all others, suspension of belief is required, either partially or wholly --- Wagner's musical dramas being amongst the worst culprits. I mean, a guy who has just been stabbed to death singing for half an hour, give me a break! 

Plus, Wagner is doubly at fault: stupid libretto and boring music. Ughhh... 

[ritter]

I am a Prima la musica, poi le parole guy. The only operas I know in which there is a clear and obvious connection between music and libretto all throughout are Mozart's and Carmen . In all others, suspension of belief is required, either partially or wholly --- Wagner's musical dramas being amongst the worst culprits. I mean, a guy who has just been stabbed to death singing for half an hour, give me a break! 

Plus, Wagner is doubly at fault: stupid libretto and boring music. Ughhh... 

O ciel, che noia!   

Good evening, Andrei!

[Florestan]

Good evening, Andrei!

'evening, Rafael!

[Ganondorf]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For what it's worth, some major writers have acknowledged Wagner's literary talents.

"It has always seemed to me absurd to question Wagner's poetic gifts." - Thomas Mann

[Florestan]

I guess we'll have to agree to disagree. For what it's worth, some major writers have acknowledged Wagner's literary talents.

"It has always seemed to me absurd to question Wagner's poetic gifts." - Thomas Mann

I will counter this with Schopenhauer, of all people. He penned very acid and bitter remarks on Wagner's libretto for the Ring Tetralogy, going so far as to label him "the deaf musician", and he vastly preferred Mozart and Rossini to Wagner.

https://www.wagnersite.nl/Schopenhauer/Arthur.htm

[Mapman]

I'll also see Lutoslawski's Concerto for Orchestra soon, as my university's orchestra will perform it. That concert in Dallas sounds fun!

I just went to that concert, and it was a good performance. They also played a short work by a student composer, and a saxophone concerto written last year.

[LKB]

So yesterday, l purchased my ticket for the Vienna Philharmonic's performance of Bruckner's Eighth next month, with Thielemann on the podium.

Assuming Thielemann doesn't drive me crazy, l expect to enjoy it hugely. 

[brewski]

So yesterday, l purchased my ticket for the Vienna Philharmonic's performance of Bruckner's Eighth next month, with Thielemann on the podium.

Assuming Thielemann doesn't drive me crazy, l expect to enjoy it hugely. 

ENVIOUSSSSS! Do report back, if you are inclined.

-Bruce

[LKB]

I wish all of my friends here could join me, truly. 

And yes, I'll most assuredly report back.

[brewski]

Next Saturday, Feb. 11, Daniel Harding and the Berlin Philharmonic in this excellent program on the orchestra's digital concert hall. (PS, you can try out the service free for a week. If you've never dipped in, the Berlin crew do outstanding technical work on these broadcasts.)

https://www.digitalconcerthall.com/en/concert/54501

Sibelius: The Oceanides
Ligeti: Lontano
Britten: Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes
Ligeti: Atmosphères
Debussy: La Mer

-Bruce

What a fantastic concert. Apparently Harding stepped in relatively late, after Petrenko bowed out after injuring his foot. But the program remained the same. Harding had never conducted the Sibelius, although during an intermission interview he said he had actually played it in school as a teenager. (Rhetorical query: what school orchestra programs The Oceanides? )

In any case, everything was a joy, especially the two Ligeti works. Highly recommended, and for $20 for a month of the Digital Concert Hall, a bargain.

-Bruce

[ritter]

After having been on their waiting list for several weeks (these concerts are free, but you have to sign up on their web, and many people seem to be ready to apply for tickets as soon as they are made available —regardless of the repertoire and performers  ), the BBVA Foundation just awarded me two tickets for the concert tomorrow evening of the PluralEnsemble under Fabián Panisello performing a gorgeous programme: Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet, Berceuses du chat, and Three Songs from Shakespeare, and (in the second half) Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître  . The alto soloist is Hillary Summers (who performed and recorded Le Marteau under the composer repeatedly).

Fabián Panisello is an Argentinian-Spanish composer-conductor, whose music I find to be a continuation of the "classic" avant-garde (he studied with, among others, Elliott Carter, Peter Eötvös and Luis de Pablo) and I enjoy very much. He founded the PluralEnsemble, which specialises in modern and avant-garde (i.e., more or less from Schoenberg to the present) and is very accomplished. Their concerts in Madrid, though, are rather "select" affairs, as they're sponsored by the aforementioned BBVA Foundation and held in the not too large covered inner courtyard of their HQ, the sumptuous Palacio del Marqués de Salamanca in downtown Madrid.

[Karl Henning]

After having been on their waiting list for several weeks (these concerts are free, but you have to sign up on their web, and many people seem to be ready to apply for tickets as soon as they are made available —regardless of the repertoire and performers  ), the BBVA Foundation just awarded me two tickets for the concert tomorrow evening of the PluralEnsemble under Fabián Panisello performing a gorgeous programme: Stravinsky's Three Pieces for Clarinet, Berceuses du chat, and Three Songs from Shakespeare, and (in the second half) Boulez's Le Marteau sans maître  . The alto soloist is Hillary Summers (who performed and recorded Le Marteau under the composer repeatedly).

Fabián Panisello is an Argentinian-Spanish composer-conductor, whose music I find to be a continuation of the "classic" avant-garde (he studied with, among others, Elliott Carter, Peter Eötvös and Luis de Pablo) and I enjoy very much. He founded the PluralEnsemble, which specialises in modern and avant-garde (i.e., more or less from Schoenberg to the present) and is very accomplished. Their concerts in Madrid, though, are rather "select" affairs, as they're sponsored by the aforementioned BBVA Foundation and held in the not too large covered inner courtyard of their HQ, the sumptuous Palacio del Marqués de Salamanca in downtown Madrid.

Fabulous!

[brewski]

Tomorrow night, Cuarteto Casals from Madrid, part of the incredible Philadelphia Chamber Music Society season. (Alas, no livestream.)

Haydn: Quartet in E-flat Major, Op. 20, No. 1
Ligeti: Quartet No. 1, Métamorphoses nocturnes
Beethoven: Quartet in E Minor, Op. 59, No. 2

-Bruce

[ritter]

Well, what can I say, the concert last night was superb.

Fabian Panisello made a short, rather technical but impassioned and enthusiastic introduction of the works that were going to be performed, and then we got clarinettist Antonio Rapaz playing Stravinsky's Three Pieces most engagingly. Then came the Three Songs form William Shakespeare, little gems from the composer's "transitional" (towards serialism, that is) period, followed by the Berceuses du chat from the "Swiss period", with their wonderful accompaniment of three clarinets (despite their brevity, IMHO one of Igor Fedorovich's great achievements of the WW1 years).

And then, Le Marteau san maître! Like all music, I suppose, hearing this live is a far superior experience than on record, familiar as one may be with a work. In this case, the interplay between the six instrumentalists is more "logical" when the visual element is present and the flute and alto duet that is « L'Artisanat furieux » has an almost theatrical element to it. The performance by the PluralEnsemble was very convincing, with some (not necessarily unwelcome) rough edges here and there, and Panisello clearly was delighted to be preforming this landmark composition. Of the Instrumentalists, flautist Lope Morales should be singled out because of his top-notch contribution (I wa struck yesterday by how well Boulez wrote for the flute -- he must have loved the instrument). And Hilary Summers' rich but very focused alto voice was wonderful in all three works she participated in.

I love Le Marteau from the first note to the last, but really the last movement, « Bel édifice et les pressentiments » – double, is one of its composer's geratest moments, and a high point of music from any period. The way the vocal line dissolves into humming (here Ms. Summers sang seated, so as to physically "disappear" as well) and then the melodic line is taken over by the flute, with interjections from the percussion and other instruments, is mesmerising (Panisello described it as a "representation of the ultimate dehumanisation of art").

[brewski]

I love Le Marteau from the first note to the last, but really the last movement, « Bel édifice et les pressentiments » – double, is one of its composer's geratest moments, and a high point of music from any period. The way the vocal line dissolves into humming (here Ms. Summers sang seated, so as to physically "disappear" as well) and then the melodic line is taken over by the flute, with interjections from the percussion and other instruments, is mesmerising (Panisello described it as a "representation of the ultimate dehumanisation of art").

Loved your entire summation, but especially this paragraph. Would have liked to be in the audience, for sure. Thank you for this report on what sounds like a really memorable concert.

-Bruce