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

[Cato]

TBH I don't remember.   And I don't keep old programmes any more.  But this review names him as Robert Dean Smith, and seems to find virtue in "the reedy spread of his Heldentenor tone", so I guess you weren't the only one to notice it!

Many thanks for that link!

Concerning actress Barbara Sukowa: I first heard her as the Sprecherin on the DGG CD from 1995 with Claudio Abbado and the Vienna Philharmonic.

Her interpretation was a shock back then, and some reviews claimed it ruined the entire work.  Certainly if one knows the 1980's performance with the amazing Hans Hotter on London/Decca with Riccardo Chailly conducting, Brigitte Fassbaender absolutely the best "Wood-Dove" ever, and also featuring Siegfried Jerusalem, Sukowa's interpretation seems ironically (and perhaps unintentionally?) comical.

But she has found a role which she has performed many times now, so...some people must like it!

 

[brewski]

Last Saturday we attended a Mahler VIII concert at the Cincinnati May Festival.

It was the 150th Anniversary of the festival, and they wanted a BIG work to celebrate it.

Of interest was the presence of the great James Conlon as the conductor: he was asked to "pinch-hit" for Juanjo Mena, who had to cancel at the last minute. 

I listened online—spectacular! And how lucky you are to have been there. (Didn't really need the Handel encore, but I gather it's a festival tradition.) Anyway, the broadcast confirmed all your comments. Excellent soloists, too. I hope they will post the recording for a few days; it would be nice to revisit.

-Bruce

[Cato]

I listened online—spectacular! And how lucky you are to have been there. (Didn't really need the Handel encore, but I gather it's a festival tradition.) Anyway, the broadcast confirmed all your comments. Excellent soloists, too. I hope they will post the recording for a few days; it would be nice to revisit.

-Bruce

Great to know that you were there via the miracle of modern technology! 

I should mention the Tenor: Barry Banks.  He must be about 4' 10," but do not judge his abilities by his height!  His voice is full and he had no problems projecting over the forces around him!  Excellent performance!

Here he is with a baritone named Stephen Powell:

[Karl Henning]

Last Saturday we attended a Mahler VIII concert at the Cincinnati May Festival.

It was the 150th Anniversary of the festival, and they wanted a BIG work to celebrate it.

Of interest was the presence of the great James Conlon as the conductor: he was asked to "pinch-hit" for Juanjo Mena, who had to cancel at the last minute. 

James Conlon had been the festival's director for 36 years, so when he appeared, the applause was more than grateful.

The performance was incredible: the clarity of the lines was brought out, the singers were not overwhelmed by the choruses of nearly 400 people, the extra brass in the balcony (I was able to talk with some of them: graduate students from local universities e.g. Cincinnati Conservatory of Music and the University of Kentucky), and the children's choir - also in the balcony - were extremely good.

The audience nearly gave a standing ovation after the First Movement!  And after the final bars, with that leaping major ninth in the trumpets, there was an instant roaring standing ovation which went on for ten minutes.

And there was a sing-along encore: Handel's Hallelujah Chorus!

Of interest was Mrs. Cato's opinion on whether she preferred this over Schoenberg's Gurrelieder, which we had heard in London with the Philharmonia Orchestra and Esa Pekka Salonen.

She chose Schoenberg!  For her, the dramatic story in the Gurrelieder and the music in general seemed more attractive.  To be sure, the Mahler Eighth experience was quite fine, but the Gurrelieder was better.

I would say it was a tie! 

Magnificent!

[brewski]

In two weeks at Verizon Hall, this interesting organ recital, by an artist new to me:

Peter Richard Conte Organ

Guilmant Paraphrase on a Chorus from Judas Maccabeus by Handel
(Various) Three Preludes on Plainsong Hymns
Karg-Elert Improvisation on "Näher, mein Gott, zu Dir!"
Britten Prelude and Fugue on a Theme of Vittoria
Elgar First movement from Organ Sonata
Elmore "Night Song"
Barber To Longwood Gardens
R. Strauss "Moonlight Music," from Capriccio
Bizet Carmen Fantasy

-Bruce

[brewski]

Tonight, Vasily Petrenko conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra in Shostakovich Symphony No.8.

Just read a review of that concert, and am very envious! Hqaven't heard the Eighth live in a very long time.

Tonight:

Minnesota Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Grace Roepke, harp [principal, Louisville Orchestra]
Kodály Concerto for Orchestra
Ginastera Harp Concerto
Kodály Dances of Galánta
Tchaikovsky Capriccio italien

Listen live here at 9:00 pm EDT.

-Bruce

[Brian]

Last night, a free pops concert in a local park. We brought a picnic basket full of goodies and a blanket, watched people's dogs, and mostly/intermittently were able to hear the music 

Dallas Symphony Orchestra (with some substitutes and fill-ins)
Maurice Cohn, conductor

Gabriela Lena Frank | Jungle Jaunt, from Three Latin American Dances
Arturo Márquez | Conga del Fuego Nuevo
Duke Ellington (arr. Morton Gould) | Solitude
Glinka | Ruslan and Ludmila overture
Strauss | Die Fledermaus overture
Giacchino | Music from "Coco"
Williams | Music from "Star Wars"

Márquez writes nothing but hits and if American orchestras want to attract new audiences to the hall, his music should be at the forefront of that effort. The big miss of the night was the soupy, gloopy arrangement of Solitude; when we got home I put on one of the Duke's own recordings to show the Ms. what the music is supposed to sound like. We live in an 80% Latino neighborhood so "Coco" and Márquez especially got big applause.

[Brian]

Does anybody have any experience with Donald Runnicles conducting Sibelius? Any adjectives or tendencies you would describe his style with? He's doing an all Sibelius program next year in Dallas (En saga, Violin concerto, 5), and the works combination could be a really amazing concert if done right, but if done poorly it would really be a depressing slog.

(I had to sit through a miserable Sibelius 2 last year where the conductor couldn't hold a tempo to save his life. Sibelius really lives and dies on strong conducting...)

[brewski]

Márquez writes nothing but hits and if American orchestras want to attract new audiences to the hall, his music should be at the forefront of that effort. The big miss of the night was the soupy, gloopy arrangement of Solitude; when we got home I put on one of the Duke's own recordings to show the Ms. what the music is supposed to sound like. We live in an 80% Latino neighborhood so "Coco" and Márquez especially got big applause.

Dudamel has been a big advocate for Márquez, and I hope this means more of his work when he takes the helm at the New York Philharmonic. (That whole concert sounds pretty entertaining, though.)

-Bruce

[Florestan]

Does anybody have any experience with Donald Runnicles conducting Sibelius? Any adjectives or tendencies you would describe his style with? He's doing an all Sibelius program next year in Dallas (En saga, Violin concerto, 5), and the works combination could be a really amazing concert if done right, but if done poorly it would really be a depressing slog.

(I had to sit through a miserable Sibelius 2 last year where the conductor couldn't hold a tempo to save his life. Sibelius really lives and dies on strong conducting...)

Go ahead, Brian, name the conductor, inquiring minds want to know!

[brewski]

It was fascinating to watch Petrenko at work - I've seen him before in other material, such as Vaughan Williams - which was fine ... if not terribly idiomatic.   This was the first time with Shostakovich - in which my go-to guy has lately been Jurowski, whose meticulous analytical approach combines with energy and expressiveness and is the antithesis of self-indulgence.  All of which Petrenko has too - but what he displayed above all was a fanatical control of dynamics that never let up for an instant, and created a sense of immense power held under pressure, just occasionally bursting through but always there even in the quietest passages - so intense, so unrelenting.   I doubt I will ever hear a better performance of the 8th.   (Shame they didn't record/broadcast it. )

I came away with the thought that I really had to hear what he did with the first movement of the 6th, so immediately bought the Naxos box set (of which I had just a couple of single discs.)

Petrenko is now my go-to guy in Shostakovich, no question about it (though Vlad retains top spot in my partner's affections. )

Thanks so much for all the detailed comments, and loved your description of the dynamics control. Some people who don't like Shostakovich seem to view his symphonies as too loud or blaring, and there are plenty of moments of eerie quietude that prove otherwise.

Hoping a future reading will be recorded.

-Bruce

[Brian]

Today, I get to sit in on a cool live performance experience. EarShot New Composer Readings is a partnership with the American Composers Orchestra where young composers get their short works performed by an orchestra, then receive masterclass-style commentary and tutoring from a panel of older expert composers.

The Dallas Symphony will be playing:

Moni (Jasmine) Guo | Rays of the After-rain Evening Sun
Diallo Banks | Chute Libre
Ricardo Ferro | '17-North
Iván Enrique Rodríguez | Symphony No. 2: Naa Okùnkùn ti Òkúnta Dídán

and then there will be critique/commentary from:

Quinn Mason
Jimmy López Bellido
Xi Wang

[brewski]

Tonight, the first in a series of livestreams from the Bowdoin International Music Festival in Maine. As in past years, these are free, and generally of outstanding quality.

Kodály: Serenade, Op. 12
Ayano Ninomiya, Peter Winograd, violin • Dimitri Murrath, viola

Schulhoff: Concertino 
Linda Chesis, flute • Phillip Ying, viola • Jeremy McCoy, bass

Schubert: Piano Trio No. 1 in B-flat Major, Op.99
Peter Winograd, violin • Steven Doane, cello • Pei-Shan Lee, piano

https://www.bowdoinfestival.org/event/kodaly-schulhoff-ravel/
https://www.bowdoinfestival.org/festivalive/

-Bruce

[Nunc Dimittis]

Just read a review of that concert, and am very envious! Hqaven't heard the Eighth live in a very long time.

Tonight:

Minnesota Orchestra
Miguel Harth-Bedoya, conductor
Grace Roepke, harp [principal, Louisville Orchestra]
Kodály Concerto for Orchestra
Ginastera Harp Concerto
Kodály Dances of Galánta
Tchaikovsky Capriccio italien

Listen live here at 9:00 pm EDT.

-Bruce

Wow, Ginastera's Harp Concerto and Kodaly's Concerto for Orchestra on the same program. Sorry to have missed it.  Would have considered traveling to see that.  On another recent thread almost put Kodaly's Concerto for Orchestra on my bucket list of live performances to see.

[brewski]

Wow, Ginastera's Harp Concerto and Kodaly's Concerto for Orchestra on the same program. Sorry to have missed it.  Would have considered traveling to see that.  On another recent thread almost put Kodaly's Concerto for Orchestra on my bucket list of live performances to see.

It was an excellent concert, and you don't see either of those programmed that often—much less on the same concert! I just checked to see if perhaps they had archived the broadcast, but doesn't appear to be available at the moment.

-Bruce

[Archaic Torso of Apollo]

Yay, Ravinia is open! I'm cheating this thread, since this concert happened last night, so I'm no longer "looking forward" to it:

Jorge Federico Osorio, pianist

Ludwig van Beethoven:       Piano Sonata No. 30 
Johannes Brahms:       Variations and Fugue on a Theme by Handel
Johannes Brahms:       Four Ballades
Ludwig van Beethoven:       Piano Sonata No. 32

Yeah, it was some heavy-duty solo pianism. I'd never heard any of these live, and was particularly looking forward to LvB Op. 111, which was as mesmerizing as I expected it to be. Osorio was excellent throughout, though I have to admit I was left with the impression that the Brahms/Handel thing is somewhat overlong.

In sum, a very nice concert to start the season, and distract us from the smoky air outside.

[brewski]

This Sunday, the first of the season's livestreams (all free) from Aspen. Also looking forward to July 16, when Augustin Hadelich will perform a new violin concerto from Donnacha Dennehy.

Aspen Festival Orchestra
Robert Spano, conductor
Daniil Trifonov, piano

Brian Raphael Nabors: Of Earth and Sky: Tales from the Motherland
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F major
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

https://www.aspenmusicfestival.com/events/calendar/livestream-aspen-festival-orchestra-2/

-Bruce

[brewski]

Tonight, another concert from the Bowdoin International Music Festival:

Bloch: Baal Shem Suite
Ani Schnarch, violin • Tao Lin, piano

Schmitt: Suite en Rocaille, Op. 84
Linda Chesis, flute • Kurt Sassmannshaus, violin • Natalie Brennecke, viola • Jeffrey Zeigler, cello • June Han, harp

John Tartaglia (1932–2018): Fantasia on Themes of Marais 
Dimitri Murrrath, viola • Jeremy McCoy, bass

R. Strauss: Sonata for Violin and Piano in E-flat Major, Op. 18 
Ayano Ninomiya, violin • Pei-Shan Lee, piano

Concert starts at 7:30 pm (EDT), here.

-Bruce

[Nunc Dimittis]

Last night attended a concert in Lenexa, KS, with a community orchestra. They did Carlos Chavez's Sym. no. 4 and Hanson's Sym. no. 2.  It was free.  Went because of the Chavez, as it is rarely performed. 

[brewski]

Last night attended a concert in Lenexa, KS, with a community orchestra. They did Carlos Chavez's Sym. no. 4 and Hanson's Sym. no. 2.  It was free.  Went because of the Chavez, as it is rarely performed. 

How totally cool, that Chavez and Hanson were performed in a small town in Kansas. Found the concert, and note that there are two more this summer. For a community orchestra, this is pretty impressive programming. I mean, Christopher Theofanidis? Well done.

https://www.lenexa.com/government/departments___divisions/parks___recreation/festivals_events/community_orchestra

-Bruce