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

[brewski]

Earlier this week my friends presented me with two SFS tickets for June 22nd.

They'll be travelling, so I'll grab my friend from last year's VPO concert and enjoy the Schumann Piano Concerto in A Minor and ( drumroll... ) Bruckner's Fourth.

I've already forgotten the scheduled pianist, but Esa-Pekka Salonen will conduct.

Yes, yes, yes!

-Bruce

[LKB]

Wow. "...trying to keep in touch with his soloist's increasingly unpredictable playing." I heard Pogorelich a few times years ago, early in his career, and he was idiosyncratic, but this sounds disastrous. I'm all for musicians (and artists in general) breaking rules and stretching boundaries, but if you're in a collaborative situation—in this case, working with scores of other artists and a conductor—it seems like working with them is the right thing to do.

Thanks, a most interesting (and short!) review.

-Bruce

Perhaps there are still humans on the planet who've yet to encounter the Gould-Bernstein experience:

https://youtu.be/zuxPKikM0NI?si=ImoB5blkerov1Uyc

[brewski]

Perhaps there are still humans on the planet who've yet to encounter the Gould-Bernstein experience:

https://youtu.be/zuxPKikM0NI?si=ImoB5blkerov1Uyc

Haha, thanks, I am one of those! Though I have read reports OF this concert, I have never heard the actual performance, so thank you. This will make an interesting listen over the weekend.

-Bruce

[brewski]

In a few hours, more Shostakovich! Also looking forward to the Britten, which I played in high school. (It will likely sound a bit different here.      )

The Philadelphia Orchestra
Tugan Sokhiev Conductor

Gabrieli Canzon septimi toni, No. 2, from Sacrae symphoniae
Britten Simple Symphony
Shostakovich Symphony No. 4

-Bruce

Another knockout in my unofficial Shostakovich-fest the past few weeks, between the 9th String Quartet, Lady Macbeth of Mtsensk, Symphony No. 11, and now this magnificent Fourth.

The Philadelphia players were on fire yesterday. Standouts among curtain calls for many soloists: Jeffrey Curnow on trumpet, bassoonist Daniel Matsukawa, concertmaster David Kim, and the two timpanists, Don Liuzzi and Angela Zator Nelson—among a seriously strong percussion section. Kudos, too, to Kiyoko Takeuti on celesta, whose final lingering notes left an incredible 20 seconds of silence in their wake, before the cheers began.

If I weren't going to hear Xenakis tonight, I'd return for round 2, but perhaps a single hearing serves the memory best.

-Bruce

[DavidW]

Tonight I will see the local orchestra perform Haydn's oboe concerto and Tchaikovsky's 6th symphony!  I'm excited!

[DavidW]

I'm sad to say I missed it.  It was yesterday.  I don't know how I forgot that the concerts are always on Monday.    And I had the ticket with the date on it.

[Brian]

I'm sad to say I missed it.  It was yesterday.  I don't know how I forgot that the concerts are always on Monday.    And I had the ticket with the date on it.

Nooooooo! In fairness to you, Monday is a weird night for concerts. Are all the musicians moonlighting as bartenders on weekends? 

I once showed up to a concert in Colmar, France, at their summer chamber music festival, to see the Quatuor Talich do Schubert's string quintet. I posted in advance of the concert but never told anyone here the shameful truth...which was that I arrived, the ticket scanner rejected me, and a French usher pointed out to me that I had bought a ticket to the previous night's concert. Luckily they had not sold out so I bought another one...   

[Bachtoven]

Víkingur Ólafsson playing Bach's Goldberg Variations May 4th in Berkeley, CA. I absolutely love his new recording of it, and he got a rave review of his recent performance of it in Carnegie Hall by the NYT.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

I'm sad to say I missed it.  It was yesterday.  I don't know how I forgot that the concerts are always on Monday.   And I had the ticket with the date on it.

Augh!  One suggestion for you and others here like @Brian (who was very kind and generous to share his story too), I use my computer's calendar app (which is also linked to my cell phone) to remind me of things like appointments, bills to pay, but also social events too.  I send myself alerts (perhaps too many at times)...you can decide how far in advance (like days, weeks, hours, at time of travel, etc.).  No system is perfect, but I've found this to be very helpful! 

PD

[Iota]

Víkingur Ólafsson playing Bach's Goldberg Variations May 4th in Berkeley, CA. I absolutely love his new recording of it, and he got a rave review of his recent performance of it in Carnegie Hall by the NYT.

Great! I feel similarly about his recording of them.

[brewski]

Víkingur Ólafsson playing Bach's Goldberg Variations May 4th in Berkeley, CA. I absolutely love his new recording of it, and he got a rave review of his recent performance of it in Carnegie Hall by the NYT.

Friends who saw him in Philadelphia felt similarly, and couldn't stop talking about the performance. If I hadn't already committed to another concert, I might have joined them. Anyway, hope you have a great time.

-Bruce

[brewski]

On Thursday at 8:00 pm, from Roulette in New York, violinist Austin Wulliman of the JACK Quartet makes his debut as a composer in selections from his new album, The News From Utopia. The livestream is free and will be archived.

SYSTEM NOTES (2023) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics
BLINK (2022) – World Premiere for string quartet, electric guitar and electronics
Down Pat (2023) – US Premiere for electric guitar and electronics -Alec Goldfarb, guitar
The Late Edition (2023) – World Premiere for string quartet
Lost One (2024) — World Premiere for string quartet
The Docks (2022) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics
como se vive (ii) (2023) — World Premiere for string quartet and electronics
The News From Utopia (ii) (2024) – World Premiere for string quartet and electronics

Austin Wulliman violin
Alec Goldfarb guitar
JACK Quartet:
Christopher Otto violin
John Pickford Richards viola
Jay Campbell cello

-Bruce

[DavidW]

Augh!  One suggestion for you and others here like @Brian (who was very kind and generous to share his story too), I use my computer's calendar app (which is also linked to my cell phone) to remind me of things like appointments, bills to pay, but also social events too.  I send myself alerts (perhaps too many at times)...you can decide how far in advance (like days, weeks, hours, at time of travel, etc.).  No system is perfect, but I've found this to be very helpful! 

PD

Yes I usually do that but forgot with this concert.

[Pohjolas Daughter]

Yes I usually do that but forgot with this concert.

Dang!   

PD

[brewski]

After reading the rave by @Brian in D Magazine, I will be tuning in to Elektra on Saturday night, livestreamed from the Dallas Opera. (For $10, it's a good deal, not to mention, cheaper than a plane ticket.)

-Bruce

[Iota]

I'm sad to say I missed it.  It was yesterday.  I don't know how I forgot that the concerts are always on Monday.   And I had the ticket with the date on it.

I committed a major blooper once in that vein, I offer the weak excuse that I was in my early twenties and was out socialising almost every night back then, often late, but a friend and I who'd both never seen Horowitz, had tickets to see him at the RFH in what was almost certainly going to be his last UK performance (and was).
It was a matinee recital, and when I woke up on the day the phone was ringing, I picked it up and was greeted with said friend saying,' Where the hell are you?! He's about to start!'. I looked at the clock and saw I had indeed overslept by about four hours. I threw on some clothes, dashed to the tube with fairly high heart rate, and managed to get there just as the second half was beginning.
As weird/stupid as it might seem, once I'd settled down a bit, I wasn't as upset as I might have been. Most of the first half had been Scarlatti, who I was not that interested in back then, and I also felt that I wasn't seeing Horowitz at the height of his powers, I just wanted to see/hear him in person, experience his aura, the magical sound of his playing, and I got to do all those things and was truly wowed. He seemed practically a superhuman to me in my teens, and just being in the same hall as him was enough to send me into a star-struck trance.

If anybody's interested it was the Royal Festival Hall, 1982, and here he is playing the Chopin Polonaise-Fantaisie which I *was* there to hear .. the charged atmosphere seems somewhat missing on the video, but it offers a glimpse of the occasion.

And the programme on Discogs.

https://www.discogs.com/release/4817323-Vladimir-Horowitz-The-1982-Royal-Festival-Hall-Recital

[Mapman]

Today at 3 PM (Eastern), I'll attend this in person. From the seat map, this will be very well-attended.

Alisa Weilerstein; Jader Bignamini: Detroit Symphony Orchestra

FELIX MENDELSSOHN: Overture to A Midsummer Night's Dream
EDWARD ELGAR: Cello Concerto in E minor, Op. 85
NIKOLAI RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade, Op. 35

The concert will be streamed here, in about 3.5 hours!
https://www.dso.org/watch/2835421

[brewski]

It's a few months away (in June) but I'm already looking forward to this livestream from Wigmore Hall.

Elias String Quartet
Heath Quartet

Mendelssohn
String Quartet No. 4 in E minor Op. 44 No. 2
String Quintet No. 1 in A Op. 18
Octet in E flat Op. 20

-Bruce

[brewski]

On Friday, March 1, at 2:00 pm (EST), two competing livestreams! Both are likely to be available later, so a last-minute decision may be in the cards.

NDR Elbphilharmonie Orchestra
Manfred Honeck, conductor
Samy Moussa: Elysium
Bruckner: Symphony No. 9

Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Alexander Malofeev, piano
Alain Altinoglu, conductor
Rachmaninoff: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
Shostakovich: Symphony No. 4

-Bruce

[brewski]

Adding to the flood, another stream on March 7. I don't know the first two works at all.

NDR Radiophilharmonie
Stanislav Kochanovsky, conductor
Frank Peter Zimmermann, violin

Tcherepnin: "La Princesse Lointaine" op. 4, Prelude to the play by Edmond Rostand
Respighi: Concerto Gregoriano for violin and orchestra
Rachmaninoff: Symphonic Dances op. 45

-Bruce