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

[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

[ultralinear]

More Poles tomorrow:

Weinberg String Quartet No.7 Op.59
Lutosławski String Quartet
Maliszewski  String Quintet in D minor Op.3

Silesian String Quartet
Mats Lidström cello

[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

[ultralinear]

Tonight Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in the first of two performances of Shostakovich Symphony No.4

[brewski]

Tonight Simon Rattle conducts the LSO in the first of two performances of Shostakovich Symphony No.4

Such an incredible piece. I heard it live with Philadelphia a few weeks ago, and you may have seen above that Frankfurt is doing it on Friday.

Have a great time, and feel free to report back.

-Bruce

[ultralinear]

Such an incredible piece. I heard it live with Philadelphia a few weeks ago, and you may have seen above that Frankfurt is doing it on Friday.

Have a great time, and feel free to report back.

-Bruce

There's no livestream that I can find, however the reminder email from the LSO contains a warning that cameras will be operating during the performance, and that if one has a problem with that then to let them know in advance.**  So quite possibly it will appear at some point in some form in some medium or other.

** What they would do about it, I really don't know - issue you with a Simon Rattle facemask, perhaps?

[brewski]

** What they would do about it, I really don't know - issue you with a Simon Rattle facemask, perhaps?

Haha, well, Halloween isn't that far away. 

(Thanks for that info, though, which means that they likely recorded it.)

-Bruce

[brewski]

Tonight, a last-minute ticket to the Hagen Quartet:

Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, Emperor
Bartók: Quartet No. 2
Beethoven: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132

-Bruce

[Irons]

A good celebration day lined up for next week - A lunchtime concert at Wigmore Hall with Alisa Weilerstein (cello) and Inon Barnatan (piano) performing the Britten and Brahms 2 cello sonatas. Followed by a visit to the Marquis pub in Covent Garden where vinyl records of 60's soul music are played including requests. Finished off with a Chinese meal in Soho.

[brewski]

Tonight, a last-minute ticket to the Hagen Quartet:

Haydn: Quartet in C Major, Op. 76, No. 3, Emperor
Bartók: Quartet No. 2
Beethoven: Quartet in A Minor, Op. 132

-Bruce

This was excellent, some minor intonation issues aside (especially in the Haydn). But my friend and I agreed that sometimes "digging in" to the music can have that as a casualty. In any case, a heavy-duty program, which later caused some hilarious references to the idea that "classical music is so relaxing!"

The Bartók was the high point, though the slow movement of the Beethoven was a close second.

So many great string quartets running around—meaning, ensembles. I don't think I'd ever heard the Hagen players live. The audience was as rapt as one could want, with very little coughing or other extraneous noise.

-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

Of the two competing livestreams yesterday from Frankfurt and Hamburg, the latter won, only because I hadn't heard the Bruckner 9 in awhile, and the Samy Moussa piece (Elysium) made an excellent companion for it. Plus, I am really falling in love with the Hamburg hall, which is now on my "to visit" list. At about 4:20 in the video above (still available), the cameras move from the ensemble to shots of the interior and exterior of the hall, which is just gorgeous, especially at sunset.

-Bruce