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

[Tancata]

 

Just had to give vent to my excitement!

One of my friends who lives in Edinburgh is putting on a show at the (Fringe) festival this year. He rings me up offering free accommodation for a week or so on the condition I go to the performance!

I check the mouth-watering program and tickets are still available for lots of stuff, so I book myself into:

Monteverdi - L'Orfeo / Jordi Savall  - fully staged version (looks like the same production as on Savall's DVD) including some great singers: Montserrat Figueras, Furio Zanasi, Arianna Savall and Antonio Abete!!!

Mark Padmore  - Bach Cantatas and Arias 0:)

and

Monteverdi - Madrigals from Book 6 / Rinaldo Alessandrini 

This all fell into place within the space of 30 minutes! Tickets were not expensive, and travel won't be too bad because I'm going to be in England just beforehand so I can probably catch a train...

For someone who spends most of his time in Dublin, which is about as provincial as it gets where Early Music and Opera are concerned...Jordi Savall, Mark Padmore and Rinaldo Alessandrini over the space of three days is pretty exciting (and I'm sure my mate's production will be excellent too!!!).

Is there anything outstanding I missed in the 11th-16th August period? 

[Bogey]

Penderecki - Concerto Grosso for 3 cellos and orchestra
Shostakovich - Symphony #15
(this is going to be wildly popular with the bald and blue-hairs  )

Sarge

You might as well give them a call now and find out what the replacement program is going to be Sarge. 

[Sergeant Rock]

They'll be able to tap along with the Rossini quotations, eh?

Yeah, and I'm thinking that since this is a German audience, they should recognize the Wagner quotes too. But I worry...at their age it'll probably just really confuse them.

Sarge

[Sergeant Rock]

You might as well give them a call now and find out what the replacement program is going to be Sarge. 

That's what I'm thinking, Bogey. When the governing body see the alarming decline in new subscriptions, and cancellations of long-standing ones, we'll probably end up getting the Schumann PC and Beethoven Fifth instead.

Sarge

[bhodges]

That's what I'm thinking, Bogey. When the governing body see the alarming decline in new subscriptions, and cancellations of long-standing ones, we'll probably end up getting the Schumann PC and Beethoven Fifth instead.

Sarge

I'd be happy to sign some kind of petition. 

--Bruce

[Sergeant Rock]

I'd be happy to sign some kind of petition. 

--Bruce

Thanks, Bruce. I may have to start one. I'm not kidding. The crowd that attends the DSPR-P concerts abhors anything newer than Brahms. I'm amazed Rasilainen has programmed the Berg VC again. Three years ago fully half the audience refused to clap, not even a polite, acknowledgment that Zimmerman had performed it brilliantly. We were sitting to the side and could see backstage. The violinist did not want to come back out and Rasilainen actually pushed him out. You know when the soloist reappears, the ovation usually builds back up, a crescendo. This was a diminuendo. It actually got quieter, much quieter. Quite embarrassing.

When Sallinen's Shadows was performed, Rasilainen had a struggle of wills with part of the audience. The applause was tepid and a large part of the audience wasn't clapping. He refused to leave the stage and kept pointing at parts of the auditorium that were sitting on their hands. He stared at them, pointed at them, and made clapping motions, then waved his hand back towards the orchestra, asking the audience to at least applaud the skill of the players. The standoff went on for quite some time. He was obviously pissed.

It's a weird crowd. Shadows is not a difficult, ugly, dissonant piece of music. It's quite user friendly with an interesting orchestration, including a piano that makes some great noises. The work has some gorgeous, fullblown romantic melodies. With even a little effort, it's an easy piece to enjoy. Oh well...at least I appreciated it.

Sarge

[bhodges]

When Sallinen's Shadows was performed, Rasilainen had a struggle of wills with part of the audience. The applause was tepid and a large part of the audience wasn't clapping. He refused to leave the stage and kept pointing at parts of the auditorium that were sitting on their hands. He stared at them, pointed at them, and made clapping motions, then waved his hand back towards the orchestra, asking the audience to at least applaud the skill of the players. The standoff went on for quite some time. He was obviously pissed.

That is an amazing story; I have never seen anything like that here in New York.  (Not that it hasn't happened, of course.)  If anything, the applause will be polite rather than frenzied, but I've never seen an instance of little or no applause. 

I have a CD of the Sallinen (on Finlandia), and although it's a sober piece, I totally agree: it's hardly "difficult" to listen to.  (I have never heard it live, nor have I even seen it programmed here.)  But the real shocker is probably the reaction to the Berg -- and with Zimmerman, no less!   

--Bruce

[MishaK]

Makes you wonder why they even bother showing up. It's not like they wouldn't know what they're getting themselves into.

[Bogey]

Makes you wonder why they even bother showing up. It's not like they wouldn't know what they're getting themselves into.

Modernist martyrs they are!

[Novi]

Hey, I'm going to l'Orfeo and the Padmore recital too 0:).

Should get together for a post-concert drink .

[Maciek]

Upon Tancata's request, I've merged one of his topics with this one. You can now find his original post here (that's 10 posts above). Novitate's post right above mine was orginally a reply right after Tancata's post. Sorry for the commotion...

[Solitary Wanderer]

Off to see this production of Lucia di Lammermoor next Thursday 

I'll be learning it over the next week or so with this recorded version:



I've also bought this to watch over the weekend:



Doing my homework

[bhodges]

Friday night I'm going to hear a brand-new group called Riot, a trio with saxophone, guitar and accordion.  (I know, I know...just how did they arrive at this instrumentation?)

They have a cool (if minimal) website, and the players are among the best in New York.  Of the five composers listed, I've heard music by Richard Carrick (director of the Either/Or Festival) but none of the others. 

As usual, highly eager to hear what this group has uncovered.

--Bruce

[karlhenning]

Friday night I'm going to hear a brand-new group called Riot, a trio with saxophone, guitar and accordion.

The Birth of Death-Metal Polka

[bhodges]

The Birth of Death-Metal Polka

Could very well be!   

--Bruce

[toledobass]

Friday night I'm going to hear a brand-new group called Riot, a trio with saxophone, guitar and accordion.  (I know, I know...just how did they arrive at this instrumentation?)

That spring spent in Paris?

Allan

[bhodges]

And next week, Sō Percussion and Matmos are doing two nights as part of the Lincoln Center Festival.  I've heard Sō Percussion in some great concerts of Steve Reich, David Lang and others, and heard the two guys who are Matmos when they opened for Björk a few years ago.  The concerts next week are an hour long, with no intermission.  I may go to both nights, since the guest artists are different: harpist Zeena Parkins on the 20th, and Dave Douglas on trumpet on the 21st.

--Bruce

[Solitary Wanderer]

Next Friday 20th July I'm off to this:

NZSO

MENDELSSOHN Violin Concerto
SIBELIUS En Saga
SIBELIUS Symphony No 5

FEATURED ARTISTS
PIETARI INKINEN Conductor
LEILA JOSEFOWICZ Violin

PERFORMANCE INFO
The Violin Concerto cost Mendelssohn more time than its effortless spontaneity would suggest. Sibelius's En Saga, a tone-poem without a programme, features inspired Sibelian national-Romanticism and his unerring mastery of the orchestra.  Repeated patterns (ostinati) abound, preparing us for the logic and taut organisation of the Fifth Symphony, with its sweeping power and energy.  Begun in the dark days of World War One, it was revised as the Russian Revolution was just about to embroil Finland in civil war.


Should be good

[bhodges]

Josefowicz is excellent.  I heard her a few years ago in John Adams' Road Movies, an entertaining work for violin and piano.  And with the two Sibelius pieces, sounds like you have another great evening to look forward to.  (And En Saga doesn't seem to be done all that much.)

--Bruce

[stingo]

She is indeed - seems to be an advocate for Adams' work as I heard her play Adams' Violin Concerto in Philadelphia...