Thread: Latest concerts

Today's concert was I went on violin played enjoyed.

It began with Mozart's Prague symphony. It was lovely to refresh memory of my early milestone in classical listening. Harnoncourt's CD was my early symphonic love but I didn't listen to it in... years.

Then the tough stuff. Lutosławski's partita for violin and orchestra. No big deal. After that - encore. But how weird! Violinist (Roman Lasocki) showed his violin like he would want to say "stop applause, I'll play encore" but instead of it he talked like five minutes about Silesia being strong center of contemporary music and stuff. Then he introduced and played solo violin piece by no-idea-who but I'm waiting for review to appear so I will know what it was because it was nice.

Intermission

And then Szymanowski's 1st violin concerto by young, 21 years old violinist. Aaaaaaaaaawesome. Aaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaawesome. No, really. My first time haring it live and she had such beautiful tone and dress and stuff. I think I will post this performance in Szymanowski's thread after they will upload it.

^ who was the violinist?

Which one? This from weird talking - Roman Lasocki, as I already wrote, the latter, young one was Małgorzata Wasiucionek.

Last week I saw Lang Lang in Portland. It was great! he played Bach partitas, a Schubert Sonata and, the reason why I cam, Chopins 12 etudes (op 25). it was outstanding!! i loved his interpretations especially for the chopin etudes, except the last one which I thought he took too fast, but i'm biased seeing how my favorite recording of it is by maurizio pollini. he did three encores, a short rachmaninov song, some other one i didn't recognize (i think it might be one a chinese one) and chopins 5th etude from op 10. great concert!! up next is Turandot! the third opera of my season package

Just saw an AMAZING show featuring cellist David Eggert and percussionist Lev Loftus perform the following:

Bartok - Mikrokosmos III Dance in 3/4
J.S. Bach Suite No. 5 for Solo Cello in C minor Bwv 1011 (arr. for Marimba by Lev Loftus)
Xenakis- Kottos for Cello Solo

-Intermission-

Xenakis-Rebonds I for Solo Percussion
J.S. Bach - Suite no.6 for Solo Cello in D Bwv 1012
D. Deutsch- Perpetuum for Cello and Percussion
Bartok-Mikrokosmos III Two-Part Study

Wow, great stuff, and amazing performances. (the Xenakis stuff was...just wow )

Just went to an incredible concert last weekend. Baltimore Symphony Orchestra played Rachmaninoff's 2nd Piano Concerto (Featuring Yuja Wang as pianist) and Bruckner's 6th Symphony. Both were conducted by Juanjo Mena). It was my first listening of the Bruckner, and even though it was quite long, i thoroughly enjoyed its "grandiose" style. Yuja Wang did an absolutely phenomenal job with the Rachmaninoff, playing quite expressively. To those who say Yuja Wang is just a machine manufactured for perfect piano playing without emotion (similar to the pubic's opinions about many chinese pianists), you are quite wrong.

Went to this one on the weekend:
Christ Church St Laurence, Sydney
Organ recital by Elke Voelker
1892 Hill & Son Organ

Handel - Fireworks Music (trans. E. Power Biggs)
J. S. Bach - Air on the G string (trans. S. Karg-Elert); Fantasia & Fugue in G minor, BWV 1068
Brahms - Hungarian Dance No. 3 (trans. E. Voelker)
Mendelssohn - Prelude & Fugue in C minor, Op.37/1
Grieg - Anitra's Dance from Peer Gynt Suite (trans. E.H. Lemare)
Karg-Elert - Chorale-Improvisation "Nun danket alle Gott" Op. 65 No. 59
Vierne - (ii) Aria from Symphonie VI pour orgue Op. 59
Alain - Litanies

I enjoyed this recital by Elke Voelker, a leading German organist. I liked all of the items, especially the final two French ones. It was really interesting to hear transcriptions of well-known orchestral works...

Recital with Joyce Didonato at that Folly Theater, Kansas City Missouri

Her hometown on her birthday. These links explain it better than I could. If you can go to a recital on this touryou really should

http://www.joycedidonato.com/2011/02...recital-debut/

http://www.kansascity.com/2011/02/13...iva-joyce.html

http://kcmetropolis.org/issue/februa...ty-s-valentine

http://www.playbillarts.com/features/article/8519.html

http://www.kcindependent.com/2011/02...jewell-series/

http://newyork.timeout.com/music-nig...joyce-didonato

Last Night:

Mahlers 3rd symphony by the Berliner with Simon Rattle. The real highlight for me was a song by Hugo Wolf which I had never heard of before - Elfenlied!

Originally Posted by emiellucifuge

Last Night:

Mahlers 3rd symphony by the Berliner with Simon Rattle. The real highlight for me was a song by Hugo Wolf which I had never heard of before - Elfenlied!

I'm not gonna lie. Im frikkin' jealous right now.

I just got home from a performance of Mahler 1 by my university orchestra. Yes, I was in it, and yes, I reveled deeply the viola moment in the fourth movement. Absolutely one of the most exciting performances I've been in in a long time!

Originally Posted by World Violist

I just got home from a performance of Mahler 1 by my university orchestra. Yes, I was in it, and yes, I reveled deeply the viola moment in the fourth movement. Absolutely one of the most exciting performances I've been in in a long time!

Very cool. You just got to live out one of my musical dreams.

Went to this one on Sunday afternoon here in Sydney's northern suburbs:

Trioz "Vitebsk" tour

Kathryn Selby, piano
Natsuko Yoshimoto, violin (as guest)
Emma Jane Murphy, cello

Program:

Joseph Suk - Elegie for piano, violin & cello,Op. 23 (1902)
Aaron Copland - Vitebsk, study on a Jewish Theme,for piano trio
Claude Debussy - Piano Trio, L.3
Ludwig v. Beethoven - Piano Trio in B flat major, Op.97 "Archduke"

& this one at Sydney Conservatorium on Monday evening:

"Australian Portrait"

Michael Duke saxophone
David Howie piano

Program
Boyd - Ganba for baritone saxophone and piano *
Smetanin - If Stars Are Lit for alto saxophone and piano *
Hindson - Repetepetition for soprano saxophone and piano *
Zadro - X Suite for alto saxophone and piano #

* World premiere
# Australian premiere and 101 Compositions for 100 Years commission

I liked both of these recitals. A friend came along to the first one, and we both enjoyed it.

I like Trioz's recitals because they always include some things off the beaten track, as well as standard repertoire. We were familiar with the Debussy & Beethoven, but not the Suk or Copland. The Suk was a great opener, a quite dark and melancholic piece, dominated by the solo violin a bit. Debussy's only piano trio is from his younger years, but still has suggestions of those unique harmonies which would come later. It was first recorded only in 1984, and as the program notes show, it has a relaxed salon feel. Even the final movement marked appassionato doesn't take itself too seriously. The most surprising piece in the program was the Copland trio fragment. It had loud dissonant sections flanking some more lyrical melodic parts. Copland was influenced by Bloch in his use of Jewish sounding themes. This piece was written in 1929 and it used microtones and the two string players playing out of tune (deliberately) a bit like Ives before & Cage & Xenakis after. The ten minute piece really had a visceral impact on me. After the interval, we were treated to a superlative performance of the Beethoven "Archduke" trio, the king of piano trios. The playing was so good, it was of recording quality. I plan to go to more of Trioz's series this year, they are one of my favourite ensembles.

The saxophone-piano duos program at Sydney Conservatorium the following Monday evening was also excellent. All these pieces were very different from eachother (eg. using different kinds of saxes), but in common with the Copland above, the Smetanin & Zadro employed microtones. My favourite works on the program were the Boyd & Zadro, which were also the longest works. Boyd's work was based on her impressions of the Nullarbor Plain in South Australia, which is basically a desert. The work engaged with the history of that place, employing Aboriginal harmonies, sounds of the wind, and also briefly the clickety clack and whistle of the railway that goes through there. Sometimes the piano sounded like a brass instrument and the sax sounded like a piano. I liked the darkness of this piece, which mirrored how the Aboriginal people were driven out from the area by the building of the railway. They didn't know what it was, some of them thought it was some huge mythical beast. The piano part of Zadro's suite had a bit of the complexity of Carter, but the work sounded quite tonal despite some dissonances. The 8 movements were each miniature tone poems of different places or states of mind. I particularly liked "cauldron" which brought to mind the witche's dance in Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. Some interesting effects were used, such as blowing with the saxophone into the bowels of the grand piano to produce a creepy vibe and the saxophonist tapping the side of his instrument to make a percussive effect. I think that this work would benefit from the piano part becoming orchestrated. Even though I'm mainly a chamber fan it would be a lot of fun to hear this work as a saxophone concerto. The Smetanin and Hindson were short etudes. The Smetanin was a bit uncomfortable to hear, much dissonance and high pitched sounds from the sax. It was based on the spectral analysis of a recording made by the Russian poet Mayakovsky, about whom Smetanin has also written an opera. The Hindson was typical of his style - light, airy and full of vigorous dance rhythms. The music of Ross Edwards was an influence here, according to Hindson's notes. It was great to hear the music of living Australian composers of this calibre & three of them were present to acknowledge the applause. Before I went to the recital, I thought it would sound a bit like jazz because of the use of the solo saxes, but on the whole, it was very much classical...

Two days ago, on Saturday, I went on Ivo Pogorelić's recital, in Zagreb, Vatroslav Lisinski concert hall.
After eight years Pogorelić had a recital in his homeland, with the following program:

F.Chopin: Piano sonata op. 35, b-flat minor

F.Liszt: Mephisto waltz no. 1

F.Chopin: Nocturne c-minor op. 48 no. 1

F.Liszt: Piano sonata b-minor S. 178

This is first time I watched him live.I'm not sure whether I like his interpretation of this works, but I must say he is a true genius!
He can play whatever he wants, his abilities are wonderful, but he is, for me, a bit too free in his interpretation.I liked Chopin's sonata, it was very good, especially the last movement, he play it perfectly (a very short, yet exciting movement).
As for Mephisto waltz, I didn't like it, because Pogorelić (that's the correct spelling!) played it too rough and hard for my style.I had a feeling he is a very sad man, due to the mere program he played, very depressing pieces, without any joy.I suppose it has something to do with his sorrow for his deceased wife.

I am still very young, so I can't say a lot, but I am sure very glad to have seen such a great pianist live.It is a great experience for me, hopefully, a future pianist.

I am sorry if I made any grammar mistakes, my English is good, but not perfect!

I was at the Cincinnati Symphony the other night for a remarkable Brahms-centered concert conducted by Louis Langree (director of the Mostly Mozart program). The program opened with the Tragic Overture, followed by Schumann's cello concerto, then after intermission was the Brahms 1st symphony. The first half I thought was rather odd; I felt that the orchestra wasn't quite giving Langree what he wanted (he being a very charismatic, enthusiastic conductor and the Cincinnati Symphony having become rather homogeneous and--dare I say--boring in sound), especially in the overture. Jian Wang was the soloist in the cello concerto, and he was very good, but I felt there was nothing outstanding overall, except for a gorgeous middle movement.

The symphony, though, found the orchestra inspired. The second movement especially had that sort of incandescence that doesn't happen often, the violin solo particularly having a shimmering, ethereal quality that floated over everything else. The symphony as a whole was blazing--by the end of the finale I was wondering what had happened to Paavo's luxury vehicle of an orchestra; it had lost no precision, but it had a burnished clarity I was sure I had never heard before. The ovation lasted a long time and the orchestra refused to stand after Langree came out for about the fourth time.