Thread: Latest concerts

Originally Posted by Andre

Thanks for reading, Vaneyes. To answer your question, if you mean "personal life" in terms of romantic attachments, Dr Howard only mentioned one of Liszt's wives, Marie d'Agoult but didn't go into any detail (I think she was his first wife?). On a somewhat related front, he did rattle off a list of Liszt's acquaintances, friends & admirers - both musical and non musical - but he was so rapid I couldn't note all of them down (they included names like Berlioz, Dumas, Delacroix, Chopin, Schumann, Hiller, Mendelssohn, Hummel, many prominent aristocrats & even the Pope!...). As I said, I'll post my notes of the lecture soon on my blog or maybe even create a seperate thread on it. Dr Howard's lecture only lasted about an hour, but talking to one of the audience members after, we both had the feeling that he could have easily gone on for another 5 hours and he still wouldn't have covered enough (& there wasn't a dull moment to be had). He is clearly not only an excellent musician but a very erudite and knowledgeable speaker, and that handy combination isn't always the case with our musicians...

Probably his "one love", Marie, with whom he had three children...but no ring. One child died, one became a Wagner. A long trail of conquests, maybe of Tiger Woods proportion. Years later, when briefly meeting Marie for the last time, he uttered something lame like, "God bless you. Think well of me."

Last night I went to the recital by pianist Daniel Herscovitch at Sydney Conservatorium of Music. The program was titled "Ancient to Modern" -

Chopin - Sonata No. 2 in B-flat minor, Op. 35 (1839)

Stravinsky - Sonata (1924)

Graham Hair (b. 1941) - Three Transcendental Etudes on Themes from Australian Poets (from set of 12)
- Snatched Voices (Poet - Rosemary Dobson)
- Naming the Stars (Poet - Judith Wright)
- Wild Cherries and Honeycomb (Poet - John Shore Nielsen)

E. Carter (b. 1908) - Two Thoughts About the Piano (2005)
- Intermittences
- Catenaires

Encore - A. Webern - Children's Piece (1924)

I'd never heard any of these pieces before, and I hadn't heard any of the music of Graham Hair. The pianist Daniel Herscovitch (a faculty member at Sydney Conservatorium) talked in some depth about the pieces before playing them. His title for the recital "Ancient to Modern," was just a bit of fun, he said. Chopin's music can't really be described as "ancient," although maybe Eliot Carter who is now aged 102 can be!

The Chopin 2nd sonata was a great opener and my favourite piece of the evening. Daniel said that it's still a somewhat controversial work, some leading Chopin pianists refuse to play it. The 3rd movement, the famous Funeral March, was written first in 1837, the rest of the work came in 1839. Daniel outlined some interesting aspects of this work. The second & third movements have no tempo markings. There are three possible places to put repeats in the first movement, but Chopin didn't specify where. Having listened to this work, I can now somewhat understand why Schumann criticised it for lacking cohesion. But at the same time, this can be a "plus" as each of the movements are like worlds within themselves. The 1st movement was really pumped - ideas just tumbled out, one after the other. I'm pretty amazed at how Chopin could get these many ideas down on the page. The first theme of the 2nd movement (scherzo) reminded me a bit of the witche's sabbath part of Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique. It was pretty macabre and dark. This was followed by a longer lyrical and calmer section which struck me as being full of hope. Then the first theme reappeared, more intensely, but the quieter theme had the final word. The 3rd movement started with the famous funeral march theme (or intro?), but the other idea was more lyrical and poetic. The finale (4th movt) was over in a flash - it lasted only about 2-3 minutes. Liszt said this made him think of winds blowing over graves, Chopin said he meant it like mourners chatting after the funeral. To me, this sounded like a frenzied and hair-raising take on Bachian counterpoint. Despite there not being any crossing of hands in this work (unlike the other works played later), it still looked and sounded quite difficult to play.

Stravinsky's much shorter sonata (Daniel described it as more like a sonatina) came across to me to be the complete antithesis of the Chopin. This was quite light and bouncy, the world of Les Six was not far away. The counterpoint again sounded like it was influenced by Bach, the piano was played almost as daintily as a harpsichord. But the jerky & more changeable rhythmic patterns could be by no-one else but Stravinsky.

Then the only Australian composer on the program, Graham Hair. He was director of this very institution, the Sydney Con, during the 1980's, but now he is working in academia in Glasgow, Scotland. These three works come from a recent series of studies inspired by Australian poetry. The 1st and 3rd pieces reminded me of the tangled and complex piano works of Ives and Ligeti. They were pretty intense, with runs up and down the keyboard, and they looked devlishly difficult to play. The middle one was slow and calm, it had a kind of celestial quality as Daniel said, and it kind of reminded me of Takemitsu.

Then Carter's Two Thoughts About the Piano, which looked no less difficult than the Hair. They were also inspired by literature - the first one on Marcel Proust. These started off as two seperate pieces, which Carter joined together later. They were composed in 2005 when Carter was 97 years old. These pieces were studies in constantly changing dynamics, rhythm, and harmonics. The first piece was slower overall, it had many silences, and the second one was helter skelter. It was described by the composer as being like "a fast one line piece without any chords." Daniel said that he met Carter a few months ago, and thought that though he looked pretty frail, his mind is "still sharp as a tack." Carter was then writing a song-cycle on the words of T.S. Elliot.

As an encore, Daniel played a short one minute piece by Webern that looked much simpler to play than the other pieces. It was written in the same year as the Stravinsky sonata, but totally different.

I was sitting next to a group of women who, it turns out, were friends of Daniel. I got talking to one of them about American composers in particular, and I mentioned Copland. She said that she showed Copland around Sydney when he visited (I didn't find out when, but she said it was in his older years). She said he had a liking for French cuisine, so she took him to a French restaurant in Kings Cross. This was an interesting conversation, particularly because I didn't know that Copland had ever come here. We both agreed that the turnout to this brilliant recital was pretty abysmal - the hall seats around 100 and I'd say there were less than 50 audience members in attendance. On a positive note, the women took me backstage to meet Daniel, which I did. I briefly spoke to him thanking him for his performance. I asked him whether the Graham Hair pieces were as difficult to play as something by Ligeti, but he said that Ligeti was much harder. But I told him that I was watching his hands, particularly in the Hair & Carter pieces, and what he was doing looked like it was near impossible to me.

All up, this was one of the best piano recitals I remember going to. Both the playing and the music were excellent and interesting. I look forward to seeing Daniel play at any other time that he does so in the future...

Sounds insteresting, that you went backstage to meet the key performer and all that. (I've done that a few times before during the concerts I attended mainly to get a few autographs but didn't engage much in conversation with them).

Thanks for reading. Yeah, well the thing I like about these "Cocktail Hour" recitals at the Sydney Con is that they're quite low key. Audience members are pretty welcome to go backstage - well, it's really a big room between the two small rectial halls - & meet the musician/s. I'm quite a shy person, so I don't usually do this, but Daniel's friends at his recital really encouraged me to meet him, so I did. There have also been a few ocassions when composers were present & I could have approached them after the recital, but I didn't. I also like that many times, the performers talk about & give their impressions of the music before playing the pieces. It comes across as being more "real" than just reading printed program notes before the performance. You might cringe but I think we owe a part of this more "open" attitude to the violinist & bandleader Andre Rieu, whose concerts come across as being quite warm and friendly, even though his music is like ...

Maybe 200 plus years later, our modern day attempts at interaction ('open attitude')has brought us nearly full-circle. Well, we can hope. Truth is, for the big names such face-to-faces often require contacts or extra money. "Sorry sir, Maestro has a restricted list, " giving the you-gotta-be-kidding interloper an anti-terrorist glance.

Chopin Sonata 2, thatsa biggie. I don't know if I'd have the courage to hear an "unknown" play it, being that Pogorelich, Michelangeli, and Argerich are so imbedded. Now I'm acting like a gatekeeper myself, with that song of comeuppance.

Good report as usual, Andre.

I attended Bernstein's "Mass: A Theatre Piece for Singers, Players, and Dancers" last night in Dayton OH; presented by the Dayton Philharmonic Orchestra and Wright State University. The orchestra did the playing whilst the singers and dancers were cast from WSU's departments of Theatre, Dance, and Motion Pictures, and Music. It was terrific, especially since I'd went not quite knowing what to expect. It didn't seem dated at all (this year is the fortieth anniversary of the work's premiere at John F Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts). The brass section was seated stage left whilst the woodwinds were stage right; the balance of the orchestra was in the pit. The choir was stage rear. The theatrical performers filled the rest of the stage, including the use of vertical pieces and height. It really is a work, because of the visual element, that needs to be seen and not just heard.
"Mass" was conducted by Neal Gittleman, but required the collaboration of many groups and people (cast of 200) between the orchestra and university. The Celebrant was sung by John Wesley Wright. I hope you enjoy this video on how this presentation was brought together.

Originally Posted by Vaneyes

Maybe 200 plus years later, our modern day attempts at interaction ('open attitude')has brought us nearly full-circle. Well, we can hope. Truth is, for the big names such face-to-faces often require contacts or extra money. "Sorry sir, Maestro has a restricted list, " giving the you-gotta-be-kidding interloper an anti-terrorist glance.

Yeah, well it's true, the "big names" often have no time for direct interaction with the audience. Especially if the performance is in a larger venue, which is usually the case with these elite performers. But I've found that in smaller non-mainstream venues musicians actually don't mind a bit of a chat with the audience. I was also at a performance by pianist Dejan Lazic who played with the Australian Chamber Orchestra at the Sydney Opera House in 2009 (Beethoven's 4th concerto, this performance is now on disc, but I wouldn't buy it as I wasn't to happy with Lazic's cadenzas, although his playing was excellent overall). During the interval, Lazic made himself available to sign his cd's. I didn't meet him, but at least this kind of thing is happening even in the bigger venues here, which is at least something.

Chopin Sonata 2, thatsa biggie. I don't know if I'd have the courage to hear an "unknown" play it, being that Pogorelich, Michelangeli, and Argerich are so imbedded. Now I'm acting like a gatekeeper myself, with that song of comeuppance.

Well I hadn't heard Chopin's 2nd sonata before, so I had little or no preconceptions. The only sonata I have on disc by Chopin is his 3rd, which is an entirely different beast, it's so different to the 2nd that it could almost be by another composer. Over my 20 plus years of classical listening (on & off), I've only skimmed the surface with Chopin & maybe that lack of familiarity is a good thing. Whatever I've heard by him - like those two sonatas, or the nocturnes, ballades, waltzes - has come across as quite fresh to me & not as cliched as I would have thought, them being mainstream pieces & all...

@ Lunasong:

You must be new here, welcome to the forum, btw. That live performance of Bernstein's Mass sounded like the real deal. I've heard the Naxos recording & it sounded like an interesting work. Unconventional to say the least, but I love unconventional things like that. As you say, it's a work with a strong theatrical element, so ideally it has to be seen as well as heard. This is a bit like Harry Partch's music, which combines mime, dance, lighting, costumes, & of course music - both instrumental and vocal - the whole box and dice. Hearing the recording is like getting 50 cents out of the dollar, at best. These kinds of works were composed (or really designed) as "total art" experiences, much like Wagner's operas...

Went to this concert with a friend last night:

AUSTRALIA ENSEMBLE @ University of New South Wales, Sydney
(Incorporating the Goldner String Quartet)
Dene Olding, first violin
Dimity Hall, second violin
Irina Morozova, viola
Julian Smiles, cello
Ian Munro, piano
Geoffrey Collins, flute
Catherine McCorkill, clarinet
Daryl Pratt, percussion; David Stanhope, conductor (both guests, in Incredible Floridas only)
(Prof. Roger Covell, director of programming)

Ferenc (Franz) LISZT (1811-1886)
- At Wagner’s Grave (Am Grabe Richard Wagners) S202 for string quartet and piano (1883) – 200th anniversary of Liszt’s birth

Richard MEALE (1932-2009)
- String Quartet No. 2 "Cantilena Pacifica" - 5th movement
- Incredible Floridas (Homage to Rimbaud) for flute/alto flute/piccolo, clarinet/bass clarinet, violin/viola, cello, piano and percussion (1971)

Ludwig van BEETHOVEN (1770-1827)
- String Quartet in A minor, Opus 132 (1825)

This was a great program which we both enjoyed. I knew the last two works from recordings, the first two were completely unknown to me.

The first two pieces were in memory of friends of the respective composers who had died. Liszt's piece was in memory of his friend and son in law Wagner. It was very brief and had a lightness which reminded both my friend and I of chamber music by Debussy and Ravel. I'm not sure who Australian composer Richard Meale dedicated Cantilena Pacifia to, but the violinist Dene Olding announced it from the stage and talked about it briefly (it wasn't in the program). Olding said that this group played this work at Meale's funeral service in 2009. It had a flowing and sinuous violin solo backed up by gentle repetitive waves from the other strings. It kind of reminded me of Philip Glass' Facades. These two works were poignant for my friend, as the day before was the anniversary of his brother's death in an accident 6 years ago. He said it bought back the memories.

Then a longer half hour piece by Meale, from his earlier avant-garde phase (like Penderecki, Meale went tonal after initially being more experimental). Incredible Floridas is a sextet that was written in 1971 to mark the 100th anniversary of French visionary poet Arthur Rimbaud's poem "The Drunken Boat." This was quite a complex work, requiring a conductor and everyone except the pianist to play multiple instruments. There's quite a bit of fragmentation in this work to begin with, the first movement dominated by a flute solo upon which much of the rest of the work is based. A lot of it was quite intense and percussive. The 4th movement is my favourite part, throughout it the piano plays this chord which kind of comes across to me something like Satie or Rachmaninov slowed down to the nth degree. Everything is suspended in time. In the 5th movement, the two string players each have a solo, the music moving towards their top registers, a bit like in Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time. Funnily enough, these two solos kind of passed me by in the recording, which I'd listened to several times. The flute is always there, but it has a solo in the concluding 6th movement where the earlier fragmentary material is unified and more coherent. Like Rimbaud's poem, which is like both a physical and mental voyage (to where, who knows?), Meale's work has a dreamlike quality to it. It begins with the players quietly reciting sentences from the poem in French, and in the end it dissolves into nothingness. All of the players were soloists in their own right in this work. The music of Varese, Messiaen, Boulez and Takemitsu comes strongly to mind & as my friend pointed out, Balinese gamelan. Incredible Floridas is considered by many pundits to be Meale's masterwork, and I'd recommend it to anyone interested in c20th chamber music. Meale could very well be Australia's finest composer so far, not least because he had such a huge stylistic range. To see this work played live was a real treat. My friend has been familiar with Meale's opera Voss since he got it on disc in the 1980's & I made this composer's acquaintance more recently.

After a nice cuppa & a bit of chocolate during the interval, we headed back to the auditorium to hear Beethoven's String Quartet in A minor, Op. 132. This work is just sublime, from the solemn opening theme that opens it, right through to concluding dance like movement which brings back that theme, totally changing it's mood. This is music at it's very best, it's most sublime and passionate. Words are not really adequate to describe this sort of thing. I was interested to read in the program notes that the harmonies of the pivotal third slow movement, the famous "Hymn of Thanksgiving," may well have been inspired by the music of Renaissance composer Palestrina. I'm not surprised by this, it definitely has the radiance and purity of Palestrina's style. I thought that the Goldner String Quartet played this work slower than what I've heard on recordings, but this was just a hunch (I didn't check the time, listening to music for me isn't a matter of doing things like that). It was a very detailed performance, full of nuance. I loved watching how they played those complex cross rhythms, it looked very very difficult. An odd thing that I noticed was that from left to right, it was the two violins, cello then viola. Usually the viola is before the cello. I don't know why they played in this order?

After the concert, we both headed to the city for a nightcap before calling it a night. We both enjoyed the concert & felt we got a lot out of it, and one couldn't really ask for more...

Just went to this one on the weekend -

Music In May – Macquarie University Sydney
Mahler Tribute (Family Concert)
The Occasional Performing Sinfonia (TOPS)
Sally-Anne Russell, mezzo soprano - in all works (from Opera Australia)
Sarah Berkelman, soprano (in Humperdinck only)
Mal Hewitt, conductor (in Humperdinck & Mahler songs)
Steve Hillinger, conductor (in Mahler symphony)

Humperdinck
- Sandman's song, evening prayer & forest music (Hansel & Gretel, Act 2)
Mahler
- Songs of a Wayfarer
- Symphony No. 4 in G major

TOPS is a Sydney-based orchestra that presents large symphonic works rarely tackled by amateur orchestras. TOPS plays in venues such as Sydney Town Hall and occasionally tours regional NSW. Last year they played a program which included Shostakovich's 5th symphony, which was excellent, and this year's Mahler 100th anniversary tribute was no less enjoyable. These are two of my favourite works by Mahler. A good friend of mine came along as well.

Neither my friend and I are greatly familiar with Humperdinck's music (the "original" Englebert Humperdinck, as conductor Mal Hewitt joked!). He was a major operatic and vocal composer at the end of the c19th, and Hansel & Gretel is his only big hit. He also assisted Wagner in the orchestration of his late operas, and Humperdinck's orchestration was very rich and Wagnerian indeed. The two vocalists sang this lovely song and left the stage, while the orchestra carried on and played a marvellous elaboration of the tunes. Soprano Sarah Berkelman is a high school student who is currently working in the Sydney production of the musical Fame. It was great to hear the blending of the soprano and mezzo soprano's voices.

Next was Mahler's set of four Wayfarer Songs, which is one of my favourite works by him. This work is pure genius and mezzo soprano Sally-Anne Russell gave a knockout performance. All emotions under the sun are encapsulated in this work, both in words and music. I especially like how Mahler wrote for the woodwinds. The last stanza of the final song titled "The Two Blue Eyes of my Beloved" is the part which just floors me every time, and this performance was no exception. The poet is reminiscing about his love and loss, sitting under a linden tree which "snowed its blossoms over me." This is captured by the music with this sense of floating tonality, time is suspended. I kind of hear Schubert in this as well. My words cannot adequately describe the very ending, so I'll simply give you the words "All, love and sorrow and world and dream!"

After a good cuppa at interval (what can be better than that, apart from the music?) we headed back to the 500 packed seater hall to hear Mahler's 4th symphony. This is my favourite of all of his symphonies which I'm familiar with, because for the most part, it is light and happy (though there are dark undertones and shadows there, but they quickly dissipate). I feel that the orchestra didn't get off the ground as much as they could have in the first two movements, but their performance of the last two were basically as good as any I've heard. Like the Wayfarer Songs, the slow movement contains so many emotions and contrasts. The two climaxes put me on the edge of tears, but the optimistic last movement with vocals "The heavenly life" cheered me up a bit. The song upon which the finale was based was written about a decade before Mahler began this symphony. The last movement came first, and formed the thematic basis of the whole work. It's no wonder that some scholars say this is his most unified and holistic symphony. This is a child's view of heaven, which is full of many delights, particularly food. There are the sounds of cattle and oxen, animals which will be sent to slaughter to provide a wholesome feast. As conductor Steve Hillinger said, a lot of the children in Mahler's time were malnourished, and he himself had a childhood of poverty, by today's Western standards anyway.

All in all, this concert was great, we both enjoyed it. The orchestra played with commitment and passion, adding refinement and balance in the last two movements of the symphony. The vocalists were excellent. There were many children at this family concert, who were not always quiet, but I was so absorbed in the music that I hardly noticed them. I may well go to a concert in September at Sydney Town Hall of this orchestra, who will be joined by combined Sydney choirs in a program featuring Carl Jenkins' music (another composer I'm unfamiliar with)...

Interesting report there, Andre. I have never heard of The Occasional Performing Sinfonia and what a name that is.

Originally Posted by HarpsichordConcerto

Interesting report there, Andre. I have never heard of The Occasional Performing Sinfonia and what a name that is.

I hadn't heard about them either, before I saw them last year at the same venue, Macquarie Uni. As I said, they played very well, both my friend & I enjoyed their performance. They are mainly amateur musicians with professional conductors and soloists. They do a few concerts per year in Sydney, and also a few in regional areas of our state...

Originally Posted by Tapkaara

I love going to concerts. Can't wait for the new season of the San Diego Symphony to get into full swing...!

Good stuff...I actually may be around to catch one as I'll be back and forth this year...I love that there is no more Florida Philharmonic (ugh) here and that we get great orchestras coming in from out of town on tour...great soloists and performances all the way!

Just got back from Haydn's Theresienmesse (Mass in B flat major). OSOM. This rich classical counterpoint is what I love in choral music, no romantic equivalents by genre can match this beauty and unbeliveable craftmanship, it's long work but I wasn't tired at all, a true experience HMMMMMMMMMMM

Originally Posted by Aramis

Just got back from Haydn's Theresienmesse (Mass in B flat major). OSOM. This rich classical counterpoint is what I love in choral music, no romantic equivalents by genre can match this beauty and unbeliveable craftmanship, it's long work but I wasn't tired at all, a true experience HMMMMMMMMMMM

Good. Now you need to explore the six other late masses that he wrote between 1796 and 1802. He wrote one mass each year to celebrate the name day of his employer's wife, which was one of his duties. Theresienmesse was the third last.

@ Aramis - Like you have, I have just discovered Haydn's choral niche & am looking forward tonight to hearing his great "Creation" live. He was expert at setting the texts with great feeling and emotion. He was one of the true optimists of the classical spectrum. Engaging, innovative, unique, joyful, beautiful beyond words and I could go on. This guy was amazing, his music simply "has it all"...

@ HC - I'm impressed - even inspired - by your detailed appreciation and knowledge of this repertoire in the older classical realm. Needless to say, I will be seeking your advice about this area, because I'm truly "hooked." Simply show the way, my friend, and I will gladly follow!...