Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 8 December 2007 - Echoes of Intimate Emotions

Featuring:
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 1 'Winter Daydreams'
- Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky Symphony No. 6 'Pathetique'

Oleg Caetani - Conductor

No review will be written since...I missed the concert :'(. Being a smartass, I did not check the time of the performance and assumed the concert will be in the evening at 8 PM. So, at 4 PM, when the thoughts of listening to Tchaikovsky live overwhelmed me already, I finally opened up the envelope containing the ticket to the concert. To my horror, the concert time listed there is 2:00 PM. Yeah, my face turned green at the same time. The concert has just finished and I missed my last concert before I fly back to my home country on next Monday.

Sigh. Stupid me. Hopefully, this will teach me a good lesson to check the ticket the day before the concert.

!$!#!@#!$!#$@#%

Edvard Grieg's Lyric Pieces

Just finished listening to the legendary recording of Emil Gilels playing selections of these Grieg's wonderful and brilliant miniature compositions for solo piano. These are some fine examples of 'delicious' classical music. All pieces are very approachable and Gilels' playing is superb throughout.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 24 November 2007 - Sir Charles Returns

Featuring:
- Richard Wagner Tannhauser: Overture and Venusberg Music
- Antonin Dvorak Serenade for Strings
- Frederick Delius A Village Romeo and Juliet: The Walk to the Paradise Garden
- Edward Elgar Enigma Variations

Sir Charles Mackerras - Conductor

First post after what seems like forever! Thesis and exams have been distracting me between my last post to now. I've completed my thesis near the end of October and the exams were over on Monday earlier this week. Hopefully, I will have more time to write what new works that I've discovered in between this period sometimes later.

Now for the concert itself. It started with Wagner's music. And it did not disappoint. The famous Tannhauser overture is brilliantly executed. Those ff passages were really hair-raising. The Venusberg music is in contrast in terms of dynamics to the overture. Lovely melodies throughout this piece and the first program ends wonderfully.

The second program - Dvorak's Serenade for Strings - is the reason why I attended this concert. Full of wonderful melodies throughout the entire piece, I fell in love in the first time with the haunting opening melodies of the first movement. The piece was taken slightly faster than what I'm used to, but the charm of the melodies is still there. The waltz in the second movement were also brilliant. The third movement was also well done. The audience applauded after this movement, presuming the brilliant finish in the end of this movement to be the end of the piece. Afterwards, the lovely fourth movement was played and almost without pause, the Presto passages in the final movement were now in action. By the end of this piece, I know that it already made my night.

After the interval, we were then given Delius' music. Not very familiar with his music, I found his music is okay-ish. The melody of the piece was gorgeous, but forgettable. The piece itself was a typical music describing the love between the two characters in the story. Again, it was really well played and probably it's just me who was not very impressed with the composition of the music.

The last piece, Enigma variations was wonderful also. Specifically, I'm pretty sure the Nimrod variation touched every audience's heart. Some other variations that made quite an impression to me were the Ysobel and Dorabella variations with the orchestra principal violist shone during the Ysobel variation.

Now the conductor himself, Sir Charles Mackerras. He looks very old and his age has really slowed him down. His conducting was still full of energy and although he required no baton for all of tonight's program, he never lost control of orchestra's discipline. Long applause from the audience showed how tonight's music has pleased them. I just hope that this is not the last time I see him on the conductor podium.

To conclude, a memorable night with lots of wonderful melodies and a chance to see a world-class in action is icing on the cake.

Next concert: Tchaikovsky's first and sixth symphonies.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 6 October 2007 - The Great Tradition

Featuring:
- Carl Maria von Weber Oberon: Overture
- Robert Schumann Piano Concerto
- Richard Strauss Symphonia domestica

Alexander Lazarev - Conductor
Alexander Gavrylyuk - Piano

My last concert before I went into hectic period - assignments and exams. How was it? It was .. okay I guess and certainly not the highlight of the year for me. I sat at the box at the left of the hall with only limited view on the orchestra. I chose the seat due to financial reason and I wanted to have a look at the pianist in action.

The concert started with Weber's overture. I am only familiar with Weber from his two piano concertos, one of which (the 2nd) I attended in a concert back in August. The overture is quite popular although I haven't had a chance to listen to it. I approached it with fresh mind and the overture did not disappoint me. Full of melodies, nice build up and the overture concluded with loud bang in the end. There are parts of the overture that reminded me of Mendelssohn's Midsummer night's dream overture, but that might just me.

Now, the reason why I chose this concert - the Schumann's piano concerto. This work played by Sviatoslav Richter, is definitely one of my favorite piano concerto. It's a very lyrical work instead of virtuosic. I always love the main theme of first movements, the little dialogue between piano and orchestra in second movement and the finale. Back to the performance, it started out very well and the pianists entered at the right time (I've seen a number of pianists entered at the wrong time at the beginning of the piece). The tempo is a bit slow to my taste, but still acceptable. The pianist phrased most of the passages beautifully, but somehow the emotion is lacking? - I think. The cadenza was excellent, very much to my liking. The first movement ended perfectly with some of the audience clapped afterwards (!). The rest of the concerto was done very well, lacking a little big again in the emotional burst that I got from Richter's playing. We were given an encore by the pianist, a virtuoso show piece that seriously kicked the shit out of me. I'm not sure what piece it is, but my guess would be Liszt's or Ravel's. By the end of the piece, I'm convinced that the pianist is more of the virtuosic type rather than poetic type. Maybe that explains why the concerto wasn't quite lyrically done.

The last piece, Strauss' tone poem - Symphonia Domestica. I only know one work of Richard Strauss, the Also Sprach Zarathustra. The piece told an illustrious story of Strauss' daily life with his wife and his newly born baby. It is a one movement tone poem which can be divided into four parts. The beginning was good, until it reached the half way of the 2nd part, I'm kinda lost already. Then the piece moved on to the 3rd part which supposedly describing Love scene and Dreams and cares in adagio. I would say this adagio part is too loud for an adagio - it kinda diminished the impression that I might get if it is not very loud. The last part was joyous, and with 8 horns in the orchestra and large brass section, it's really really loud. At the very end of the piece, the conductor suddenly jumped and turned back to the audience, and make the ending gesture while facing us. The audience not expecting that, gave a bit of laugh in the end.

All in all, it was quite a good concert. I love the overture, the piano concerto was okay..the encore piece was amazing and the tone poem was okay again.

Aram Khachaturian's Violin Concerto in D minor

There are supposedly 4 big violin concertos in classical music repertoire - Beethoven's, Brahms', Mendelssohn's and Tchaikovsky's. I've listened and like all of them.

I always have a special affinity with Tchaikovsky's - one of the first piece that seduced me to Tchaikovsky's music due to its blazing finale. I have also always have a soft spot for Mendelssohn's due to its loveliness and gorgeous melodies throughout the whole concerto. The lively 3rd movement always made me smile whenever I listened to it. With the Brahms', how can one shake off the entrance of the violin solo in the first movement? It's so dramatic and yet so lyrical at the same time. Nothing but streams of gorgeous melodies follow after that. Unlike most people, Beethoven's - although it's still very great - is not my desert island violin concerto.

One month ago, when listening to live concert in radio, I came across Khachaturian's violin concerto. I wasn't expecting much at firs - only listening to the concert to wait for Brahms' 4th symphony, but how glad that I was proven wrong on that. The piece hooked me from the very first note until the very last. If one were to compare it against the big 4 violin concertos, it would be very much like Tchaikovsky's. Again as with the famous violin concertos, the main themes of each movement are so accessible - I couldn't get it out of my head after finishing the piece and it soon became my whistling tune for the rest of that day. I then went on to download a recording of it and listened to it again. I was thrilled with this piece and the lovely 2nd movement was now clearer to me than it was in the first listening. The breathtaking finale is still there and since then, this piece has retained its place in my violin concerto repertoire - alongside the big 4 violin concertos, Sibelius', Prokofiev's 2, Bruch's 1, 5 of Mozart's and Stravinsky's. I'm just a bit disappointed to find out that it's not as popular as I think it should be.

Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 28 September 2007 - Organ Spectacular

Featuring:
- Howard Hanson Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky
- Richard Mills Soundscapes for Percussion and Orchestra
- Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'

Richard Mills - Conductor
Claire Edwardes - Percussion
Calvin Bowman - Organ

To be honest, I went to this concert because of the Organ Symphony. Got my ticket on the day of the performances and there's really not much seats left to choose from although I really wanted to get a seat in the balcony. In the end, I sat at the second last row of the hall - Melbourne Town Hall -. As a result, I couldn't see the whole orchestra clearly, but that's to be expected from the cheapest ticket.

There was an organ recital before the concert, featuring works by Bach, Liszt and Graeme Koehne - a living Australian composer apparently -. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat has typical Bach's melody with some of passages resembled much of the first movement of his second Brandenburg Concerto - I think -. Liszt's Consolation in D flat impressed me the most out of the whole piece performed. This strikes me because I think Liszt is a not-so-good composer. Koehne' Gothic Toccata starts out slow and soft only to develop into an abrupt and very - VERY - loud piece. An old lady sitting beside me even covered her ears during the very end of the piece. She said, "It reminds me of factory sound or rail train". It looks like she had some bad memories on that topic and she was trying to stop the organ sound reaching her ears - a futile effort. Despite that, I kinda like the piece and I think it will be very fitting for a war or battle scene in the movie. By the way, the organist is Calvin Bowman, he also played the organ part in Saint-Saens symphony later.

And now the main program, the concert starts with Howard Hanson's elegy. A piece written in memory of his friend and great conductor - Serge Koussevitzky, the piece was good. It has this simple melody that I unfortunately have forgotten (Sorry Hanson!), that keeps reappearing in the elegy representing the deceased great conductor. The audience's reception was not very enthusiastic - the conductor did not appear the second time after he went backstage as the applause died down shortly after it started.

Now the second program - a work composed by the conductor. The lovely soloist, Claire Edwardes took the stage and literally blazed through the piece written as a concerto for percussion. She played at least 7 or 8 different instruments in total, some of them I didn't even recognise. The concert is full of virtuosity showmanship, fast passages in xylophone and tambourine and in one movement, she played the drums faster than a professional rock or band drummer - no kidding. The concerto also featured plenty of musical sound that represents the sounds of 'bull-frogs and crickets at night in Brisbane gardens'. A wonderful piece and audience seemed to be thrilled by the soloist's performance. Long applause followed.

Last program, the highlight of the night - Organ Symphony. The first movement was slightly slower than the recordings that I'm familiar with but was very well-played. The second movement is the best moment of the concert for me, I shivered throughout the whole movement. Again, it was a tad slower than the recordings that I know but that's what makes the difference - I enjoyed every single note of that movement. Also, I noticed the sweet organ part in that movement which I never know its existence in the recordings. The rest of the symphony is played brilliantly by the orchestra. My slight complaint was the timpani strikes at the end of the symphony wasn't as loud as I wanted it to be. The organ completely overpowered the poor timpani and as a result the timpani wasn't exactly highlighted during that time - which I very much like to be the case. The audience then erupted after the end of the symphony and after quite a long applause, we were given an encore - the famous Faure's Pavane.

Summing up, a very fun and memorable night. Not happy with the seating - I should've gotten a balcony seat to have a better view of the orchestra. The programs were well-played and very enjoyable. Live orchestral music is still worth going. And this concert was almost full-house (99% of the seats are occupied) - the 'crowdiest' concert I've been to.

Next concert: Schumann's piano concerto - next week!

Mozart == sweet

It happened again!

Everytime I listened to one of Mozart's concertos 'sweet' is the first word that comes out of my brain to describe every single of them. His clarinet concerto, oboe concerto, and 5 violin concertos have always did it for me and today I was listening to his Flute and Harp concerto (K. 299). It was my second listening of this piece. I liked it very much when I listened to the recording by Emmanuel Pahud (flute) and Marie-Pierre Langlamet (harp) with Abbado conducting BPO and it was no different when listening to it in period instruments sound. Unfortunately, I didnot know the name of the soloists, but the recording is by Amsterdam Baroque Orchestra conducted by Ton Koopman.

The whole concerto is full of joy - very Mozartian - with the lyrical opening of second movement instantly hits the mark for me. Just listen to the simple theme played by the orchestra and then the same theme is repeated by both of the soloists - ah, sweetness :). The first and last movement are equally enjoyable although I can't remember how the main theme sounds like again. I will listen to it sometime again soon.

By the way, I still have tons of Mozart pieces that I want to listen to. 2 weeks ago, I bought a CD of all his horn concertos that I haven't touched yet. I still have to listen to both of his flute concertos and bassoon concertos. And last but not least, his 27 piano concertos are still in my unknown territory. I should get them soon.

What is appreciating?

Appreciating classical music is a process in which you take some time in your daily life to listen to a classical music piece in order to be familiar with them. For me, it will be until I can practically whistle through the whole piece (or at least the main themes of the piece). To be able to do this, repeated listening is necessary. While this process can sometimes be tiring, the satisfaction that one got after the end of this process is very rewarding. There is nothing that can give me more satisfaction than come to terms with Mahler's Resurrection (I fell asleep twice(!) when trying to love this symphony because the recording that I have for this symphony at that time is a particularly boring one and I have to get myself a different recording).

I was introduced by the concept of repeated listening from this article. Back then (almost 2 years ago) I was a newbie in classical music and was trying to find a guide in the world of classical music. I found this article by accident and after reading that I was instantly motivated by it to discover and appreciate more classical music.

First post!

First post for hopefully long-time running blog of me finding new piece out of tons of classical music out there and learning to love them.

Currently listening to Felix Mendelssohn's - Symphony No. 3 'Scottish'.