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.
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4 comments:
Greetings From Washington, D. C.!:
I was referred to this post of yours by the Google Alert I have set for Sir Charles, my favourite conductor!
I have recordings of all the selections on your concert conducted by Sir Charles except for the Wagner, which I wish I could have heard since we do not have too much of him conducting that composer. I have his two recordings of the _Variations_, and personally prefer the first, on EMI, with the London Philharmonic (the playing in it just sounds more fresh than in his slightly-later account on Decca). Elgar happens to be one of my "core composers." I was surprised to read that he conducted without a baton, which I think I would do were I a conductor. Another blogger who attended that concert also commented on him appearing to slow down physically while not having been impaired in his conducting. He has had some physical issues in recent years, and I am somewhat surprised that he was allowed to come all the way to Australia to conduct since he no longer, unless something has changed, accepts US engagements due to problems caused by flying, in his lower back if I am not mistaken. Did you get to hear one, or both if they were broadcast, of his concerts from Sydney consisting of Strauss's _Also_ _Sprach_ _Zarathustra_ and Mozart's _C_-_Minor_ _Mass_? I thought it was _SUPERB_, I liking his performance of the Mozart better than the one I heard broadcast from the BBC Proms last year. Since Tchaikovsky is one of _YOUR_ "core composers," if not your _ONE_ such, I personally regret that he has thus far, again unless I am mistaken, not given us any recordings of his Symphonies, though I enjoy his Telarc recording of Suites from _The_ _Sleeping_ _Beauty_ and _Swan_ _Lake_ in particular, and further have his complete recording of _The_ _Nutcracker_ which is the soundtrack to a popular film version of that Ballet. There is also a fine _1812_ _Overture_ from him, now on a disc of various orchestral showpieces by various orchestras and conductors, most of the works on it being Russian.
Hoping that this finds you well, pleased that you enjoyed your encounter with this special conductor, and hoping you might see fit to explore his recorded legacy as well if you are not already doing so, and are enjoying it if you are,
J. V.
p.s. I nearly forgot to make a procedural point. I am legally blind, and the link from Blogger which supposedly allows such as we to hear the characters we are expected to type when Visual Verification is enabled does not work for me for some reason. I am therefore _MOST_ thankful that you do not have this tool enabled on your blog, and _SINCERELY_ hope this has not resulted in you receiving any unwanted comments or spam!
Greetings JVaughan!
First of all, let me thank you for being the first people to comment on my blog. I hope my writing on the concert is not very terrible since I am not known as a good writer among my friends.
In regards to Elgar, I admit that he is not one of my 'core composer' at the moment but that's only because of the huge amount of classical music that I've discovered just around 2 years ago! I am familiar with his Enigma variation, Cello Concerto and the Serenade for Strings plus a couple of the Pomp and Circumstance marches. I am very interested to listen to other of his masterpieces, such as the Violin Concerto and I believe a choral work titled 'The Dream of Gerontius'.
I have none of the Enigma variations recordings by Sir Charles, but I do have a recording of him conducting the 2 piano concertos and a Konzertstuck of Carl Maria von Weber with Nikolai Demidenko as the soloist in those works (on Hyperion label). Weber's piano concertos are not very well known and his second piano concerto was given an Australian premiere only in last August in Melbourne of which I was one of the audience. I have enjoyed that recording immensely since I got them.
I knew that Sir Charles was conducting on Sydney before he came to Melbourne, but I missed the live broadcast of the concert that you mentioned. To much of my regret, I cannot discuss this live broadcast with you.
Reiterating of what I've mentioned in my post, old age has really caught up with Sir Charles. Coming out from the backstage, he walked very slowly to the conductor podium. He also had some problems stepping up and down of the podium. A chair was placed at the podium and Sir Charles would take a seat on it a couple of times throughout the concert. I hope this gives you a more precise description of physical appearance of Sir Charles on that night.
On different note, would you kindly point out to me the blog of the person who attended the same concert? I am very interested on his/her thoughts on that concert. I tried to Google for the blog but I just could not find it. Thanks in advance.
Finally, I am not a big fan of those comment verification systems as well. Switching it off was one of the first thing that I did when I set up this blog.
I admit to being remiss in not responding to your _MOST_-gracious comment up to now. Yet, as is familiarly said, hopefully better late than never!
Though Sir Charles himself is not as pleased with his recording of Elgar's _First_ _Symphony_ as he is with his account of the _Second_ (as is a critic I have also read), I personally find the performance _QUITE_ agreeable, and, if you are ready for these massive works, I think you could not do too much better than to try acquiring this recording! I hear that it is available as a download, possibly from Decca for which it was made, but, as you might gather, you could _POSSIBLY_ get it from one of the popular online shops. Yet, though I _DO_ like that performance despite a possibly-cool approach to its slow movement, Sir Charles _JUST_ _MIGHT_ be right about his account of the _Second_ since he does more with it from an interpretive point of view than he does with the _First_ since the music indeed demands such, and again I personally feel he gives us _AT_ _LEAST_ _ONE_ of the _MOST_-successful accounts of this difficult-to-conduct symphony we have thus far had! To site only one point, the opening string chords of its slow movement, in my opinion at least, _CRY_ _OUT_ for some flexibility of tempo, but few conductors in my experience, the composer regretably not among them, give it to us. Sir Charles gives us _JUST_ enough, again in my opinion, and it works _MARVELLOUSLY_! Also the passage in the Third Movement where a theme from the middle of the First is brought back, though terrifyingly, is _QUITE_ so in this recording! Though most listeners rightly admire Dame Janet Baker's famous recording of this composer's _Sea_ _Pictures_, I again personally feel that Miss Della Jones, as "filler" for this recording, does _QUITE_ nicely with these five songs!
Since you mentioned _The_ _Dream_ _Of_ _Gerontius_, which is indeed generally regarded as Elgar's greatest choral work, if not his overall masterpiece, the then-future Dame Janet, as she also was when recording _Sea_ _Pictures_, also participated in what is arguably the best overall recording of _Gerontius_ made thus far (some would say it is Sir Malcolm Sargent's 1945 version, but my vote goes to this one), and the conductor is the same who conducted her _Sea_ _Pictures_, Sir John Barbirolli. Since this is a setting of an abridged version of the Roman Catholic Cardinal John Henry Newman's poem of the same name, it has been suggested to me that Sir John, having been a Roman Catholic himself, brought that to his performance to its betterment (my wording), and I feel the person who said that was _RIGHT_! Though I recently learned that the tenor singing the title role on that recording, Mr. Richard Lewis, had a cold when making it, this detracts _NOT_ _A_ _WHIT_ for me, and, though he has a rather light voice, I would like to think that Elgar, had he been able to hear this EMI recording, would be _QUITE_ pleased with it since Mr. Lewis brings _QUITE_ an operatic intensity to his performance and understanding as well! And has _ANYONE_ ever sung the Angel more beautifully and meaningfully than the then-future Dame Janet, though some _MIGHT_ have come close? It is generally agreed that the bass here, Mr. Kim Borg, is the weak link in this account, but I have gotten somewhat used to him, though others are indeed better. I like the choral singing, notably from the semi-chorus in the opening section of "Praise To The Holiest" where they put just a bit more of an accent than most on the word "surely." And, unlike most others, Sir John has his chorus clearly phrase "Be merciful, be gracious," whereas most other conductors have those two phrases sung together (legato), and the passage might indeed be marked that way in the score, though it might be interesting to ask someone to check that for me. Yet Elgar got to know and admire the future Sir John late in his life, and thus, he reputedly having endorsed him having different ideas, he conceivably could have accepted this deviation.
I hear that Weber was quite a pianist, and yet, as you observe as per his Concerti, we usually do not hear his piano music nowadays, but rather a few of his operas, notably _Der_ _Freischutz_, and his works for the clarinet. I have thus not heard this recording of which you wrote, but do know of its existence. Maybe I should have a go at it some day. Yet I was disappointed with Sir Charles's Edinburgh performance of _Der_ _Freischutz_ from a few years ago, which I heard broadcast via the BBC, mostly because I felt he cut the spoken dialogue too much, including the opening scene of Act III. Yet admittedly that all-spoken scene includes some non-singing roles, so it could be that he cut those out to save the Edinburgh Festival some money, though it could have been for his own artistic reasons as well.
You may reach that other blog you were seeking at http://richardjackson.org.
Though I _CAN_ proofread what I am now writing with some difficulty, that difficulty is brought on by my screen reader trying to read both this comment and my previous one together, and thus I would need to arrow through my whole message letter by letter in order just to proofread it. Thus I hope you will not mind me just posting this now as it is, hoping there are no errors in it, be they typographical or otherwise (I indeed went back and made some corrections)! If I have failed to address anything you wished addressed, please inform me thereof, and I will try to do so thereafter.
Hoping, as usual, that this finds you and your readers well,
J. V.
Greetings J.V.,
Thanks for your comments and suggestions. By the time when I am ready to tackle Sir Edward Elgar's works, I will keep your suggestions in my mind.
Another thanks also for pointing out the blog that reviewed the same performance as I attended.
And finally, thanks for all the effort you have put in proofreading your comments. It contains very few errors and I have certainly enjoyed your comments.
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