Featuring:
- Beethoven Leonore Overture No. 2
- Debussy La mer
- Stravinsky The Firebird - complete ballet music
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
Last concert of the season for me - and it was wonderful!
For that night Town Hall series, Calvin Bowman played Bach's Kyrie, Gott heiliger Geist, BWV 671 and the organ rendition of the famous cantata Wachet auf, ruft uns die Stimme BWV 645, a rather short piece by John Stanley Suite in D, the fairy garden movement from Ravel's Ma mere L'oye and two pieces by Percy Whitlock Preambule and Exultemus.
The second Leonore overture is probably always been overshadowed by its more dramatic brother third overture and played much more infrequently. It's still one heck of a fine piece of music and MSO gave a wonderful reading of it. Caetani's elegant conducting was wonderful as usual. All sections of the orchestra were very fine but the performance was let down a little bit by a slightly inaccurate playing of the offstage brass. I was hugely disappointed by lukewarm applause by the audience - not even a curtain call for Caetani after such wonderful performance. Was it because this overture is not a piece that most audience is familiar with?
None of it matters since the next piece is - IMHO - Debussy's finest orchestral music La mer. It took me quite a while to like this piece when I first started listening to it. Until one day, I was lying on my bed while listening to it and the whole thing just clicked - the journey to midday from sunrise in the first movement, the playful waves in the second movement, and the stormy finale of the finale. In fact, the make or break of a La mer performance is whether the performance is able to make me feel and picture the waves come crashing down in the finale. That night's performance succeeded in making me feel that way but I have just slight reservations with the playing of the second movement. All in all, it was a very good performance. The icing on the cake is the sight of the orchestra in full force - I always love to see that.
The last piece of the night was Stravinsky's Firebird. When I first listened to it, I wasn't really impressed with the very long quiet opening, and the music sounded quite boring at times. I still have that kind of feeling when listening to it live in the performance, but this time, the marvelous ending won me over. The ending is uplifting as it can possibly be and the audience seemed to be very pleased with it. Huge applause followed and we were given an encore of another Stravinsky's piece Fireworks, a short piece showcasing orchestral virtuosity.
In summary, a very good night out and a memorable concert to end this season's concert-going experience for me.
Wednesday 3 December 2008
Sunday 16 November 2008
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 10 November 2008 - Euphoric Tour
Featuring:
- Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Classical'
- Brahms - Double Concerto for violin and cello
- Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 in F major
My first ACO concert. My first time purchasing student ticket - $18.00 (very cheap!). Got a seat high up in the balcony. This will be the last time I sat at the balcony in Hamer Hall, I just couldn't stand looking down at a very sharp angle for a long long time. I was quite lucky that I still able to see the lead violinist - if I were to be seated a couple more seats up, seeing the soloists would be impossible.
Prokofiev's classical symphony is a very fine music - 'witty' is the adjective that I use to describe this symphony. All movements were very much enjoyable with the last two movements pleased me the most. Surely it's time to check out Prokofiev's other symphonies?
Brahms Double Concerto was a little bit disappointing. Did not really enjoy the performance and I even thought the musical lines were muddy at times. Not even the lovely theme of the Andante engaged me in the performance. The finale fared much better, but as a whole, the performance did not satisfy me as much as the legendary Rostropovich, Oistrakh and Szell recording on EMI. We were given a small piece as an encore, I couldn't really recall what the piece was, but it was a duet between violin and cello, both of them playing pizzicato throughout.
Beethoven 8 was the highlight of the night. Although it's not as famous as the big Beethoven symphonies (think of the Third (Eroica), Fifth, Sixth (Pastorale), Seventh and Ninth), this is the only symphony of Beethoven that never failed to made me grin from the beginning till the end. The whole symphony is just pure fun! Listen to the big opening movement, the playful scherzo of the second movement, the minuet and the fantastic trio of the third movement and the musical jokes in the final movement! The performance was very fine throughout - the fast tempo taken definitely helped as well. The playing of the timpanist was really fine in the final passages of the last movement and it was very exciting to watch him hitting the kettledrums!
After Beethoven 8, Richard Tognetti gave a small 'speech' about the future closure of ANAM at the end of this year. At the end of his speech, he suddenly announced that students from ANAM will join the ACO to give the audience two encores: Tchaikovsky's Waltz of Flower from the Nutcracker and Sibelius' 'Scene with Cranes' suite from the tone poem from Kuolema.
I am one out of the many people who is very disappointed with the federal government decision to stop funding Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), effectively closing it down at the end of this year. I've attended several concerts of ANAM students in South Melbourne Town Hall and have enjoyed immensely some of the programs offered. Particularly fond in my memory are the gorgeous performance of Mozart's Wind Quintet K. 452 and Sonata for Two Pianos K. 448. Also, a very memorable night of Schubert's concert by Emmanuel Ax who was invited to give masterclass in the academy. I urge everyone to sign the online petition to stop government from closing the academy which can be found in ANAM website.
- Prokofiev - Symphony No. 1 in D major, 'Classical'
- Brahms - Double Concerto for violin and cello
- Beethoven - Symphony No. 8 in F major
My first ACO concert. My first time purchasing student ticket - $18.00 (very cheap!). Got a seat high up in the balcony. This will be the last time I sat at the balcony in Hamer Hall, I just couldn't stand looking down at a very sharp angle for a long long time. I was quite lucky that I still able to see the lead violinist - if I were to be seated a couple more seats up, seeing the soloists would be impossible.
Prokofiev's classical symphony is a very fine music - 'witty' is the adjective that I use to describe this symphony. All movements were very much enjoyable with the last two movements pleased me the most. Surely it's time to check out Prokofiev's other symphonies?
Brahms Double Concerto was a little bit disappointing. Did not really enjoy the performance and I even thought the musical lines were muddy at times. Not even the lovely theme of the Andante engaged me in the performance. The finale fared much better, but as a whole, the performance did not satisfy me as much as the legendary Rostropovich, Oistrakh and Szell recording on EMI. We were given a small piece as an encore, I couldn't really recall what the piece was, but it was a duet between violin and cello, both of them playing pizzicato throughout.
Beethoven 8 was the highlight of the night. Although it's not as famous as the big Beethoven symphonies (think of the Third (Eroica), Fifth, Sixth (Pastorale), Seventh and Ninth), this is the only symphony of Beethoven that never failed to made me grin from the beginning till the end. The whole symphony is just pure fun! Listen to the big opening movement, the playful scherzo of the second movement, the minuet and the fantastic trio of the third movement and the musical jokes in the final movement! The performance was very fine throughout - the fast tempo taken definitely helped as well. The playing of the timpanist was really fine in the final passages of the last movement and it was very exciting to watch him hitting the kettledrums!
After Beethoven 8, Richard Tognetti gave a small 'speech' about the future closure of ANAM at the end of this year. At the end of his speech, he suddenly announced that students from ANAM will join the ACO to give the audience two encores: Tchaikovsky's Waltz of Flower from the Nutcracker and Sibelius' 'Scene with Cranes' suite from the tone poem from Kuolema.
I am one out of the many people who is very disappointed with the federal government decision to stop funding Australian National Academy of Music (ANAM), effectively closing it down at the end of this year. I've attended several concerts of ANAM students in South Melbourne Town Hall and have enjoyed immensely some of the programs offered. Particularly fond in my memory are the gorgeous performance of Mozart's Wind Quintet K. 452 and Sonata for Two Pianos K. 448. Also, a very memorable night of Schubert's concert by Emmanuel Ax who was invited to give masterclass in the academy. I urge everyone to sign the online petition to stop government from closing the academy which can be found in ANAM website.
Ensemble Liaison & Friends - Concert 4: Lullaby & Doina
4 November 2008
Featuring:
- Beethoven - Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1
- Jean Franciax - Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Piano
- Osvaldo Golijov - Lullaby and Doina for Flute, Clarinet and Strings
- Schubert - Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 "The Trout"
Ensemble Liaison:
- Svetlana Bogosavljevic - Cello
- David Griffiths - Clarinet
- Timothy Young - Piano
Friends:
- Wilma Smith - Violin
- Katie Chilmaid - Violin
- Simon Oswell - Viola
- Alex Henery - Double Bass
- Mardi McSullea - Flute
There's reason for late reviews: these past few weeks had been quite hectic. Assignments, exams, and old/new personal problems had taken their tolls on me and I just did not have time to do blogging. I'll try my best to recall the experience of this concert.
I have never listened to any of the pieces from that night's concert before.
Short summary:
Wasn't really impressed with Beethoven's Cello Sonata. Sure, there were some brilliant passages, but on a whole, it wasn't quite memorable. Also, the cellist sounded a little bit overwhelmed by the pianist in this performance.
The Franciax's piece was described by the clarinetist as a 'circus music' and he couldn't describe it better. A very challenging piece for clarinetist to perform - plenty of notes in fast tempo portraying fun and bouncy atmosphere of a circus act is what came into my mind when listening to it.
Golijov's piece was another interesting one. It was apparently used in the 2000 movie The Man Who Cried starring Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett. The music was quite haunting and started out very somber. In the middle of the piece, after the double bass player put down his bow and took a deep breath, the music picked up its tempo and the double bass player launched himself to a prolonged, very exciting to watch, fast pizzicato passages. This performance was definitely the highlights of the night for me.
I have to pity myself for not being entirely impressed with Schubert's Trout Quintet. I am not sure what happened but I lost my concentration in the middle of the first movement. Only the folksy tune in the last movement restored my interest of this music. This is the piece that I have to listen again to get why it is so popular.
Featuring:
- Beethoven - Cello Sonata No. 4 in C major, Op. 102 No. 1
- Jean Franciax - Theme and Variations for Clarinet and Piano
- Osvaldo Golijov - Lullaby and Doina for Flute, Clarinet and Strings
- Schubert - Piano Quintet in A major, D. 667 "The Trout"
Ensemble Liaison:
- Svetlana Bogosavljevic - Cello
- David Griffiths - Clarinet
- Timothy Young - Piano
Friends:
- Wilma Smith - Violin
- Katie Chilmaid - Violin
- Simon Oswell - Viola
- Alex Henery - Double Bass
- Mardi McSullea - Flute
There's reason for late reviews: these past few weeks had been quite hectic. Assignments, exams, and old/new personal problems had taken their tolls on me and I just did not have time to do blogging. I'll try my best to recall the experience of this concert.
I have never listened to any of the pieces from that night's concert before.
Short summary:
Wasn't really impressed with Beethoven's Cello Sonata. Sure, there were some brilliant passages, but on a whole, it wasn't quite memorable. Also, the cellist sounded a little bit overwhelmed by the pianist in this performance.
The Franciax's piece was described by the clarinetist as a 'circus music' and he couldn't describe it better. A very challenging piece for clarinetist to perform - plenty of notes in fast tempo portraying fun and bouncy atmosphere of a circus act is what came into my mind when listening to it.
Golijov's piece was another interesting one. It was apparently used in the 2000 movie The Man Who Cried starring Johnny Depp and Cate Blanchett. The music was quite haunting and started out very somber. In the middle of the piece, after the double bass player put down his bow and took a deep breath, the music picked up its tempo and the double bass player launched himself to a prolonged, very exciting to watch, fast pizzicato passages. This performance was definitely the highlights of the night for me.
I have to pity myself for not being entirely impressed with Schubert's Trout Quintet. I am not sure what happened but I lost my concentration in the middle of the first movement. Only the folksy tune in the last movement restored my interest of this music. This is the piece that I have to listen again to get why it is so popular.
Saturday 18 October 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 17 October 2008 - Mozart's Requiem
Featuring:
- Mozart Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter'
- Mozart Requiem
Jacqueline Porter - Soprano
Sally-Anne Russell - Mezzo-soprano
James Egglestone - Tenor
Richard Alexander - Bass
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
Benjamin Northey - Conductor
As usual with Town Hall concert, there is an organ recital performed by Calvin Bowman. For this recital, he played Scarlatti Sonata in G; Mozart's subdued Adagio K. 356 showing that organ can be played in a tamely manner; Suites from Henry V by Walton (arr. Robert Gower/Henry Ley) which is rather nice with the outer marching movements sandwiching the more restraint middle movements. The third movement Touch her soft lips and part probably is my favourite moment in the recital. The final piece is a composition by Bowman himself Vexilla Regis which structurally similar to Walton's piece, with the theme in the first movement coming back in the last movement (if I remember correctly).
So, now on to the one of this year's most awaited concert. The hall is fully packed but not all the seats were occupied, contrary to the 'Sold Out' claim in MSO website. The concert started out with the energetic first movement of the Jupiter. Some nice playing in the brass as well, bringing out musical lines that I never really paid attention to before. I won't critique anything on this composition of Mozart - this symphony is just perfect and I always think that this is the crown achievement of all Mozart's symphonies. The second movement was full of nostalgia, although the movement could be carried out a little bit slower to bring out all the musical ideas there. The third movement was very fine, but I was anticipating for the finale the whole time in the performance. The finale of this symphony is my absolute favourite Mozart symphony movement. That five-voices fugue in the end of this movement is a very good representative of Mozart's composition power. The performance itself was very fine. The tempo was brisk, showcasing the virtuosity of the orchestra. I almost lost my self control and joined the conductor in conducting the orchestra I should say :). The audience only called for two curtain calls, which is somewhat disappointing after a very fine performance, but they might be saving their applause for the next giant, the Requiem, K. 626
A more than 100-members of MSO chorus joined the orchestra to perform the Requiem. An interesting note is that there is no clear separation in the seating of the four voices of the chorus. The seating was mixed with men seating flanked by two women. I wondered what was the reason for this. On the performance itself, the Introit was good and the soprano soared in 'Te Decet'. The chorus joined back soon after and set the tone for the next section - the 'Kyrie'. The 'Kyrie' was taken quite fast, but not too much. I preferred this approach very much compared to slower tempo that some conductors took. One small minor complaint about the chorus: the tenor voices seemed to be very weak compared to the other. I finally found out why when I looked through the program notes after the performance: the tenor has only half the number of the bass. Also, after 'Kyrie', I noticed that there is no organ accompaniment for this performance, which is a little bit disappointing. The 'Dies Irae' was scary as usual, all four of the soloists delivered magnificent performance in the 'Tuba Mirum' sequence. Credit also to the trombone soloist for fine accompaniment. 'Rex Tremendae' opened up with great cries from the chorus but soon subdued in the contrasting 'Salva Me'. The 'Recordare' again featured fine performances from all of the soloists. 'Confutatis' was furious, but lacking in tenor voices, it lost some power of the duet of tenor and bass voices in the opening of this movement. The female voices were angelic in the contrasting 'voca me cum benedictis'. 'Lacrimosa' was probably the pick of the night, although the conductor did not leave enough time for me to take a moment of reflection on it by starting 'Domine Jesu' a bit sooner. The rest of the movements were again very fine. And in the end, the Kyrie fugue but now set with different texts overwhelmed me. Loud applause followed.
To sum up, a very memorable night featuring plenty of fine performances. The conductor obviously has great talent and look forward to seeing him conduct MSO again.
- Mozart Symphony No. 41 'Jupiter'
- Mozart Requiem
Jacqueline Porter - Soprano
Sally-Anne Russell - Mezzo-soprano
James Egglestone - Tenor
Richard Alexander - Bass
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
Benjamin Northey - Conductor
As usual with Town Hall concert, there is an organ recital performed by Calvin Bowman. For this recital, he played Scarlatti Sonata in G; Mozart's subdued Adagio K. 356 showing that organ can be played in a tamely manner; Suites from Henry V by Walton (arr. Robert Gower/Henry Ley) which is rather nice with the outer marching movements sandwiching the more restraint middle movements. The third movement Touch her soft lips and part probably is my favourite moment in the recital. The final piece is a composition by Bowman himself Vexilla Regis which structurally similar to Walton's piece, with the theme in the first movement coming back in the last movement (if I remember correctly).
So, now on to the one of this year's most awaited concert. The hall is fully packed but not all the seats were occupied, contrary to the 'Sold Out' claim in MSO website. The concert started out with the energetic first movement of the Jupiter. Some nice playing in the brass as well, bringing out musical lines that I never really paid attention to before. I won't critique anything on this composition of Mozart - this symphony is just perfect and I always think that this is the crown achievement of all Mozart's symphonies. The second movement was full of nostalgia, although the movement could be carried out a little bit slower to bring out all the musical ideas there. The third movement was very fine, but I was anticipating for the finale the whole time in the performance. The finale of this symphony is my absolute favourite Mozart symphony movement. That five-voices fugue in the end of this movement is a very good representative of Mozart's composition power. The performance itself was very fine. The tempo was brisk, showcasing the virtuosity of the orchestra. I almost lost my self control and joined the conductor in conducting the orchestra I should say :). The audience only called for two curtain calls, which is somewhat disappointing after a very fine performance, but they might be saving their applause for the next giant, the Requiem, K. 626
A more than 100-members of MSO chorus joined the orchestra to perform the Requiem. An interesting note is that there is no clear separation in the seating of the four voices of the chorus. The seating was mixed with men seating flanked by two women. I wondered what was the reason for this. On the performance itself, the Introit was good and the soprano soared in 'Te Decet'. The chorus joined back soon after and set the tone for the next section - the 'Kyrie'. The 'Kyrie' was taken quite fast, but not too much. I preferred this approach very much compared to slower tempo that some conductors took. One small minor complaint about the chorus: the tenor voices seemed to be very weak compared to the other. I finally found out why when I looked through the program notes after the performance: the tenor has only half the number of the bass. Also, after 'Kyrie', I noticed that there is no organ accompaniment for this performance, which is a little bit disappointing. The 'Dies Irae' was scary as usual, all four of the soloists delivered magnificent performance in the 'Tuba Mirum' sequence. Credit also to the trombone soloist for fine accompaniment. 'Rex Tremendae' opened up with great cries from the chorus but soon subdued in the contrasting 'Salva Me'. The 'Recordare' again featured fine performances from all of the soloists. 'Confutatis' was furious, but lacking in tenor voices, it lost some power of the duet of tenor and bass voices in the opening of this movement. The female voices were angelic in the contrasting 'voca me cum benedictis'. 'Lacrimosa' was probably the pick of the night, although the conductor did not leave enough time for me to take a moment of reflection on it by starting 'Domine Jesu' a bit sooner. The rest of the movements were again very fine. And in the end, the Kyrie fugue but now set with different texts overwhelmed me. Loud applause followed.
To sum up, a very memorable night featuring plenty of fine performances. The conductor obviously has great talent and look forward to seeing him conduct MSO again.
Wednesday 15 October 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 4 October 2008 - Handel's Water Music
Featuring:
- Solomon: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
- Julius Caesar: 'Va tacito e nascosto' and 'Dall'ondosa periglio...Aure, deh, per pieta'
- Alcina: Suite
- Rodelinda: 'Vivi, tiranno'
- Water Music (all suites)
All music by Handel.
Bernard Labadie - Conductor
David Hansen - Counter-Tenor
This is an overdue review of this concert. I have been very busy for the whole past month, doing research, writing paper to a conference, and doing assignments and therefore, my experience on this concert has been faded somewhat.
There are three things that I remembered fondly about this concert: First, the sound of MSO, second: the Theorbo; and finally, the voice of the counter-tenor David Hansen. MSO's sound was tweaked somewhat for this performance; it resembled very much the sound of a period-instruments chamber orchestra. The Theorbo is a very unique instrument - rather large in size, but produced very soft sound. I'll discuss the counter-tenor a little bit later.
The concert started with the bouncy The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. The performance while good, was not that exciting either. The pair of oboes seemed to struggle somewhat. Next up is two arias from Julius Caesar. While I was left untouched by both arias, counter-tenor David Hansen delivered the surprise of the night for me. I was startled when he started singing, and never expected that a male can produce that kind of voice. His voice while refined, did not have enough volume to carry through for the entire hall, I believed. He did much better in the Rodelinda aria, showcasing his techniques and impressing the audiences with fiendishly difficult passages.
The Alcina suite was performed in between the performances of arias of Julius Caesar and Rodelinda. This was the best performance of the concert that night. The performance of Water Music, which is supposed to be the highlight of the night, ended up being average. The seemingly endless number of movements in all suites of Water Music ended up just a little bit too much for all audience to take (there are in total 17 movements - 8 for Suite 1; 4 for Suite 3, 5 for Suite 2 performed in that order). I noticed an old lady sitting beside me fell asleep somewhere in the middle of first suite. Fortunately, she woke up at the correct moment, in the Hornpipe movement of the second suite. That movement and also the Bourree from the same suites are probably the best performances of the entire suite.
Next concert: this Friday, Mozart's Requiem and Jupiter Symphony. Can't wait.
- Solomon: The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba
- Julius Caesar: 'Va tacito e nascosto' and 'Dall'ondosa periglio...Aure, deh, per pieta'
- Alcina: Suite
- Rodelinda: 'Vivi, tiranno'
- Water Music (all suites)
All music by Handel.
Bernard Labadie - Conductor
David Hansen - Counter-Tenor
This is an overdue review of this concert. I have been very busy for the whole past month, doing research, writing paper to a conference, and doing assignments and therefore, my experience on this concert has been faded somewhat.
There are three things that I remembered fondly about this concert: First, the sound of MSO, second: the Theorbo; and finally, the voice of the counter-tenor David Hansen. MSO's sound was tweaked somewhat for this performance; it resembled very much the sound of a period-instruments chamber orchestra. The Theorbo is a very unique instrument - rather large in size, but produced very soft sound. I'll discuss the counter-tenor a little bit later.
The concert started with the bouncy The Arrival of the Queen of Sheba. The performance while good, was not that exciting either. The pair of oboes seemed to struggle somewhat. Next up is two arias from Julius Caesar. While I was left untouched by both arias, counter-tenor David Hansen delivered the surprise of the night for me. I was startled when he started singing, and never expected that a male can produce that kind of voice. His voice while refined, did not have enough volume to carry through for the entire hall, I believed. He did much better in the Rodelinda aria, showcasing his techniques and impressing the audiences with fiendishly difficult passages.
The Alcina suite was performed in between the performances of arias of Julius Caesar and Rodelinda. This was the best performance of the concert that night. The performance of Water Music, which is supposed to be the highlight of the night, ended up being average. The seemingly endless number of movements in all suites of Water Music ended up just a little bit too much for all audience to take (there are in total 17 movements - 8 for Suite 1; 4 for Suite 3, 5 for Suite 2 performed in that order). I noticed an old lady sitting beside me fell asleep somewhere in the middle of first suite. Fortunately, she woke up at the correct moment, in the Hornpipe movement of the second suite. That movement and also the Bourree from the same suites are probably the best performances of the entire suite.
Next concert: this Friday, Mozart's Requiem and Jupiter Symphony. Can't wait.
Thursday 18 September 2008
Ensemble Liaison & Friends - Concert 3: Brahms & Messiaen
Featuring:
- Brahms - Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
- Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
Ensemble Liaison:
- Svetlana Bogosavljevic - Cello
- David Griffiths - Clarinet
- Timothy Young - Piano
Friend:
- Wilma Smith - Violin
I just attended this concert on a whim after deciding that I did not want to attend it two hours before the concert because of my cough and unfinished assignment. Just one hour prior to the concert, I finished my assignment and decided to go to the concert. 10 dollar is the ticket price. The attraction of the concert for me is the Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time of which I will attend again in the November play by MSO chamber players. Also, I haven't heard any of these two works before. So, I was really thrilled to find two gems.
I have often read that Brahms' late chamber music works are best described as autumnal. Listening to this Clarinet Trio I can clearly see why. Every time I closed my eyes to be more intimate to the music, the only thing that I can picture of is the a line of trees with yellow leaves falling down from them. Autumnal is really the best way to describe this Clarinet Trio. All four movements are gorgeous, but the heart of the piece for me is the lyrical second movement. Near the end of this movement, there was this passage I found so sublime where the theme is played by the piano while the cello and clarinet provided a wonderful accompaniment - tears rolled down my cheek. The end of the final movement was quite virtuosic as well rounding up a very nice piece. I can't wait to discover Brahms' more famous Clarinet Quintet after this.
While Brahms' piece charmed with its melancholy and melodic lines, Messian's piece affected the listener with its strong depiction of the end of time. There are 8 movements in the piece, some movements are very short, while some movements are very very long due to its 'slowness'. The movement that made the most impression are the third movement for solo clarinet, played wonderfully by the clarinetist. The fifth movement for cello accompanied by piano and the sixth movement where all of the instruments played together playing the 'Dance of fury' and the last movement which is very similar to the fifth movement for violin accompanied by piano. Bird calls are plenty in the piece, most notably in the mysterious first movement and also in the second movement.
I am very impressed with the quality of the musicians in this group. They are all at very high standard. What actually impressed most in the experience of attending this concert is the intimacy between instruments playing in chamber music. The dialogue between instruments are very intimate and very interesting. Tonight's experience is very new to me and I wouldn't mind paying another 10 dollar for another concert like this.
- Brahms - Clarinet Trio in A minor, Op. 114
- Messiaen - Quartet for the End of Time
Ensemble Liaison:
- Svetlana Bogosavljevic - Cello
- David Griffiths - Clarinet
- Timothy Young - Piano
Friend:
- Wilma Smith - Violin
I just attended this concert on a whim after deciding that I did not want to attend it two hours before the concert because of my cough and unfinished assignment. Just one hour prior to the concert, I finished my assignment and decided to go to the concert. 10 dollar is the ticket price. The attraction of the concert for me is the Messiaen's Quartet for the End of Time of which I will attend again in the November play by MSO chamber players. Also, I haven't heard any of these two works before. So, I was really thrilled to find two gems.
I have often read that Brahms' late chamber music works are best described as autumnal. Listening to this Clarinet Trio I can clearly see why. Every time I closed my eyes to be more intimate to the music, the only thing that I can picture of is the a line of trees with yellow leaves falling down from them. Autumnal is really the best way to describe this Clarinet Trio. All four movements are gorgeous, but the heart of the piece for me is the lyrical second movement. Near the end of this movement, there was this passage I found so sublime where the theme is played by the piano while the cello and clarinet provided a wonderful accompaniment - tears rolled down my cheek. The end of the final movement was quite virtuosic as well rounding up a very nice piece. I can't wait to discover Brahms' more famous Clarinet Quintet after this.
While Brahms' piece charmed with its melancholy and melodic lines, Messian's piece affected the listener with its strong depiction of the end of time. There are 8 movements in the piece, some movements are very short, while some movements are very very long due to its 'slowness'. The movement that made the most impression are the third movement for solo clarinet, played wonderfully by the clarinetist. The fifth movement for cello accompanied by piano and the sixth movement where all of the instruments played together playing the 'Dance of fury' and the last movement which is very similar to the fifth movement for violin accompanied by piano. Bird calls are plenty in the piece, most notably in the mysterious first movement and also in the second movement.
I am very impressed with the quality of the musicians in this group. They are all at very high standard. What actually impressed most in the experience of attending this concert is the intimacy between instruments playing in chamber music. The dialogue between instruments are very intimate and very interesting. Tonight's experience is very new to me and I wouldn't mind paying another 10 dollar for another concert like this.
Saturday 30 August 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 29 August 2008 - Three Great Romantics
Featuring:
- Carl Maria von Weber - Oberon: Overture
- Robert Schumann - Piano Concerto
- Johannes Brahms - Serenade No. 1
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
John Chen - Piano
Calvin Bowman - Organ
For his organ recital, Calvin Bowman started off by presenting a rather lengthy Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552. Schumann's pieces from Canonic studies for pedal piano, Op. 56 was next, I love the second piece as it has a very childlike tune. Brahms' Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen was very nice as well. And a lively piece by C.S. Lang Tuba Tune rounded up the performance.
The decision to either subscribe to the entire Town Hall series or not, I recalled, was one of the toughest decision for me to make last year because of this concert. On one hand, I wanted to save money by not attending to this concert because MSO has already programmed very similar program last season differing only in the Brahms' work which I have not listened to before. On the other hand, if I did not attend this concert, then I can't have the Town Hall subscription and assigned a fixed seating for all the other 3 concerts that I want to go. In the end, I found out that I only need to pay $12 extra for this concert if I chose to subscribe to the whole series compare to purchasing individual tickets for the other 3 concerts separately. The promise of listening to Brahms' serenade helped me in justifying the extra $12 that I need to pay for this concert.
The concert itself did not disappoint, if Brahms is your motivation to go to this concert. However, if your motivation is Schumann's Piano Concerto, then I think you might feel a little bit disappointed. I'll elaborate this later. The concert program started with Oberon: overture which I already loved. The orchestra executed it brilliantly and the audience loved it. Credit also to Caetani for his sudden tempo acceleration after the slow introduction, I liked it very much. Next up is the disappointment of the concert for me. The Schumann Piano Concerto started good, but then as with the other pianist who played this same concerto last season, John Chen wasn't able to bring out the most of the concerto. The middle section of the concerto was, to be honest, quite bland. It did not help the performance when the pianist made a small number of mistakes as well. The cadenza which is the make or break of Schumann Piano Concerto for me, was fortunately quite good although Richter's reading of it is never surpassed. The performance of the second movement was okay to border-not-so-good. Fortunately, the finale was very good. However, as a whole, the performance is not so good. By the way I have some rant on audience's concert etiquettes today: the audience sitting at my back and around me weren't being helpful for me in enjoying the performance. There were chair creaks through out; the couple sitting behind me did some annoying things: unwrapping a candy, flipping through the concert program in the middle of the concert and scratching their legs loudly. And for the first time in my concert-going experience, I saw a guy passing a glass of wine to his friend who is two rows in front of him in the middle of the first movement of piano concerto. Although Australia is a laid back country, this behaviour is just unacceptable.
Moving on to Brahms' serenade: this is the gem of the night. A work of 6 movements, it started with a very uplifting first movement. The second and fifth movements are two nice scherzos. The middle movements are a beautiful Adagio although it did not start very convincingly and a charming Minuet. Haydn-like last movement was the first thing that popped up in my mind after listening to the first few bars of the finale. The whole serenade was marvelous. I very much enjoyed the whole piece. Hungarian Dance No. 1 was the encore of the night.
The number of the audience was quite disappointing, this is probably the emptiest Town Hall concert that I've ever attended. Next Town Hall concert should hopefully filled up with more people because it has two masterpieces: Mozart's Jupiter symphony and Requiem.
- Carl Maria von Weber - Oberon: Overture
- Robert Schumann - Piano Concerto
- Johannes Brahms - Serenade No. 1
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
John Chen - Piano
Calvin Bowman - Organ
For his organ recital, Calvin Bowman started off by presenting a rather lengthy Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat major, BWV 552. Schumann's pieces from Canonic studies for pedal piano, Op. 56 was next, I love the second piece as it has a very childlike tune. Brahms' Es ist ein Ros' entsprungen was very nice as well. And a lively piece by C.S. Lang Tuba Tune rounded up the performance.
The decision to either subscribe to the entire Town Hall series or not, I recalled, was one of the toughest decision for me to make last year because of this concert. On one hand, I wanted to save money by not attending to this concert because MSO has already programmed very similar program last season differing only in the Brahms' work which I have not listened to before. On the other hand, if I did not attend this concert, then I can't have the Town Hall subscription and assigned a fixed seating for all the other 3 concerts that I want to go. In the end, I found out that I only need to pay $12 extra for this concert if I chose to subscribe to the whole series compare to purchasing individual tickets for the other 3 concerts separately. The promise of listening to Brahms' serenade helped me in justifying the extra $12 that I need to pay for this concert.
The concert itself did not disappoint, if Brahms is your motivation to go to this concert. However, if your motivation is Schumann's Piano Concerto, then I think you might feel a little bit disappointed. I'll elaborate this later. The concert program started with Oberon: overture which I already loved. The orchestra executed it brilliantly and the audience loved it. Credit also to Caetani for his sudden tempo acceleration after the slow introduction, I liked it very much. Next up is the disappointment of the concert for me. The Schumann Piano Concerto started good, but then as with the other pianist who played this same concerto last season, John Chen wasn't able to bring out the most of the concerto. The middle section of the concerto was, to be honest, quite bland. It did not help the performance when the pianist made a small number of mistakes as well. The cadenza which is the make or break of Schumann Piano Concerto for me, was fortunately quite good although Richter's reading of it is never surpassed. The performance of the second movement was okay to border-not-so-good. Fortunately, the finale was very good. However, as a whole, the performance is not so good. By the way I have some rant on audience's concert etiquettes today: the audience sitting at my back and around me weren't being helpful for me in enjoying the performance. There were chair creaks through out; the couple sitting behind me did some annoying things: unwrapping a candy, flipping through the concert program in the middle of the concert and scratching their legs loudly. And for the first time in my concert-going experience, I saw a guy passing a glass of wine to his friend who is two rows in front of him in the middle of the first movement of piano concerto. Although Australia is a laid back country, this behaviour is just unacceptable.
Moving on to Brahms' serenade: this is the gem of the night. A work of 6 movements, it started with a very uplifting first movement. The second and fifth movements are two nice scherzos. The middle movements are a beautiful Adagio although it did not start very convincingly and a charming Minuet. Haydn-like last movement was the first thing that popped up in my mind after listening to the first few bars of the finale. The whole serenade was marvelous. I very much enjoyed the whole piece. Hungarian Dance No. 1 was the encore of the night.
The number of the audience was quite disappointing, this is probably the emptiest Town Hall concert that I've ever attended. Next Town Hall concert should hopefully filled up with more people because it has two masterpieces: Mozart's Jupiter symphony and Requiem.
Monday 25 August 2008
Sydney Symphony mimed MSO in opening ceremony Sydney 2000 Olympics
SSO, its musicians and Australia will be embarrassed by this. I don't really have the problem with the miming because the sound of an orchestra won't come up perfectly if the musicians were to play in an open air stadium with bad acoustics and lots of background noises. The problem with it is SSO mimed to the recording by its arch-rival MSO. They could've and should've mimed to its own recording. I don't understand the decision of the Olympic Committee to use MSO recording and asked SSO to mime to it. It's demeaning to the musicians of SSO (because they're not actually playing the music) and MSO (because they're not acknowledged!).
Oh well, what's done is done.
Oh well, what's done is done.
Thursday 7 August 2008
Music that are being discovered (by me of course :) )
Bach: Sonata and Partita for Violin. Bought the Goldberg the other day, have yet to listen to it.
Beethoven: Piano Sonata #5 and hopefully #6 and #7. Still need to listen to Diabelli Variations.
Mozart: Gran Partita (Serenade for 13 winds), Bassoon concerto, Symphonies written before the 'Haffner'.
Haydn: The symphonies (have listened to 100-104, working my way backwards)
Saint Saens: Have listened to all of his piano concertos, right now trying a couple of his tone poems as well as going to listen to his third violin concerto.
Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 (it has a very uplifting Scherzo in forms of a furiant).
Mahler: Symphony No. 9.
Chopin: Scherzos and Fantaisie in e minor
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole.
Schubert: Piano Sonata #20, D. 959
Mendelssohn: Some piano works.
Schumann: The symphonies (finished with his symphonies) now onto the piano works.
Berg: Violin Concerto (Still didn't get it! But when I listened to it the last time, I can enjoy a lot more of the piece.)
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite #3, relistening to Manfred symphony and will listen to his Concert Fantasy soon.
Sibelius: Tone poems, Symphony No. 5
Brahms: I should start listening to his op. 117, 118, and 119.
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1, and (relistening to) The Bells. (Sorry have neglected Rach for these few months :( ).
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 4.
Debussy: Images for Orchestra.
Ravel: Ma Mere Loye (relistening) and Tzigane.
Nielsen: Symphony No. 5.
Verdi: 4 sacred pieces.
Grieg: Full Peer Gynt play and Sigurd Jorsalfar.
Bernstein: Serenade (should listen to it..)
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
Beethoven: Piano Sonata #5 and hopefully #6 and #7. Still need to listen to Diabelli Variations.
Mozart: Gran Partita (Serenade for 13 winds), Bassoon concerto, Symphonies written before the 'Haffner'.
Haydn: The symphonies (have listened to 100-104, working my way backwards)
Saint Saens: Have listened to all of his piano concertos, right now trying a couple of his tone poems as well as going to listen to his third violin concerto.
Dvorak: Symphony No. 6 (it has a very uplifting Scherzo in forms of a furiant).
Mahler: Symphony No. 9.
Chopin: Scherzos and Fantaisie in e minor
Lalo: Symphonie Espagnole.
Schubert: Piano Sonata #20, D. 959
Mendelssohn: Some piano works.
Schumann: The symphonies (finished with his symphonies) now onto the piano works.
Berg: Violin Concerto (Still didn't get it! But when I listened to it the last time, I can enjoy a lot more of the piece.)
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suite #3, relistening to Manfred symphony and will listen to his Concert Fantasy soon.
Sibelius: Tone poems, Symphony No. 5
Brahms: I should start listening to his op. 117, 118, and 119.
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1, and (relistening to) The Bells. (Sorry have neglected Rach for these few months :( ).
Prokofiev: Piano Concerto No. 4.
Debussy: Images for Orchestra.
Ravel: Ma Mere Loye (relistening) and Tzigane.
Nielsen: Symphony No. 5.
Verdi: 4 sacred pieces.
Grieg: Full Peer Gynt play and Sigurd Jorsalfar.
Bernstein: Serenade (should listen to it..)
Gershwin: Piano Concerto in F
Sunday 3 August 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 2 August 2008 - Passionate Panorama
Featuring:
- Delius Brigg Fair - An English Rhapsody
- Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
- Brahms Symphony No. 1
James Ehnes - Violin
Christopher Seaman - Conductor
This is undoubtedly the concert that I've been excitedly waiting the most and the first concert that I decided to really go for when the subscription offer arrived at my mailbox. Tchaikovsky's violin concerto is my favourite violin concerto per se and my very first introduction to classical music. I still remembered waking up every morning to listen to the finale of this piece. Brahms' first symphony is a very special symphony that means a lot to me. I don't play this symphony very often in my computer since I always reserved it for a special occasion. I only play this symphony when I am doubting my own ability, when I think I've reached my limit in doing something or just pure self-doubts. By listening to this symphony, I put myself into Brahms' shoes when he wrote this symphony. He wanted to write something that is deemed worthy of comparison to Beethoven's ninth. He struggled a lot during the writing of the symphony and reportedly took 15 years before completing it. Talk about struggle! With this symphony completed, he overcame his own self doubt, he stretched his own limit as a composer and overcame his own fear as a human to allow his work to be compared to Beethoven's masterpiece. This alone is enough to give me motivation and I would always be lifted up, be able to face my problems straight in the face and most importantly I would start believe again in myself.
Now to the concert. The Delius piece is an impressionist piece which doesn't make a very big impression to me. It's nice and all, but in the end it's not satisfying. The orchestra played well and there are some interesting parts in this folk-song inspired rhapsody. As other Delius piece that I've listened before - it's a pleasant piece but quite forgettable, more so in this concert because the two works that followed are warhorses of classical music.
Next was the Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. The first thing that I noticed when the soloist, James Ehnes, played the very first few notes was that his playing is very gentle and sweet if compared to the Vadim Repin's recording with Gergiev. But boy he can play! I can certainly see why he is touted as one of the leading violinists now. The scary double stops and those technical challenges were nothing to him. His playing of the cadenza of the first movement showed this. The phrasing was well done the accelerando was wonderful and those triplets at the end of the cadenza was just perfect. The orchestra accompanied him very well throughout. Huge applause from the audience after the end of the first movement.
The second movement was poignant, restraint with the soloist accompanied very well by the woodwinds. In the finale, the soloist calmly removed some of the broken bow hair from his bow when he's not playing. I wondered how he could stay so calm and took his time to remove the bow hair. When the coda entered, the orchestra and the soloist puts their feet down the pedal and concluded the coda in such fast tempo. Huge applause from the audience and we were treated with the Preludio of Bach's third partita as an encore. I was quite lucky to get to talk to him in the foyer in the interval and got his autograph. He was very kind and I asked him if he's going to come again to Melbourne next year. He said he's not scheduled to come next year, but maybe the year after.
The last piece of the concert is the Brahms. The opening movement is taken at a faster tempo than those recordings of whom I am familiar with. With this taken, some of the majestic and struggle feeling of the opening was lost. None of this matters since the performance was so fine throughout. The violin solo in the second movement was lovely and the finale was so fine and hair-raising I wish it never ended. Loud applause followed after the final chord of the symphony.
To conclude: a very memorable night, probably one of the best concerts that I've attended to. The concert hall was almost full, I'd say filled at 97-98% capacity. Hope every MSO concert can be as brilliant as this concert.
- Delius Brigg Fair - An English Rhapsody
- Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto
- Brahms Symphony No. 1
James Ehnes - Violin
Christopher Seaman - Conductor
This is undoubtedly the concert that I've been excitedly waiting the most and the first concert that I decided to really go for when the subscription offer arrived at my mailbox. Tchaikovsky's violin concerto is my favourite violin concerto per se and my very first introduction to classical music. I still remembered waking up every morning to listen to the finale of this piece. Brahms' first symphony is a very special symphony that means a lot to me. I don't play this symphony very often in my computer since I always reserved it for a special occasion. I only play this symphony when I am doubting my own ability, when I think I've reached my limit in doing something or just pure self-doubts. By listening to this symphony, I put myself into Brahms' shoes when he wrote this symphony. He wanted to write something that is deemed worthy of comparison to Beethoven's ninth. He struggled a lot during the writing of the symphony and reportedly took 15 years before completing it. Talk about struggle! With this symphony completed, he overcame his own self doubt, he stretched his own limit as a composer and overcame his own fear as a human to allow his work to be compared to Beethoven's masterpiece. This alone is enough to give me motivation and I would always be lifted up, be able to face my problems straight in the face and most importantly I would start believe again in myself.
Now to the concert. The Delius piece is an impressionist piece which doesn't make a very big impression to me. It's nice and all, but in the end it's not satisfying. The orchestra played well and there are some interesting parts in this folk-song inspired rhapsody. As other Delius piece that I've listened before - it's a pleasant piece but quite forgettable, more so in this concert because the two works that followed are warhorses of classical music.
Next was the Tchaikovsky's violin concerto. The first thing that I noticed when the soloist, James Ehnes, played the very first few notes was that his playing is very gentle and sweet if compared to the Vadim Repin's recording with Gergiev. But boy he can play! I can certainly see why he is touted as one of the leading violinists now. The scary double stops and those technical challenges were nothing to him. His playing of the cadenza of the first movement showed this. The phrasing was well done the accelerando was wonderful and those triplets at the end of the cadenza was just perfect. The orchestra accompanied him very well throughout. Huge applause from the audience after the end of the first movement.
The second movement was poignant, restraint with the soloist accompanied very well by the woodwinds. In the finale, the soloist calmly removed some of the broken bow hair from his bow when he's not playing. I wondered how he could stay so calm and took his time to remove the bow hair. When the coda entered, the orchestra and the soloist puts their feet down the pedal and concluded the coda in such fast tempo. Huge applause from the audience and we were treated with the Preludio of Bach's third partita as an encore. I was quite lucky to get to talk to him in the foyer in the interval and got his autograph. He was very kind and I asked him if he's going to come again to Melbourne next year. He said he's not scheduled to come next year, but maybe the year after.
The last piece of the concert is the Brahms. The opening movement is taken at a faster tempo than those recordings of whom I am familiar with. With this taken, some of the majestic and struggle feeling of the opening was lost. None of this matters since the performance was so fine throughout. The violin solo in the second movement was lovely and the finale was so fine and hair-raising I wish it never ended. Loud applause followed after the final chord of the symphony.
To conclude: a very memorable night, probably one of the best concerts that I've attended to. The concert hall was almost full, I'd say filled at 97-98% capacity. Hope every MSO concert can be as brilliant as this concert.
Sunday 20 July 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 19 July 2008 - Toward the Light
Featuring:
- Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
- Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5
Simon Trpceski - Piano
Thomas Dausgaard - Conductor
I'll be frank and just admit I subscribe to this concert because of Saint-Saens piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with the 2 other pieces when I made my decision to subscribe to this concert. It's a bit of gamble since I had bad experience with Richard Strauss music played by MSO. The last season concert of his 'Sinfonia Domestica' bored me - one of the concert that I just wished it ended as fast as it could. With Nielsen, I read someone saying in Amazon classical music board that he 'spoke as much as Mahler did with his symphonies but in half the time'. In other thread of the same forum when posters were asked to vote for the best symphony ever written, there are surprisingly a number of votes for his fifth symphony despite strong (and popular) competitors from say Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Dvorak symphonies. I'm curious to see what the fuss is all about.
To prepare myself for the concert, I listened to Till Eulenspiegel and Nielsen's fifth symphony 2 days before the concert. I actually fell in love with Till in the first listening! A character of quick wits and plenty of tricks, he was portrayed excellently by Strauss - the opening horn solo depicting Till is just delicious. The music is also delightful with plenty of tongue-in-cheek passages throughout. I especially love the market scene where you can just listen to the havoc of the market from the music. And how about the whistling tune that is played after Till fooled the scholars? Fantastic. This piece and Also Sprach Zarathustra - which I spend one full evening on listening and listening to it again - now made me look at Strauss' music in a more positive way.
Nielsen's fifth symphony is a very modern symphony. One just needs to listen to the opening movement and will be taken aback on how modern it sounds. Despite being modern, it never reached to the atonality of Schoenberg. The symphony projects the impression of victory through struggle. It has a number of powerful moment and the best known moment in the whole symphony is when the snare drum 'fights' against the rest of the orchestra in the second part of the first movement. I was not entirely convinced with the second movement when I first heard it, but second listening should give me a better insight.
Now to the concert. The orchestra played Till very well. Individual solos were wonderful. However, in the end I felt the performance lacked in drama compared to the performance of Furtwangler or Karajan. Till's death scene may serve as an example to this. It wasn't as dramatic as it could be. In a sense it's too bad since the scene where Till was captured and whistling desperately was very good portrayed.
Despite all of this, it's still a very good performance.
You won't believe how the Saint-Saens piano concerto was played. Such virtuosity, showmanship and clarity playing. Simon Trpceski is one of the pianist to keep your eye on the next time he gives the concert. He was thoroughly impressive in the concerto, and very much comparable to Stephan Hough's performance of the fifth piano concerto with MSO last season. The performance started off with a bang, the long piano line was given such power that might surprise unprepared listeners. The technically difficult long cadenzas were nothing for the pianist, he played it off easily and such clarity in the playing. The playing was never muffled even in the stormiest passages. The orchestra accompanied wonderfully throughout. After the first movement, the pianist - would you believe it! - took some time to adjust his tie bow. He then proceeded and gave a most exciting Scherzo. In some points of the performance, he even moved his body as if he was dancing to the tune. This scherzo remained a crowd pleasing movement, several of the audience clapped after this movement. I don't blame them, the playing was just delicious. The finale started off in a similar fashion with the first movement - with lightning speed attack to the stormy opening. My heart started racing from the beginning of the second movement and it didn't stop until the last note of the finale. That showed how intense and exciting Simon Trpceski playing was. He gave two encores, the first one was very poetic - I regret not listening closely to him when he mentioned it before he played. The second encore was a composition by his fellow Macedonian composer. Both pieces were wonderful.
Nielsen's fifth symphony was next. A very good or rather, excellent first movement. The battle scene between the snare drum against the rest of the orchestra was so powerful and when the 'noble' theme came out victorious, I was emotionally overwhelmed. I again have a little bit of problem understanding the second movement, although the fugues (there are two fugues in the second movement) were now a bit clearer to me. The conductor is to be applauded for his energetic conducting and the powerful sound he extracted out from the orchestra.
Last note that I want to make about the concert is the number of attendance. Poor MSO, this concert was the less-attended concert that I've been to so far this season. Almost half the stall seats were empty! The circle seats were much better, it was 75% full. The balcony fared the worst, from a quick glance, I can tell that 80% of the seats were empty. This situation really saddens me and I can only think of one reason on the low number of attendance: this is the third performance out of 3 of the program.
Next concert: my highlight of this MSO season: Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Brahms' first symphony on 2 August. Two of my favourite works. Can't wait till the day comes!
- Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
- Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5
Simon Trpceski - Piano
Thomas Dausgaard - Conductor
I'll be frank and just admit I subscribe to this concert because of Saint-Saens piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with the 2 other pieces when I made my decision to subscribe to this concert. It's a bit of gamble since I had bad experience with Richard Strauss music played by MSO. The last season concert of his 'Sinfonia Domestica' bored me - one of the concert that I just wished it ended as fast as it could. With Nielsen, I read someone saying in Amazon classical music board that he 'spoke as much as Mahler did with his symphonies but in half the time'. In other thread of the same forum when posters were asked to vote for the best symphony ever written, there are surprisingly a number of votes for his fifth symphony despite strong (and popular) competitors from say Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Dvorak symphonies. I'm curious to see what the fuss is all about.
To prepare myself for the concert, I listened to Till Eulenspiegel and Nielsen's fifth symphony 2 days before the concert. I actually fell in love with Till in the first listening! A character of quick wits and plenty of tricks, he was portrayed excellently by Strauss - the opening horn solo depicting Till is just delicious. The music is also delightful with plenty of tongue-in-cheek passages throughout. I especially love the market scene where you can just listen to the havoc of the market from the music. And how about the whistling tune that is played after Till fooled the scholars? Fantastic. This piece and Also Sprach Zarathustra - which I spend one full evening on listening and listening to it again - now made me look at Strauss' music in a more positive way.
Nielsen's fifth symphony is a very modern symphony. One just needs to listen to the opening movement and will be taken aback on how modern it sounds. Despite being modern, it never reached to the atonality of Schoenberg. The symphony projects the impression of victory through struggle. It has a number of powerful moment and the best known moment in the whole symphony is when the snare drum 'fights' against the rest of the orchestra in the second part of the first movement. I was not entirely convinced with the second movement when I first heard it, but second listening should give me a better insight.
Now to the concert. The orchestra played Till very well. Individual solos were wonderful. However, in the end I felt the performance lacked in drama compared to the performance of Furtwangler or Karajan. Till's death scene may serve as an example to this. It wasn't as dramatic as it could be. In a sense it's too bad since the scene where Till was captured and whistling desperately was very good portrayed.
Despite all of this, it's still a very good performance.
You won't believe how the Saint-Saens piano concerto was played. Such virtuosity, showmanship and clarity playing. Simon Trpceski is one of the pianist to keep your eye on the next time he gives the concert. He was thoroughly impressive in the concerto, and very much comparable to Stephan Hough's performance of the fifth piano concerto with MSO last season. The performance started off with a bang, the long piano line was given such power that might surprise unprepared listeners. The technically difficult long cadenzas were nothing for the pianist, he played it off easily and such clarity in the playing. The playing was never muffled even in the stormiest passages. The orchestra accompanied wonderfully throughout. After the first movement, the pianist - would you believe it! - took some time to adjust his tie bow. He then proceeded and gave a most exciting Scherzo. In some points of the performance, he even moved his body as if he was dancing to the tune. This scherzo remained a crowd pleasing movement, several of the audience clapped after this movement. I don't blame them, the playing was just delicious. The finale started off in a similar fashion with the first movement - with lightning speed attack to the stormy opening. My heart started racing from the beginning of the second movement and it didn't stop until the last note of the finale. That showed how intense and exciting Simon Trpceski playing was. He gave two encores, the first one was very poetic - I regret not listening closely to him when he mentioned it before he played. The second encore was a composition by his fellow Macedonian composer. Both pieces were wonderful.
Nielsen's fifth symphony was next. A very good or rather, excellent first movement. The battle scene between the snare drum against the rest of the orchestra was so powerful and when the 'noble' theme came out victorious, I was emotionally overwhelmed. I again have a little bit of problem understanding the second movement, although the fugues (there are two fugues in the second movement) were now a bit clearer to me. The conductor is to be applauded for his energetic conducting and the powerful sound he extracted out from the orchestra.
Last note that I want to make about the concert is the number of attendance. Poor MSO, this concert was the less-attended concert that I've been to so far this season. Almost half the stall seats were empty! The circle seats were much better, it was 75% full. The balcony fared the worst, from a quick glance, I can tell that 80% of the seats were empty. This situation really saddens me and I can only think of one reason on the low number of attendance: this is the third performance out of 3 of the program.
Next concert: my highlight of this MSO season: Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Brahms' first symphony on 2 August. Two of my favourite works. Can't wait till the day comes!
Monday 30 June 2008
Mahler's 9th Symphony - A first listening
I finally managed to pick myself up and have the courage to listen to this critic-branded 'earth-shattering' symphony. It wasn't earth-shattering for me at the moment, a problem that I always have with Mahler's music. For the recording, I picked to listen to Karajan's famous 1982-live recordings with the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra.
Verdict:
The first movement was fantastic up until around the half-way mark, where the climax of the orchestra was really frightening. I had goosebumps all over me during this period and I'm sure everybody would too. After that, I expected more development but only to be disappointed with the music turning calm and calmer till the end of the movement. The very end of this movement has a very unique note, that for some unexplainable reason, sticks to me. Listen to it yourself and you'll see what I am talking about.
The second movement started out as a dance, but then it's not so dance like anymore. It kinda reminded me of the Scherzo of his 2nd symphony.
The third movement was the one that impressed me the best - it's very much like an orchestra showpiece. But the music itself sounded sarcastic from the very first note till the last note. I guess that's what it intended to sound like as Mahler wrote this movement as 'Rondo Burleske'.
The last movement moved me, close to tears, but right now the top slow movement of Mahler for me is still the slow movement of his sixth symphony. It is widely recognised as the acceptance of death, parting to this world. Perhaps, being a young man, death is something that I haven't thought much yet. I have the same problems with another movement of Mahler that supposedly meaning 'farewell to the earth' - the last movement of Das Lied von Der Erde. I can understand it musically, I gain something out of the movement, but I still cannot view this movement as how it is supposed to represent. Maybe this is just the naive side of me that have not had the slightest idea yet how to accept fate that is coming to you.
Conclusion: nothing to conclude but to listen to it again! I have Bernstein's, Abbado's and Walter's recording of this symphony and it should be interesting to compare the performance of each recordings. Hopefully one of them can help me understand the last movement better, so that I'll gain more out of it than what I gained of it at the moment.
Verdict:
The first movement was fantastic up until around the half-way mark, where the climax of the orchestra was really frightening. I had goosebumps all over me during this period and I'm sure everybody would too. After that, I expected more development but only to be disappointed with the music turning calm and calmer till the end of the movement. The very end of this movement has a very unique note, that for some unexplainable reason, sticks to me. Listen to it yourself and you'll see what I am talking about.
The second movement started out as a dance, but then it's not so dance like anymore. It kinda reminded me of the Scherzo of his 2nd symphony.
The third movement was the one that impressed me the best - it's very much like an orchestra showpiece. But the music itself sounded sarcastic from the very first note till the last note. I guess that's what it intended to sound like as Mahler wrote this movement as 'Rondo Burleske'.
The last movement moved me, close to tears, but right now the top slow movement of Mahler for me is still the slow movement of his sixth symphony. It is widely recognised as the acceptance of death, parting to this world. Perhaps, being a young man, death is something that I haven't thought much yet. I have the same problems with another movement of Mahler that supposedly meaning 'farewell to the earth' - the last movement of Das Lied von Der Erde. I can understand it musically, I gain something out of the movement, but I still cannot view this movement as how it is supposed to represent. Maybe this is just the naive side of me that have not had the slightest idea yet how to accept fate that is coming to you.
Conclusion: nothing to conclude but to listen to it again! I have Bernstein's, Abbado's and Walter's recording of this symphony and it should be interesting to compare the performance of each recordings. Hopefully one of them can help me understand the last movement better, so that I'll gain more out of it than what I gained of it at the moment.
Sunday 29 June 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 29 June 2008 - Ravel's Bolero
Featuring:
- Berlioz Le Corsaire Overture
- Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20
- Schoenberg Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31
- Ravel Bolero
Boris Berman - Piano
Mario Venzago - Conductor
Marketing technique is applied to the fullest to the title of this concert - crowd-pleasing Ravel's Bolero. As if the other programs in the concert is not as good as Bolero. It succeeded in enticing me to subscribe to this concert, so I guess MSO has nothing to complain about their marketing department. The concert hall (at least the Stall and the Circle) was quite packed at around 90-95% capacity full and I guess almost 95% of those people, including me, attended this concert mainly because of Bolero.
I subscribed to this concert because of Bolero is a pretty much an orchestral showcase, where there are plenty of solo lines for the principals of the instruments. Musically speaking, it's a - forgive me - pretty much boring piece. I'll elaborate that later.
The concert started with Berlioz's Le Corsaire overture, which I am already familiar with before the concert. It's actually quite a good piece, but it will never reach the status of Symphonie Fantastique. The orchestra played well for this piece and I also discovered some of the pieces that I never picked up in the recording that I had. A little note of the conductor, Mario Venzago: he used big gestures when conducting, and at one point, he danced in the podium. He is the first conductor that I've seen so far in my short concert attending career whose hands went full stretch up and from there, along with his body, sank as low as he possibly can. His gesture is precise and meaningful, however and I actually kind of enjoy how he conducted this piece. A warm applause followed after the end of the piece, which I think it's not enough considering how well the orchestra played the piece.
The second piece of the concert is one of the masterpiece of piano concerto repertoire, the Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Before the concert, I have not listened to this concerto in my life. I've listened to a snippet of the 2nd movement at the end of the movie Amadeus, but that's about it. 3 hours before the concert, I went to Youtube and found video of Friedrich Gulda playing this concerto and watched it. A fiery performance, and Gulda's technique is magnificent, I was completely absorbed by his performance. The piece was played more tamely by the MSO, and Berman's playing, while was excellent, did not completely satisfy me in the end. He wasn't as engaging as Gulda, I guess. The first movement lacked a little bit in drama and stormy mood department, but the second movement was delicious. The finale was good, but again, Berman's playing did not reach the level of Gulda's playing for me. The concerto ended well, and long applause followed. Most audience will be disappointed not to be offered an encore. And after this concert, I will definitely start looking for recordings of Mozart's piano concerto.
Now, to the most difficult music of the night, Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31. The conductor actually made a speech before playing this piece. He said that although the piece was written around 80 years ago, it is still very modern due to its complexity and the 12-tone system. He made anecdote of 12-tone system, saying that Schoenberg's idea of 12-tone system is that every note will be treated in the same manner, just like how everybody has the same rights in the society. However, he also noted that, as with the society, there are some individuals that have more power than the others, and that is also the case with 12-tone system where the notes, B (B flat), A, C, H (B natural) (representing the word BACH) is treated in a more special way. He did not expect the audience to hum or like the piece and he said he's very happy if the audience is attracted just a little to it, just like how people are attracted to Picasso's cubism paintings. Sure enough, the piece was difficult to play and listen. But amidst the lack of melody in the piece, there were lots of things going on in this piece. Lots of variations, chamber-music like variance and a whole lot more such as col legno playing, contrasting materials, extreme dynamics change, and how the motif in the beginning of the piece was heard again near the end of the piece. I actually kinda liked this music and never bored a single moment in this piece. I would be bored if I only listen to the recording, but the sight of how the piece is played by the orchestra really helped me ATTRACTED to the piece. Needless to say, majority of the audience did not like it, only lukewarm applause followed. I even overheard someone saying, "at least they end the concert with something good, the Bolero".
The Bolero itself that I was looking forward to is to me no comparison to Schoenberg's piece. I ended up bored by the same tune played by different instruments again and again. I even wondered if the strings players are actually bored playing pizzicato for most of the piece, only to join the fun in the end with their sweet sound. Don't take me wrong, the orchestra played very well, and the principals were very good. The snare drums player did a fantastic job in keeping the tempo and the dynamics of the notes are very well judged. But during this piece, I contrasted this piece with Schoenberg's and found how simple Ravel's craft is in this piece compared to Schoenberg's. Anyway, enough with the bashing of Bolero, it's still a crowd-pleasing piece, and I myself was and will always be overwhelmed with the full sound of the orchestra when the cymbals and bass-drums crashed down near the end. But I will think thrice to attend Bolero concert again if MSO program this piece next season or two. The audience shouted bravo in the end, and I was the only person that, as far as I can see, applaused not as enthusiast as the rest of the audience.
To sum up, a very good concert, 3 out 4 programs were played brilliantly, the Mozart's piano concerto just a little bit short from brilliant. Discover a new gem of Schoenberg and find myself not-liking-Bolero-so-much-anymore after listening to Schoenberg's piece. Next concert is: Saint-Saens' 2nd piano concerto in 2 (or 3?) weeks time.
- Berlioz Le Corsaire Overture
- Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20
- Schoenberg Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31
- Ravel Bolero
Boris Berman - Piano
Mario Venzago - Conductor
Marketing technique is applied to the fullest to the title of this concert - crowd-pleasing Ravel's Bolero. As if the other programs in the concert is not as good as Bolero. It succeeded in enticing me to subscribe to this concert, so I guess MSO has nothing to complain about their marketing department. The concert hall (at least the Stall and the Circle) was quite packed at around 90-95% capacity full and I guess almost 95% of those people, including me, attended this concert mainly because of Bolero.
I subscribed to this concert because of Bolero is a pretty much an orchestral showcase, where there are plenty of solo lines for the principals of the instruments. Musically speaking, it's a - forgive me - pretty much boring piece. I'll elaborate that later.
The concert started with Berlioz's Le Corsaire overture, which I am already familiar with before the concert. It's actually quite a good piece, but it will never reach the status of Symphonie Fantastique. The orchestra played well for this piece and I also discovered some of the pieces that I never picked up in the recording that I had. A little note of the conductor, Mario Venzago: he used big gestures when conducting, and at one point, he danced in the podium. He is the first conductor that I've seen so far in my short concert attending career whose hands went full stretch up and from there, along with his body, sank as low as he possibly can. His gesture is precise and meaningful, however and I actually kind of enjoy how he conducted this piece. A warm applause followed after the end of the piece, which I think it's not enough considering how well the orchestra played the piece.
The second piece of the concert is one of the masterpiece of piano concerto repertoire, the Mozart's Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466. Before the concert, I have not listened to this concerto in my life. I've listened to a snippet of the 2nd movement at the end of the movie Amadeus, but that's about it. 3 hours before the concert, I went to Youtube and found video of Friedrich Gulda playing this concerto and watched it. A fiery performance, and Gulda's technique is magnificent, I was completely absorbed by his performance. The piece was played more tamely by the MSO, and Berman's playing, while was excellent, did not completely satisfy me in the end. He wasn't as engaging as Gulda, I guess. The first movement lacked a little bit in drama and stormy mood department, but the second movement was delicious. The finale was good, but again, Berman's playing did not reach the level of Gulda's playing for me. The concerto ended well, and long applause followed. Most audience will be disappointed not to be offered an encore. And after this concert, I will definitely start looking for recordings of Mozart's piano concerto.
Now, to the most difficult music of the night, Schoenberg's Variations for Orchestra, Op. 31. The conductor actually made a speech before playing this piece. He said that although the piece was written around 80 years ago, it is still very modern due to its complexity and the 12-tone system. He made anecdote of 12-tone system, saying that Schoenberg's idea of 12-tone system is that every note will be treated in the same manner, just like how everybody has the same rights in the society. However, he also noted that, as with the society, there are some individuals that have more power than the others, and that is also the case with 12-tone system where the notes, B (B flat), A, C, H (B natural) (representing the word BACH) is treated in a more special way. He did not expect the audience to hum or like the piece and he said he's very happy if the audience is attracted just a little to it, just like how people are attracted to Picasso's cubism paintings. Sure enough, the piece was difficult to play and listen. But amidst the lack of melody in the piece, there were lots of things going on in this piece. Lots of variations, chamber-music like variance and a whole lot more such as col legno playing, contrasting materials, extreme dynamics change, and how the motif in the beginning of the piece was heard again near the end of the piece. I actually kinda liked this music and never bored a single moment in this piece. I would be bored if I only listen to the recording, but the sight of how the piece is played by the orchestra really helped me ATTRACTED to the piece. Needless to say, majority of the audience did not like it, only lukewarm applause followed. I even overheard someone saying, "at least they end the concert with something good, the Bolero".
The Bolero itself that I was looking forward to is to me no comparison to Schoenberg's piece. I ended up bored by the same tune played by different instruments again and again. I even wondered if the strings players are actually bored playing pizzicato for most of the piece, only to join the fun in the end with their sweet sound. Don't take me wrong, the orchestra played very well, and the principals were very good. The snare drums player did a fantastic job in keeping the tempo and the dynamics of the notes are very well judged. But during this piece, I contrasted this piece with Schoenberg's and found how simple Ravel's craft is in this piece compared to Schoenberg's. Anyway, enough with the bashing of Bolero, it's still a crowd-pleasing piece, and I myself was and will always be overwhelmed with the full sound of the orchestra when the cymbals and bass-drums crashed down near the end. But I will think thrice to attend Bolero concert again if MSO program this piece next season or two. The audience shouted bravo in the end, and I was the only person that, as far as I can see, applaused not as enthusiast as the rest of the audience.
To sum up, a very good concert, 3 out 4 programs were played brilliantly, the Mozart's piano concerto just a little bit short from brilliant. Discover a new gem of Schoenberg and find myself not-liking-Bolero-so-much-anymore after listening to Schoenberg's piece. Next concert is: Saint-Saens' 2nd piano concerto in 2 (or 3?) weeks time.
Saturday 14 June 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 14 June 2008 - Emanuel Ax Plays Chopin
Featuring:
- Frank Bridge The Sea
- Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2
- Sibelius Symphony No. 5
Emanuel Ax - Piano
Robin Ticciati - Conductor
As the concert title suggests, the main dish of the concert is the Chopin's second piano concerto and that's the very reason why I chose to subscribe to this concert.
The second piano concerto is actually not my favourite piano concerto of Chopin - I very much prefer the first piano concerto -, but the slow movement of the first piano concerto cannot beat the elegant and the beauty of the first opening bars for the piano of the second piano concerto where the famous gorgeous melody lines are played.
2 weeks before the concert, I found out that Emmnuel Ax would be giving a recital in ANAM. The program announced are very interesting, Schubert's Impromptus D. 935, the Sonata in A major, D. 664 and some Chopin works. On the night of the recital, I've felt a bit disappointed when I found out that there was no Chopin pieces in the program and to my further disappointment, Chopin's place is replaced by Liszt - which I am not a big fan of. Nevertheless, the concert was marvelous and the highlight of the concert for me is the A major sonata. I practically smiled throughout the last movement. The dance-like theme in that movement makes me very happy. Emanuel Ax plays brilliantly and the most wonderful thing is, he made Liszt to be at least tolerable to me. His rendition of Mephisto Waltz is almost scary, he really made light of that supposedly difficult piece. In the end, he gave two Chopin's pieces which I am not familiar with, but it was played with such restraints and when the pieces ended, some audience were left sighing and muttered the word 'beautiful'.
Back to today's concert, the concert started with a orchestral piece by Frank Bridge The Sea(MSO really keeps its 'The Voice of the Sea' theme throughout this season). The piece was better than I expected. An impressionist piece, very much like Debussy's La Mer, it actually never bores me. The first movement - Seascape - contains a very delicate dialogue between the oboes and clarinets that interest me very much. The second movement, - Sea-foam - is a scherzo like movement, that again included wonderful passages for the woodwinds. In the third movement, - Moonlight -, the harp player shone. The finale - Storm - is a musical depiction of what would happen if you ever saw a storm in the sea. This movement is illustrated with furious passage in the orchestra, with the percussion - timpani and bass drum provides the additional dramatic scene. A good memorable piece by Frank Bridge.
Next is the second piano concerto by Chopin. I was not affected very much of the music by the first movement (as always been the case), but the music sounded right, so I would say the orchestra and soloist played this movement in the way that how it is supposed to be played. I paid my fullest attention to the opening bars of the second movement just to capture that gorgeous melodies that I've mentioned above. And moments later, the moment came. It was marvelous and I've always been and will be affected by it. The rest of the second movement was gorgeous as well. I always feel disappointed with the orchestration of the finale, somehow, the orchestration just doesn't work. So, I have no comment on it apart from the piano part. The playing is so fine, my heart was actually racing at the very last part of the finale. Loud applause followed and we were given an encore - Nocture in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1.
The gem of this concert - at least for me, because everybody just seemed cannot put the Chopin out of their head - is Sibelius' 5th Symphony. I gave it my first listening last night and it didn't disappoint. And it became much more when I heard it in the concert hall today. I still struggled in the complicated first movement, but the end of this movement is just fantastic. The second movement was played very delicately by the orchestra and I enjoyed the little variation that's going on in it. The finale was intense and arousing. The famous horn line is just wonderful. I had it in my head for at least 2 hours after the concert. It's so gorgeous, depicting 16 swans taking off to the sky at the same time. What a sight it must be for Sibelius when he witnessed it. The very end of the movement was just wonderful. Huge applause from the audience.
A word about the conductor: he's just 25 years of age.
- Frank Bridge The Sea
- Chopin Piano Concerto No. 2
- Sibelius Symphony No. 5
Emanuel Ax - Piano
Robin Ticciati - Conductor
As the concert title suggests, the main dish of the concert is the Chopin's second piano concerto and that's the very reason why I chose to subscribe to this concert.
The second piano concerto is actually not my favourite piano concerto of Chopin - I very much prefer the first piano concerto -, but the slow movement of the first piano concerto cannot beat the elegant and the beauty of the first opening bars for the piano of the second piano concerto where the famous gorgeous melody lines are played.
2 weeks before the concert, I found out that Emmnuel Ax would be giving a recital in ANAM. The program announced are very interesting, Schubert's Impromptus D. 935, the Sonata in A major, D. 664 and some Chopin works. On the night of the recital, I've felt a bit disappointed when I found out that there was no Chopin pieces in the program and to my further disappointment, Chopin's place is replaced by Liszt - which I am not a big fan of. Nevertheless, the concert was marvelous and the highlight of the concert for me is the A major sonata. I practically smiled throughout the last movement. The dance-like theme in that movement makes me very happy. Emanuel Ax plays brilliantly and the most wonderful thing is, he made Liszt to be at least tolerable to me. His rendition of Mephisto Waltz is almost scary, he really made light of that supposedly difficult piece. In the end, he gave two Chopin's pieces which I am not familiar with, but it was played with such restraints and when the pieces ended, some audience were left sighing and muttered the word 'beautiful'.
Back to today's concert, the concert started with a orchestral piece by Frank Bridge The Sea(MSO really keeps its 'The Voice of the Sea' theme throughout this season). The piece was better than I expected. An impressionist piece, very much like Debussy's La Mer, it actually never bores me. The first movement - Seascape - contains a very delicate dialogue between the oboes and clarinets that interest me very much. The second movement, - Sea-foam - is a scherzo like movement, that again included wonderful passages for the woodwinds. In the third movement, - Moonlight -, the harp player shone. The finale - Storm - is a musical depiction of what would happen if you ever saw a storm in the sea. This movement is illustrated with furious passage in the orchestra, with the percussion - timpani and bass drum provides the additional dramatic scene. A good memorable piece by Frank Bridge.
Next is the second piano concerto by Chopin. I was not affected very much of the music by the first movement (as always been the case), but the music sounded right, so I would say the orchestra and soloist played this movement in the way that how it is supposed to be played. I paid my fullest attention to the opening bars of the second movement just to capture that gorgeous melodies that I've mentioned above. And moments later, the moment came. It was marvelous and I've always been and will be affected by it. The rest of the second movement was gorgeous as well. I always feel disappointed with the orchestration of the finale, somehow, the orchestration just doesn't work. So, I have no comment on it apart from the piano part. The playing is so fine, my heart was actually racing at the very last part of the finale. Loud applause followed and we were given an encore - Nocture in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No. 1.
The gem of this concert - at least for me, because everybody just seemed cannot put the Chopin out of their head - is Sibelius' 5th Symphony. I gave it my first listening last night and it didn't disappoint. And it became much more when I heard it in the concert hall today. I still struggled in the complicated first movement, but the end of this movement is just fantastic. The second movement was played very delicately by the orchestra and I enjoyed the little variation that's going on in it. The finale was intense and arousing. The famous horn line is just wonderful. I had it in my head for at least 2 hours after the concert. It's so gorgeous, depicting 16 swans taking off to the sky at the same time. What a sight it must be for Sibelius when he witnessed it. The very end of the movement was just wonderful. Huge applause from the audience.
A word about the conductor: he's just 25 years of age.
Tuesday 10 June 2008
Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde
A symphony for tenor and alto for voice and orchestra is the description of this work by Mahler himself. Consisting of 6 movements, the tenor and alto are assigned 3 alternating movements starting with the tenor in the first movement and ended with alto's solo in the last movement.
After around 10 listenings of different recordings of this work, from Klemperer, Kubelik, Walter, Haitink and Horenstein, I've came to a conclusion that I prefer the Tenor movements more than I prefer the Alto's. My favourite Tenor for DLvdE is none other than Wunderlich in the Klemperer recordings. I cannot help but drop my jaw everytime I listen to him in the first song, 'The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery'. How he kept himself being outdone from the orchestra sound in the famous ape lines still wonder me. And listen to his gorgeous rendering of more delicate 'Of Youth' and 'The Drunkard in Spring' and you can tell that this recording is for the ages. Other tenors are quite good but I don't think they've ever reached Wunderlich's level.
For the Alto part, my favourite movement is the 'Of Beauty' movement. I always love the transition between the slow tempo to the galloping tempo in the middle of the song describing the arrival of horse-riding-good-looking-young-fella. And Janet Baker's rendering in Haitink's recording is the benchmark for me. She is just too exciting and I can't help myself bouncing to her voice when she delivered her fast passages after the galloping theme from the orchestra. The last movement which has always been perceived as the crown of DLvdE is a little bit too long for me, but Kathleen Ferrier's reading in Walter's recording is too overwhelming so that one cannot but to be moved by her. The second movement is just a little bit too sleepy for me but I've gained a bit more appreciation of it nowadays.
Now when will I have the courage to listen to Mahler's so called earth shattering 9th symphony..I'll make sure that I do it before the end of this month.
After around 10 listenings of different recordings of this work, from Klemperer, Kubelik, Walter, Haitink and Horenstein, I've came to a conclusion that I prefer the Tenor movements more than I prefer the Alto's. My favourite Tenor for DLvdE is none other than Wunderlich in the Klemperer recordings. I cannot help but drop my jaw everytime I listen to him in the first song, 'The Drinking Song of Earth's Misery'. How he kept himself being outdone from the orchestra sound in the famous ape lines still wonder me. And listen to his gorgeous rendering of more delicate 'Of Youth' and 'The Drunkard in Spring' and you can tell that this recording is for the ages. Other tenors are quite good but I don't think they've ever reached Wunderlich's level.
For the Alto part, my favourite movement is the 'Of Beauty' movement. I always love the transition between the slow tempo to the galloping tempo in the middle of the song describing the arrival of horse-riding-good-looking-young-fella. And Janet Baker's rendering in Haitink's recording is the benchmark for me. She is just too exciting and I can't help myself bouncing to her voice when she delivered her fast passages after the galloping theme from the orchestra. The last movement which has always been perceived as the crown of DLvdE is a little bit too long for me, but Kathleen Ferrier's reading in Walter's recording is too overwhelming so that one cannot but to be moved by her. The second movement is just a little bit too sleepy for me but I've gained a bit more appreciation of it nowadays.
Now when will I have the courage to listen to Mahler's so called earth shattering 9th symphony..I'll make sure that I do it before the end of this month.
Monday 9 June 2008
Mozart vs. Haydn Symphonies
I've been listening to Mozart's Symphonies from No. 35-41 and Haydn's Symphonies from No. 101-104 + 94. I admit Mozart's symphonies are prettier, have catchier tune, made me happy and just perfect. But, there's this sophisticated feeling that one gets when listening to Haydn. His symphonies do not have the immediate tune that running in your head after you listen to them (bar the last movement of the 104, I often hummed to it when I'm alone walking on the street), but you will feel that at the end of each of his symphony, Haydn's symphonies are really well constructed hence sophisticated. I don't know how to describe it, but one just have to listen to say Haydn's 102 and contrast it with Mozart's say, 35 or 38. People should really give Haydn more listening. He is undeservedly got low count listening in Last.fm considering he is called 'father of the symphony and string quartet'.
Overall the last symphonies of both composer are my favourite symphonies of them. How can you top the last movement of Jupiter or the bounciness of the finale of the London symphonies? I know I'll never get tired listening to them cause they always make me so happy :)
Overall the last symphonies of both composer are my favourite symphonies of them. How can you top the last movement of Jupiter or the bounciness of the finale of the London symphonies? I know I'll never get tired listening to them cause they always make me so happy :)
Sunday 18 May 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 16 May 2008 - Bohemian Rhapsody
Featuring:
- Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No. 7
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 'Elvira Madigan'
- Leos Janacek - Sinfonietta
Alexander Briger - Conductor
Amir Farid - Piano
Calvin Bowman - Organ
2 weeks before this concert, I started listening to Dvorak's 7th symphony. A great work, which is underplayed nowadays because of the immense popularity of his 9th symphony. The starting dance like rhythm of the Scherzo was the highlight of the symphony for me. I haven't listened to any of Mozart's piano concertos in full yet and tonight was my very first time listening to his 21st piano concerto. Janacek's Sinfonietta is a work that I don't even know exist. So, there were 2 programs that I am completely unfamiliar with before the concert.
As usual with MSO's Town Hall Series concert, there is an organ recital by Calvin Bowman. The programs included: Bach's Fantasia on Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, BWV 651 which was a little piece with a number of fugal elements in it; Bach's O mensch bewein dein Sunde gross, BWV 622 a prayer like - very serene - piece, and it made me feel very humble when listening to it; Mendelssohn's Allegro in B flat, a short lively piece with no immediate memorable melody, but very enjoyable nonetheless; and finally two pieces from Messiaen's L'Ascension - Alleluias sereins d'une ame qui desire le ciel which was a little too drag out music although it was very interesting at the beginning and Transports de joe d'une ame devant la glore du Christ qui est la sienne which was a more fast-paced and definitely more interesting than the Alleluias.
Now to the main concert: The Dvorak's was good, just a little bit short of great. The conductor conducting without a score, took a very fast paced at the beginning of the symphony. Because of that, clarity of some passages are sacrificed for an extra excitement of the music. The climax of the first movement fell a bit short for me. There was a two to three minutes pause between first and second movement, because apparently more than 50 people were late to the concert! The concert as was told by MSO e-news was sold out. The second movement itself was better executed, so as the third movement's dance-like main theme. The trio was a bit disappointing, I don't know what's wrong with it, but I felt a bit lost when the trio was executed. The return of the main theme was a very good welcome. The finale was brilliant with clear delicate melody from the woodwinds.
Mozart's 21st piano concerto often nicknamed 'Elvira Madigan' because of the prominent use of the music in the movie with that title. It was famous for the lyrical aria-like second movement which was brilliant in the concert. The soloist, Amir Farid gave a very good performance throughout and the orchestra gave a very good accompaniment to a crowd-pleasing music. A very enjoyable piano concert, and I think it's about time I listen to Mozart's piano concertos.
Janacek's Sinfonietta is a quite short but very interesting work featuring 12 trumpets! The opening movement whose theme will be restated in the finale is scored for brass only. The second, third and fourth movement were all very enjoyable. The finale in which the main theme was restated and all the 12 trumpets played at the same time is an uplifting piece of music that will surely leave a good impression for the audience. The audience seemed to have enjoyed the piece very much, which is very good for a rarely played music.
Summing up, a good night out! And the seat that I was assigned to for the remaining Town Hall concerts were wonderful. Am very happy that I subscribed to the Town Hall series.
- Antonin Dvorak - Symphony No. 7
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart - Piano Concerto No. 21 'Elvira Madigan'
- Leos Janacek - Sinfonietta
Alexander Briger - Conductor
Amir Farid - Piano
Calvin Bowman - Organ
2 weeks before this concert, I started listening to Dvorak's 7th symphony. A great work, which is underplayed nowadays because of the immense popularity of his 9th symphony. The starting dance like rhythm of the Scherzo was the highlight of the symphony for me. I haven't listened to any of Mozart's piano concertos in full yet and tonight was my very first time listening to his 21st piano concerto. Janacek's Sinfonietta is a work that I don't even know exist. So, there were 2 programs that I am completely unfamiliar with before the concert.
As usual with MSO's Town Hall Series concert, there is an organ recital by Calvin Bowman. The programs included: Bach's Fantasia on Komm, Heiliger Geist, Herre Gott, BWV 651 which was a little piece with a number of fugal elements in it; Bach's O mensch bewein dein Sunde gross, BWV 622 a prayer like - very serene - piece, and it made me feel very humble when listening to it; Mendelssohn's Allegro in B flat, a short lively piece with no immediate memorable melody, but very enjoyable nonetheless; and finally two pieces from Messiaen's L'Ascension - Alleluias sereins d'une ame qui desire le ciel which was a little too drag out music although it was very interesting at the beginning and Transports de joe d'une ame devant la glore du Christ qui est la sienne which was a more fast-paced and definitely more interesting than the Alleluias.
Now to the main concert: The Dvorak's was good, just a little bit short of great. The conductor conducting without a score, took a very fast paced at the beginning of the symphony. Because of that, clarity of some passages are sacrificed for an extra excitement of the music. The climax of the first movement fell a bit short for me. There was a two to three minutes pause between first and second movement, because apparently more than 50 people were late to the concert! The concert as was told by MSO e-news was sold out. The second movement itself was better executed, so as the third movement's dance-like main theme. The trio was a bit disappointing, I don't know what's wrong with it, but I felt a bit lost when the trio was executed. The return of the main theme was a very good welcome. The finale was brilliant with clear delicate melody from the woodwinds.
Mozart's 21st piano concerto often nicknamed 'Elvira Madigan' because of the prominent use of the music in the movie with that title. It was famous for the lyrical aria-like second movement which was brilliant in the concert. The soloist, Amir Farid gave a very good performance throughout and the orchestra gave a very good accompaniment to a crowd-pleasing music. A very enjoyable piano concert, and I think it's about time I listen to Mozart's piano concertos.
Janacek's Sinfonietta is a quite short but very interesting work featuring 12 trumpets! The opening movement whose theme will be restated in the finale is scored for brass only. The second, third and fourth movement were all very enjoyable. The finale in which the main theme was restated and all the 12 trumpets played at the same time is an uplifting piece of music that will surely leave a good impression for the audience. The audience seemed to have enjoyed the piece very much, which is very good for a rarely played music.
Summing up, a good night out! And the seat that I was assigned to for the remaining Town Hall concerts were wonderful. Am very happy that I subscribed to the Town Hall series.
Sunday 20 April 2008
What I'm currently discovering..
I have not been doing blogging other things than reviews since my short writings on Edvard Grieg's Lyric Pieces. This is just a general survey of which composers and what pieces of them I'm listening now.
Bach: Concertos for Oboe and Violin.
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, Missa Solemnis, Diabelli Variations, Early Piano Sonatas.
Mozart: The symphonies (working my way backwards, I have listened to 41, 40, 39, and 38, they're all delicious), Horn Concertos 1-4, Horn Quintet K. 452, Gran Partita (Serenade for 13 winds).
Haydn: The symphonies (working my way backwards - have listened and LOVED all of 104, 103 and 102).
Saint Saens: Piano Concertos (have listened to 1,2 and 5 - loved all of them. Look forward to listening to 3 and 4), Cello Concerto #1, a number of tone poems.
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 (wonderful piece of music, rivalling 8th and 9th symphonies) - again, working my way backwards.
Mahler: Orchestral Works (working my way FORWARDS, now listening to Das Lied von Der Erde) - only his 9th and 10th symphonies to tackle and I can officially call myself a Mahlerian.
Chopin: Ballades (loved all of them), Scherzos and Impromptus.
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy.
Schubert: Piano Sonatas (working my way backwards, I have only listened to D. 960 and what a piece. Endless beauties.), Impromptus and Moment Musicals.
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto #2 and some piano works.
Schumann: The symphonies (working my way forwards, now on his 3rd - one more to go!).
Berg: Violin Concerto (I didn't get it in my first two listenings, I'll try again soon!)
Schumann: Introduction and Allegro Appassionato for piano and orchestra, Waldszenen, and piano works (basically Richter's Schumann album on DG).
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites (working my way forwards, loved the first and looking forward to listen to the second).
Sibelius: Karelia Suites and other tone poems.
Brahms: Ein Deutches Requiem.
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1, and (relistening to) Symphonic Dances and The Bells.
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 4.
Debussy: Orchestral Works.
Lots of music to be discovered. Patience is required.
Bach: Concertos for Oboe and Violin.
Beethoven: Choral Fantasy, Missa Solemnis, Diabelli Variations, Early Piano Sonatas.
Mozart: The symphonies (working my way backwards, I have listened to 41, 40, 39, and 38, they're all delicious), Horn Concertos 1-4, Horn Quintet K. 452, Gran Partita (Serenade for 13 winds).
Haydn: The symphonies (working my way backwards - have listened and LOVED all of 104, 103 and 102).
Saint Saens: Piano Concertos (have listened to 1,2 and 5 - loved all of them. Look forward to listening to 3 and 4), Cello Concerto #1, a number of tone poems.
Dvorak: Symphony No. 7 (wonderful piece of music, rivalling 8th and 9th symphonies) - again, working my way backwards.
Mahler: Orchestral Works (working my way FORWARDS, now listening to Das Lied von Der Erde) - only his 9th and 10th symphonies to tackle and I can officially call myself a Mahlerian.
Chopin: Ballades (loved all of them), Scherzos and Impromptus.
Bruch: Scottish Fantasy.
Schubert: Piano Sonatas (working my way backwards, I have only listened to D. 960 and what a piece. Endless beauties.), Impromptus and Moment Musicals.
Mendelssohn: Piano Concerto #2 and some piano works.
Schumann: The symphonies (working my way forwards, now on his 3rd - one more to go!).
Berg: Violin Concerto (I didn't get it in my first two listenings, I'll try again soon!)
Schumann: Introduction and Allegro Appassionato for piano and orchestra, Waldszenen, and piano works (basically Richter's Schumann album on DG).
Tchaikovsky: Orchestral Suites (working my way forwards, loved the first and looking forward to listen to the second).
Sibelius: Karelia Suites and other tone poems.
Brahms: Ein Deutches Requiem.
Rachmaninoff: Symphony No. 1, and (relistening to) Symphonic Dances and The Bells.
Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 1 and Piano Concerto No. 4.
Debussy: Orchestral Works.
Lots of music to be discovered. Patience is required.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 19 April 2008 - Song of the Waves, Music of the Spheres
Featuring:
- Debussy Nocturnes
- Goossens Phantasy Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
- Holst The Planets
Howard Shelley - Piano
Women of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Richard Hickox - Conductor
The story behind me attending this concert is no other than Holst's The Planets. I was practically did not care for Debussy's music at that time (2 months ago). MSO's last season concert of Debussy's Images left me sleepy. And who is Goossens? I have never heard of him. So, just for Holst's The Planets only, I got the cheapest ticket for the concert.
The way I looked at Debussy's (and Impressionist music in general) changed again after I listen to Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit and Ma Mere l'Oye. At that time, I only considered Debussy a one-hit wonder with his La Mer. I decided to change my attitude after several listening of the famous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. And then I moved on to listen to his Nocturnes, which I did not realise was programmed in the concert until yesterday. I liked the piece in the first listening (a rarity for Debussy!), giving special credits to the second and last movement (Fetes and Sirenes). How surprised was I to find out yesterday that I can listen to it performed live by the orchestra.
Now on to the concert itself. It started with the Debussy's pieces. The performance was wonderful throughout and I noticed passages for cor anglais which I could not really identify in the recordings that I listened to. The first movement was very much sustained, but there were plenty of things happening in the piece if you listened to it closely. The second movement, describing a festival, was brilliantly played, and the last movement with the women's chorus hits it home for me. It was just brilliant. However, I felt that the piece did not get appreciated widely by the audience. Most of them looked like they are bored by the piece (which exactly what happened to me when I was in the last season Debussy's concert). Anyway, it doesn't really matter for me what the others thought of the piece. Music always affect people differently.
After some re-arrangement of the orchestra seating, we got an Australian premiere of Goossens' Phantasy Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. It started out interesting, sounding very modern indeed (it was composed around 1944), then it became a tad less interesting, but it became a bit interesting again when we reached the second movement which I felt was a little jazzy. The slow movement, was the one that I gave up on - I really had no idea what's going on in that piece in that movement. The last movement - a very bouncy and rhythmically fast but short in period - served like a wake up call for me after those prolonged boring slow movement. It ended well, but I don't think I can agree to the author of the program notes that mentioned 'It's hard to understand why it's not a standard part of the 20th century piano concerto repertoire'. IMHO, this piece doesn't stand up to Rachmaninoff's 4th piano concerto, both of Ravel's piano concertos and Prokofiev's 3rd and 5th piano concertos. I might give it another listen - after I've found my way with music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Berg, Bartok - to see what I'm missing in the music.
After the interval, it is the main dish of the night and what I think everyone in the concert is going for - The Planets. Mars was exciting, if not too loud in the loudest passages. Venus was great also, with Wilma Smith and David Berlin playing their solo passages very well indeed. It was a heartfelt experience for me. Mercury was bouncy - also well played. Jupiter was full of jollity. I remembered the conductor using occasional rubato and accelerando in this piece and the result was marvelous. I think Saturn was the best of the night. The marvelous playing of the soothing melodies by the harps towards the end of the piece really moved me. Uranus was quite good. Neptune - with the women chorus not on stage! - rounded off a solid performance of the beloved suite by the orchestra. 3 or 4 curtain calls followed after a prolonged applause.
To sum up, a very interesting concert with 2 good performances in the beginning and the end of the concert and a not-so-good performance in the middle. The concert is neither at my all time worst or best concert list.
Next concert: Dvorak's 7th symphony, Mozart's piano concerto no. 21, Janacek's Sinfonietta in approximately one month
- Debussy Nocturnes
- Goossens Phantasy Concerto for Piano and Orchestra
- Holst The Planets
Howard Shelley - Piano
Women of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus
Richard Hickox - Conductor
The story behind me attending this concert is no other than Holst's The Planets. I was practically did not care for Debussy's music at that time (2 months ago). MSO's last season concert of Debussy's Images left me sleepy. And who is Goossens? I have never heard of him. So, just for Holst's The Planets only, I got the cheapest ticket for the concert.
The way I looked at Debussy's (and Impressionist music in general) changed again after I listen to Ravel's Gaspard de la nuit and Ma Mere l'Oye. At that time, I only considered Debussy a one-hit wonder with his La Mer. I decided to change my attitude after several listening of the famous Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun. And then I moved on to listen to his Nocturnes, which I did not realise was programmed in the concert until yesterday. I liked the piece in the first listening (a rarity for Debussy!), giving special credits to the second and last movement (Fetes and Sirenes). How surprised was I to find out yesterday that I can listen to it performed live by the orchestra.
Now on to the concert itself. It started with the Debussy's pieces. The performance was wonderful throughout and I noticed passages for cor anglais which I could not really identify in the recordings that I listened to. The first movement was very much sustained, but there were plenty of things happening in the piece if you listened to it closely. The second movement, describing a festival, was brilliantly played, and the last movement with the women's chorus hits it home for me. It was just brilliant. However, I felt that the piece did not get appreciated widely by the audience. Most of them looked like they are bored by the piece (which exactly what happened to me when I was in the last season Debussy's concert). Anyway, it doesn't really matter for me what the others thought of the piece. Music always affect people differently.
After some re-arrangement of the orchestra seating, we got an Australian premiere of Goossens' Phantasy Concerto for Piano and Orchestra. It started out interesting, sounding very modern indeed (it was composed around 1944), then it became a tad less interesting, but it became a bit interesting again when we reached the second movement which I felt was a little jazzy. The slow movement, was the one that I gave up on - I really had no idea what's going on in that piece in that movement. The last movement - a very bouncy and rhythmically fast but short in period - served like a wake up call for me after those prolonged boring slow movement. It ended well, but I don't think I can agree to the author of the program notes that mentioned 'It's hard to understand why it's not a standard part of the 20th century piano concerto repertoire'. IMHO, this piece doesn't stand up to Rachmaninoff's 4th piano concerto, both of Ravel's piano concertos and Prokofiev's 3rd and 5th piano concertos. I might give it another listen - after I've found my way with music of Stravinsky, Prokofiev, Schoenberg, Berg, Bartok - to see what I'm missing in the music.
After the interval, it is the main dish of the night and what I think everyone in the concert is going for - The Planets. Mars was exciting, if not too loud in the loudest passages. Venus was great also, with Wilma Smith and David Berlin playing their solo passages very well indeed. It was a heartfelt experience for me. Mercury was bouncy - also well played. Jupiter was full of jollity. I remembered the conductor using occasional rubato and accelerando in this piece and the result was marvelous. I think Saturn was the best of the night. The marvelous playing of the soothing melodies by the harps towards the end of the piece really moved me. Uranus was quite good. Neptune - with the women chorus not on stage! - rounded off a solid performance of the beloved suite by the orchestra. 3 or 4 curtain calls followed after a prolonged applause.
To sum up, a very interesting concert with 2 good performances in the beginning and the end of the concert and a not-so-good performance in the middle. The concert is neither at my all time worst or best concert list.
Next concert: Dvorak's 7th symphony, Mozart's piano concerto no. 21, Janacek's Sinfonietta in approximately one month
Saturday 5 April 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 5 April 2008 - Verdi's Requiem
Featuring:
- Verdi Messa di Requiem
Aivale Cole - Soprano
Lilli Paasikivi - Mezzo-soprano
Virgilio Marino - Tenor
Askar Abdrazakov - Bass
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
The Bach Choir London: David Hill - Musical Director
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
Verdi's Requiem, which general public know only from its famous Dies Irae, is a work worth more knowing than the short section of Dies Irae. From the opening cello melody till the last notes, it is full of memorable melodies and events. There is seriously no 'boring' parts in the whole requiem. When I first listened to it, it was the Kyrie that grabbed my attention. Dies Irae followed next and without stop, Tuba Mirum that requires 8 trumpets in total blows my socks off. Other movements that I loved in my premiere listening were Rex Tremendae, Recordare, Confutatis, Lacrimosa, Offertory, and Sanctus. Upon my second listening, I've picked up why Libera Me is legendary. I also grow to appreciate the beautiful Liber Scriptus, Quid Sum Miser, the Tenor solo Ingemisco and lovely duets in Agnus Dei. And after tonight's concert, Verdi's Requiem is definitely my favourite choral works dethroning Mozart's Requiem.
The concert itself was brilliant. The sight of the number of double choirs are already very impressive and I will give them special 'bravo' again because they performed wonderfully. Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum gave me goosebumps and what magnificent Sanctus! The orchestra players played as if their lives are on the line. I could not really pick a highlight of good orchestral playing overall since the level of playing in that concert is really really high. The soloists themselves are wonderful although I would prefer the Tenor to sing a little bit louder. Sometimes his voice seemed to be overwhelmed by his other soloists and the chorus. However, his rendition of the Offertory was really brilliant. The bass really shone in Confutatis. The beautiful mezzo-soprano soared in Liber Scriptus and Lacrimosa and her Soprano counter parts did a wonderful job in Libera Me. Their duets in Recordare was just heart-melting.
The hall was more than 97% full, and from what I heard, the hall was sold out for the previous 2 days. The audience were well-behaved and applaused enthusiastically at the end of the concert. One of the best concerts that I've ever attended.
- Verdi Messa di Requiem
Aivale Cole - Soprano
Lilli Paasikivi - Mezzo-soprano
Virgilio Marino - Tenor
Askar Abdrazakov - Bass
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
The Bach Choir London: David Hill - Musical Director
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
Verdi's Requiem, which general public know only from its famous Dies Irae, is a work worth more knowing than the short section of Dies Irae. From the opening cello melody till the last notes, it is full of memorable melodies and events. There is seriously no 'boring' parts in the whole requiem. When I first listened to it, it was the Kyrie that grabbed my attention. Dies Irae followed next and without stop, Tuba Mirum that requires 8 trumpets in total blows my socks off. Other movements that I loved in my premiere listening were Rex Tremendae, Recordare, Confutatis, Lacrimosa, Offertory, and Sanctus. Upon my second listening, I've picked up why Libera Me is legendary. I also grow to appreciate the beautiful Liber Scriptus, Quid Sum Miser, the Tenor solo Ingemisco and lovely duets in Agnus Dei. And after tonight's concert, Verdi's Requiem is definitely my favourite choral works dethroning Mozart's Requiem.
The concert itself was brilliant. The sight of the number of double choirs are already very impressive and I will give them special 'bravo' again because they performed wonderfully. Dies Irae and Tuba Mirum gave me goosebumps and what magnificent Sanctus! The orchestra players played as if their lives are on the line. I could not really pick a highlight of good orchestral playing overall since the level of playing in that concert is really really high. The soloists themselves are wonderful although I would prefer the Tenor to sing a little bit louder. Sometimes his voice seemed to be overwhelmed by his other soloists and the chorus. However, his rendition of the Offertory was really brilliant. The bass really shone in Confutatis. The beautiful mezzo-soprano soared in Liber Scriptus and Lacrimosa and her Soprano counter parts did a wonderful job in Libera Me. Their duets in Recordare was just heart-melting.
The hall was more than 97% full, and from what I heard, the hall was sold out for the previous 2 days. The audience were well-behaved and applaused enthusiastically at the end of the concert. One of the best concerts that I've ever attended.
Monday 10 March 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 8 March 2008 - John Williams in Concert
Featuring:
- Olivier Messiaen Hymne
- Toru Takemitsu To the Edge of Dream
- Peter Sculthorpe Nourlangie
- Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major
John Williams - Guitarist
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
The first 'official' concert of the season by MSO. This was one of the very first concert that I wanted to subscribe to. The reason was not the chance to see John Williams, but it was for the Mahler 1. I wanted to experience the blazing finale of Mahler's first symphony live. Not from the recordings. It also marked more than one year since I first discovered Mahler's music and his first symphony is the very first complete symphony that I listened to in full. The live Mahler was amazing, more about that later. Let's start from the first half of the concert.
The concert started with a piece by French composer, Olivier Messiaen - whose "Quartet for The End of Time" will I attend later this year. The piece is titled 'Hymne'. The piece is certainly more modern, not your average full of melody Romantic music, and there are some interesting passages in the music. However, at times, I could not catch up with the sudden change of mood and themes. This is a kind of piece that I believe need repeated listening to be appreciated better.
The second piece of the program is the one that I'm having trouble with. Takemitsu's work - noted as complex in harmony by John Williams himself and also the writer of the program notes - is a little too complex for me to enjoy. I have no other impression from this piece and for the whole time when the orchestra played the piece, I only paid attention to how John Williams played the guitar. I discovered some techniques on how to play a guitar (note that I have no idea on how to play guitar). His technique is amazing and every note is crystal clear.
The third piece pleased me the most out of the first half of the concert. Nourlangie is a depiction of Sculthorpe's feelings about Australia Kakadu National Park. It is an amazing piece of work and I loved it. The piece began slowly but yet it created a sense of being in a wide space and the solo guitar suddenly played a very nice melody - I guess it must be the folk song of Torres Strait islander. And then you heard some birds sound from the strings. A very nice effect and again it created the illusion that you are really outdoors. Then after a while, the percussion player joined the fun and played duet with Williams. The music got faster and faster just as what you expected from a movement marked "Poco Estatico". After that, the melody that we first heard from the solo guitar is now taken up by the violins and what fine melody it is!
When the piece ended, both Caetani and Williams gestured to someone in the audience, and guess who, Peter Sculthorpe in the audience. Knowing that the composer is there, the applause got louder and the composer himself looked very touched with the reception that he got.
Now for the Mahler himself, it was really really good. I thought Kubelik's recording of it is really good already, but this concert just reminded me that the best music is indeed live music. All of the sound produced by the orchestra is just superb with the woodwinds not over-powered by the brass. I am just amazed how beautiful the delicate woodwinds passages that I have not noticed before in the recording. The tempo itself is just right to my enjoyment and Caetani - conducting without the score - emphasised the contrast of the dynamics perfectly. Mahler's melody in the first movement is so infectious that I almost sang the lyric from "Ging heut morgen ubers Feld". The second movement was also well done, I enjoyed the Trio of this movement very much. The double bass solo that opened the funeral march of the third movement was also marvelous. Furthermore, because of this concert, I can further my enjoyment listening to this movement by paying more attention to the timpani strikes and the funeral march theme played by the woodwinds. The finale itself started out very loud - the loudest that music has been played in my concert experience - and played amazingly by the orchestra throughout. I especially treasured the lyric passages between the stormy opening of this movement and the second coda of the movement (when the trombone first announced the triumphant march of the very end of the symphony). The very end of the symphony was just unbelievable. What a feast of sound! When you listen to the triumphant march, you can almost believe that you overcome every problems that you will face. The audience roared right after the very last note was played. A very memorable experience that I will treasure for long time to come.
Next concert will be in 3 weeks time: the mighty Verdi's requiem. I need to start getting a recording of it now.
- Olivier Messiaen Hymne
- Toru Takemitsu To the Edge of Dream
- Peter Sculthorpe Nourlangie
- Gustav Mahler Symphony No. 1 in D major
John Williams - Guitarist
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
The first 'official' concert of the season by MSO. This was one of the very first concert that I wanted to subscribe to. The reason was not the chance to see John Williams, but it was for the Mahler 1. I wanted to experience the blazing finale of Mahler's first symphony live. Not from the recordings. It also marked more than one year since I first discovered Mahler's music and his first symphony is the very first complete symphony that I listened to in full. The live Mahler was amazing, more about that later. Let's start from the first half of the concert.
The concert started with a piece by French composer, Olivier Messiaen - whose "Quartet for The End of Time" will I attend later this year. The piece is titled 'Hymne'. The piece is certainly more modern, not your average full of melody Romantic music, and there are some interesting passages in the music. However, at times, I could not catch up with the sudden change of mood and themes. This is a kind of piece that I believe need repeated listening to be appreciated better.
The second piece of the program is the one that I'm having trouble with. Takemitsu's work - noted as complex in harmony by John Williams himself and also the writer of the program notes - is a little too complex for me to enjoy. I have no other impression from this piece and for the whole time when the orchestra played the piece, I only paid attention to how John Williams played the guitar. I discovered some techniques on how to play a guitar (note that I have no idea on how to play guitar). His technique is amazing and every note is crystal clear.
The third piece pleased me the most out of the first half of the concert. Nourlangie is a depiction of Sculthorpe's feelings about Australia Kakadu National Park. It is an amazing piece of work and I loved it. The piece began slowly but yet it created a sense of being in a wide space and the solo guitar suddenly played a very nice melody - I guess it must be the folk song of Torres Strait islander. And then you heard some birds sound from the strings. A very nice effect and again it created the illusion that you are really outdoors. Then after a while, the percussion player joined the fun and played duet with Williams. The music got faster and faster just as what you expected from a movement marked "Poco Estatico". After that, the melody that we first heard from the solo guitar is now taken up by the violins and what fine melody it is!
When the piece ended, both Caetani and Williams gestured to someone in the audience, and guess who, Peter Sculthorpe in the audience. Knowing that the composer is there, the applause got louder and the composer himself looked very touched with the reception that he got.
Now for the Mahler himself, it was really really good. I thought Kubelik's recording of it is really good already, but this concert just reminded me that the best music is indeed live music. All of the sound produced by the orchestra is just superb with the woodwinds not over-powered by the brass. I am just amazed how beautiful the delicate woodwinds passages that I have not noticed before in the recording. The tempo itself is just right to my enjoyment and Caetani - conducting without the score - emphasised the contrast of the dynamics perfectly. Mahler's melody in the first movement is so infectious that I almost sang the lyric from "Ging heut morgen ubers Feld". The second movement was also well done, I enjoyed the Trio of this movement very much. The double bass solo that opened the funeral march of the third movement was also marvelous. Furthermore, because of this concert, I can further my enjoyment listening to this movement by paying more attention to the timpani strikes and the funeral march theme played by the woodwinds. The finale itself started out very loud - the loudest that music has been played in my concert experience - and played amazingly by the orchestra throughout. I especially treasured the lyric passages between the stormy opening of this movement and the second coda of the movement (when the trombone first announced the triumphant march of the very end of the symphony). The very end of the symphony was just unbelievable. What a feast of sound! When you listen to the triumphant march, you can almost believe that you overcome every problems that you will face. The audience roared right after the very last note was played. A very memorable experience that I will treasure for long time to come.
Next concert will be in 3 weeks time: the mighty Verdi's requiem. I need to start getting a recording of it now.
Thursday 6 March 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 1 March 2008 - Nigel Kennedy plays Mozart and Beethoven
Featuring:
- Johann Sebastian Bach Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Prelude (in doubt)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218
- Bela Bartok Three pieces for duo violins
- Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major
- Vittorio Monti Czardas
- Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze
Nigel Kennedy - Director and Soloist
What a night! From the beginning of the concert, I thought that the night was going to be something special and to be remembered for a long time. And I am not mistaken. This concert tops the magnificent Stephen Hough concert with MSO when he played Saint Saens' Piano Concerto No. 5 'Egyptian'. This is the best concert I've attended since I started going to classical music concerts at the beginning of last year.
Nigel Kennedy came at the stage a little bit late and guess what, he started by playing an encore. After some greetings and jokes with the audience, he started to play a Bach piece. It was wonderful to watch him with his not-so-conventional outfit, spiky hair, playing the Bach. I'm not sure on the piece, but after matching it against the collection of Sonata and Partita for Violin by Bach, I think it's the Prelude from the third Partita. This is because I remembered there are some passages in the piece that reminds me of Vivaldi's summer and that Prelude has it.
After that, again, a few jokes, Nigel started to play Mozart's 4th violin concerto. The tempo is on fast side - faster than the tempo that Anne Sophie Mutter employed with her newest recordings of the piece. I am very familiar with Mutter's version and listened to it before the concert. Nigel conducted the orchestra (actually, he played the first violin orchestra part also) and his approach is not conventional but yet very interesting. He stressed some of the lighter notes which are usually left lingered in Mutter's recording. The biggest surprise for me in the first movement of the concerto is the Cadenza itself. Kennedy played his own cadenza and it was wonderful. You can listen to some of his cadenza in his website. I especially loved the pastoral, sonorous - almost religious - feelings when the violin in its highest range playing alongside harpsichord and woodwinds which played the very first notes of the violin concerto. I like the cadenza very much.
Digressing a bit, Nigel plans to launch the CD of the same program that he played the other night. He has recorded both the Mozart and Beethoven violin concertos and you can take a sneak listen to his recordings from here. In that website, you can also view to his video interview. In there, you can actually listen to the snippet of Nigel's cadenza of the first movement of Mozart's 4th violin concerto from 03:08 to 04:23 (listen to magnificent blend of woodwinds, harpsichord and the solo violin!)
After some applause at the end of the first movement, we moved on to the second movement. Here again Nigel played sweetly and surprised me again with his cadenza towards the end of the second movement. Again, the mood seems to be the same with the first movement cadenza. However, this time, instead of accompanied by woodwinds and harpsichord, the solo violin is accompanied by a double bass pizzicato and very soft strings. You can listen to the cadenza by previewing this track from here.
Moving to the finale, I couldn't remember the exact cadenza from this movement since the Rondo theme kept coming back to me. But this movement was also gorgeous.
After the Mozart's concerto, he asked MSO's concertmaster - Wilma Smith - to play a duet of Bartok's little violin pieces with him. They played three pieces and all of the pieces are pretty short, virtuostic, and I found it pretty humorous at times. Intermission followed after this piece.
Beethoven's mighty violin concerto was next. Prepared for anything after the Mozart's violin concerto, I am not really surprised when the timpanist opened up the piece with slightly faster tempo (refer to 06:52 in the video in the above site). The tempo is on fast side and what impressed me the most is the cadenza. I'm not sure if it was written by Nigel himself, or it was really Fritz Kreisler's cadenza (as listed in Nigel's website). But what I can tell you is at one point during the cadenza, I thought there are 2 violins playing at the same time. At this point, I diverted my eyes of Nigel to see whether there were any string players of the orchestra playing at the same time. And as you know it, there weren't any players playing their strings. The way Nigel played the cadenza really impressed me, most of the time he played 2 different themes of the violin concerto at the same time.
The second movement was also very interesting. Nigel played the movement a tad SLOWER than the Larghetto marking as indicated by Beethoven. To some the movement might seem to be dragging, but I enjoy the slow almost introspective feeling that I got. The finale attached the second movement was on FIRE. The rondo theme is of course still very nice, the gentleman that sat next to me - to my annoyance - tapped his feet to the rhythm. The cadenza it self was the one that really set this movement on FIRE. After the cadenza, my heart was pumping so fast that I almost could not sit still anymore. When the woodwinds announced the finale of the whole work by the rondo theme, all the music just sounded so beautiful and I at that point wished the music never ended. The hall erupted to huge applause right after the very last note was played. You can see the similar but not the same scene that I saw in the concert starting at around 09:06 to 10:18 (and yes, Nigel wore that same almost ridiculous outfit in our concert as well).
After some little chat, encores followed. Czardas by Monti was arranged by Nigel and he played it with the orchestra. I must admit that the arrangement was not really faithful to the original score as sometimes I heard Beethoven's tune in his violin concerto in Czardas! The arrangement also at one point instructed one violinist to play her violin in the same way that you played guitar (I forgot the musical term for it). In that same passage, the harpsichord joined the fun and play a little trio with Nigel and the violinist that played her violin in guitar way.
The last encore piece was Nigel's arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. I'm not familiar at all with Jimi Hendrix music, so I can't comment how truthful it is to the original music, but I also enjoyed it. In the middle of the piece, Nigel went offstage and played the music in the middle of audience. And when he got back to the stage, after playing a while, the whole orchestra stood and kept playing music until they all disappeared to the backstage. Huge applause followed and the whole musicians returned back to the stage and took their bows.
To sum up, the best and longest concert I've been to (the concert was about 02:45 hours with the interval included). Very happy to have attended the concert and will go to next Nigel's concert.
Next concert: John Williams in action + Mahler's 1st symphony in 3 1/2 hours time.
- Johann Sebastian Bach Partita No. 3 in E major, BWV 1006 - Prelude (in doubt)
- Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart Violin Concerto No. 4 in D major, K. 218
- Bela Bartok Three pieces for duo violins
- Ludwig van Beethoven Violin Concerto in D major
- Vittorio Monti Czardas
- Jimi Hendrix Purple Haze
Nigel Kennedy - Director and Soloist
What a night! From the beginning of the concert, I thought that the night was going to be something special and to be remembered for a long time. And I am not mistaken. This concert tops the magnificent Stephen Hough concert with MSO when he played Saint Saens' Piano Concerto No. 5 'Egyptian'. This is the best concert I've attended since I started going to classical music concerts at the beginning of last year.
Nigel Kennedy came at the stage a little bit late and guess what, he started by playing an encore. After some greetings and jokes with the audience, he started to play a Bach piece. It was wonderful to watch him with his not-so-conventional outfit, spiky hair, playing the Bach. I'm not sure on the piece, but after matching it against the collection of Sonata and Partita for Violin by Bach, I think it's the Prelude from the third Partita. This is because I remembered there are some passages in the piece that reminds me of Vivaldi's summer and that Prelude has it.
After that, again, a few jokes, Nigel started to play Mozart's 4th violin concerto. The tempo is on fast side - faster than the tempo that Anne Sophie Mutter employed with her newest recordings of the piece. I am very familiar with Mutter's version and listened to it before the concert. Nigel conducted the orchestra (actually, he played the first violin orchestra part also) and his approach is not conventional but yet very interesting. He stressed some of the lighter notes which are usually left lingered in Mutter's recording. The biggest surprise for me in the first movement of the concerto is the Cadenza itself. Kennedy played his own cadenza and it was wonderful. You can listen to some of his cadenza in his website. I especially loved the pastoral, sonorous - almost religious - feelings when the violin in its highest range playing alongside harpsichord and woodwinds which played the very first notes of the violin concerto. I like the cadenza very much.
Digressing a bit, Nigel plans to launch the CD of the same program that he played the other night. He has recorded both the Mozart and Beethoven violin concertos and you can take a sneak listen to his recordings from here. In that website, you can also view to his video interview. In there, you can actually listen to the snippet of Nigel's cadenza of the first movement of Mozart's 4th violin concerto from 03:08 to 04:23 (listen to magnificent blend of woodwinds, harpsichord and the solo violin!)
After some applause at the end of the first movement, we moved on to the second movement. Here again Nigel played sweetly and surprised me again with his cadenza towards the end of the second movement. Again, the mood seems to be the same with the first movement cadenza. However, this time, instead of accompanied by woodwinds and harpsichord, the solo violin is accompanied by a double bass pizzicato and very soft strings. You can listen to the cadenza by previewing this track from here.
Moving to the finale, I couldn't remember the exact cadenza from this movement since the Rondo theme kept coming back to me. But this movement was also gorgeous.
After the Mozart's concerto, he asked MSO's concertmaster - Wilma Smith - to play a duet of Bartok's little violin pieces with him. They played three pieces and all of the pieces are pretty short, virtuostic, and I found it pretty humorous at times. Intermission followed after this piece.
Beethoven's mighty violin concerto was next. Prepared for anything after the Mozart's violin concerto, I am not really surprised when the timpanist opened up the piece with slightly faster tempo (refer to 06:52 in the video in the above site). The tempo is on fast side and what impressed me the most is the cadenza. I'm not sure if it was written by Nigel himself, or it was really Fritz Kreisler's cadenza (as listed in Nigel's website). But what I can tell you is at one point during the cadenza, I thought there are 2 violins playing at the same time. At this point, I diverted my eyes of Nigel to see whether there were any string players of the orchestra playing at the same time. And as you know it, there weren't any players playing their strings. The way Nigel played the cadenza really impressed me, most of the time he played 2 different themes of the violin concerto at the same time.
The second movement was also very interesting. Nigel played the movement a tad SLOWER than the Larghetto marking as indicated by Beethoven. To some the movement might seem to be dragging, but I enjoy the slow almost introspective feeling that I got. The finale attached the second movement was on FIRE. The rondo theme is of course still very nice, the gentleman that sat next to me - to my annoyance - tapped his feet to the rhythm. The cadenza it self was the one that really set this movement on FIRE. After the cadenza, my heart was pumping so fast that I almost could not sit still anymore. When the woodwinds announced the finale of the whole work by the rondo theme, all the music just sounded so beautiful and I at that point wished the music never ended. The hall erupted to huge applause right after the very last note was played. You can see the similar but not the same scene that I saw in the concert starting at around 09:06 to 10:18 (and yes, Nigel wore that same almost ridiculous outfit in our concert as well).
After some little chat, encores followed. Czardas by Monti was arranged by Nigel and he played it with the orchestra. I must admit that the arrangement was not really faithful to the original score as sometimes I heard Beethoven's tune in his violin concerto in Czardas! The arrangement also at one point instructed one violinist to play her violin in the same way that you played guitar (I forgot the musical term for it). In that same passage, the harpsichord joined the fun and play a little trio with Nigel and the violinist that played her violin in guitar way.
The last encore piece was Nigel's arrangement of Jimi Hendrix's Purple Haze. I'm not familiar at all with Jimi Hendrix music, so I can't comment how truthful it is to the original music, but I also enjoyed it. In the middle of the piece, Nigel went offstage and played the music in the middle of audience. And when he got back to the stage, after playing a while, the whole orchestra stood and kept playing music until they all disappeared to the backstage. Huge applause followed and the whole musicians returned back to the stage and took their bows.
To sum up, the best and longest concert I've been to (the concert was about 02:45 hours with the interval included). Very happy to have attended the concert and will go to next Nigel's concert.
Next concert: John Williams in action + Mahler's 1st symphony in 3 1/2 hours time.
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