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.
Saturday 30 August 2008
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.
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