Featuring:
- Bach St. John Passion
Timothy Robinson - Evangelist
Stephan Loges - Christ
Matthew Brook - Pilate/baritone
Rachelle Durkin - Soprano
Renee Martin - Mezzo-soprano
James Egglestone - Tenor
Thomanerchor Leipzig: Georg Christoph Biller - Thomaskantor
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
There's nothing more exciting than to come to a concert programming a masterpiece that you have not had a chance to listen before, and the concert ended up convincing you why the masterpiece deserves its reputation. I have never listened to Bach's long choral works - the longest cantata that I've listened to is less than 10 minutes long -. I don't really know what to expect from a Passion, apart from the knowledge that I'll be expecting plenty of Christian stories being told with music.
After the MSO last Saturday's concert, I am glad that I subscribed to this concert in the first place. It was a full house at Elisabeth Murdoch Hall in the new Melbourne Recital Centre. I arrived 1 minute before the performance started and since I got a seat in the middle of a row, I have to walk past 10 or so people in a very awkward manner and have to inconvenience all of them. The weather was quite warm that day, and I was sweating quite heavily when I was finally seated from a combination of fast-walking plus a little bit of panic to reach the concert hall on time. I swear this is my last time arriving at concert hall at most 5 minutes before the concert started.
While still sweating and speed-reading the programme notes, the choirs and soloists came out and the music started. The opening chorus immediately grabbed my attention for its high dramatic moments. Then I was pleasantly surprised when I found out that the story of being told in the passion is the last episode of Christ's life till his crucifixion. Being sent to a Christian school during my primary school, I was required to learn and memorise some of Christ's stories - although I'm not a Christian. Anyway, with some bittersweet memories of my youth, I can follow all the stories being told by a very engaging Evangelist. I cannot really comment on any details of the work as I'm not very familiar with it and therefore am not sure on how things should be done for the performance of a passion. Overall, I've found the soloists were very good, but the emotional impact that they could bring to the work could have been better. I love the choral parts the best, and I was in my high emotion in the last chorus when the text 'ich will dich preisen ewiglich (I would praise you for all eternity)!' was being sung. That last chorus itself affected me so much that my mind was in the 'wandering' mode thinking of Bach's musical genius.
My other comments on the performance: the orchestra was really trimmed up. Probably around 10 violins, 5 violas, 4 cellos, 2 basses, a pair of flutes, one each of oboe, cor anglais, bassoon, a small organ, lute and theorbo. Caetani gave a wonderful accompaniment to the choir and soloists, but the man of the night was David Berlin - the principal cello who played wonderful solos throughout the work. Calvin Bowman, the organist, was probably the busiest man of the night, providing bass lines throughout the performance. The hall's acoustic really helped the deep bass line were as clear as crystal compared to the sound that I normally listened to in Hamer Hall.
Summing up, this concert has officially converted me wanting to listen to Bach's sacred choral masterpieces. Popular opinion has regarded both St. Matthew's Passion and Mass in B minor to be superior to St. John's Passion. All that's left for me to do is to discover all of these wonderful music.
Next concert: 'The Emperor' - Beethoven's 5th piano concerto and his symphony that never failed to put me in a lighter mood - the 8th! - in one month's time.
Monday, 23 March 2009
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 15 March 2009 - Inner Voices Tour
Featuring:
- Andrew Ford Bright Shiners World Premiere
- Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
- Sibelius String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56 'Voces Intimae' arr. Pekka Kuusisto
- Bach Violin Concerto in E major
- Timo Alakotila Sketches from Folkscenes World Premiere
Pekka Kuusisto - Guest Director, Lead Violinist.
A very interesting concert, mixing the old and new music with Sibelius at the core of the program. Andrew Ford's music is a very interesting one, starting with the lead violinist played some theme only to be followed by the other strings one by one until the whole strings seemed to be playing by their own. They kept doing that until the second theme enters, where the strings behaved much more orderly and it ended with the same three notes as the opening of the third Brandenburg Concerto. The mysterious sound is now swept by Bach's masterful concerto which was gorgeously played, albeit a little bit subdued. Flowing melodious performance without any huge exaggeration. The mysterious adagio was played by the harmonium, and then the music launched itself again to the joyful, upbeat third movement. Nice satisfying performance.
The heart of the concert is the performance of Sibelius' String Quartet in D minor, arranged by Pekka Kuusisto. It started with the duet between the violin and the cello, followed by a highly exciting tremolo passages in the 2nd movement and to be slowed by the broad Adagio di molto, where the music sounds like Sibelius expressing his inner voices. Very moving and highly satisfying, especially during the last few bars of the movement. The quiet chords where Sibelius wrote 'Voces Intimae' has a strange effect. The energetic 4th and very fast 5th movements were all brilliant. A very good piece.
Bach's E major Violin Concerto followed after the interval, and again, it was played in a similar manner as the Brandenburg. The sound is not overwhelming, nothing over the top, the soloist did not sound remotely romantic, all to the good cause of the music. Pekka actually played the music rather freely, as can be seen with his gesture during the piece where sometimes he just turned his body around, lowered his violin when playing some passages and smile to other members of the orchestra.
The last piece was a Finn folk music, good upbeat outer movements with some aggressive playing from the cello and bass. The second movement was a slow wedding march providing a nice contrast to the outer movements.
As if I have not had enough Finnish music for the last 24 hours, we were given a Finn folk music by the orchestra as the encore. Very singable tune, I can still hum to the tune 15 minutes after the performance until my short term memory was wiped out.
Good number of audience, I guess it might have been 90% full in the Circle and Stall sections. Next concert: Bach's St. John Passion - next week!
- Andrew Ford Bright Shiners World Premiere
- Bach Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
- Sibelius String Quartet in D minor, Op. 56 'Voces Intimae' arr. Pekka Kuusisto
- Bach Violin Concerto in E major
- Timo Alakotila Sketches from Folkscenes World Premiere
Pekka Kuusisto - Guest Director, Lead Violinist.
A very interesting concert, mixing the old and new music with Sibelius at the core of the program. Andrew Ford's music is a very interesting one, starting with the lead violinist played some theme only to be followed by the other strings one by one until the whole strings seemed to be playing by their own. They kept doing that until the second theme enters, where the strings behaved much more orderly and it ended with the same three notes as the opening of the third Brandenburg Concerto. The mysterious sound is now swept by Bach's masterful concerto which was gorgeously played, albeit a little bit subdued. Flowing melodious performance without any huge exaggeration. The mysterious adagio was played by the harmonium, and then the music launched itself again to the joyful, upbeat third movement. Nice satisfying performance.
The heart of the concert is the performance of Sibelius' String Quartet in D minor, arranged by Pekka Kuusisto. It started with the duet between the violin and the cello, followed by a highly exciting tremolo passages in the 2nd movement and to be slowed by the broad Adagio di molto, where the music sounds like Sibelius expressing his inner voices. Very moving and highly satisfying, especially during the last few bars of the movement. The quiet chords where Sibelius wrote 'Voces Intimae' has a strange effect. The energetic 4th and very fast 5th movements were all brilliant. A very good piece.
Bach's E major Violin Concerto followed after the interval, and again, it was played in a similar manner as the Brandenburg. The sound is not overwhelming, nothing over the top, the soloist did not sound remotely romantic, all to the good cause of the music. Pekka actually played the music rather freely, as can be seen with his gesture during the piece where sometimes he just turned his body around, lowered his violin when playing some passages and smile to other members of the orchestra.
The last piece was a Finn folk music, good upbeat outer movements with some aggressive playing from the cello and bass. The second movement was a slow wedding march providing a nice contrast to the outer movements.
As if I have not had enough Finnish music for the last 24 hours, we were given a Finn folk music by the orchestra as the encore. Very singable tune, I can still hum to the tune 15 minutes after the performance until my short term memory was wiped out.
Good number of audience, I guess it might have been 90% full in the Circle and Stall sections. Next concert: Bach's St. John Passion - next week!
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 14 March 2009 - Before the Icons
Featuring:
- Einojuhani Rautavaara Before the Icons Australian Premiere
- Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor
- Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Janine Jansen - Violin
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
This concert is a little bit out of ordinary for me because of several reasons: I attended the open rehearsal of this concert on Wednesday that week, got a free ticket to the Thursday concert on Wednesday night. I then went to the concert on Thursday night, only have to be leaving early because of my other commitments, and finally went back again to the concert on Saturday - almost LATE! - for the full concert.
Let's start with the rehearsal. It was really the first time for me seeing MSO rehearse in Hamer Hall. The sight of musicians wearing casual shirts is interesting, very much contrasting to their formal attire during concert. More interesting sight is the shirts that Ashkenazy and Janine Jansen wore during rehearsal. They both wore a plain white shirt, but with a black and white picture of a composer imprinted in front of the shirt. I wasn't really sure who was the composers, but my best guess for Ashkenazy's is either Richard Strauss or Mahler and I'm 90% sure that Jansen was wearing Saint-Saens shirt (another 10% goes to Verdi).
The rehearsal started with Saint-Saens' violin concerto. There wasn't as much interaction between the conductor, soloist and orchestra apart from three or four interruptions during the first movement of the concerto. A little bit nitpicking here and there from Ashkenazy and that's about it. The same story goes with the 2nd and 3rd movement. Jansen played beautifully during the rehearsal, and I like her performance during rehearsal better compared to her Thursday's performance. After that, they went on playing the whole concerto again and that's it.
To my disappointment, I couldn't witness the orchestra rehearsing Strauss' Zarathustra. Instead, Rautavaara's Before the Icons were rehearsed and this time, there were a lot more discussions between the orchestra and Ashkenazy. The music didn't hit home for me, but I grew to finally like it during Saturday's performance.
There was some drama going on with the audience sitting just in front of me on Thursday performance. There were this elderly couple which behaved in perfectly fine manner until the middle of the Rautavaara piece. The lady started passing a candy to her husband, and they both started unwrapping the candy and they both did it in how a person would do thing in concert hall: quietly. However, unwrapping candy quietly in concert hall is no easy feat, and it would actually took longer than the usual time to unwrap it. As most people are aware of, the unwrapping sound is rather distracting, and is actually one of the deadly sins in going to concert. Their attempt went on for one minute before I noticed one lady sitting in front of the couple started shooking her head. The usher then came and tried to ask them to stop. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of quiet passage, so the usher had to use some hand signs to convey the message which was not understood by the gentleman. The lady wasn't too happy being told by the usher, and muttered her disgust. The usher, thinking that her message was understood, left the couple, but would you believe it, the couple continued unwrapping the candy! It took a gentleman who sat in front of the couple to turn around and cast his disgusted look and expression to the lady before the lady started to realise what's wrong with her. With that, I lost 3 to 5 minutes trying to enjoy the piece, and subsequently I did not get the rest of the piece. A pure disaster, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Jumping straight to Saturday, I myself almost committed another sin in going to concert - being late! I was solving this hard Samurai Sudoku (I solved it before the concert, if you wonder :) ) before I realised that I was running out of time to go to concert. I arrived there seconds before the performance started and had to inconvenient quite a number of people because I was sitting in the middle row. Okay, now to the performance..
The Rautavaara piece was described as a 'Pictures at an Exhibition', a series of musical portray of one standing before these Orthodox icons: 'The Death of the Mother of God', 'Two Village Saints', 'Black Madonna of Blakernaya', 'The Baptism of Christ', 'The Holy Women at the Sepulchre', and 'Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist'. The equivalent of 'Promenade' in this piece is called the 'Prayer'. The piece started out with two big bangs, only to be really quiet for a long long time, until we reached the 'Two Village Saints' where the playful folk theme echoed in winds and strings. Then it continued again, but to be honest, I'm not sure where the music were until we reached the end of the piece. There were one melody that I loved in the piece that was played by the strings, and one nice chorale played by the brass during the end. If I were to sum up the piece, I would say it is an impressionistic piece with plenty of modern harmonies imbued - not unlike Takemitsu's pieces.
After being challenged by 'Before the Icons', we were sweetened by the romantic third violin concerto of Saint-Saens. Here, the music is much more accessible, the playing of the soloist was great and supported well by the orchestra. The gorgeous melody in the second movement was very much suited with Jansen's lovely tone. The duet between the clarinet and the soloist is quiet beautiful. The third movement showed some fast, close to furious, playing from the soloist and the joyful end of the movement brought much applause from the audience. Comparing the performance of the Thursday and Saturday, I've found that there were some not-so-perfect notes during some of the moments when the soloists needed to play ascending notes. Other than that, I loved her playing very much. She looks gorgeous in her dress (she wore the same dress on Thursday and Saturday), played elegantly with some knee flexing actions involved. She looked totally involved in the music, 'banging' her head during some of the orchestral tuttis and marching passages. Also, she gave a beautiful rendering of Bach's Sarabande from the 2nd Partita for solo violin as the encore for both performances. Lovely tone, although I prefer Bach to be played in more masculine tone.
On Thursday, I left early during the Zarathustra and felt a little bit underwhelmed by the famous opening. It simply wasn't grand enough. The section following the opening was gorgeous and I left during 'Of the Great Longing' when the organ played the quotation from the Magnificat - IIRC. The Saturday's performance was a great one, this time the opening was grand. The timpani stroke was as powerful as it can be, the brass was amazing and the organ in the end (whoa!). The rest of the movements were played very much straight forward, with credits must be given to the orchestra's front-desk strings for fine playing. Love the two gorgeous ladies from the viola section. One distracting thing during this performance is the sound of Ashkenazy's watch when he conducted the piece.
A very fine concert, with a chance to see two musical giants in the same concert. The concert was quite popular, around 90% of the seats were occupied. The next concert is actually today's ACO concert (embarrassment of the riches - too much fine music in a space of less than 24 hours!), I'll blog about it later.
- Einojuhani Rautavaara Before the Icons Australian Premiere
- Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor
- Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Janine Jansen - Violin
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
This concert is a little bit out of ordinary for me because of several reasons: I attended the open rehearsal of this concert on Wednesday that week, got a free ticket to the Thursday concert on Wednesday night. I then went to the concert on Thursday night, only have to be leaving early because of my other commitments, and finally went back again to the concert on Saturday - almost LATE! - for the full concert.
Let's start with the rehearsal. It was really the first time for me seeing MSO rehearse in Hamer Hall. The sight of musicians wearing casual shirts is interesting, very much contrasting to their formal attire during concert. More interesting sight is the shirts that Ashkenazy and Janine Jansen wore during rehearsal. They both wore a plain white shirt, but with a black and white picture of a composer imprinted in front of the shirt. I wasn't really sure who was the composers, but my best guess for Ashkenazy's is either Richard Strauss or Mahler and I'm 90% sure that Jansen was wearing Saint-Saens shirt (another 10% goes to Verdi).
The rehearsal started with Saint-Saens' violin concerto. There wasn't as much interaction between the conductor, soloist and orchestra apart from three or four interruptions during the first movement of the concerto. A little bit nitpicking here and there from Ashkenazy and that's about it. The same story goes with the 2nd and 3rd movement. Jansen played beautifully during the rehearsal, and I like her performance during rehearsal better compared to her Thursday's performance. After that, they went on playing the whole concerto again and that's it.
To my disappointment, I couldn't witness the orchestra rehearsing Strauss' Zarathustra. Instead, Rautavaara's Before the Icons were rehearsed and this time, there were a lot more discussions between the orchestra and Ashkenazy. The music didn't hit home for me, but I grew to finally like it during Saturday's performance.
There was some drama going on with the audience sitting just in front of me on Thursday performance. There were this elderly couple which behaved in perfectly fine manner until the middle of the Rautavaara piece. The lady started passing a candy to her husband, and they both started unwrapping the candy and they both did it in how a person would do thing in concert hall: quietly. However, unwrapping candy quietly in concert hall is no easy feat, and it would actually took longer than the usual time to unwrap it. As most people are aware of, the unwrapping sound is rather distracting, and is actually one of the deadly sins in going to concert. Their attempt went on for one minute before I noticed one lady sitting in front of the couple started shooking her head. The usher then came and tried to ask them to stop. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of quiet passage, so the usher had to use some hand signs to convey the message which was not understood by the gentleman. The lady wasn't too happy being told by the usher, and muttered her disgust. The usher, thinking that her message was understood, left the couple, but would you believe it, the couple continued unwrapping the candy! It took a gentleman who sat in front of the couple to turn around and cast his disgusted look and expression to the lady before the lady started to realise what's wrong with her. With that, I lost 3 to 5 minutes trying to enjoy the piece, and subsequently I did not get the rest of the piece. A pure disaster, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Jumping straight to Saturday, I myself almost committed another sin in going to concert - being late! I was solving this hard Samurai Sudoku (I solved it before the concert, if you wonder :) ) before I realised that I was running out of time to go to concert. I arrived there seconds before the performance started and had to inconvenient quite a number of people because I was sitting in the middle row. Okay, now to the performance..
The Rautavaara piece was described as a 'Pictures at an Exhibition', a series of musical portray of one standing before these Orthodox icons: 'The Death of the Mother of God', 'Two Village Saints', 'Black Madonna of Blakernaya', 'The Baptism of Christ', 'The Holy Women at the Sepulchre', and 'Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist'. The equivalent of 'Promenade' in this piece is called the 'Prayer'. The piece started out with two big bangs, only to be really quiet for a long long time, until we reached the 'Two Village Saints' where the playful folk theme echoed in winds and strings. Then it continued again, but to be honest, I'm not sure where the music were until we reached the end of the piece. There were one melody that I loved in the piece that was played by the strings, and one nice chorale played by the brass during the end. If I were to sum up the piece, I would say it is an impressionistic piece with plenty of modern harmonies imbued - not unlike Takemitsu's pieces.
After being challenged by 'Before the Icons', we were sweetened by the romantic third violin concerto of Saint-Saens. Here, the music is much more accessible, the playing of the soloist was great and supported well by the orchestra. The gorgeous melody in the second movement was very much suited with Jansen's lovely tone. The duet between the clarinet and the soloist is quiet beautiful. The third movement showed some fast, close to furious, playing from the soloist and the joyful end of the movement brought much applause from the audience. Comparing the performance of the Thursday and Saturday, I've found that there were some not-so-perfect notes during some of the moments when the soloists needed to play ascending notes. Other than that, I loved her playing very much. She looks gorgeous in her dress (she wore the same dress on Thursday and Saturday), played elegantly with some knee flexing actions involved. She looked totally involved in the music, 'banging' her head during some of the orchestral tuttis and marching passages. Also, she gave a beautiful rendering of Bach's Sarabande from the 2nd Partita for solo violin as the encore for both performances. Lovely tone, although I prefer Bach to be played in more masculine tone.
On Thursday, I left early during the Zarathustra and felt a little bit underwhelmed by the famous opening. It simply wasn't grand enough. The section following the opening was gorgeous and I left during 'Of the Great Longing' when the organ played the quotation from the Magnificat - IIRC. The Saturday's performance was a great one, this time the opening was grand. The timpani stroke was as powerful as it can be, the brass was amazing and the organ in the end (whoa!). The rest of the movements were played very much straight forward, with credits must be given to the orchestra's front-desk strings for fine playing. Love the two gorgeous ladies from the viola section. One distracting thing during this performance is the sound of Ashkenazy's watch when he conducted the piece.
A very fine concert, with a chance to see two musical giants in the same concert. The concert was quite popular, around 90% of the seats were occupied. The next concert is actually today's ACO concert (embarrassment of the riches - too much fine music in a space of less than 24 hours!), I'll blog about it later.
Sunday, 8 March 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 6 March 2009 - Resurrection
Featuring:
- Lili Boulanger Psalm 129 for chorus and orchestra Australian Premiere
- Mahler Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
Penelope Mills - Soprano
Bernadette Cullen - Mezzo-soprano
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
First MSO concert in Hamer Hall this season, and it was a great one. It started with Lili Boulanger's settings of Psalm 129. The piece was great, and the orchestra played well. My minor complaint was the slight unclear French pronunciation of the choir. The irony of this piece is that, while on its own it can make a great impression on attention-paying audience, it is soon subdued by Mahler's symphony and couldn't have a greater effect.
Mahler's symphonies are always titanic, and I don't think any sensible directors will ever place his symphonies to start a concert. Just like Sviatoslav Richter's comment on Beethoven's Appassionata sonata: "It always belong to the end of a piano recital, since there cannot be anything grander, so that anything that comes after will only be diminished in effect by the boundless force of this music." However, the Resurrection symphony won't only diminish any music that comes after it (fortunately, there weren't any that night), but it also negated the effect of music that came before it, i.e. Boulinger's Psalm 129 settings. Clive O'Connell, The Age reviewer of this concert, did not even mention Boulinger's music in his review although it was the Australian Premiere of that music.
The good thing about the concert is, it was one of the best concert I've attended in MSO. Starting with the sudden outburst in strings, and the grim funeral theme (with emphasis in the first note of the theme) in cello and basses, the first movement transformed into something lighter in the second theme of the movement courtesy of fine playing from the winds section. Then the funeral march came back again, cymbals crashing to mark the climax of the movement in I don't know how many f's. The climax needs to be overwhelming and the loud dynamics from the orchestra helped to achieve that effect. It's probably in the same level of dynamics as the finale of Mahler 1 when I attended it around one year ago. The grimness of this movement cannot be denied when we reached the end of the first movement. The double basses are very fine throughout providing clear base line and credit to harp sections for their clear, precise playing.
The second movement brought back the nostalgic feeling with some troubled episode in between. It was played clean, and crisp: the viola section gave a wonderful reading of their part which I think is one of the most beautiful theme composed by Mahler.
The timpani stroke which opened the third movement cannot be any more clear as a wake up call, and the principal timpanist played it to great effect. Great playing, with the cry of despair moment might have actually scared off some people who have not accustomed with this symphony yet.
The Urlicht came tenderly, the mezzo soprano gave a wonderful reading of it. Credit also to the principal oboist giving a beautiful duet with the mezzo.
The cry of despair came back again to signal the beginning of the finale, and the resurrection theme was announced. The brass section was really wonderful that night: trombones, trumpets, horns sections played their hearts out. Caetani really paid attention to small details: The offstage brass achieved the desired effect, the little trills in the woodwinds are emphasised. The march of the dead was hair rising. The choir then came in, the duet of Soprano and Mezzo soprano was good, but could be more heart-melting, the end was overwhelming as it could be, but unfortunately THE ORGAN WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE END!! To be honest, that is my main disappointment of the performance, apart from minor wrong note playing from the horns.
It also needs to be noticed that the woodwinds section lift their instruments when playing several passages, as with the horn section. There were 30 violins (16 first, 14 second), the largest I've seen so far, if I remember correctly. There was a poor violist who played by herself behind the other pairs because there was no more room in the stage to fit another violist. And what sound did 10 horns make in the end! The 85% full hall gave a rousing applause at the conclusion of the piece. It must have been around 10 minutes of applause for the orchestra in the end.
For me, I practically had goose bumps all over during the first and third movements. In the fifth movement, I can barely contain myself to not join the choir singing the Resurrection text and also not to sing out the main theme from the orchestra of which I know by heart. I left the concert emotionally drained. Such an effect this symphony has for its listeners, I am still moved every time (although I've listened to it for 30-40 times already). This concert serves as a reminder to me: Mahler is always best live. And also, "Wouldn't you just die without Mahler?"
Next concert: Ashkenazy (Yes, Vladimir Ashkenazy) in Strauss' epic Also Sprach Zarathustra + Janine Jansen playing Saint Saens' 3rd violin concerto next week.
- Lili Boulanger Psalm 129 for chorus and orchestra Australian Premiere
- Mahler Symphony No. 2 'Resurrection'
Penelope Mills - Soprano
Bernadette Cullen - Mezzo-soprano
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus: Jonathan Grieves-Smith - Chorus Master
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
First MSO concert in Hamer Hall this season, and it was a great one. It started with Lili Boulanger's settings of Psalm 129. The piece was great, and the orchestra played well. My minor complaint was the slight unclear French pronunciation of the choir. The irony of this piece is that, while on its own it can make a great impression on attention-paying audience, it is soon subdued by Mahler's symphony and couldn't have a greater effect.
Mahler's symphonies are always titanic, and I don't think any sensible directors will ever place his symphonies to start a concert. Just like Sviatoslav Richter's comment on Beethoven's Appassionata sonata: "It always belong to the end of a piano recital, since there cannot be anything grander, so that anything that comes after will only be diminished in effect by the boundless force of this music." However, the Resurrection symphony won't only diminish any music that comes after it (fortunately, there weren't any that night), but it also negated the effect of music that came before it, i.e. Boulinger's Psalm 129 settings. Clive O'Connell, The Age reviewer of this concert, did not even mention Boulinger's music in his review although it was the Australian Premiere of that music.
The good thing about the concert is, it was one of the best concert I've attended in MSO. Starting with the sudden outburst in strings, and the grim funeral theme (with emphasis in the first note of the theme) in cello and basses, the first movement transformed into something lighter in the second theme of the movement courtesy of fine playing from the winds section. Then the funeral march came back again, cymbals crashing to mark the climax of the movement in I don't know how many f's. The climax needs to be overwhelming and the loud dynamics from the orchestra helped to achieve that effect. It's probably in the same level of dynamics as the finale of Mahler 1 when I attended it around one year ago. The grimness of this movement cannot be denied when we reached the end of the first movement. The double basses are very fine throughout providing clear base line and credit to harp sections for their clear, precise playing.
The second movement brought back the nostalgic feeling with some troubled episode in between. It was played clean, and crisp: the viola section gave a wonderful reading of their part which I think is one of the most beautiful theme composed by Mahler.
The timpani stroke which opened the third movement cannot be any more clear as a wake up call, and the principal timpanist played it to great effect. Great playing, with the cry of despair moment might have actually scared off some people who have not accustomed with this symphony yet.
The Urlicht came tenderly, the mezzo soprano gave a wonderful reading of it. Credit also to the principal oboist giving a beautiful duet with the mezzo.
The cry of despair came back again to signal the beginning of the finale, and the resurrection theme was announced. The brass section was really wonderful that night: trombones, trumpets, horns sections played their hearts out. Caetani really paid attention to small details: The offstage brass achieved the desired effect, the little trills in the woodwinds are emphasised. The march of the dead was hair rising. The choir then came in, the duet of Soprano and Mezzo soprano was good, but could be more heart-melting, the end was overwhelming as it could be, but unfortunately THE ORGAN WAS NOT INVOLVED IN THE END!! To be honest, that is my main disappointment of the performance, apart from minor wrong note playing from the horns.
It also needs to be noticed that the woodwinds section lift their instruments when playing several passages, as with the horn section. There were 30 violins (16 first, 14 second), the largest I've seen so far, if I remember correctly. There was a poor violist who played by herself behind the other pairs because there was no more room in the stage to fit another violist. And what sound did 10 horns make in the end! The 85% full hall gave a rousing applause at the conclusion of the piece. It must have been around 10 minutes of applause for the orchestra in the end.
For me, I practically had goose bumps all over during the first and third movements. In the fifth movement, I can barely contain myself to not join the choir singing the Resurrection text and also not to sing out the main theme from the orchestra of which I know by heart. I left the concert emotionally drained. Such an effect this symphony has for its listeners, I am still moved every time (although I've listened to it for 30-40 times already). This concert serves as a reminder to me: Mahler is always best live. And also, "Wouldn't you just die without Mahler?"
Next concert: Ashkenazy (Yes, Vladimir Ashkenazy) in Strauss' epic Also Sprach Zarathustra + Janine Jansen playing Saint Saens' 3rd violin concerto next week.
Saturday, 28 February 2009
Some interesting music I've recently discovered
Prokofiev's 3rd Piano Concerto - AWESOME! It's so witty, it's so Prokofiev. The coda of the last movement is like a never ending ecstasy. The relentless strings against the piano - very exciting!
Schubert's D. 958 (Piano Sonata #19), D. 959 (Piano Sonata #20), and D. 944 (Symphony No. 9). Schubert is moving up fast in my playlist. He wrote music with such purity and brilliance, I cannot fail to stand in awe when listening to his music. The slow movements of both D. 958 and D. 959 can bring me down anytime, while the slow movement of D. 944 stuck in my head for hours when I first time listened to it. I am never and will never be tired when listening to his masterpieces. They're just timeless.
Berlioz's Harold in Italy - after several listening, I begin to like this piece very much. It's like Symphony Fantastique, but just a tad less fantastic. It's still great anyway.
Mahler's 9th symphony - a tough one to crack, just like the rest of Mahler. But as usual, the reward of being persistent listening to it is very high! I can't say I understand the symphony perfectly - who ever does? - but if you're not carried away in the climax of the finale where basically it seems like Mahler himself is finally saying his last goodbye to the world in a very neurotic fashion, something is seriously wrong with you.
Bach's Goldberg Variations - what a piece! I bought Pinnock's recording of it on the harpsichord. Wonderful recording and playing. I've also listened to Gould's 81 recording in Youtube. Vastly different interpretation and sound (piano vs. harpsichord), but they're both very enjoyable. The minor key variations are something special, the canons are amazing. And what an effect that Aria has when it is played again in the end! It's like telling the listener, you have arrived at the end of the journey, sit back and relax, reminisce about the journeys you just took while not forgetting where you start your journey from. Glorious piece!
Schubert's D. 958 (Piano Sonata #19), D. 959 (Piano Sonata #20), and D. 944 (Symphony No. 9). Schubert is moving up fast in my playlist. He wrote music with such purity and brilliance, I cannot fail to stand in awe when listening to his music. The slow movements of both D. 958 and D. 959 can bring me down anytime, while the slow movement of D. 944 stuck in my head for hours when I first time listened to it. I am never and will never be tired when listening to his masterpieces. They're just timeless.
Berlioz's Harold in Italy - after several listening, I begin to like this piece very much. It's like Symphony Fantastique, but just a tad less fantastic. It's still great anyway.
Mahler's 9th symphony - a tough one to crack, just like the rest of Mahler. But as usual, the reward of being persistent listening to it is very high! I can't say I understand the symphony perfectly - who ever does? - but if you're not carried away in the climax of the finale where basically it seems like Mahler himself is finally saying his last goodbye to the world in a very neurotic fashion, something is seriously wrong with you.
Bach's Goldberg Variations - what a piece! I bought Pinnock's recording of it on the harpsichord. Wonderful recording and playing. I've also listened to Gould's 81 recording in Youtube. Vastly different interpretation and sound (piano vs. harpsichord), but they're both very enjoyable. The minor key variations are something special, the canons are amazing. And what an effect that Aria has when it is played again in the end! It's like telling the listener, you have arrived at the end of the journey, sit back and relax, reminisce about the journeys you just took while not forgetting where you start your journey from. Glorious piece!
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 27 February 2009 - Figaro, Franckly
Featuring:
- Mozart The Marriage of Figaro: Overture
- Villa-Lobos Concerto for guitar and small orchestra
- Franck Symphony in D minor
Edoardo Catemario - Guitar
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
New year, new season concert. Before this opening concert, MSO played 4 free concerts in Sidney Myer Music Bowl. They're all marvelous, the highlight for me is the playing of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, Gershwin Piano Concerto, Schubert's 9th Symphony, Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, and the most-remarkable concert of Beethoven's 9th symphony where almost all of the audience gave a standing ovation to.
One thing that is always to be grateful to when attending the Town Hall concert is the free organ recital by Calvin Bowman. It's more to be appreciated this season, because another free pre-concert program: the music talk is not going to exist this season. On the organ recital program, we have Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542. The Fantasia part is a little bit too fantasia to my taste and also I blame my late arrival to the concert hall to not be able to listen to the fantasia from the start. The fugue, however, is wonderful, as expected from the master of Fugue himself. The next program is Wesley's An old English Meldoy arranged by A.E. Floyd. It's a short piece, with folk music being the main tune of the piece. Quite enjoyable. The piece that made the best impression of the night is the 2 movements of Widor's Symphony No. 5. Dr. Bowman played the Adagio and Toccata from the symphony.
On to the concert. It was good, but not great concert. It doesn't help that the program is too short. Mozart's Overture to the Marriage of Figaro always entertains, but I was quite disappointed with the guitar concerto by Villa-Lobos. While it contains some interesting passages, the second movement doesn't work too well although the soloist's playing of the cadenza is great. The finale is hardly exciting, I was quite bored with it to be honest. However, the encore given by the soloist is amazing. Unfortunately, I did not catch what piece is that and who composed it when the soloist mentioned it.
Franck's symphony in D minor turns out to be the surprise of the night, it was actually quite interesting. The Leitmotif is present throughout the symphony and I was impressed by the creativity in the 2nd movement. The main theme of the finale is a little bit too pretty and popular-sounding, but when the full brass section blasted it towards the end, you cannot help but overwhelmed to the sound. Great performance from MSO. Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana is the encore by the orchestra for the night.
Next week's concert: Mahler's 2nd symphony. Enough said. Can't wait for it!
- Mozart The Marriage of Figaro: Overture
- Villa-Lobos Concerto for guitar and small orchestra
- Franck Symphony in D minor
Edoardo Catemario - Guitar
Oleg Caetani - Conductor
New year, new season concert. Before this opening concert, MSO played 4 free concerts in Sidney Myer Music Bowl. They're all marvelous, the highlight for me is the playing of Rachmaninov's 2nd Piano Concerto, Gershwin Piano Concerto, Schubert's 9th Symphony, Rodrigo's Concerto de Aranjuez, and the most-remarkable concert of Beethoven's 9th symphony where almost all of the audience gave a standing ovation to.
One thing that is always to be grateful to when attending the Town Hall concert is the free organ recital by Calvin Bowman. It's more to be appreciated this season, because another free pre-concert program: the music talk is not going to exist this season. On the organ recital program, we have Bach's Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV 542. The Fantasia part is a little bit too fantasia to my taste and also I blame my late arrival to the concert hall to not be able to listen to the fantasia from the start. The fugue, however, is wonderful, as expected from the master of Fugue himself. The next program is Wesley's An old English Meldoy arranged by A.E. Floyd. It's a short piece, with folk music being the main tune of the piece. Quite enjoyable. The piece that made the best impression of the night is the 2 movements of Widor's Symphony No. 5. Dr. Bowman played the Adagio and Toccata from the symphony.
On to the concert. It was good, but not great concert. It doesn't help that the program is too short. Mozart's Overture to the Marriage of Figaro always entertains, but I was quite disappointed with the guitar concerto by Villa-Lobos. While it contains some interesting passages, the second movement doesn't work too well although the soloist's playing of the cadenza is great. The finale is hardly exciting, I was quite bored with it to be honest. However, the encore given by the soloist is amazing. Unfortunately, I did not catch what piece is that and who composed it when the soloist mentioned it.
Franck's symphony in D minor turns out to be the surprise of the night, it was actually quite interesting. The Leitmotif is present throughout the symphony and I was impressed by the creativity in the 2nd movement. The main theme of the finale is a little bit too pretty and popular-sounding, but when the full brass section blasted it towards the end, you cannot help but overwhelmed to the sound. Great performance from MSO. Mascagni's Intermezzo from Cavalleria Rusticana is the encore by the orchestra for the night.
Next week's concert: Mahler's 2nd symphony. Enough said. Can't wait for it!
Wednesday, 3 December 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 28 November 2008 - The Firebird
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.
- 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.
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