Featuring:
- Mendelssohn Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage overture
- Schumann Cello Concerto
- Schumann Introduction and allegro appassionato
- Brahms Symphony No. 3
Li-Wei Qin - Cello
Amir Farid - Piano
Johannes Fritzsch - Conductor
Sorry, a very late review this time - I have been quite busy with my life in general lately. When I got my MSO brochure last year, this program is supposed to be a tribute to Schumann - titled Schumann panorama - , conducted by Oleg Caetani. We know what happened to Caetani, and subsequently replaced a Schumann overture and 4th symphony with the least well known Mendelssohn's concert overture, and Brahms' 3rd symphony.
I haven't listened to Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage before, apart from knowing that it's quoted in Elgar's Enigma Variations. Therefore, I was pleasantly surprised to discover this little gem of Mendelssohn's. Suspension notes dominates the slower 'Calm Sea' episode with occasional rumbles from the Cellos painting a perfect picture of an unknown condition of what you can find beyond the calmness of the sea. The faster 'Prosperous Voyage' section was brilliantly orchestrated with strong timpani presence towards the end. The very end of the piece must have caught everybody by surprise, with an elegant phrase reminding us again about the whole journey. The program notes is so right, it's very poetic! Good performance by the orchestra with the conductor dancing here and there.
I have never really warmed up to Schumann's Cello Concerto. The first movement is very hard to follow, even though I've listened to this piece for around 10 times in the last year or so. I'm glad to find out that I'm not the only one with this problem - Rohan de Korte, an MSO cellist voices the same opinion as well. I enjoy the beautiful second movement - in which Li-Wei showed off his gorgeous tone. While I cannot say I thoroughly enjoyed this performance of an awkward Cello Concerto, I can definitely say that I enjoyed the encore Li-Wei gave. Playing a gypsy music with Andrew Moon (MSO's double bass), they both showed flashes of virtuosity in a light-hearted humorous music.
In contrast to his Cello Concerto, Schumann's not-so-well-known Introdution and allegro appassionato is a piece that I enjoyed a lot, esp. the recording by Richter in DG. Written for a piano solo and an orchestra, it's sort of like a mini piano concerto, lacking a slow movement. Amir Farid gave a good performance of it, but both him and the orchestra was less successful in bringing the poetic side of the piece to the surface. Still, it's good to see a fine piece being performed (for the first time by MSO apparently).
I have mentioned several times that Brahms' 3rd symphony is my least favourite symphony of his. Listening to this performance, I need someone to smack in the head to remind me why I don't enjoy this symphony as much as the other 3. It's gorgeous, beautifully crafted and orchestrated, rich of melody contents in the inner movements, and so majestic in the outer movements. I was literally overwhelmed with a performance of Brahms 3 by MSO conducted by Thomas Zehetmair in the Recital Centre last year. I didn't expect that special performance to be repeated again, and I was glad expecting less this time. While the flashes of that brilliant performance was there in this performance, it never reaches the emotional high points this time around, especially in the last movement. Still, you can't help yourself but be amazed with Brahms' skills in orchestration when listening to his symphonies.
Wednesday, 11 August 2010
Tuesday, 27 July 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 23 July 2010 - Requiem
Featuring:
- Britten War Requiem
Elena Zelenskaya - Soprano
Timothy Robinson - Tenor
Stephan Loges - Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus - Jonathan Grieves-Smith: Chorus master
National Boys Choir of Australia - Peter Casey: Chorus master
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
I really want to like this concert, but in the end, through no fault of MSO and the performance, I did not really enjoy the concert. The main reason is the unlucky seat that I got. Sandwiched between two gentlemen, one who was breathing heavily through out the concert as if he was about to die soon, and the other who fell asleep most of the time, waking up only in the exciting bit and bobbing his head off-time along. I really wanted to change seats in the middle, but the breaks between the movements are just too short.
Okay, enough of the rants, off to the program now. It was a packed hall that night, and the concert started late. Also, before the concert starts, Jeffrey Crellin, the principal oboist, gave a short talk about the passing of Sir Charles Mackerras. He then returned to his seat, in the chamber orchestra bit. It probably doesn't make sense to anyone who is not familiar with the work, so here's why. The requiem is written for three 'partitions': first, the full orchestra plus the choir, and soprano soloist; second, the chamber orchestra plus the two male soloists; and third, the boys choir. The first and second partition are on stage, while the boys choir sing in the foyer.
The best bits that I enjoyed from the concert is the part written for the boys choir, the twist in the poem in the Offertorium regarding the ending of Abraham and Isaac, the highly original settings of the 'Pleni sunt coeli et terra' in the Sanctus where the choir was quickly chanting those words in different pitches and rhythm, creating this magnificent mumbling effect, the Agnus Dei, and from the duet of Tenor and Baritone in the Libera Me to the end. I really think that the duet was heavily influenced by the last movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde which Britten loved. How so? Both poems concern with two people, although in Mahler the concern is about two good friends departing, while in Britten, it's about two foes reuniting in the after life. The end of the piece is dissonant, just like how it should be, I think for a war related piece, to remind the listeners how terrible a war can have.
Wait, hang on, now if I look bad, I actually quite like a lot of the piece, but what ended up as a disappointment is the 'Dies Irae'. I don't know, maybe it's just not exhilarating as Mozart's or Verdi's. I'm not talking about the opening stanzas of the 'Dies Irae' sequence, I'm talking about the whole thing. I guess I'm used to certain way a composer sets certain part of the sequence. For example, Liber Scriptus and Recordare are usually given to the soloists, and Rex Tremendae is usually given to the chorus. Britten reversed a lot of them, and his settings sounded a bit rush, and a little bit less imaginative and creative compared to again, the two requiems by Mozart and Verdi. Oh yes, the biggest let down is the 'Kyrie', which is basically using the fragment of the Introit.
The orchestra played well in general, although I think the orchestration is on the sparse side, with the full orchestra usually stay put during a long chamber orchestra bit, and vice versa. As this was the first time I heard this piece, I can't really comment on the `correctness` of the playing. Both adults and boys choirs were good, no complaint in there. The soloists were alright, although yeah, now I remember it, I felt almost indifferently all the time during the male soloists prolonged settings of the poems. That's another aspect of the piece that I have to get used to enjoy it fully.
- Britten War Requiem
Elena Zelenskaya - Soprano
Timothy Robinson - Tenor
Stephan Loges - Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus - Jonathan Grieves-Smith: Chorus master
National Boys Choir of Australia - Peter Casey: Chorus master
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
I really want to like this concert, but in the end, through no fault of MSO and the performance, I did not really enjoy the concert. The main reason is the unlucky seat that I got. Sandwiched between two gentlemen, one who was breathing heavily through out the concert as if he was about to die soon, and the other who fell asleep most of the time, waking up only in the exciting bit and bobbing his head off-time along. I really wanted to change seats in the middle, but the breaks between the movements are just too short.
Okay, enough of the rants, off to the program now. It was a packed hall that night, and the concert started late. Also, before the concert starts, Jeffrey Crellin, the principal oboist, gave a short talk about the passing of Sir Charles Mackerras. He then returned to his seat, in the chamber orchestra bit. It probably doesn't make sense to anyone who is not familiar with the work, so here's why. The requiem is written for three 'partitions': first, the full orchestra plus the choir, and soprano soloist; second, the chamber orchestra plus the two male soloists; and third, the boys choir. The first and second partition are on stage, while the boys choir sing in the foyer.
The best bits that I enjoyed from the concert is the part written for the boys choir, the twist in the poem in the Offertorium regarding the ending of Abraham and Isaac, the highly original settings of the 'Pleni sunt coeli et terra' in the Sanctus where the choir was quickly chanting those words in different pitches and rhythm, creating this magnificent mumbling effect, the Agnus Dei, and from the duet of Tenor and Baritone in the Libera Me to the end. I really think that the duet was heavily influenced by the last movement of Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde which Britten loved. How so? Both poems concern with two people, although in Mahler the concern is about two good friends departing, while in Britten, it's about two foes reuniting in the after life. The end of the piece is dissonant, just like how it should be, I think for a war related piece, to remind the listeners how terrible a war can have.
Wait, hang on, now if I look bad, I actually quite like a lot of the piece, but what ended up as a disappointment is the 'Dies Irae'. I don't know, maybe it's just not exhilarating as Mozart's or Verdi's. I'm not talking about the opening stanzas of the 'Dies Irae' sequence, I'm talking about the whole thing. I guess I'm used to certain way a composer sets certain part of the sequence. For example, Liber Scriptus and Recordare are usually given to the soloists, and Rex Tremendae is usually given to the chorus. Britten reversed a lot of them, and his settings sounded a bit rush, and a little bit less imaginative and creative compared to again, the two requiems by Mozart and Verdi. Oh yes, the biggest let down is the 'Kyrie', which is basically using the fragment of the Introit.
The orchestra played well in general, although I think the orchestration is on the sparse side, with the full orchestra usually stay put during a long chamber orchestra bit, and vice versa. As this was the first time I heard this piece, I can't really comment on the `correctness` of the playing. Both adults and boys choirs were good, no complaint in there. The soloists were alright, although yeah, now I remember it, I felt almost indifferently all the time during the male soloists prolonged settings of the poems. That's another aspect of the piece that I have to get used to enjoy it fully.
Sunday, 18 July 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 16 July 2010 - Shine
Featuring:
- Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3
- Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2
Garrick Ohlsson - Piano
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
Tonight's the Second Town Hall Proms of the year. A prelude to the concert is the organ recital by Calvin Bowman, of course. He played Bach's lengthy 'Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV. 542', Jehan Alain's quiet variations of a theme by Clement Jannequin in which the stage lighting to the organ changes every now and then, Galuppi's Allegro e spiritoso, and a rather quirky arrangement of Verdi's Grand March from Aida. It's really strange and fascinating at the same time to listen to organ blaring the glorious brass notes.
For the concert proper, there's no escaping Rachmaninov that night. Even all the encores are Rachmaninov's compositions. The title of this concert refers to the movie Shine which features a pianist trying to play the difficult Rachmaninov's D minor concerto. I've watched the movie, but it's not really my favourite movie. Amadeus is a much better and more memorable movie.
Main dishes for tonight was Rachmaninov's two warhorses: third Piano Concerto and 2nd Symphony. I am undecided which piano concerto of Rachmaninov's I prefer better, I love the unabashed lush super duper romantic second concerto, but yet found the third much more intelligent without being over sentimental like its predecessor. Anyway, I am no authority in 'Rach 3' compared to this guy here. I did notice though that Garrick played the shorter cadenza in the first movement, and played the uncut version of both 2nd and 3rd movements. I also noticed that I forgot the time completely when Garrick played the whole concerto, I was so focused on the performance, and totally immersed in a performance in which a technically assuring, maturely minded, and intelligent pianist at work. Garrick took the first movement just a tad slower to say Argerich's or Horowitz's (with Reiner) recordings. However, instead of taking the slower tempo as a sign of insecure techniques, I sensed that Garrick is just keeping some energy in reserve. He didn't overdo the virtuosic bit, unlike Horowitz, but yet still enough to convince me of his pianism. I have never enjoyed this concerto's second movement better than in this performance, the rhapsodic, yearning, and fantasia like Intermezzo. And the finale is just .. breathless, the orchestra supporting Garrick was just really totally hot, and producing lots of wonderful accompaniment moment, esp. in the marching like session, just before the coda and the unabashed super romantic D major episode after that. The bravura finale is a total eargasm. An unusually very quiet audience roared right after this.
What a performance. Instead of making the concert just another concert to show off his virtuoso skills, Garrick went one step further and presented a mature, musically satisfying performance without going overboard in the fireworks. Credit must also be given to the orchestra who maintained its presence throughout and the maestro for balancing both contingents impeccably. Garrick gave Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor, and again, the audience is just stunned to silence with the thundering bass chords in the climax of the piece. Brilliant.
What comes after this concerto is another great performance. I don't know what's with the orchestra tonight, they just seemed to be in the right gear all the time, and by MSO standard, I think the ensemble was just a notch above the average MSO performance. The lush 3rd movement was one of the highlight of the concert, its long and intertwining melodies were just as sonorous as I could have asked for. One moment in the finale that I treasure the most is when Maestro Otaka signaling the entry to the horn section, and suddenly all the horn sections responded and lifted their instruments, as if they were playing the climax of Mahler's 8th symphony. That's glorious. Also, halving the tempo in the section just before the coda works beautifully in terms of squeezing out every single possible emotional outbursts from really those special moments. It's simply one of the best symphony performance that I had from MSO this year, I think.
After that, and a short speech from Wilma Smith regarding the death of Sir Charles Mackerras, we were then presented with Rachmaninov's Vocalise. A heartfelt performance is the only way to describe it. I attended what is to be his last concert in Australia, and remembered commenting how frail he already is back then. Unfortunately my wish of seeing him conducting again was not granted. RIP Sir Charles Mackerras.
Maestro Otaka, really, you totally deserved all that applause for that night, and yet you're too shy to receive them! I don't know what's wrong with your eyes, you seemed to wipe them off after the concert, which only leads me to thinking two things: 1). You're touched by the performance, and maybe to the loss of Sir Charles or 2). You're already sleepy and long for bed. I strongly believe the reason of you wiping your eyes is the first thing I thought of, but your gesture of 'oh look at the time, it's time to sleep and stop applauding' might swing me a little to the second explanation :).
Next concert: Britten's War Requiem, next week.
- Rachmaninov Piano Concerto No. 3
- Rachmaninov Symphony No. 2
Garrick Ohlsson - Piano
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
Tonight's the Second Town Hall Proms of the year. A prelude to the concert is the organ recital by Calvin Bowman, of course. He played Bach's lengthy 'Fantasia and Fugue in G minor, BWV. 542', Jehan Alain's quiet variations of a theme by Clement Jannequin in which the stage lighting to the organ changes every now and then, Galuppi's Allegro e spiritoso, and a rather quirky arrangement of Verdi's Grand March from Aida. It's really strange and fascinating at the same time to listen to organ blaring the glorious brass notes.
For the concert proper, there's no escaping Rachmaninov that night. Even all the encores are Rachmaninov's compositions. The title of this concert refers to the movie Shine which features a pianist trying to play the difficult Rachmaninov's D minor concerto. I've watched the movie, but it's not really my favourite movie. Amadeus is a much better and more memorable movie.
Main dishes for tonight was Rachmaninov's two warhorses: third Piano Concerto and 2nd Symphony. I am undecided which piano concerto of Rachmaninov's I prefer better, I love the unabashed lush super duper romantic second concerto, but yet found the third much more intelligent without being over sentimental like its predecessor. Anyway, I am no authority in 'Rach 3' compared to this guy here. I did notice though that Garrick played the shorter cadenza in the first movement, and played the uncut version of both 2nd and 3rd movements. I also noticed that I forgot the time completely when Garrick played the whole concerto, I was so focused on the performance, and totally immersed in a performance in which a technically assuring, maturely minded, and intelligent pianist at work. Garrick took the first movement just a tad slower to say Argerich's or Horowitz's (with Reiner) recordings. However, instead of taking the slower tempo as a sign of insecure techniques, I sensed that Garrick is just keeping some energy in reserve. He didn't overdo the virtuosic bit, unlike Horowitz, but yet still enough to convince me of his pianism. I have never enjoyed this concerto's second movement better than in this performance, the rhapsodic, yearning, and fantasia like Intermezzo. And the finale is just .. breathless, the orchestra supporting Garrick was just really totally hot, and producing lots of wonderful accompaniment moment, esp. in the marching like session, just before the coda and the unabashed super romantic D major episode after that. The bravura finale is a total eargasm. An unusually very quiet audience roared right after this.
What a performance. Instead of making the concert just another concert to show off his virtuoso skills, Garrick went one step further and presented a mature, musically satisfying performance without going overboard in the fireworks. Credit must also be given to the orchestra who maintained its presence throughout and the maestro for balancing both contingents impeccably. Garrick gave Rachmaninov's Prelude in C sharp minor, and again, the audience is just stunned to silence with the thundering bass chords in the climax of the piece. Brilliant.
What comes after this concerto is another great performance. I don't know what's with the orchestra tonight, they just seemed to be in the right gear all the time, and by MSO standard, I think the ensemble was just a notch above the average MSO performance. The lush 3rd movement was one of the highlight of the concert, its long and intertwining melodies were just as sonorous as I could have asked for. One moment in the finale that I treasure the most is when Maestro Otaka signaling the entry to the horn section, and suddenly all the horn sections responded and lifted their instruments, as if they were playing the climax of Mahler's 8th symphony. That's glorious. Also, halving the tempo in the section just before the coda works beautifully in terms of squeezing out every single possible emotional outbursts from really those special moments. It's simply one of the best symphony performance that I had from MSO this year, I think.
After that, and a short speech from Wilma Smith regarding the death of Sir Charles Mackerras, we were then presented with Rachmaninov's Vocalise. A heartfelt performance is the only way to describe it. I attended what is to be his last concert in Australia, and remembered commenting how frail he already is back then. Unfortunately my wish of seeing him conducting again was not granted. RIP Sir Charles Mackerras.
Maestro Otaka, really, you totally deserved all that applause for that night, and yet you're too shy to receive them! I don't know what's wrong with your eyes, you seemed to wipe them off after the concert, which only leads me to thinking two things: 1). You're touched by the performance, and maybe to the loss of Sir Charles or 2). You're already sleepy and long for bed. I strongly believe the reason of you wiping your eyes is the first thing I thought of, but your gesture of 'oh look at the time, it's time to sleep and stop applauding' might swing me a little to the second explanation :).
Next concert: Britten's War Requiem, next week.
Tuesday, 13 July 2010
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 11 July 2010 - Barefoot Fiddler
Featuring:
- Schuetz German Magnificat (transcribed for strings)
- Tigran Mansurian Violin Concerto "Four Serious Songs"
- Sandor Veress Four Transylvanian Dances
- Kats-Chernin Zoom and Zip
- Haydn Violin Concerto in G major
- Vivaldi Violin Concerto, RV. 253, "The Storm at Sea"
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Guest Director and Lead Violin
To be honest, this is the concert that I am least interested in when looking at the ACO brochure last year. How glad I was to be proven wrong big time - I think I enjoyed this concert as much as the previous 'Romantic Symphony' concert, and it's simply one of the best ACO concerts I have had the pleasure to attend.
With the closure of Hamer Hall, ACO moves its concerts in Melbourne to Melbourne Town Hall. I have previously remarked my concern about the acoustic of Town Hall in regards to the smaller orchestra like ACO in my previous post, but I'm glad that my worst fear is unjustified. The ACO still produces a stellar sound, worthy of a full-sized symphony orchestra, while none of the details are lost. It's a slightly different acoustic than Hamer Hall, true to that, but the change of venue doesn't bother me as much as I was anticipating.
The concert started in a subdued tone with Schuetz's German Magnificat on offering. While the piece was originally written for two choirs, and an organ, ACO performed the strings transcription of it by replacing the two choirs with equally split strings, and the organ with the harpsichord. Schuetz's Magnificat is a smaller in scale compared to say Bach's or Vivaldi's or Monteverdi's and lacking part for solo voices. It's a bit strange for me to listen to a settings of Magnificat without the text sung, but the quality of the composition shone through. I think I would've enjoyed this piece better in a cathedral, and performed in its original settings, due to the pious feel and the restrained exuberant joy. Having said that, I still enjoyed this transcription immensely, due to the ACO's ability to bring out the sonority of different voices in this piece.
We were then transported from the pre-Bach baroque music to 2006. Mansurian's violin concerto "Four Serious Songs" drew its inspiration from the same source as Brahms' late song cycle of the same name. Painting the "transience of life", and described by the composer as "reflections on death", the violin concerto showcased Patricia's technical skills in dispatching high-register notes fearlessly and without any slight hesitations at all, her virtuosity in fast moving passages, and her musical abilities in conveying emotions the music carries in a more meditating passages. The program notes discussed the folk music influence in this piece, and the influence is showed in traces of melody and a more non-conventional harmonies throughout. In one section of the piece, I even felt like I was listening to Khachaturian's Violin Concerto! (Khachaturian is an Armenian, and his violin concerto is imbued with folk music influence too).
The highlight of the concert for me is Sandor Veress' excellent Four Transylvanian Dances, which again, has its roots from folk tunes. The first dance, Lassu, with its long, arching, and yearning melody reminded me a lot of the main melody of Rimsky-Korsakov's third movement of the Scheherazade (the Young Prince and the Young Princess). Ugros, the second dance, is just pure delight, and very fun to dance too that Pat and some members of the ACO swayed their body to the dance rhythm. The third dance, Lejtos was more serious in tone where suddenly in the end, it shifted to a brighter mood. And the last dance, Dobbantos (aka. stomping dance), must be the most memorable piece in the concert. Fast tempos, and dispatched with brilliant virtuosities from the orchestra, and the most memorable bit: Unison feet-stamping from all the musicians (three times, IIRC) that caught the audience by surprise. Marvelous performance!
Kats-Chernin's cheeky Zoom and Zip was next after the interval. Although I found it a bit repetitive at times, the audience was treated by something special in this piece: at one section, Patricia actually sang the main melody of the piece! Although her voice is not a first-rate opera star quality, its sudden appearance makes it very memorable, and her pitch, singing the not so straightforward tonality of the melody, was spot on. I'm not sure if this is an improvisation or not, but I'm more impressed by Patricia's musicianship by the second.
After a series of contemporary music, we were then offered music from the bygone era. Haydn's G major Violin concerto perhaps is not his best work, but Patricia offered a very enjoyable performance, especially the dreamy second movement of the piece, and straight after, dispatching these dreamy qualities with a brilliant finale.
The final piece of the night, Vivaldi's "The Storm at Sea" was published in the same collection as his more famous "Four Seasons". In turn, the fast tremolo passages in the Storm of the Summer movement of the Four Seasons, find its way to the "Storm of the Sea". The Largo was short, and borders on improvisational performance. In the finale, there were 2 members of the orchestra running their fingers up and down the harpsichord strings while the others keep playing. For a baroque piece, I'm surprised to find radical harmonic shifts used by Vivaldi. It's so extreme that it will not be out of place in late-Romantic era music.
After a long applause, Patricia said something to the audience which I didn't quite catch, and subsequently didn't know what's the piece that she and the orchestra played as the encore.
Whoa, this concert was awesome. First of all, it's so unconventional already that a solo violinist played barefooted in the concert, but Patricia's musicianship is something to be admired, and praised. Her constant swaying to the music, stamping, and the energy she brought in to the performance engaged the audience to another level of music enjoyment. For a more seasoned concert-goer, her technical abilities, and her confidence bow attacks reassured us that she is really one of the top violinist in the world. I'm glad I've attended this concert, and really looking forward to attending her concert again next time.
- Schuetz German Magnificat (transcribed for strings)
- Tigran Mansurian Violin Concerto "Four Serious Songs"
- Sandor Veress Four Transylvanian Dances
- Kats-Chernin Zoom and Zip
- Haydn Violin Concerto in G major
- Vivaldi Violin Concerto, RV. 253, "The Storm at Sea"
Patricia Kopatchinskaja - Guest Director and Lead Violin
To be honest, this is the concert that I am least interested in when looking at the ACO brochure last year. How glad I was to be proven wrong big time - I think I enjoyed this concert as much as the previous 'Romantic Symphony' concert, and it's simply one of the best ACO concerts I have had the pleasure to attend.
With the closure of Hamer Hall, ACO moves its concerts in Melbourne to Melbourne Town Hall. I have previously remarked my concern about the acoustic of Town Hall in regards to the smaller orchestra like ACO in my previous post, but I'm glad that my worst fear is unjustified. The ACO still produces a stellar sound, worthy of a full-sized symphony orchestra, while none of the details are lost. It's a slightly different acoustic than Hamer Hall, true to that, but the change of venue doesn't bother me as much as I was anticipating.
The concert started in a subdued tone with Schuetz's German Magnificat on offering. While the piece was originally written for two choirs, and an organ, ACO performed the strings transcription of it by replacing the two choirs with equally split strings, and the organ with the harpsichord. Schuetz's Magnificat is a smaller in scale compared to say Bach's or Vivaldi's or Monteverdi's and lacking part for solo voices. It's a bit strange for me to listen to a settings of Magnificat without the text sung, but the quality of the composition shone through. I think I would've enjoyed this piece better in a cathedral, and performed in its original settings, due to the pious feel and the restrained exuberant joy. Having said that, I still enjoyed this transcription immensely, due to the ACO's ability to bring out the sonority of different voices in this piece.
We were then transported from the pre-Bach baroque music to 2006. Mansurian's violin concerto "Four Serious Songs" drew its inspiration from the same source as Brahms' late song cycle of the same name. Painting the "transience of life", and described by the composer as "reflections on death", the violin concerto showcased Patricia's technical skills in dispatching high-register notes fearlessly and without any slight hesitations at all, her virtuosity in fast moving passages, and her musical abilities in conveying emotions the music carries in a more meditating passages. The program notes discussed the folk music influence in this piece, and the influence is showed in traces of melody and a more non-conventional harmonies throughout. In one section of the piece, I even felt like I was listening to Khachaturian's Violin Concerto! (Khachaturian is an Armenian, and his violin concerto is imbued with folk music influence too).
The highlight of the concert for me is Sandor Veress' excellent Four Transylvanian Dances, which again, has its roots from folk tunes. The first dance, Lassu, with its long, arching, and yearning melody reminded me a lot of the main melody of Rimsky-Korsakov's third movement of the Scheherazade (the Young Prince and the Young Princess). Ugros, the second dance, is just pure delight, and very fun to dance too that Pat and some members of the ACO swayed their body to the dance rhythm. The third dance, Lejtos was more serious in tone where suddenly in the end, it shifted to a brighter mood. And the last dance, Dobbantos (aka. stomping dance), must be the most memorable piece in the concert. Fast tempos, and dispatched with brilliant virtuosities from the orchestra, and the most memorable bit: Unison feet-stamping from all the musicians (three times, IIRC) that caught the audience by surprise. Marvelous performance!
Kats-Chernin's cheeky Zoom and Zip was next after the interval. Although I found it a bit repetitive at times, the audience was treated by something special in this piece: at one section, Patricia actually sang the main melody of the piece! Although her voice is not a first-rate opera star quality, its sudden appearance makes it very memorable, and her pitch, singing the not so straightforward tonality of the melody, was spot on. I'm not sure if this is an improvisation or not, but I'm more impressed by Patricia's musicianship by the second.
After a series of contemporary music, we were then offered music from the bygone era. Haydn's G major Violin concerto perhaps is not his best work, but Patricia offered a very enjoyable performance, especially the dreamy second movement of the piece, and straight after, dispatching these dreamy qualities with a brilliant finale.
The final piece of the night, Vivaldi's "The Storm at Sea" was published in the same collection as his more famous "Four Seasons". In turn, the fast tremolo passages in the Storm of the Summer movement of the Four Seasons, find its way to the "Storm of the Sea". The Largo was short, and borders on improvisational performance. In the finale, there were 2 members of the orchestra running their fingers up and down the harpsichord strings while the others keep playing. For a baroque piece, I'm surprised to find radical harmonic shifts used by Vivaldi. It's so extreme that it will not be out of place in late-Romantic era music.
After a long applause, Patricia said something to the audience which I didn't quite catch, and subsequently didn't know what's the piece that she and the orchestra played as the encore.
Whoa, this concert was awesome. First of all, it's so unconventional already that a solo violinist played barefooted in the concert, but Patricia's musicianship is something to be admired, and praised. Her constant swaying to the music, stamping, and the energy she brought in to the performance engaged the audience to another level of music enjoyment. For a more seasoned concert-goer, her technical abilities, and her confidence bow attacks reassured us that she is really one of the top violinist in the world. I'm glad I've attended this concert, and really looking forward to attending her concert again next time.
Tuesday, 29 June 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 28 June 2010 - Last Waltz
Featuring:
- Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (The Dance in the Village Inn)
- Brahms Violin Concerto
- Ravel La Valse
- Haydn Symphony No. 45 'Farewell'
Daniel Hope - Violin
Mario Venzago - Conductor
This concert is special in the sense that it is the very last concert where MSO performs in Hamer Hall before the hall undergoes major renovation, scheduled to finish in 2012. The program is an interesting mix of tone poems, concerto, and a symphony befitting to such an occasion. So did the audience, actually, the hall was pretty close to being sold-out.
Liszt's music hasn't always convinced me, but this time, I quite enjoy his program music of Mephistopheles taking command of music making in a tavern. On the other hand, Brahms's violin concerto is the violin concerto I hold in the highest regard. Daniel Hope's performance was a little bit insecure in the first movement, esp. during the entry of the violin solo where it sounded a little sharp. You can kind of see him struggling to produce the required sound in the technically challenge passages in the first movement due to the sharpness of his instrument, but he played better in a more lyrical passage. The cadenza, was taken quite slowly, and by the time the orchestra re-entered at the end of the cadenza, I felt like I just woke up from a deep meditation. Daniel then re-tuned his violin in the little break in the between, and dispatched 2nd and 3rd movements easily, and more convincingly. Very enjoyable performance, but unfortunately, the emotional high point of Brahms' violin concerto is in its first movement. Ultimately, while the big moments are still there, they failed to break me down into tears.
Next up after interval is Ravel's La Valse. Ravel is a funny one for me, some of his music I love to death - the G major concerto for example. But his other orchestral musics sound like a big poo-poo pretty superficial music, e.g. Bolero, The Mother Goose, and Valses nobles et sentimentales which I heard in London and bored me. I was preparing for the worst with La Valse, but it turned out to be much better than I expected. An interesting beginning, the program describes it as 'waltz viewed from a distance', in which low strings, and winds playing fragments of waltz. It was not long until we were thrown directly into the middle of a ball, with the waltz in full force and you can probably trace some melodies of your most famous waltzes in there. The same music returned in the end, making the ending overwhelming, and very pleasing.
The final and main dish of the concert is Haydn's Farewell Symphony. Long known for its theatrical finale, I am enlightened by a very informative program on the structure of the symphony. First of all, the tonality, F-Sharp minor, is rather rare during Haydn's time. The minor tonality gave this piece a special twist in Haydn's mostly major symphonies, very much Sturm und Drang style. I remembered the minuet ending with a violin solo from the concertmaster, before the Presto section of the finale broke out. A horn note signals the adagio, in which, one by one and turn by turn, members of the orchestra left the stage (including the conductor which gave his best effort signaling to the audience not to clap yet). In the end, only the concertmaster and the second violin leader played the same melody in thirds, before the second violin leader had enough and left the concertmaster on stage by himself. There's only one stage light remaining at this stage, and by the time the concertmaster finished his last note, the stage went dark, and I felt a small ache in my heart. The applause broke out, and all the members of the orchestra playing in the symphony came back and took their well-deserved bows. A minority but noticeable portion of the audience gave a standing ovation. A heart-felt performance, and befitting to such an occasion.
A word about the conductor. He's the same person who conducted MSO in a rather strange program containing Mozart's D minor concerto, Schoenberg's variations for orchestra, and Ravel's Bolero. He's the person who opened up my mind and encouraged me not to fear Schoenberg's music and made the variations for orchestra performance such a memorable occasion that I felt completely bored with Ravel's creativeless Bolero. I attended the pre-concert talk and he was really informative on how he viewed the Ravel's La Valse and the aspects of conducting that he drew in terms of producing the sound that he prefers for different kind of repertoire. He's just delightful this man, and I'll be sure to attend his next concert should he come again next time (I think I remembered Huw Humphreys mentioning he'll be back next year).
So for now, farewell Hamer Hall. I'm sure you'll look, feel, and sound better after your renovation.
- Liszt Mephisto Waltz No. 1 (The Dance in the Village Inn)
- Brahms Violin Concerto
- Ravel La Valse
- Haydn Symphony No. 45 'Farewell'
Daniel Hope - Violin
Mario Venzago - Conductor
This concert is special in the sense that it is the very last concert where MSO performs in Hamer Hall before the hall undergoes major renovation, scheduled to finish in 2012. The program is an interesting mix of tone poems, concerto, and a symphony befitting to such an occasion. So did the audience, actually, the hall was pretty close to being sold-out.
Liszt's music hasn't always convinced me, but this time, I quite enjoy his program music of Mephistopheles taking command of music making in a tavern. On the other hand, Brahms's violin concerto is the violin concerto I hold in the highest regard. Daniel Hope's performance was a little bit insecure in the first movement, esp. during the entry of the violin solo where it sounded a little sharp. You can kind of see him struggling to produce the required sound in the technically challenge passages in the first movement due to the sharpness of his instrument, but he played better in a more lyrical passage. The cadenza, was taken quite slowly, and by the time the orchestra re-entered at the end of the cadenza, I felt like I just woke up from a deep meditation. Daniel then re-tuned his violin in the little break in the between, and dispatched 2nd and 3rd movements easily, and more convincingly. Very enjoyable performance, but unfortunately, the emotional high point of Brahms' violin concerto is in its first movement. Ultimately, while the big moments are still there, they failed to break me down into tears.
Next up after interval is Ravel's La Valse. Ravel is a funny one for me, some of his music I love to death - the G major concerto for example. But his other orchestral musics sound like a big poo-poo pretty superficial music, e.g. Bolero, The Mother Goose, and Valses nobles et sentimentales which I heard in London and bored me. I was preparing for the worst with La Valse, but it turned out to be much better than I expected. An interesting beginning, the program describes it as 'waltz viewed from a distance', in which low strings, and winds playing fragments of waltz. It was not long until we were thrown directly into the middle of a ball, with the waltz in full force and you can probably trace some melodies of your most famous waltzes in there. The same music returned in the end, making the ending overwhelming, and very pleasing.
The final and main dish of the concert is Haydn's Farewell Symphony. Long known for its theatrical finale, I am enlightened by a very informative program on the structure of the symphony. First of all, the tonality, F-Sharp minor, is rather rare during Haydn's time. The minor tonality gave this piece a special twist in Haydn's mostly major symphonies, very much Sturm und Drang style. I remembered the minuet ending with a violin solo from the concertmaster, before the Presto section of the finale broke out. A horn note signals the adagio, in which, one by one and turn by turn, members of the orchestra left the stage (including the conductor which gave his best effort signaling to the audience not to clap yet). In the end, only the concertmaster and the second violin leader played the same melody in thirds, before the second violin leader had enough and left the concertmaster on stage by himself. There's only one stage light remaining at this stage, and by the time the concertmaster finished his last note, the stage went dark, and I felt a small ache in my heart. The applause broke out, and all the members of the orchestra playing in the symphony came back and took their well-deserved bows. A minority but noticeable portion of the audience gave a standing ovation. A heart-felt performance, and befitting to such an occasion.
A word about the conductor. He's the same person who conducted MSO in a rather strange program containing Mozart's D minor concerto, Schoenberg's variations for orchestra, and Ravel's Bolero. He's the person who opened up my mind and encouraged me not to fear Schoenberg's music and made the variations for orchestra performance such a memorable occasion that I felt completely bored with Ravel's creativeless Bolero. I attended the pre-concert talk and he was really informative on how he viewed the Ravel's La Valse and the aspects of conducting that he drew in terms of producing the sound that he prefers for different kind of repertoire. He's just delightful this man, and I'll be sure to attend his next concert should he come again next time (I think I remembered Huw Humphreys mentioning he'll be back next year).
So for now, farewell Hamer Hall. I'm sure you'll look, feel, and sound better after your renovation.
Tuesday, 8 June 2010
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 7 June 2010 - Romantic Symphony
Featuring:
- Jonny Greenwood Popcorn Superhet Receiver Australian Premiere
- Schubert Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"
- Brahms Symphony No. 1
Well, due to some circumstances, I need to change my ACO concert to Monday. Offered the choice of stall or balcony seats, I decided to take on the latter seat. As much as I hate balcony seats in Hamer Hall because they tend to make me feel nauseous, it's still better to have a clear view of the orchestra, rather than stuck somewhere in stall seats where all you can see is the first two rows of musicians.
My decision paid off immediately when ACO gave the Australian Premiere of Radiohead's lead guitarist's piece with its quirky and rather cute title. Plagiarising the program notes, "A superhet (superheterodyne) receiver generates a fixed tone as a result of the frequency difference between two carrier waves - in the early days of wireless transmission, this was a frequency equivalent to a note at the very top of the violin's range. Popcorn is a low-fat, high-fibre, maize foodstuff". That last sentence made my day :). As I'm not familiar with Radiohead music and Jonny Greenwood in general, let's just jump to the music itself. Scored for a moderate-sized string orchestra (around 30, if I'm not mistaken), it's a lush string showcases lacking a recognisable main theme. In place of this, it exploits almost all strings playing techniques: bowed, pizzicato, Bartok pizzicato, even treating the violins like a guitar, you name it, I think they're all there. To grossly simplify the music, I think it's in ternary form with a slightly longer first part, and a very interesting second part. The first and last part of the music concerns with creating the soundscape of musical waves. I was trying to find a scientific term to express this soundscape more accurately when my companion for the night suprised me by uttering "Doppler effect" - brilliant!. To create this effect, Greenwood resorted to glissandos, tremolos, passing main musical ideas from a string divisi to the other, and even sometimes from one player to the other so that almost every strings plays a solo at different places in the piece. All these musical tricks are a feast to my eyes: the sights of the bows going up and down from one player to the other created an effect of a - well of course - wave. Thank goodness I chose the balcony seat :).
The second part of the music was really fun, the violins and violas were held like a guitar by the musicians, and they played a repeating rhytmic pattern with the cellos playing out the main theme here (IIRC). This is definitely rock-influenced music, well implemented in classical music and with good taste. Richard conducted the orchestra (he did not play in this piece), and the orchestra maintained the precision, clarity, and yes, sonority which in turned help the audience to grasp this music. While tightly textured, the piece is very accessible, and consists of some interesting harmonies. It actually reminds me a little bit of the Xenakis's Shaar which ACO played last year, but with less amount of dissonances.
In general, I like the piece - I just had troubles with its title. I can see the superhet connection with the wave soundscape it created, but I can't find any connection on the popcorn. Maybe the idea that radio static noises do not always necessarily a noise - not a music - and can be transformed and expressed as something pleasant, to the ear of listeners is the popcorn bit.
The woodwind, brass, and percussion guest musicians joined the enlarged strings to play Schubert's arguably most famous symphony, the 'Unfinished'. A much loved symphony, it famously contained only 2 movements. The first movement contained one of the most well-known Schubert's melody, the second theme, which was played right after the dark, gloomy opening first theme in the low strings. The cellos are gorgeous here, singing in the beautiful melody, while signalling the tragedy to come in the opening murmuring theme. In general, I like the tempo Richard took in this movement: brisk enough to keep the tension high throughout and delivered the high tension development phase with fierce staccatos, and extreme contrast in dynamics. The tension was so high here that I am thankful when the first movement is over to finally have a breather. This movement to me is a prime example of trademark Schubert, easily transforming a dark gloom moment to a beautiful moment effortlessly, and back again with the same simplicity. Another example of this is the beautiful 2nd movement of Schubert's A major sonata (#20), and the Credo from his G major Mass (#2). In the Credo, Schubert changed the pious mood in the beginning effortlessly to doom tragedy in 4 bars when the choir reaches 'Crucifixus', and transform this gloomy mood into exuberant rejoice in 8 bars in the 'Resurrexit' section. Anyway, I digressed from this concert.
I have to disagree with Murray Black's review on the second movement tempo. I found it to my liking, with plenty of time given to the woodwinds to unfold the lyrical second theme. After the high tension drama in the previous moment, it comforted me so much to listen to the woodwinds playing these lyrical melody. Not saying that the tension has gone, it's still there, lurking around, and yes, Schubert summoned them again in the contrapuntal march-like section soon after. And yet, in the end, it sounded like all is finally well. Brilliant performance from the ACO, definitely first-rate!
After the break, my favourite Brahms' symphony is on the table. Here, I agreed with Murray Black in that there are some issues with the performance in general. While the first movement worked well with brisk tempos, the second and third movements did not. Richard's solo in the second movement made it up a little bit, but the graceful woodwinds melodies are not realised to the their potential in the third movement. The coda of the finale while was brilliant and well-executed, lacked the majestic quality I yearn from this symphony, partly due to the super fast tempos. There were also some minor ensemble issues, the horns were under-pitched in a couple of spots in the finale, but overall the balance was really good. Oh yeah, love the colour the contrabassoon provided in the last movement too. Anyway, despite my usual nitpickings, ACO did one heck of a good job in giving a worthy performance of a Brahms symphony despite the fact that they have not played this symphony before. A major symphony orchestra could easily bore me playing the same symphony by lacking the punch and the energy that ACO delivered.
On a last note, this will be the final time ACO played in Hamer Hall this season as the renovation work of this hall will commence soon. To be honest, I'm a bit worried with ACO performing in the Town Hall as I don't really enjoy its acoustic that much, and its acoustic definitely favours larger ensemble. I'll be glad to be proven wrong.
- Jonny Greenwood Popcorn Superhet Receiver Australian Premiere
- Schubert Symphony No. 8 "Unfinished"
- Brahms Symphony No. 1
Well, due to some circumstances, I need to change my ACO concert to Monday. Offered the choice of stall or balcony seats, I decided to take on the latter seat. As much as I hate balcony seats in Hamer Hall because they tend to make me feel nauseous, it's still better to have a clear view of the orchestra, rather than stuck somewhere in stall seats where all you can see is the first two rows of musicians.
My decision paid off immediately when ACO gave the Australian Premiere of Radiohead's lead guitarist's piece with its quirky and rather cute title. Plagiarising the program notes, "A superhet (superheterodyne) receiver generates a fixed tone as a result of the frequency difference between two carrier waves - in the early days of wireless transmission, this was a frequency equivalent to a note at the very top of the violin's range. Popcorn is a low-fat, high-fibre, maize foodstuff". That last sentence made my day :). As I'm not familiar with Radiohead music and Jonny Greenwood in general, let's just jump to the music itself. Scored for a moderate-sized string orchestra (around 30, if I'm not mistaken), it's a lush string showcases lacking a recognisable main theme. In place of this, it exploits almost all strings playing techniques: bowed, pizzicato, Bartok pizzicato, even treating the violins like a guitar, you name it, I think they're all there. To grossly simplify the music, I think it's in ternary form with a slightly longer first part, and a very interesting second part. The first and last part of the music concerns with creating the soundscape of musical waves. I was trying to find a scientific term to express this soundscape more accurately when my companion for the night suprised me by uttering "Doppler effect" - brilliant!. To create this effect, Greenwood resorted to glissandos, tremolos, passing main musical ideas from a string divisi to the other, and even sometimes from one player to the other so that almost every strings plays a solo at different places in the piece. All these musical tricks are a feast to my eyes: the sights of the bows going up and down from one player to the other created an effect of a - well of course - wave. Thank goodness I chose the balcony seat :).
The second part of the music was really fun, the violins and violas were held like a guitar by the musicians, and they played a repeating rhytmic pattern with the cellos playing out the main theme here (IIRC). This is definitely rock-influenced music, well implemented in classical music and with good taste. Richard conducted the orchestra (he did not play in this piece), and the orchestra maintained the precision, clarity, and yes, sonority which in turned help the audience to grasp this music. While tightly textured, the piece is very accessible, and consists of some interesting harmonies. It actually reminds me a little bit of the Xenakis's Shaar which ACO played last year, but with less amount of dissonances.
In general, I like the piece - I just had troubles with its title. I can see the superhet connection with the wave soundscape it created, but I can't find any connection on the popcorn. Maybe the idea that radio static noises do not always necessarily a noise - not a music - and can be transformed and expressed as something pleasant, to the ear of listeners is the popcorn bit.
The woodwind, brass, and percussion guest musicians joined the enlarged strings to play Schubert's arguably most famous symphony, the 'Unfinished'. A much loved symphony, it famously contained only 2 movements. The first movement contained one of the most well-known Schubert's melody, the second theme, which was played right after the dark, gloomy opening first theme in the low strings. The cellos are gorgeous here, singing in the beautiful melody, while signalling the tragedy to come in the opening murmuring theme. In general, I like the tempo Richard took in this movement: brisk enough to keep the tension high throughout and delivered the high tension development phase with fierce staccatos, and extreme contrast in dynamics. The tension was so high here that I am thankful when the first movement is over to finally have a breather. This movement to me is a prime example of trademark Schubert, easily transforming a dark gloom moment to a beautiful moment effortlessly, and back again with the same simplicity. Another example of this is the beautiful 2nd movement of Schubert's A major sonata (#20), and the Credo from his G major Mass (#2). In the Credo, Schubert changed the pious mood in the beginning effortlessly to doom tragedy in 4 bars when the choir reaches 'Crucifixus', and transform this gloomy mood into exuberant rejoice in 8 bars in the 'Resurrexit' section. Anyway, I digressed from this concert.
I have to disagree with Murray Black's review on the second movement tempo. I found it to my liking, with plenty of time given to the woodwinds to unfold the lyrical second theme. After the high tension drama in the previous moment, it comforted me so much to listen to the woodwinds playing these lyrical melody. Not saying that the tension has gone, it's still there, lurking around, and yes, Schubert summoned them again in the contrapuntal march-like section soon after. And yet, in the end, it sounded like all is finally well. Brilliant performance from the ACO, definitely first-rate!
After the break, my favourite Brahms' symphony is on the table. Here, I agreed with Murray Black in that there are some issues with the performance in general. While the first movement worked well with brisk tempos, the second and third movements did not. Richard's solo in the second movement made it up a little bit, but the graceful woodwinds melodies are not realised to the their potential in the third movement. The coda of the finale while was brilliant and well-executed, lacked the majestic quality I yearn from this symphony, partly due to the super fast tempos. There were also some minor ensemble issues, the horns were under-pitched in a couple of spots in the finale, but overall the balance was really good. Oh yeah, love the colour the contrabassoon provided in the last movement too. Anyway, despite my usual nitpickings, ACO did one heck of a good job in giving a worthy performance of a Brahms symphony despite the fact that they have not played this symphony before. A major symphony orchestra could easily bore me playing the same symphony by lacking the punch and the energy that ACO delivered.
On a last note, this will be the final time ACO played in Hamer Hall this season as the renovation work of this hall will commence soon. To be honest, I'm a bit worried with ACO performing in the Town Hall as I don't really enjoy its acoustic that much, and its acoustic definitely favours larger ensemble. I'll be glad to be proven wrong.
Saturday, 5 June 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 4 June 2010 - Mozart Magic
Featuring:
- Mozart Cosi fan tutti: Overture
- Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
- Mendelssohn Capriccio brilliant for Piano and Orchestra
- Haydn Symphony No. 96 'Miracle'
Howard Shelley - Piano/Conductor
First Town Hall Proms this year. And Town Hall Proms = Organ recital by Calvin Bowman. That night he played Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29 Wir danken dir, Gott which turned out to be the arrangement of the famous Preludio from the 3rd Partita for solo violin. Next on the offering was Mendelssohn's Third Organ Sonata in A major, Op. 65. I enjoyed this 2 movements piece very much, the first movement sounded like a majestic Bach chorale, and the second movement more introspective in nature, and calming. Franck's rather lengthy and less interesting piece Chorale No. 3 in A minor closed the recital.
The title of this concert is your usual cheesy marketing programming, "Mozart Magic", and would infer that the night triumph would belong to Mozart's music. Sadly, it's Haydn's music who stole the show for the night.
Mozart's overture to Cosi fan Tutti started the concert, but the MSO was just getting warmed up for the night. While the woodwinds passages are beautifully rendered, the performance in general lacked energy, and the strings sounded muffled. It's a good performance, and yet there's nothing so memorable about it. After this short piece, the members of the orchestra stood up to have the seat arrangements fixed up. A piano is needed for the next piece and this which should have been clear from the program was apparently not so clear after all for a patron sitting behind me which uttered quite loudly, "what? that's it?". Anyway, Howard Shelley came back stage and with the piano positioned so that the audience faces the performer's back, explained the reason of this awkward position and also the glass cover that replaces the piano lid on the piano. To be succinct, the glass is so that he can see the woodwinds section, and help with the clarity and the acoustics of the hall. He also talked a little bit of Mozart's composition which was composed during the same period. He also played some excerpt of Mozart's 19th, 21st, 23rd, and 24th piano concertos.
After all that, he finally started the concerto. MSO was better here, but still lacking punch (for my taste). I always associate the d minor key signature to pieces with high tension. On top of my head, I can name Mozart's Requiem, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Brahms' 1st piano concerto, 2nd movement of Brahms' 2nd piano concerto, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mahler's 3rd Symphony, Sibelius' violin concerto, Haydn's Nelson Mass, Bach's Chaconne for solo violin, Schumann's 4th symphony, Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto, Dvorak's 4th and 7th symphonies. All of them are masterpieces which are famous for their high tension. My disappointment is that MSO did not play these high tension passages as tense as they could be played, the string attacks are not furious enough, I might say that they played the music just a bit fierce compared to how they would play a major key classical symphony, where I would have liked VERY FIERCE. Anyway, that's only my problem. The piano playing was fine, I enjoyed the beautiful 2nd movement a lot, although the contrasting episode was rather tame. Howard played Beethoven's cadenza for the 1st movement, as he did for the last movement. I like Howard's phrasings in general, and he did take some liberty in changing some notes in the 2nd movement to my fascination. The piano's clarity was much better this time, maybe because of the fact that it's a brand new concert grand piano just shipped from Hamburg (as told by Howard)?
Mendelssohn's piece was okay, but I couldn't say I enjoyed the performance very much. I enjoyed the arpeggios that started the piece, but from there it all went downhill. There were some passages in the piece that reminded me of one of Mendelssohn's own piano concertos, but I couldn't remember which one.
Finally, some remarkable playing from the orchestra. Howard brought some wits and energy to Haydn symphony which he didn't for the other programs that night. The highlights were a graceful minuet in the 3rd movement with the long oboe solo. The finale was played as marked, 'Vivace assai', the best moment of the night for me, really. And as always, a wise lesson for newcomers to Town Hall Proms: there's always encore after. You can kinda see it when David Thomas (principal clarinet) running back to the stage. I wondered what would happen if the audience didn't really like the performance and the planned encore would not go ahead simply because the applause is not long enough :). Anyway, Howard teased the audience if they would like some romantic music to end the night, and offered Sibelius' Valse Triste, but unfortunately, despite beautiful playing, no one seemed to take Howard's suggestion to waltz to this music in the concert hall.
Next concert: ACO playing 2 of my favourite symphonies: Schubert's Unfinished symphony, and Brahms' majestic 1st symphony.
- Mozart Cosi fan tutti: Overture
- Mozart Piano Concerto No. 20 in D minor, K. 466
- Mendelssohn Capriccio brilliant for Piano and Orchestra
- Haydn Symphony No. 96 'Miracle'
Howard Shelley - Piano/Conductor
First Town Hall Proms this year. And Town Hall Proms = Organ recital by Calvin Bowman. That night he played Sinfonia from Cantata No. 29 Wir danken dir, Gott which turned out to be the arrangement of the famous Preludio from the 3rd Partita for solo violin. Next on the offering was Mendelssohn's Third Organ Sonata in A major, Op. 65. I enjoyed this 2 movements piece very much, the first movement sounded like a majestic Bach chorale, and the second movement more introspective in nature, and calming. Franck's rather lengthy and less interesting piece Chorale No. 3 in A minor closed the recital.
The title of this concert is your usual cheesy marketing programming, "Mozart Magic", and would infer that the night triumph would belong to Mozart's music. Sadly, it's Haydn's music who stole the show for the night.
Mozart's overture to Cosi fan Tutti started the concert, but the MSO was just getting warmed up for the night. While the woodwinds passages are beautifully rendered, the performance in general lacked energy, and the strings sounded muffled. It's a good performance, and yet there's nothing so memorable about it. After this short piece, the members of the orchestra stood up to have the seat arrangements fixed up. A piano is needed for the next piece and this which should have been clear from the program was apparently not so clear after all for a patron sitting behind me which uttered quite loudly, "what? that's it?". Anyway, Howard Shelley came back stage and with the piano positioned so that the audience faces the performer's back, explained the reason of this awkward position and also the glass cover that replaces the piano lid on the piano. To be succinct, the glass is so that he can see the woodwinds section, and help with the clarity and the acoustics of the hall. He also talked a little bit of Mozart's composition which was composed during the same period. He also played some excerpt of Mozart's 19th, 21st, 23rd, and 24th piano concertos.
After all that, he finally started the concerto. MSO was better here, but still lacking punch (for my taste). I always associate the d minor key signature to pieces with high tension. On top of my head, I can name Mozart's Requiem, Mozart's Don Giovanni, Brahms' 1st piano concerto, 2nd movement of Brahms' 2nd piano concerto, Beethoven's 9th Symphony, Mahler's 3rd Symphony, Sibelius' violin concerto, Haydn's Nelson Mass, Bach's Chaconne for solo violin, Schumann's 4th symphony, Rachmaninoff's 3rd piano concerto, Dvorak's 4th and 7th symphonies. All of them are masterpieces which are famous for their high tension. My disappointment is that MSO did not play these high tension passages as tense as they could be played, the string attacks are not furious enough, I might say that they played the music just a bit fierce compared to how they would play a major key classical symphony, where I would have liked VERY FIERCE. Anyway, that's only my problem. The piano playing was fine, I enjoyed the beautiful 2nd movement a lot, although the contrasting episode was rather tame. Howard played Beethoven's cadenza for the 1st movement, as he did for the last movement. I like Howard's phrasings in general, and he did take some liberty in changing some notes in the 2nd movement to my fascination. The piano's clarity was much better this time, maybe because of the fact that it's a brand new concert grand piano just shipped from Hamburg (as told by Howard)?
Mendelssohn's piece was okay, but I couldn't say I enjoyed the performance very much. I enjoyed the arpeggios that started the piece, but from there it all went downhill. There were some passages in the piece that reminded me of one of Mendelssohn's own piano concertos, but I couldn't remember which one.
Finally, some remarkable playing from the orchestra. Howard brought some wits and energy to Haydn symphony which he didn't for the other programs that night. The highlights were a graceful minuet in the 3rd movement with the long oboe solo. The finale was played as marked, 'Vivace assai', the best moment of the night for me, really. And as always, a wise lesson for newcomers to Town Hall Proms: there's always encore after. You can kinda see it when David Thomas (principal clarinet) running back to the stage. I wondered what would happen if the audience didn't really like the performance and the planned encore would not go ahead simply because the applause is not long enough :). Anyway, Howard teased the audience if they would like some romantic music to end the night, and offered Sibelius' Valse Triste, but unfortunately, despite beautiful playing, no one seemed to take Howard's suggestion to waltz to this music in the concert hall.
Next concert: ACO playing 2 of my favourite symphonies: Schubert's Unfinished symphony, and Brahms' majestic 1st symphony.
Sunday, 30 May 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 29 May 2010 - Beethoven - The Journey Begins
Featuring:
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
- Olli Mustonen The Old Church at Petäjävesi
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
Olli Mustonen - Piano/Director
I was really looking forward to this concert only to be let down big time. The two Beethoven's piano concertos came up really short, and included some awkward phrasings and quirks that I don't really enjoy at all. Olli Mustonen is a fine pianist, but his readings of Beethoven's concertos left me cold. With the 2nd piano concerto, I missed the clarity of the notes. Also, throughout the whole concert, Olli seemed to play a lot of final resolving notes of a phrase so softly that I almost cannot listen to them. This is really annoying me and sometimes I just have to make up the sound of that resolving notes to complete the playing of a beautiful phrase in my mind. Directing and playing a piano concerto will always be a challenge, and it's really frustrating when the ensemble wasn't perfect, e.g. a couple of mistimed entries, and the balance of the orchestra was really off. On top of that, Olli busted out quite a number of wrong notes in the 4th piano concerto. His cadenzas are weird, sort of jazzy and sound 'pop'ish. The last movement of the 4th concert was interpreted like a horse galloping to finish line. Fast tempo and nothing else. I can't honestly say I felt any of the soul from the performance of this favourite Beethoven's concerto of mine. The audience clearly didn't share my opinion and cheered loudly for the performance. Well, I guess it's hard to stay put after you listened to the finale's brilliant coda.
This frustrating performance got even more frustrating for me when in the beginning of the 4th PC during the magical chords of the opening, which for me is a big factor of the enjoyment of this concerto, an audience member sitting right behind me said 'oh, I love this' right when she recognised that magical chords. Thanks very much for speaking out my mind lady, but I prefer if you keep it to yourself next time. Also, in the 2nd movement of the same concerto, someone tried to unwrap candy in the prayer-like section till the end of that movement. Thanks for ruining the performance further. What a joke. I swear I'm not going to let anyone sitting beside me to do this thing in a concert although there's a good chance he/she won't like me very much after that.
It might be a very frustrating concert, but there's some good moments here. Olli Mustonen's symphonic-suite music is actually quite enjoyable. The music, depicting an old church in a Finnish city, is in 5 movements. The first depicting the activity of builders of the church with changing and time signature and ends suddenly. Sacred Touch, the next movement, highlights the beautiful woodwinds writing for it. The Demons, and St. Christopher (3rd and 4th movements) are my favourites with the highlight definitely goes to the slightly out-of-tune hymn-singing portrayal. The finale ends as sudden as the opening. When I think about the piece again at the end, I think it definitely has a lot of the ideas from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
The best moment of the concert is the encore Mustonen gave after curtain calls for his Beethoven's 4th performance. Here, he found the touch, the clarity, the sensitivity, and the sonority to express chorale-like melodies found in the piece. Sadly, I would never know what it is.
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2
- Olli Mustonen The Old Church at Petäjävesi
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
Olli Mustonen - Piano/Director
I was really looking forward to this concert only to be let down big time. The two Beethoven's piano concertos came up really short, and included some awkward phrasings and quirks that I don't really enjoy at all. Olli Mustonen is a fine pianist, but his readings of Beethoven's concertos left me cold. With the 2nd piano concerto, I missed the clarity of the notes. Also, throughout the whole concert, Olli seemed to play a lot of final resolving notes of a phrase so softly that I almost cannot listen to them. This is really annoying me and sometimes I just have to make up the sound of that resolving notes to complete the playing of a beautiful phrase in my mind. Directing and playing a piano concerto will always be a challenge, and it's really frustrating when the ensemble wasn't perfect, e.g. a couple of mistimed entries, and the balance of the orchestra was really off. On top of that, Olli busted out quite a number of wrong notes in the 4th piano concerto. His cadenzas are weird, sort of jazzy and sound 'pop'ish. The last movement of the 4th concert was interpreted like a horse galloping to finish line. Fast tempo and nothing else. I can't honestly say I felt any of the soul from the performance of this favourite Beethoven's concerto of mine. The audience clearly didn't share my opinion and cheered loudly for the performance. Well, I guess it's hard to stay put after you listened to the finale's brilliant coda.
This frustrating performance got even more frustrating for me when in the beginning of the 4th PC during the magical chords of the opening, which for me is a big factor of the enjoyment of this concerto, an audience member sitting right behind me said 'oh, I love this' right when she recognised that magical chords. Thanks very much for speaking out my mind lady, but I prefer if you keep it to yourself next time. Also, in the 2nd movement of the same concerto, someone tried to unwrap candy in the prayer-like section till the end of that movement. Thanks for ruining the performance further. What a joke. I swear I'm not going to let anyone sitting beside me to do this thing in a concert although there's a good chance he/she won't like me very much after that.
It might be a very frustrating concert, but there's some good moments here. Olli Mustonen's symphonic-suite music is actually quite enjoyable. The music, depicting an old church in a Finnish city, is in 5 movements. The first depicting the activity of builders of the church with changing and time signature and ends suddenly. Sacred Touch, the next movement, highlights the beautiful woodwinds writing for it. The Demons, and St. Christopher (3rd and 4th movements) are my favourites with the highlight definitely goes to the slightly out-of-tune hymn-singing portrayal. The finale ends as sudden as the opening. When I think about the piece again at the end, I think it definitely has a lot of the ideas from Stravinsky's Rite of Spring.
The best moment of the concert is the encore Mustonen gave after curtain calls for his Beethoven's 4th performance. Here, he found the touch, the clarity, the sensitivity, and the sonority to express chorale-like melodies found in the piece. Sadly, I would never know what it is.
Saturday, 15 May 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 15 May 2010 - Trumpet Superstar
Featuring:
- Grieg Norwegian Dances
- Haydn Trumpet Concerto
- Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life)
Giuliano Sommerhalder - Trumpet
Andrew Litton - Conductor
A MSO concert after a long 2 months break, and it's a good one. I enjoyed discovering these 3 pieces that I'm not familiar at all in this concert.
As usual, I'll go on chronologically - Grieg's Norwegian Dances is a set of 4 simple ternary form Norwegian dances inspired by, duh, what else but Norwegian folk music. All 4 pieces placed woodwinds in the spotlight, especially the oboe which deservedly was asked to stand to receive his wonderful contribution throughout. I personally enjoy the first and the third dances the most. The first dance reminiscing of the pomp march of the trolls in the composer's famous In the Hall of the Mountain King, here the rhythms pushed by the gutsy cellos. The third dance started with a beautiful melody in the major key and for the contrasting section, Grieg put the same melody in the minor key, and back again to major key. Simple, but works very well. These pieces cement his position as the master of miniature pieces for me.
Next up is Haydn's famous Trumpet concerto. I'm ashamed to not having the pleasure to listen to this beautiful concerto before. It's a classic Haydn piece, playful melodies with tasteful wits, and what gorgeous Andante - the program is not mistaken pointing out its similarity to the famous melody in Haydn's Kaiser Quartet, of which the melody of current Germany's national anthem is based on. I just love the first note that the solo trumpet played, one single simple plain note. Not more. It's so Haydn. No one would have the same wit starting a solo trumpet with just that.
Being a complete stranger to the varieties of trumpet, I am unable to comment on the sort of trumpet Giuliano used. It produced a lean, clean, crisp sound instead of big sound normally found in jazz band. It's also a bit tame compared to the trumpets that I used to hear in concert hall. Giuliano's phrasings are delicate, and they're supported by the clarity of the notes produced by the instrument. His cadenza is simply delicious. I love the moment in the finale where the main theme came back again in the end, slightly altered, to round off the work. It's so nostalgic, and I always succumb to the beauty of such composer's trick. After several curtain calls, Giuliano came back, and I believe, having changed his trumpet, gave an encore which I sadly could not identify.
I have slight reservation in terms of the orchestral accompaniment. I preferred a stronger attack on the strings, and more woodwinds presence. Otherwise, it's all fine.
The afternoon's concert highlight is Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. Often being derided as semi-autobiography writing of Strauss's own life, it depicted, to put it simply, a hero's triumphant life. I don't generally regard Strauss's music at the highest level, but in this piece, I have taken several likings to his mastery: the main theme of the hero's, the depiction of the critics with the fluttering winds, and the whimsical solo violin depicting of the Hero's wife. The special effects are overwhelming, the percussions and brasses totally overpowered the woodwinds section in climax passages, apart from the piercing piccolos. The hero's final retreat is touching, and provided a quiet moment to what is otherwise an orchestra showpiece.
Andrew Litton conducted with vigor in climaxes, and sensitivity in developing long sensuous melodies, giving them a chance to breath and develop fully without rushing. Wearing a black tie with colourful circles on it, Andrew's a pleasure to watch on the podium. It's a shame that I am not interested in next MSO's concert 'Russian Showcase', that I can't see him conduct again in Melbourne.
MSO, incorporating many guest musicians for Strauss's epic work, played wonderfully today. The brass section is solid today, too solid perhaps that some of woodwinds players require a special noise blocking device placed behind their heads - separating them from the brass section.
Good music doesn't necessarily translate to good audience though. I can probably count the number of people in balcony using my fingers and toes. The circles and stalls are around 80% full.
My next concert is a set of 2 Beethoven's piano concertos, the 2nd and the 4th. I'm so looking forward to the 4th, my favourite out of the 5. I believe I have attended 2 concerts featuring the 4th twice last year, one with ACO and another with MSO. I could never get tired of this wonderful piece. The 2nd PC is different matter though, it's my least favourite Beethoven's piano concerto. I should give it another listen again before the concert.
- Grieg Norwegian Dances
- Haydn Trumpet Concerto
- Richard Strauss Ein Heldenleben (A Hero's Life)
Giuliano Sommerhalder - Trumpet
Andrew Litton - Conductor
A MSO concert after a long 2 months break, and it's a good one. I enjoyed discovering these 3 pieces that I'm not familiar at all in this concert.
As usual, I'll go on chronologically - Grieg's Norwegian Dances is a set of 4 simple ternary form Norwegian dances inspired by, duh, what else but Norwegian folk music. All 4 pieces placed woodwinds in the spotlight, especially the oboe which deservedly was asked to stand to receive his wonderful contribution throughout. I personally enjoy the first and the third dances the most. The first dance reminiscing of the pomp march of the trolls in the composer's famous In the Hall of the Mountain King, here the rhythms pushed by the gutsy cellos. The third dance started with a beautiful melody in the major key and for the contrasting section, Grieg put the same melody in the minor key, and back again to major key. Simple, but works very well. These pieces cement his position as the master of miniature pieces for me.
Next up is Haydn's famous Trumpet concerto. I'm ashamed to not having the pleasure to listen to this beautiful concerto before. It's a classic Haydn piece, playful melodies with tasteful wits, and what gorgeous Andante - the program is not mistaken pointing out its similarity to the famous melody in Haydn's Kaiser Quartet, of which the melody of current Germany's national anthem is based on. I just love the first note that the solo trumpet played, one single simple plain note. Not more. It's so Haydn. No one would have the same wit starting a solo trumpet with just that.
Being a complete stranger to the varieties of trumpet, I am unable to comment on the sort of trumpet Giuliano used. It produced a lean, clean, crisp sound instead of big sound normally found in jazz band. It's also a bit tame compared to the trumpets that I used to hear in concert hall. Giuliano's phrasings are delicate, and they're supported by the clarity of the notes produced by the instrument. His cadenza is simply delicious. I love the moment in the finale where the main theme came back again in the end, slightly altered, to round off the work. It's so nostalgic, and I always succumb to the beauty of such composer's trick. After several curtain calls, Giuliano came back, and I believe, having changed his trumpet, gave an encore which I sadly could not identify.
I have slight reservation in terms of the orchestral accompaniment. I preferred a stronger attack on the strings, and more woodwinds presence. Otherwise, it's all fine.
The afternoon's concert highlight is Richard Strauss's Ein Heldenleben. Often being derided as semi-autobiography writing of Strauss's own life, it depicted, to put it simply, a hero's triumphant life. I don't generally regard Strauss's music at the highest level, but in this piece, I have taken several likings to his mastery: the main theme of the hero's, the depiction of the critics with the fluttering winds, and the whimsical solo violin depicting of the Hero's wife. The special effects are overwhelming, the percussions and brasses totally overpowered the woodwinds section in climax passages, apart from the piercing piccolos. The hero's final retreat is touching, and provided a quiet moment to what is otherwise an orchestra showpiece.
Andrew Litton conducted with vigor in climaxes, and sensitivity in developing long sensuous melodies, giving them a chance to breath and develop fully without rushing. Wearing a black tie with colourful circles on it, Andrew's a pleasure to watch on the podium. It's a shame that I am not interested in next MSO's concert 'Russian Showcase', that I can't see him conduct again in Melbourne.
MSO, incorporating many guest musicians for Strauss's epic work, played wonderfully today. The brass section is solid today, too solid perhaps that some of woodwinds players require a special noise blocking device placed behind their heads - separating them from the brass section.
Good music doesn't necessarily translate to good audience though. I can probably count the number of people in balcony using my fingers and toes. The circles and stalls are around 80% full.
My next concert is a set of 2 Beethoven's piano concertos, the 2nd and the 4th. I'm so looking forward to the 4th, my favourite out of the 5. I believe I have attended 2 concerts featuring the 4th twice last year, one with ACO and another with MSO. I could never get tired of this wonderful piece. The 2nd PC is different matter though, it's my least favourite Beethoven's piano concerto. I should give it another listen again before the concert.
Sunday, 11 April 2010
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 11 April 2010 - Bach and Beyond
Featuring:
- Shostakovich Polka and Elegy
- Bach Missa Brevis in G minor, BWV 235
- Arvo Part Summa
- Schoenberg Litany from String Quartet No. 2
- Bach Motet: Lobet den Herrn BWV 230
- Diana Burrell Das Meer, das so gross und weit ist, da wimmelet's ohne Zahl, grosse und kleine Tiere
- Bach Cantata: Wo gehest du hin? BWV 166
Sara Macliver - Soprano
Fiona Campbell - Mezzo Soprano
Andrew Staples - Tenor
Matthew Brook - Bass
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
I always believe that listening too much of something similar by the same composer will do you harm. That's why in my daily intake of classical music, I always mix up music from different composers or eras (or at least different styles) to keep me healthy. In this performance, ACO served us Bach and more(!). This is one of the concert where my opinion on each interval couldn't be more opposite. I enjoyed the first half of this concert immensely, while I couldn't wait until the concert finishes on the second half.
Let's start with the good things first: before the music starts, Richard Tognetti informed us that instead of following the music order as printed in the program, he's gonna play the music in this order: Shostakovich's Polka, and then the Elegy, leading to the Kyrie from Bach's Missa Brevis, and then Part's answer to Bach Summa, part of the Gloria of Bach's Missa Brevis up until the text 'qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis', and Schoenberg's Litany from his second string quartet as the reply to this text, and finally concluding with the other part of the Gloria. Richard mentioned that the purpose of these interjections are to show the composers response to Bach, in their own ways. Therefore, it's sort of like a conversation between these composers.
Strange as it seems, this is the highlight of the concert. The whole thing just worked out perfectly. The concert started with Shostakovich's satirical but tuneful Polka. Towards the end of the piece, the four soloists tiptoeing themselves into the stage accompanied by the pizzicato of the Polka. Shostakovich's Elegy was next, the playing was resonant as befitted to this beautiful piece with yearning melodies.
This quite ending leads to the opening of Bach's mass - the Kyrie, which reminds me a little bit of the opening of St. John's passion with the dissonance in the oboe over the flowing strings accompaniment. The voice writings are essentially Bach, fugal, imitative entries, and full of ornamentation. All four soloists were good. Arvo Part's Summa was very natural after the Kyrie as it was written in the same key. Another serene piece with subtle rhythmic shift and themes passed around different instruments. Good thing about this piece is that it doesn't last too long, or I'll probably change my opinion about it as a piece that exploited minimalism too far.
The Gloria were almost done after the bass and alto arias when suddenly Schoenberg's Litany from his Second String Quartet interrupted. The piece is written in E flat minor, a rather rare key, and it never feels settled. The climax of this piece is at the texts 'Nimm mir die liebe, gib mir dein gluck!' (Take from me my love, and give me your happiness!). I enjoyed this piece and the text of the poem immensely. After this, the tenor aria continues the Gloria and it finally concludes with a chorus.
This first half of the concert was so original and I must give full credit to such creative programming. These pieces are written in different era, in different style, yet none of them seems so out of place for the entire period of this half of the concert.
The problem was the second half. After the first half, I still can enjoy the next Bach's motet with a rather cool Alleluia. Burrell's dense Das Meer disappointed me. I vividly recalled that there were three people conducting in this piece: Richard, Christopher (principal viola) and Maxime (principal double bass). The piece was about the sea, but it seems the piece lack direction and I was bored after a little while. For me, Bach's cantata 'Wo gehest du hin?' (Where are you going?) is the perfect description of Burrell's music. And by the time the ACO performed the cantata, I have lost all my concentration, and with Bach's vocal music on offering again, I decided I had too much of fugues, recitatives, and vocal ornaments for the day. So this concert ended with a sour note for me.
- Shostakovich Polka and Elegy
- Bach Missa Brevis in G minor, BWV 235
- Arvo Part Summa
- Schoenberg Litany from String Quartet No. 2
- Bach Motet: Lobet den Herrn BWV 230
- Diana Burrell Das Meer, das so gross und weit ist, da wimmelet's ohne Zahl, grosse und kleine Tiere
- Bach Cantata: Wo gehest du hin? BWV 166
Sara Macliver - Soprano
Fiona Campbell - Mezzo Soprano
Andrew Staples - Tenor
Matthew Brook - Bass
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
I always believe that listening too much of something similar by the same composer will do you harm. That's why in my daily intake of classical music, I always mix up music from different composers or eras (or at least different styles) to keep me healthy. In this performance, ACO served us Bach and more(!). This is one of the concert where my opinion on each interval couldn't be more opposite. I enjoyed the first half of this concert immensely, while I couldn't wait until the concert finishes on the second half.
Let's start with the good things first: before the music starts, Richard Tognetti informed us that instead of following the music order as printed in the program, he's gonna play the music in this order: Shostakovich's Polka, and then the Elegy, leading to the Kyrie from Bach's Missa Brevis, and then Part's answer to Bach Summa, part of the Gloria of Bach's Missa Brevis up until the text 'qui tollis peccata mundi, miserere nobis', and Schoenberg's Litany from his second string quartet as the reply to this text, and finally concluding with the other part of the Gloria. Richard mentioned that the purpose of these interjections are to show the composers response to Bach, in their own ways. Therefore, it's sort of like a conversation between these composers.
Strange as it seems, this is the highlight of the concert. The whole thing just worked out perfectly. The concert started with Shostakovich's satirical but tuneful Polka. Towards the end of the piece, the four soloists tiptoeing themselves into the stage accompanied by the pizzicato of the Polka. Shostakovich's Elegy was next, the playing was resonant as befitted to this beautiful piece with yearning melodies.
This quite ending leads to the opening of Bach's mass - the Kyrie, which reminds me a little bit of the opening of St. John's passion with the dissonance in the oboe over the flowing strings accompaniment. The voice writings are essentially Bach, fugal, imitative entries, and full of ornamentation. All four soloists were good. Arvo Part's Summa was very natural after the Kyrie as it was written in the same key. Another serene piece with subtle rhythmic shift and themes passed around different instruments. Good thing about this piece is that it doesn't last too long, or I'll probably change my opinion about it as a piece that exploited minimalism too far.
The Gloria were almost done after the bass and alto arias when suddenly Schoenberg's Litany from his Second String Quartet interrupted. The piece is written in E flat minor, a rather rare key, and it never feels settled. The climax of this piece is at the texts 'Nimm mir die liebe, gib mir dein gluck!' (Take from me my love, and give me your happiness!). I enjoyed this piece and the text of the poem immensely. After this, the tenor aria continues the Gloria and it finally concludes with a chorus.
This first half of the concert was so original and I must give full credit to such creative programming. These pieces are written in different era, in different style, yet none of them seems so out of place for the entire period of this half of the concert.
The problem was the second half. After the first half, I still can enjoy the next Bach's motet with a rather cool Alleluia. Burrell's dense Das Meer disappointed me. I vividly recalled that there were three people conducting in this piece: Richard, Christopher (principal viola) and Maxime (principal double bass). The piece was about the sea, but it seems the piece lack direction and I was bored after a little while. For me, Bach's cantata 'Wo gehest du hin?' (Where are you going?) is the perfect description of Burrell's music. And by the time the ACO performed the cantata, I have lost all my concentration, and with Bach's vocal music on offering again, I decided I had too much of fugues, recitatives, and vocal ornaments for the day. So this concert ended with a sour note for me.
Sunday, 14 March 2010
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 14 March 2010 - ACO Soloists
Featuring:
- Franz Schreker Scherzo
- Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto
- CPE Bach Cello Concerto in A minor
- Franz Schreker Intermezzo
- Matthew Hindson Crime and Punishment
- Britten Lachrymae
- JS Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe BWV 1060
Helena Rathbone - Guest Director and Lead Violin
Christopher Moore - Viola
Timo-Veikko Valve - Cello
Maxime Bibeau - Double Bass
Diana Doherty - Oboe
A virtuosos concert - a very unique programming by ACO utilising all its strings principals. But hang on, where's Richard Tognetti?
Anyway, the program notes gave an early warning to the audience by signalling Schreker is a champion of Schoenberg and Hindemith on top of being friends with Berg and Webern. So, 12-tonal or atonal music to start the program? It turns out Schreker's music is very accessible - and it's full of glorious arching romantic melodies. In simple terms, I would describe his music as late-romantic style with modern twist - almost like Schoenberg's Transfigured Night. I enjoy the tight interwoven melodies and counter melodies of both his Scherzo and Intermezzo.
Diana Doherty stole this concert for me, her solo in Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto was delicious. Playing freely and providing plenty of body gestures expressing the sound from the oboe, Diana lifted my emotion to the very top at the end of first movement of the concerto. The beautiful dialogue the oboe had with the orchestra was well-executed. The second movement painted a picture of pastoral English village while Diana showed off her virtuosic skills in the demanding last bars of the concerto after a more quiet contrasting episode. Brilliant stuff.
While Vaughan Williams' music convinced me with its lyrical lines, CPE Bach's bored me. The rhythmic drive in outer movements of his A minor cello concerto got tired after a little while and I'm not really convinced with the Andante. Timo's virtuosic skills provided some entertainment in the outer movements, but this concerto is definitely not the best of this genre. I was also disappointed with the lack of harpsichord sound - a must have for me to fully enjoy Baroque compositions.
Matthew Hindson wrote a very challenging double bass solo in his Crime and Punishment. Showing off his talent, Maxime Bibeau impressed the audience by a large array of mad skills - fast pizzicatos (with syncopated rhythms!), tapping the finger boards, and playing beautiful melodies with his double bass. The piece itself while interesting, suffered from thematic development. It has several beautiful cadences which could be developed much further, rather than repeated 3-4 times and then discarded.
The major disappointment of the concert for me is Britten's Lachrymae. I might know the reason..I was bored waiting for big virtuoso fireworks from this performance which never came - as it was written as a 'Reflections on a song of Dowland'. I guess I was eaten by the marketing scheme, huh? Put it simply, I was not in the right mind set anticipating this piece. Stupid me, realising it only now, while I should've changed my mindset in the middle of performance.
Last piece of the concert is Bach's C minor concerto for oboe and violin - a crowd pleaser. Familiar melodies with beautiful Adagio instantly won the audience's heart. Not mine, though - I'm still disappointed with the lack of harpsichord sound. Helena and Diana played wonderfully.
- Franz Schreker Scherzo
- Vaughan Williams Oboe Concerto
- CPE Bach Cello Concerto in A minor
- Franz Schreker Intermezzo
- Matthew Hindson Crime and Punishment
- Britten Lachrymae
- JS Bach Concerto for Violin and Oboe BWV 1060
Helena Rathbone - Guest Director and Lead Violin
Christopher Moore - Viola
Timo-Veikko Valve - Cello
Maxime Bibeau - Double Bass
Diana Doherty - Oboe
A virtuosos concert - a very unique programming by ACO utilising all its strings principals. But hang on, where's Richard Tognetti?
Anyway, the program notes gave an early warning to the audience by signalling Schreker is a champion of Schoenberg and Hindemith on top of being friends with Berg and Webern. So, 12-tonal or atonal music to start the program? It turns out Schreker's music is very accessible - and it's full of glorious arching romantic melodies. In simple terms, I would describe his music as late-romantic style with modern twist - almost like Schoenberg's Transfigured Night. I enjoy the tight interwoven melodies and counter melodies of both his Scherzo and Intermezzo.
Diana Doherty stole this concert for me, her solo in Vaughan Williams' Oboe Concerto was delicious. Playing freely and providing plenty of body gestures expressing the sound from the oboe, Diana lifted my emotion to the very top at the end of first movement of the concerto. The beautiful dialogue the oboe had with the orchestra was well-executed. The second movement painted a picture of pastoral English village while Diana showed off her virtuosic skills in the demanding last bars of the concerto after a more quiet contrasting episode. Brilliant stuff.
While Vaughan Williams' music convinced me with its lyrical lines, CPE Bach's bored me. The rhythmic drive in outer movements of his A minor cello concerto got tired after a little while and I'm not really convinced with the Andante. Timo's virtuosic skills provided some entertainment in the outer movements, but this concerto is definitely not the best of this genre. I was also disappointed with the lack of harpsichord sound - a must have for me to fully enjoy Baroque compositions.
Matthew Hindson wrote a very challenging double bass solo in his Crime and Punishment. Showing off his talent, Maxime Bibeau impressed the audience by a large array of mad skills - fast pizzicatos (with syncopated rhythms!), tapping the finger boards, and playing beautiful melodies with his double bass. The piece itself while interesting, suffered from thematic development. It has several beautiful cadences which could be developed much further, rather than repeated 3-4 times and then discarded.
The major disappointment of the concert for me is Britten's Lachrymae. I might know the reason..I was bored waiting for big virtuoso fireworks from this performance which never came - as it was written as a 'Reflections on a song of Dowland'. I guess I was eaten by the marketing scheme, huh? Put it simply, I was not in the right mind set anticipating this piece. Stupid me, realising it only now, while I should've changed my mindset in the middle of performance.
Last piece of the concert is Bach's C minor concerto for oboe and violin - a crowd pleaser. Familiar melodies with beautiful Adagio instantly won the audience's heart. Not mine, though - I'm still disappointed with the lack of harpsichord sound. Helena and Diana played wonderfully.
Tuesday, 9 March 2010
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 6 March 2010 - Ashkenazy Conducts Rachmaninov
Featuring:
- Faure Pavane
- Debussy La Mer
- Rachmaninov The Bells
Jacqueline Porter - Soprano
Steve Davislim - Tenor
Jose Carbo - Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Chorus - chorusmaster: Jonathan Grieves-Smith
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
A very short review this time. I'm still trying to sort the mess that I've found in my home after coming back from the Saturday's concert.
Faure's Pavane - heart melting, beautiful, well-played, yada yada. The weird thing about the whole performance was: the chorus. The chorus was supposedly singing a double duet poem about the quarrel of two imaginary pairs of lovers. I don't understand French or familiar enough with the poem to be affected by the text. Although Faure originally wrote the piece in this form, I still prefer very much listening to it without the text and imagine stuffs on my own.
La Mer - Ahhhhhhhhh La Mer again. I won't complain - I love La Mer. Very good performance, especially the rousing climax in the finale. I forgot other good impressions I have with the concert, sorry :(
As good as La Mer performance went, I think I was satisfied the most with the performance of Rachmaninov's The Bells. I have never liked this piece apart from the playful 1st movement, although Rachmaninov claimed that it is his favourite composition. Ashkenazy changed my opinion of the piece by revealing the beautiful, long lyrical Soprano lines in the second movement; the excitement of brass in the frightful third movement and finally, the last movement - ala Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The rising melody right after the very last words of the solo bass was the emotional highpoint for me in the whole concert. That moment felt like an alto singing the "Ewig, ewig" at the end of Das Lied von der Erde. The 3 soloists sung beautifully.
Average attendance. The balcony is almost empty, but compensated with 85% stall capacity and almost full circle.
Next concert: ACO's concert next week.
- Faure Pavane
- Debussy La Mer
- Rachmaninov The Bells
Jacqueline Porter - Soprano
Steve Davislim - Tenor
Jose Carbo - Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Chorus - chorusmaster: Jonathan Grieves-Smith
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
A very short review this time. I'm still trying to sort the mess that I've found in my home after coming back from the Saturday's concert.
Faure's Pavane - heart melting, beautiful, well-played, yada yada. The weird thing about the whole performance was: the chorus. The chorus was supposedly singing a double duet poem about the quarrel of two imaginary pairs of lovers. I don't understand French or familiar enough with the poem to be affected by the text. Although Faure originally wrote the piece in this form, I still prefer very much listening to it without the text and imagine stuffs on my own.
La Mer - Ahhhhhhhhh La Mer again. I won't complain - I love La Mer. Very good performance, especially the rousing climax in the finale. I forgot other good impressions I have with the concert, sorry :(
As good as La Mer performance went, I think I was satisfied the most with the performance of Rachmaninov's The Bells. I have never liked this piece apart from the playful 1st movement, although Rachmaninov claimed that it is his favourite composition. Ashkenazy changed my opinion of the piece by revealing the beautiful, long lyrical Soprano lines in the second movement; the excitement of brass in the frightful third movement and finally, the last movement - ala Mahler's Das Lied von der Erde. The rising melody right after the very last words of the solo bass was the emotional highpoint for me in the whole concert. That moment felt like an alto singing the "Ewig, ewig" at the end of Das Lied von der Erde. The 3 soloists sung beautifully.
Average attendance. The balcony is almost empty, but compensated with 85% stall capacity and almost full circle.
Next concert: ACO's concert next week.
Monday, 7 December 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 4 December 2009 - The Slender Thread
Featuring:
- Brahms Song of Destiny
- Wagner The Valkyrie: Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music
- Brahms Symphony No. 2
John Wegner - Bass-baritone
Melbourne Symphony Chorus - chorusmaster: Jonathan Grieves-Smith
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
This was yet another non-brainer concert that I picked when I subscribed to MSO earlier this year. The original program consisted of much loved Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Schoenberg's supposedly moving A survivor from Warsaw and Brahms' 2nd symphony. However, due to Caetani's sudden departure, MSO decided to change the program as well.
Stepping in is Tadaaki Otaka, Principal Guest Conductor of MSO next year. I'm indifferent with the program change, as I love Brahms' Song of Destiny (Schicksalslied) but I'm sad not to see Schubert's Unfinished symphony on the program. I'm fine with Wagner's music, so again, I'm not entirely too concerned with the program change. I've found it a bit ironic though to see both Brahms and Wagner the only two composers in the program given their notorious relation in the past.
I'm not sure if MSO's staff read this blog, but certainly my hope for better concert is fulfilled. From the first few bars of Brahms' Schicksalslied, I have the assurance feeling that the concert will go fine. I have sung Schicksalslied earlier this year and have a fairly good knowledge about the piece. Inspired by a well-known poem by Friedrich Hoelderlin (pardon the absence of umlaut), it described two contrasting aspects of heavenly and earthly live. In the beginning of the piece, you can already feel a sense of doom or threat from the ever presence timpani stroke as the background to the heavenly melody. As a matter of fact, these timpani strokes very much reminded me of the famous obsessive timpani strokes in the 2nd movement of Brahms' Requiem - Den alles Fleisch, es ist wie gras which was written around the same time. The chorus then came in and describing the heavenly life, pictured perfectly by schmaltzy strings and woodwinds dominated music. MSO strings and chorus touched hearts here, beautiful interpretation. Trombones interrupted before the choir started singing the second stanza, perhaps signalling doom events that will come soon. No major complaints so far :).
The music makes a brief return to the opening of the piece, before it's interrupted by trombones, winds, and timpani. From there on, all hell broke loose. It is unmistakably the doomed fate. Definitely a worthy setting of the tragic third stanza from the poem, "A place to rest isn't given to us. Suffering humans decline and blindly fall from one hour to the next, like water thrown from cliff to cliff, year after year, down into the Unknown". I particularly like the setting of "Wie Wasser von Klippe Zu Klippe geworfen, Jahrlang ins Ungewisse hinab". Here, the choir sing aggressive steady rhythm against quaver note of the strings. My conductor mentioned that here Brahms is picturing the steady cliffs in the choir while the strings represented the water being thrown away from one cliff to the other. In terms of the performance, I perhaps desired more aggression from the choir at this stage, but otherwise, it was a great performance. After this violent section, the music reverts back to the opening heavenly theme and ended beautifully.
As an orchestra, MSO played well. However, from time to time, the discipline of coming in together was rather poor. I still remembered the LPO concert a few months ago where the whole orchestra really moved like one and came in at exactly the same time. In this performance, MSO players might come in half a beat early and it's really disappointing when this happened. Another thing that I noticed was there was a MSO chorister singing in a concert with a visual-disability. I commend her for her dedication to rehearse and sing in the concert (She was holding what looked like Braille annotated music). I also commend MSO chorus to have her on board although it might be difficult to accommodate such person.
Next program: the end of Wagner's Valkyrie. It opened with huge burst from the orchestra and I'm pretty sure at one point the brass played fragments of the main theme from the Ride of the Valkyries (I could be wrong or just imagining things here :) ). John Wegner as Wotan is seriously electrifying. With his intensity and gripping commanding voice, he captured the audience attention throughout the performance. His voice is capable of rising above orchestra's fortissimo. Magic fire music has this catchy tune that caught my attention. Wagner also did not allow the music to just simply slammed down to the home key without doing some tinkerings with it - I guess this is the part that influenced Mahler.
Finally, we're back to Brahms again. Often described the sunniest of all Brahms' symphonies, the 2nd symphony indeed contains plenty beautiful melodies. Tadaaki Otaka conducted from memory and gave a great performance out of it despite my nitpicking: the lack of warmth and gentleness of the main melody of the 1st movement. He also didn't take the repeat of the 1st movement to my delight (I think this movement will be too long if the repeat is taken and the momentum is lost). The 2nd movement is much better with woodwinds section executed gorgeous phrases throughout. The tempo is a bit slower than what I usually used to, but to great effect: it brings out the little melodies in the quaver notes in both strings and winds. The 3rd movement is much more interesting now as Otaka gave a very much contrasting reading of both the melodic and the playful section of this piece. The last movement started out as a straightforward reading until the coda section where the tempo is halved but Otaka did a good job in accelerating the music in the end to great effect. Full brass sections blared out the joyful nature of this symphony and the symphony ends with 4 chords not unlike the end of Brahms' 1st symphony. A good performance that was well-received by the 85% Hamer Hall capacity audience.
With this kind of performance, I can probably expect a lot from Tadaaki Otaka's performances with MSO next year. To be honest, I have doubts whether he is a worthy successor to Caetani. Although I still have some reservations, I am now more reassured that the quality of MSO playing won't drop significantly. Ganbatte Otaka-san!
This is also MSO's last concert this season. Here's hoping for a better year in 2010. Finally, I want to bid farewell to MSO retiring musicians, Anthony Smith (double bass) and especially Rudolf Osadnik (principal second violin).
- Brahms Song of Destiny
- Wagner The Valkyrie: Wotan's Farewell and Magic Fire Music
- Brahms Symphony No. 2
John Wegner - Bass-baritone
Melbourne Symphony Chorus - chorusmaster: Jonathan Grieves-Smith
Tadaaki Otaka - Conductor
This was yet another non-brainer concert that I picked when I subscribed to MSO earlier this year. The original program consisted of much loved Schubert's Unfinished Symphony, Schoenberg's supposedly moving A survivor from Warsaw and Brahms' 2nd symphony. However, due to Caetani's sudden departure, MSO decided to change the program as well.
Stepping in is Tadaaki Otaka, Principal Guest Conductor of MSO next year. I'm indifferent with the program change, as I love Brahms' Song of Destiny (Schicksalslied) but I'm sad not to see Schubert's Unfinished symphony on the program. I'm fine with Wagner's music, so again, I'm not entirely too concerned with the program change. I've found it a bit ironic though to see both Brahms and Wagner the only two composers in the program given their notorious relation in the past.
I'm not sure if MSO's staff read this blog, but certainly my hope for better concert is fulfilled. From the first few bars of Brahms' Schicksalslied, I have the assurance feeling that the concert will go fine. I have sung Schicksalslied earlier this year and have a fairly good knowledge about the piece. Inspired by a well-known poem by Friedrich Hoelderlin (pardon the absence of umlaut), it described two contrasting aspects of heavenly and earthly live. In the beginning of the piece, you can already feel a sense of doom or threat from the ever presence timpani stroke as the background to the heavenly melody. As a matter of fact, these timpani strokes very much reminded me of the famous obsessive timpani strokes in the 2nd movement of Brahms' Requiem - Den alles Fleisch, es ist wie gras which was written around the same time. The chorus then came in and describing the heavenly life, pictured perfectly by schmaltzy strings and woodwinds dominated music. MSO strings and chorus touched hearts here, beautiful interpretation. Trombones interrupted before the choir started singing the second stanza, perhaps signalling doom events that will come soon. No major complaints so far :).
The music makes a brief return to the opening of the piece, before it's interrupted by trombones, winds, and timpani. From there on, all hell broke loose. It is unmistakably the doomed fate. Definitely a worthy setting of the tragic third stanza from the poem, "A place to rest isn't given to us. Suffering humans decline and blindly fall from one hour to the next, like water thrown from cliff to cliff, year after year, down into the Unknown". I particularly like the setting of "Wie Wasser von Klippe Zu Klippe geworfen, Jahrlang ins Ungewisse hinab". Here, the choir sing aggressive steady rhythm against quaver note of the strings. My conductor mentioned that here Brahms is picturing the steady cliffs in the choir while the strings represented the water being thrown away from one cliff to the other. In terms of the performance, I perhaps desired more aggression from the choir at this stage, but otherwise, it was a great performance. After this violent section, the music reverts back to the opening heavenly theme and ended beautifully.
As an orchestra, MSO played well. However, from time to time, the discipline of coming in together was rather poor. I still remembered the LPO concert a few months ago where the whole orchestra really moved like one and came in at exactly the same time. In this performance, MSO players might come in half a beat early and it's really disappointing when this happened. Another thing that I noticed was there was a MSO chorister singing in a concert with a visual-disability. I commend her for her dedication to rehearse and sing in the concert (She was holding what looked like Braille annotated music). I also commend MSO chorus to have her on board although it might be difficult to accommodate such person.
Next program: the end of Wagner's Valkyrie. It opened with huge burst from the orchestra and I'm pretty sure at one point the brass played fragments of the main theme from the Ride of the Valkyries (I could be wrong or just imagining things here :) ). John Wegner as Wotan is seriously electrifying. With his intensity and gripping commanding voice, he captured the audience attention throughout the performance. His voice is capable of rising above orchestra's fortissimo. Magic fire music has this catchy tune that caught my attention. Wagner also did not allow the music to just simply slammed down to the home key without doing some tinkerings with it - I guess this is the part that influenced Mahler.
Finally, we're back to Brahms again. Often described the sunniest of all Brahms' symphonies, the 2nd symphony indeed contains plenty beautiful melodies. Tadaaki Otaka conducted from memory and gave a great performance out of it despite my nitpicking: the lack of warmth and gentleness of the main melody of the 1st movement. He also didn't take the repeat of the 1st movement to my delight (I think this movement will be too long if the repeat is taken and the momentum is lost). The 2nd movement is much better with woodwinds section executed gorgeous phrases throughout. The tempo is a bit slower than what I usually used to, but to great effect: it brings out the little melodies in the quaver notes in both strings and winds. The 3rd movement is much more interesting now as Otaka gave a very much contrasting reading of both the melodic and the playful section of this piece. The last movement started out as a straightforward reading until the coda section where the tempo is halved but Otaka did a good job in accelerating the music in the end to great effect. Full brass sections blared out the joyful nature of this symphony and the symphony ends with 4 chords not unlike the end of Brahms' 1st symphony. A good performance that was well-received by the 85% Hamer Hall capacity audience.
With this kind of performance, I can probably expect a lot from Tadaaki Otaka's performances with MSO next year. To be honest, I have doubts whether he is a worthy successor to Caetani. Although I still have some reservations, I am now more reassured that the quality of MSO playing won't drop significantly. Ganbatte Otaka-san!
This is also MSO's last concert this season. Here's hoping for a better year in 2010. Finally, I want to bid farewell to MSO retiring musicians, Anthony Smith (double bass) and especially Rudolf Osadnik (principal second violin).
Wednesday, 2 December 2009
Anton Bruckner's Motets
Lately, for my choir practice purpose, I have been listening and singing to Bruckner motets. Prior to the introduction of these motets by the choir conductor, I am unaware of their existence. The only Bruckner music that I know (and love) is his Seventh Symphony which consists of one of the most beautiful mournful Adagio and the incredibly "nervous" Scherzo. What I know is that Bruckner wrote awesome music and I love how he used the brass sections in those two movements.
Back to his motets. His motets are sacred choral music, written mainly for SATB choir, and sometimes would include a soloist, an organ or even trombones. I don't know all of them, but my choir has been working with 5 of them: Locus iste, Os Justi, Tota pulchra es Maria, Ecce sacerdos magnus, and Afferentur Regi.
Locus iste is perhaps the simplest out of those 5 motets. It's a short 4-part voices piece that is usually used for a congregation of a church. Tota pulchra es Maria is written for a tenor soloist, an organ, and believe it or not, 9-part voices during one fff choir phrase. Afferentur Regi is perhaps my least favourite out of the five motets listed, maybe because the tenor part is more challenging :), and the main tune is not incredibly beautiful compare to the others.
Ecce sacerdos magnus is a killer piece for a choir. You either do it big (sing on top of your lung), or don't even bother doing it. It's a piece that guarantees a rousing reception if done extremely well. To do this, you must overcome a fff passage that is repeated three times in the piece. The tenors are basically requires to hit 14 consecutive 'tenor A' notes, and 3 more after that. In total, they are required to sing more than 50 notes of their highest range. Compare that to say Haydn's Nelson Mass which if memory serves me right, only require the tenors to sing the top A for only 3 times. You might think of doing falsetto for all of them, but remember that those notes are marked either 'ff' or 'fff' by Bruckner, and therefore you'll be pretty much inaudible if other sections sing using their chest voice. This would pretty much be a complete let down during a performance.
I have been holding back from discussing 'Os Justi' - because simply I love this piece the most. It's written for 8-part voices and it is so incredibly beautiful, heavenly, and heartfelt. This 5 minutes of music is definitely something that I won't think twice to include in my desert island disc. What makes it more interesting is that Bruckner wrote this motet in Lydian mode which basically means that he did not use a single sharp or flat note. (Thanks to this website in bringing my attention to this).
Since I have pretty much obsessed with 'Os Justi', I have been trying to find videos of choir performing this piece in youtube. Basically, the performance can be categorised as either using a small choir or big choir. This size factor can dramatically change the interpretation of this piece. The difference can be seen in these two videos big choir and very small choir. Granted the very small choir is of very high standard and the big choir is probably amateur and a fair comparison probably cannot be made here. What I want to point is that, with the small choir, the main things that strikes you are the phrasing, the tone quality and the clarity of each voice. With the big choir, you have enough voices to make the big moment really big (e.g. the end of the 'et lingua' fugue). So, depending on your preference, you might find more pleasure in one version than the other.
To sum up, Bruckner motets are heavenly. If you enjoy listening to choral music, you won't be disappointed with any of them that I listed here. Also, in the short future - after I finish my conquest of Mahler 10 - I will start listening to Bruckner's symphonies. Hopefully I have time to write about them as I discover them one by one.
Back to his motets. His motets are sacred choral music, written mainly for SATB choir, and sometimes would include a soloist, an organ or even trombones. I don't know all of them, but my choir has been working with 5 of them: Locus iste, Os Justi, Tota pulchra es Maria, Ecce sacerdos magnus, and Afferentur Regi.
Locus iste is perhaps the simplest out of those 5 motets. It's a short 4-part voices piece that is usually used for a congregation of a church. Tota pulchra es Maria is written for a tenor soloist, an organ, and believe it or not, 9-part voices during one fff choir phrase. Afferentur Regi is perhaps my least favourite out of the five motets listed, maybe because the tenor part is more challenging :), and the main tune is not incredibly beautiful compare to the others.
Ecce sacerdos magnus is a killer piece for a choir. You either do it big (sing on top of your lung), or don't even bother doing it. It's a piece that guarantees a rousing reception if done extremely well. To do this, you must overcome a fff passage that is repeated three times in the piece. The tenors are basically requires to hit 14 consecutive 'tenor A' notes, and 3 more after that. In total, they are required to sing more than 50 notes of their highest range. Compare that to say Haydn's Nelson Mass which if memory serves me right, only require the tenors to sing the top A for only 3 times. You might think of doing falsetto for all of them, but remember that those notes are marked either 'ff' or 'fff' by Bruckner, and therefore you'll be pretty much inaudible if other sections sing using their chest voice. This would pretty much be a complete let down during a performance.
I have been holding back from discussing 'Os Justi' - because simply I love this piece the most. It's written for 8-part voices and it is so incredibly beautiful, heavenly, and heartfelt. This 5 minutes of music is definitely something that I won't think twice to include in my desert island disc. What makes it more interesting is that Bruckner wrote this motet in Lydian mode which basically means that he did not use a single sharp or flat note. (Thanks to this website in bringing my attention to this).
Since I have pretty much obsessed with 'Os Justi', I have been trying to find videos of choir performing this piece in youtube. Basically, the performance can be categorised as either using a small choir or big choir. This size factor can dramatically change the interpretation of this piece. The difference can be seen in these two videos big choir and very small choir. Granted the very small choir is of very high standard and the big choir is probably amateur and a fair comparison probably cannot be made here. What I want to point is that, with the small choir, the main things that strikes you are the phrasing, the tone quality and the clarity of each voice. With the big choir, you have enough voices to make the big moment really big (e.g. the end of the 'et lingua' fugue). So, depending on your preference, you might find more pleasure in one version than the other.
To sum up, Bruckner motets are heavenly. If you enjoy listening to choral music, you won't be disappointed with any of them that I listed here. Also, in the short future - after I finish my conquest of Mahler 10 - I will start listening to Bruckner's symphonies. Hopefully I have time to write about them as I discover them one by one.
Tuesday, 1 December 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 30 November 2009 - Revolutions
Featuring:
- Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
- Leif Segerstam Symphony No. 190 - UFO, under F & over World Premiere
- Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Stephen Kovacevich - Piano
Leif Segerstam - Conductor
This was one of the non-brainer concert that I picked when subscribing to MSO this season. Just look at the program: Brahms' masterpiece in piano concerto, Beethoven's 5th symphony; and finally Webern's piece Six Pieces for large orchestra. Oh well, they changed the Webern's to a strange symphony and replaced Caetani with the composer of this symphony. But, the soloist, world-renowned Stephen Kovacevich is still performing. The change in conductor shouldn't be that big of an impact to the concert, or so I thought.
My expectations were running high before the start of the concert, and yet I came out feeling bored and totally disappointed. This could be the worst MSO concert I attended this season. Very disappointing indeed when put in the context that the hall is quite full (I'd say 90% full).
Let's start with Brahms' second piano concerto. I've listened to some bits of Stephen Kovacevich's recording during the ABC concerto countdown few years back and I wasn't impressed at all. IIRC, I even turned off the radio at one stage because I couldn't stand his playing in the first movement anymore. He sounded like he was struggling with the technical demand of this piece and the natural flow of this piece was being taken away from it. Anyway, I kept my mind open during the performance, and within the first minute, I already felt a bit uneasy right after the opening cadenza of the soloist. There were a couple of wrong notes, and the playing was really insecure. It did not help also when the horn section fired some wrong notes after that. The tempo of this movement felt a little bit dragging and my favourite part of this movement -- right in the middle of this movement, when the soloist played a prayer-like melody accompanied by bass pizzicatos - was quite a let down. The rest of this movement was quite okay until we reached the end of this movement. I totally abhorred it when a conductor held the pause before the last chord too long for the sake of holding up the tension just for a bit more. The conductor did exactly that, and more after that in the later movements and in Beethoven's symphony. Instead of achieving a perfect tension-release moment, he succeeded making me utter 'ridiculous' and as a result, the home chord in the end felt underwhelming.
The soloist was better in the second movement; I actually enjoyed his agitated opening. However, the orchestra was rather tame in comparison to the soloist's aggression. "For god's sake", I thought, "come on, this music is in D MINOR. Where are all the tensions?". Fortunately, the central D major episode was much better. I loved how the soloist played the reverie-like passage here. The music now reverts back to D minor, and again, the orchestra sounded really tame. The coda of this movement is one of my favourite Brahms moment - the agitated piano and orchestra fighting each other with massive chords. The performance was okay, partly due to the piano swamped by the orchestra at that chord clashing moment.
Finally some gorgeous playing from the orchestra: David Berlin's cello solo in the third movement was glorious. Kovacevich shone for a few moments here, until he made a few mistakes during the long trills. I enjoyed the last movement the most, the dance like quality and cheerfulness was brought out wonderfully. I even commended Kovacevich for dramatically increased the tempo during the coda although the orchestra was lagging behind in the first few bars of its entry.
After the break, it was the time for Segerstam's 190th symphony. According to the note, he has composed 230 symphonies. Apparently the piece was inspired by a talk about UFO, and the interesting thing is that Segerstam did not conduct it during the performance. Instead, he played a piano in this piece which requires a super big orchestra with massive percussion section and a pair of harps and pianos. Markus Tomasi, the concertmaster of the evening, would some time stood up and gave indications to the orchestra. Other members who also stood up are the principals of piccolo and flute, although it wasn't clear why.
The piece itself was interesting in producing different sort of noises, especially the percussion section which included 2 sort of hammers: the big hammer that one would use in Mahler's 6th symphony; and the smaller hammer that you usually used in your household to fix stuff. Musically, I was bored after a few minutes, and the piece did not attract me at all. It went on for around 15-20 minutes (I did not look at the time) and through out the performance I was thinking that it's such a waste to use this massive size orchestra to play this sort of music. That pretty much sums up what I thought of this symphony.
Someone once said that Beethoven's symphonies are fool-proof. It's very hard to mess up a Beethoven symphony compare to a Brahms symphony. I totally agree with this opinion. With Beethoven, you can get away with okay performances and audience will still love the performance, but you can't do the same with say, Brahms' 4th symphony. It's either a great performance or a total boredom. Therefore, it will take a lot of mess ups to turn a Beethoven symphony into total boredom. Guess what, I was bored with this performance of Beethoven's 5th.
Let's start with the first movement. The opening motif was undramatic and definitely did not set up for all the tensions to come. The whole first movement did not even provoke me to bob my head once (during all the sfzs)! And yes, we're talking about Beethoven's 5th here! The second movement was a total boredom. The rubato used in the strings and woodwinds at the end of main theme phrases disgusted me to no end. Oh yes, add to that the misfired trumpets. The third movement tempo felt more like 'Allegro non troppo' or 'Andante' rather than the marked 'Allegro'.
One thing that I can praise about the conductor is how he was being patient in the end of the Scherzo leading up to the C major outburst in the finale. That I think, was when MSO played best and finally make some big noises during the whole concert. However, this glorious moment did not last long - till the conductor messed around too much with the sudden dynamics change in key phrases. He surprised me by putting lots of emphasis in the piccolo part, but other than that I have no good things to say about his interpretation. And finally, I don't know why, but he ended the symphony with that annoying too long pause before the last chord.
A few other things that annoyed the hell out of me during the concert. Did people really come to concert hall to listen to the music or just to unwrap candy during the first movement of Beethoven's 5th? Can't people just turn off their mobile phones during the performance? Can't people just be shut up and sit comfortably without tapping their shoes, not being restless, not loudly scratch their hands or heads, not SNORE, and not finger-tapping your programs during the rhythmic section of last movement of Beethoven's 5th? I can tolerate these behaviours if it's a young kid or young adult attending concert for the first time because they can still "grow up". However, if you are 50 years old plus and still do these things, it's probably a bit too late to ask you to "grow up". Probably a good idea if you don't come to concert at all. Buy a good recording of it, and listen to it while sitting at your comfy sofa in your living room. You'll probably enjoy it much better than sitting next to strangers in Hamer Hall's not so comfy seats.
I really hope MSO's next concert is much better than this one.
- Brahms Piano Concerto No. 2
- Leif Segerstam Symphony No. 190 - UFO, under F & over World Premiere
- Beethoven Symphony No. 5
Stephen Kovacevich - Piano
Leif Segerstam - Conductor
This was one of the non-brainer concert that I picked when subscribing to MSO this season. Just look at the program: Brahms' masterpiece in piano concerto, Beethoven's 5th symphony; and finally Webern's piece Six Pieces for large orchestra. Oh well, they changed the Webern's to a strange symphony and replaced Caetani with the composer of this symphony. But, the soloist, world-renowned Stephen Kovacevich is still performing. The change in conductor shouldn't be that big of an impact to the concert, or so I thought.
My expectations were running high before the start of the concert, and yet I came out feeling bored and totally disappointed. This could be the worst MSO concert I attended this season. Very disappointing indeed when put in the context that the hall is quite full (I'd say 90% full).
Let's start with Brahms' second piano concerto. I've listened to some bits of Stephen Kovacevich's recording during the ABC concerto countdown few years back and I wasn't impressed at all. IIRC, I even turned off the radio at one stage because I couldn't stand his playing in the first movement anymore. He sounded like he was struggling with the technical demand of this piece and the natural flow of this piece was being taken away from it. Anyway, I kept my mind open during the performance, and within the first minute, I already felt a bit uneasy right after the opening cadenza of the soloist. There were a couple of wrong notes, and the playing was really insecure. It did not help also when the horn section fired some wrong notes after that. The tempo of this movement felt a little bit dragging and my favourite part of this movement -- right in the middle of this movement, when the soloist played a prayer-like melody accompanied by bass pizzicatos - was quite a let down. The rest of this movement was quite okay until we reached the end of this movement. I totally abhorred it when a conductor held the pause before the last chord too long for the sake of holding up the tension just for a bit more. The conductor did exactly that, and more after that in the later movements and in Beethoven's symphony. Instead of achieving a perfect tension-release moment, he succeeded making me utter 'ridiculous' and as a result, the home chord in the end felt underwhelming.
The soloist was better in the second movement; I actually enjoyed his agitated opening. However, the orchestra was rather tame in comparison to the soloist's aggression. "For god's sake", I thought, "come on, this music is in D MINOR. Where are all the tensions?". Fortunately, the central D major episode was much better. I loved how the soloist played the reverie-like passage here. The music now reverts back to D minor, and again, the orchestra sounded really tame. The coda of this movement is one of my favourite Brahms moment - the agitated piano and orchestra fighting each other with massive chords. The performance was okay, partly due to the piano swamped by the orchestra at that chord clashing moment.
Finally some gorgeous playing from the orchestra: David Berlin's cello solo in the third movement was glorious. Kovacevich shone for a few moments here, until he made a few mistakes during the long trills. I enjoyed the last movement the most, the dance like quality and cheerfulness was brought out wonderfully. I even commended Kovacevich for dramatically increased the tempo during the coda although the orchestra was lagging behind in the first few bars of its entry.
After the break, it was the time for Segerstam's 190th symphony. According to the note, he has composed 230 symphonies. Apparently the piece was inspired by a talk about UFO, and the interesting thing is that Segerstam did not conduct it during the performance. Instead, he played a piano in this piece which requires a super big orchestra with massive percussion section and a pair of harps and pianos. Markus Tomasi, the concertmaster of the evening, would some time stood up and gave indications to the orchestra. Other members who also stood up are the principals of piccolo and flute, although it wasn't clear why.
The piece itself was interesting in producing different sort of noises, especially the percussion section which included 2 sort of hammers: the big hammer that one would use in Mahler's 6th symphony; and the smaller hammer that you usually used in your household to fix stuff. Musically, I was bored after a few minutes, and the piece did not attract me at all. It went on for around 15-20 minutes (I did not look at the time) and through out the performance I was thinking that it's such a waste to use this massive size orchestra to play this sort of music. That pretty much sums up what I thought of this symphony.
Someone once said that Beethoven's symphonies are fool-proof. It's very hard to mess up a Beethoven symphony compare to a Brahms symphony. I totally agree with this opinion. With Beethoven, you can get away with okay performances and audience will still love the performance, but you can't do the same with say, Brahms' 4th symphony. It's either a great performance or a total boredom. Therefore, it will take a lot of mess ups to turn a Beethoven symphony into total boredom. Guess what, I was bored with this performance of Beethoven's 5th.
Let's start with the first movement. The opening motif was undramatic and definitely did not set up for all the tensions to come. The whole first movement did not even provoke me to bob my head once (during all the sfzs)! And yes, we're talking about Beethoven's 5th here! The second movement was a total boredom. The rubato used in the strings and woodwinds at the end of main theme phrases disgusted me to no end. Oh yes, add to that the misfired trumpets. The third movement tempo felt more like 'Allegro non troppo' or 'Andante' rather than the marked 'Allegro'.
One thing that I can praise about the conductor is how he was being patient in the end of the Scherzo leading up to the C major outburst in the finale. That I think, was when MSO played best and finally make some big noises during the whole concert. However, this glorious moment did not last long - till the conductor messed around too much with the sudden dynamics change in key phrases. He surprised me by putting lots of emphasis in the piccolo part, but other than that I have no good things to say about his interpretation. And finally, I don't know why, but he ended the symphony with that annoying too long pause before the last chord.
A few other things that annoyed the hell out of me during the concert. Did people really come to concert hall to listen to the music or just to unwrap candy during the first movement of Beethoven's 5th? Can't people just turn off their mobile phones during the performance? Can't people just be shut up and sit comfortably without tapping their shoes, not being restless, not loudly scratch their hands or heads, not SNORE, and not finger-tapping your programs during the rhythmic section of last movement of Beethoven's 5th? I can tolerate these behaviours if it's a young kid or young adult attending concert for the first time because they can still "grow up". However, if you are 50 years old plus and still do these things, it's probably a bit too late to ask you to "grow up". Probably a good idea if you don't come to concert at all. Buy a good recording of it, and listen to it while sitting at your comfy sofa in your living room. You'll probably enjoy it much better than sitting next to strangers in Hamer Hall's not so comfy seats.
I really hope MSO's next concert is much better than this one.
Wednesday, 18 November 2009
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 16 November 2009 - Beethoven 4
Featuring:
- Brett Dean Testament
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
- Beethoven Symphony No. 4
Dejan Lazic - Piano
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
This was a Beethoven-flavoured concert, with 2 major Beethoven pieces and a piece by Brett Dean who was inspired by Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament. The piece - Testament - started off with unison strings playing what was described as 'sound losing grip' in the program. This was emphasised by similar idea in the woodwinds. The piece was really slow in the beginning and I lost interest as the music progressed. It doesn't help that I'm not familiar with any Beethoven's String Quartet, and therefore couldn't notice where Brett Dean quoted the slow movement of Op. 59 No. 1 in this piece. I can't honestly say I was impressed with the music. However, the problem might not be with the music; I was a bit tired that day and my concentration was wobbly that day. The finale was much better, although again, the piece in general didn't have any strong impression on me.
Dejan Lazic gave a very refreshing performance of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto. Although the opening did not convince me, due to Dejan did not play the full note value of the opening chords, he compensated it with a few interesting things. The most notable aspect is he played his own cadenza (which I confirmed when I talked to him after the concert). The cadenza is a unique blend of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scarlatti, and possibly a bit of Beethoven himself (Dejan told me that Busoni is one of the composer in the mix). The other notable aspect is the use of rubato, and the playing of a high degree of freedom in the tempo. He would slow down the tempo in a beautiful cadence, only to do an accelerando in the following phrases. His phrasings are delicate, while the ever present bass line provides the overall balance. The ACO accompanied Dejan's freedom of tempo dutifully, and overall provided a wonderful accompaniment throughout. ACO really shone in the second movement - a small chamber orchestra producing big sfz and accented notes effortlessly. While Dejan's playing in this movement is fine, it did not manage to move me as much as other recordings that I know of. The third movement rises out from the depths of hell in second movement into the exuberance of joy. I loved the balance of the counter melodies of violas and cellos against the violins in the opening of this finale. Again, Dejan played his own cadenza in this movement in the style as far removed as from Beethoven's own cadenza. The coda was exciting and played prestissimo to a thunderous applause. After several curtain calls, Dejan gave an encore - a rather fast Chopin's Minute Waltz. Not my favourite rendition, but I won't complain when a soloist gave an encore in the concert.
One more note about Dejan. I noticed he's very much down-earthed guy when signing autographs for the audiences. Every time an audience came up and praised him for a wonderful performance, he would bow down deeply to express his gratitude. Also, he stood up all the time during his interactions with the audience although he could have easily sat down.
The final piece of the concert is Beethoven's much neglected 4th symphony. This, along with the 8th symphony, are my favourite Beethoven symphonies. I'm not saying that they are the greatest piece of music that Beethoven wrote, but I just feel extremely happy when listening to both of them. I commend ACO to have the balls to program this underrated symphony. At first, I was a bit skeptical on how ACO can successfully play this piece with only small number of double basses (only 2). Could they possibly sustain this piece? Turns out that they can, and coupled that with beautiful playings of every sections of the orchestra (esp. the woodwinds!), you'll get a knock out performance. Richard's choice of tempo is on the fast side (as usual for his Beethoven), and it works out really well with the energy that ACO put for this performance. I still can't get over the way Richard conducted with his bow though. The audience seemed to love the performance, and it's a good advertisement for this much neglected symphony. Thumbs up for programming this ACO!
- Brett Dean Testament
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 4
- Beethoven Symphony No. 4
Dejan Lazic - Piano
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
This was a Beethoven-flavoured concert, with 2 major Beethoven pieces and a piece by Brett Dean who was inspired by Beethoven's Heiligenstadt Testament. The piece - Testament - started off with unison strings playing what was described as 'sound losing grip' in the program. This was emphasised by similar idea in the woodwinds. The piece was really slow in the beginning and I lost interest as the music progressed. It doesn't help that I'm not familiar with any Beethoven's String Quartet, and therefore couldn't notice where Brett Dean quoted the slow movement of Op. 59 No. 1 in this piece. I can't honestly say I was impressed with the music. However, the problem might not be with the music; I was a bit tired that day and my concentration was wobbly that day. The finale was much better, although again, the piece in general didn't have any strong impression on me.
Dejan Lazic gave a very refreshing performance of Beethoven's 4th piano concerto. Although the opening did not convince me, due to Dejan did not play the full note value of the opening chords, he compensated it with a few interesting things. The most notable aspect is he played his own cadenza (which I confirmed when I talked to him after the concert). The cadenza is a unique blend of Chopin, Rachmaninov, Scarlatti, and possibly a bit of Beethoven himself (Dejan told me that Busoni is one of the composer in the mix). The other notable aspect is the use of rubato, and the playing of a high degree of freedom in the tempo. He would slow down the tempo in a beautiful cadence, only to do an accelerando in the following phrases. His phrasings are delicate, while the ever present bass line provides the overall balance. The ACO accompanied Dejan's freedom of tempo dutifully, and overall provided a wonderful accompaniment throughout. ACO really shone in the second movement - a small chamber orchestra producing big sfz and accented notes effortlessly. While Dejan's playing in this movement is fine, it did not manage to move me as much as other recordings that I know of. The third movement rises out from the depths of hell in second movement into the exuberance of joy. I loved the balance of the counter melodies of violas and cellos against the violins in the opening of this finale. Again, Dejan played his own cadenza in this movement in the style as far removed as from Beethoven's own cadenza. The coda was exciting and played prestissimo to a thunderous applause. After several curtain calls, Dejan gave an encore - a rather fast Chopin's Minute Waltz. Not my favourite rendition, but I won't complain when a soloist gave an encore in the concert.
One more note about Dejan. I noticed he's very much down-earthed guy when signing autographs for the audiences. Every time an audience came up and praised him for a wonderful performance, he would bow down deeply to express his gratitude. Also, he stood up all the time during his interactions with the audience although he could have easily sat down.
The final piece of the concert is Beethoven's much neglected 4th symphony. This, along with the 8th symphony, are my favourite Beethoven symphonies. I'm not saying that they are the greatest piece of music that Beethoven wrote, but I just feel extremely happy when listening to both of them. I commend ACO to have the balls to program this underrated symphony. At first, I was a bit skeptical on how ACO can successfully play this piece with only small number of double basses (only 2). Could they possibly sustain this piece? Turns out that they can, and coupled that with beautiful playings of every sections of the orchestra (esp. the woodwinds!), you'll get a knock out performance. Richard's choice of tempo is on the fast side (as usual for his Beethoven), and it works out really well with the energy that ACO put for this performance. I still can't get over the way Richard conducted with his bow though. The audience seemed to love the performance, and it's a good advertisement for this much neglected symphony. Thumbs up for programming this ACO!
Saturday, 14 November 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 13 November 2009 - Coloratura Showcase
Featuring:
- Bellini The Capulets and the Montagues: Sinfonia
- Bellini The Capulets and the Montagues: Eccomi in lieta vesta..O quante volte
- Respighi Fountains of Rome
- Puccini Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro
- Rossini The Barber of Seville: Overture
- Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor: Regnava nel silenzio..Quando rapito in estasi
- Berlioz Romeo and Juliet: Romeo alone - Festivities at the Capulets'
- Gounod Romeo and Juliet: Je veux vivre
- Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
- Ambroise Thomas Hamlet: Ophelia's Mad Scene
Emma Matthews - Soprano
Alexander Shelley - Conductor
The star of this 'Celebrity concert' is supposed to be Sumi Jo. However, due to last minute injury, she cancelled her appearance in this concert to my disappointment. There are 10 programs on offer, with an orchestral piece alternating with a soprano aria sung by the replacement soloist, Emma Matthews. Emma is currently the principal artist of Opera Australia and should be a fair substitute to Sumi Jo. On top of that, Alexander Shelley who did a wonderful job conducting Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade MSO during last year's Sidney Myer free concert is the conductor of the night. Needless to say, my expectation of this concert is high.
Unfortunately though, my expectation was not met. The orchestra sounded a little bit uninspired in some of the opera numbers (maybe partly of the music itself?), but did a fair job in Rossini's Barber of Seville overture. I enjoyed Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun despite some unclean entries from some members of the orchestra. Also, the climax in the piece was a bit underwhelming.
Emma Matthews is a soprano who behaved like one on stage. She even changed her dress during the interval, and did plenty of what I called over-the-top gestures (esp. when she acted very girlishly in Gounod's aria). I guess, she's a prima donna after all and most of them act like one. Or maybe, she needs to act like that to be in the right mood for the character she's singing (she certainly acts like a deranged person in Ophelia's mad scene). Anyway, seeing someone's gestures or attitudes on stage is not the reason why I attended classical music concert - I can go to opera instead - , and I'm fine with all of that as long as the artist has the talent to match it. In Emma case, she definitely has a wonderful voice, a great range and control on the higher pitch, although her voice was occasionally swamped by the orchestra's fortissimo. Her notes ornamentation in particular (which is really the most important thing in the bel canto repertoire) impressed me. She's especially impressive at Donizetti's and Thomas' arias and the audience loved that high (C?) notes that she produced in the climaxes. Her other arias were fine, but not particularly impressive.
I guess the main reason why I did not enjoy this concert very much is the program. Bel canto music is not my cup of tea (at least not yet), and there were just too much of them that night. I'm looking forward to entirely different programs in ACO's Beethoven 4 concert.
- Bellini The Capulets and the Montagues: Sinfonia
- Bellini The Capulets and the Montagues: Eccomi in lieta vesta..O quante volte
- Respighi Fountains of Rome
- Puccini Gianni Schicchi: O mio babbino caro
- Rossini The Barber of Seville: Overture
- Donizetti Lucia di Lammermoor: Regnava nel silenzio..Quando rapito in estasi
- Berlioz Romeo and Juliet: Romeo alone - Festivities at the Capulets'
- Gounod Romeo and Juliet: Je veux vivre
- Debussy Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun
- Ambroise Thomas Hamlet: Ophelia's Mad Scene
Emma Matthews - Soprano
Alexander Shelley - Conductor
The star of this 'Celebrity concert' is supposed to be Sumi Jo. However, due to last minute injury, she cancelled her appearance in this concert to my disappointment. There are 10 programs on offer, with an orchestral piece alternating with a soprano aria sung by the replacement soloist, Emma Matthews. Emma is currently the principal artist of Opera Australia and should be a fair substitute to Sumi Jo. On top of that, Alexander Shelley who did a wonderful job conducting Rimsky Korsakov's Scheherazade MSO during last year's Sidney Myer free concert is the conductor of the night. Needless to say, my expectation of this concert is high.
Unfortunately though, my expectation was not met. The orchestra sounded a little bit uninspired in some of the opera numbers (maybe partly of the music itself?), but did a fair job in Rossini's Barber of Seville overture. I enjoyed Debussy's Prelude to the Afternoon of a Faun despite some unclean entries from some members of the orchestra. Also, the climax in the piece was a bit underwhelming.
Emma Matthews is a soprano who behaved like one on stage. She even changed her dress during the interval, and did plenty of what I called over-the-top gestures (esp. when she acted very girlishly in Gounod's aria). I guess, she's a prima donna after all and most of them act like one. Or maybe, she needs to act like that to be in the right mood for the character she's singing (she certainly acts like a deranged person in Ophelia's mad scene). Anyway, seeing someone's gestures or attitudes on stage is not the reason why I attended classical music concert - I can go to opera instead - , and I'm fine with all of that as long as the artist has the talent to match it. In Emma case, she definitely has a wonderful voice, a great range and control on the higher pitch, although her voice was occasionally swamped by the orchestra's fortissimo. Her notes ornamentation in particular (which is really the most important thing in the bel canto repertoire) impressed me. She's especially impressive at Donizetti's and Thomas' arias and the audience loved that high (C?) notes that she produced in the climaxes. Her other arias were fine, but not particularly impressive.
I guess the main reason why I did not enjoy this concert very much is the program. Bel canto music is not my cup of tea (at least not yet), and there were just too much of them that night. I'm looking forward to entirely different programs in ACO's Beethoven 4 concert.
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Australian Chamber Orchestra concert 25 October 2009 - The Girl with Golden Flute
Featuring:
- Handel Concerto Gross, Op. 6 No. 7
- Peteris Vasks Vox amoris: Fantasy for violin and strings - World Premiere
- Carl Vine Pipe Dreams
- Jose Serebrier Flute Concerto - World Premiere
- Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Sharon Bezaly - Flute
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings was the reason I looked forward to this concert. This little gem has a particular charm of it that I can't resist. ACO's trademark sound worked well and it's always nice to hear the counterpoints and accompanying melodies clearly in this melodic driven piece. The players seemed to enjoy themselves while playing this, I caught a few smiles here and there during a delightful passage.
Another high point of the concert is Peteris Vasks' Vox Amoris. Richard Tognetti's solo violin was at the highest intensity and soared above the orchestra. The performance was even more heartfelt with a beautiful writing by Vasks. While the technical demand was enormous for the solo violin in both cadenzas, Vasks avoid turning this piece to a virtuoso showpiece by carefully injecting a gorgeous cantabile melody in the end. The composer who was present, took a couple of deserved bows from an enthusiastic audience.
The rest of the programs were a bit of a let down in one way or another. While Handel's Concerto Grosso contain some fine passages, the piece itself is not that eventful. The biggest let down for me was the performance of the two flute pieces by Sharon Bezaly. Both pieces failed to catch my attention and left me cold. I wasn't sure why, maybe I paid too much attention to the flautist herself. I do not have any idea on how to play a flute, and failed to see her virtuosity in both pieces. Sure, there are long passages with plenty of running semiquavers, and they're executed brilliantly, but I have some reservations with the tone of the flute. I was expecting a clear, sharp articulation but most of the time I was troubled by a muffled tone from the soloist. It also doesn't help when the orchestra overwhelms it. I was impressed however, at one point, Bezaly could hold a particular note for a seemingly long time (due to circular breathing, I presume). And for what it's worth, I was more impressed with Bezaly's performance during the slower section where I can appreciate the 'warmth' tone of her flute. Due to all of the factors above, I couldn't say that I enjoyed this concert very much.
- Handel Concerto Gross, Op. 6 No. 7
- Peteris Vasks Vox amoris: Fantasy for violin and strings - World Premiere
- Carl Vine Pipe Dreams
- Jose Serebrier Flute Concerto - World Premiere
- Tchaikovsky Serenade for Strings
Sharon Bezaly - Flute
Richard Tognetti - Artistic Director and Lead Violin
Tchaikovsky's Serenade for Strings was the reason I looked forward to this concert. This little gem has a particular charm of it that I can't resist. ACO's trademark sound worked well and it's always nice to hear the counterpoints and accompanying melodies clearly in this melodic driven piece. The players seemed to enjoy themselves while playing this, I caught a few smiles here and there during a delightful passage.
Another high point of the concert is Peteris Vasks' Vox Amoris. Richard Tognetti's solo violin was at the highest intensity and soared above the orchestra. The performance was even more heartfelt with a beautiful writing by Vasks. While the technical demand was enormous for the solo violin in both cadenzas, Vasks avoid turning this piece to a virtuoso showpiece by carefully injecting a gorgeous cantabile melody in the end. The composer who was present, took a couple of deserved bows from an enthusiastic audience.
The rest of the programs were a bit of a let down in one way or another. While Handel's Concerto Grosso contain some fine passages, the piece itself is not that eventful. The biggest let down for me was the performance of the two flute pieces by Sharon Bezaly. Both pieces failed to catch my attention and left me cold. I wasn't sure why, maybe I paid too much attention to the flautist herself. I do not have any idea on how to play a flute, and failed to see her virtuosity in both pieces. Sure, there are long passages with plenty of running semiquavers, and they're executed brilliantly, but I have some reservations with the tone of the flute. I was expecting a clear, sharp articulation but most of the time I was troubled by a muffled tone from the soloist. It also doesn't help when the orchestra overwhelms it. I was impressed however, at one point, Bezaly could hold a particular note for a seemingly long time (due to circular breathing, I presume). And for what it's worth, I was more impressed with Bezaly's performance during the slower section where I can appreciate the 'warmth' tone of her flute. Due to all of the factors above, I couldn't say that I enjoyed this concert very much.
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 23 October 2009 - Serenity and Spectacle
Featuring:
- Faure Requiem
- Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
Antoinette Halloran Soprano
Samuel Dundas Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus - Jonathan Grieves-Smith Chorus Master
Richard Gill Conductor
Fresh from his massive all Bach works organ recital for Melbourne International Arts Festival, Calvin Bowman presented an all Bach program which I won't go to details. There are 4 pieces, BWV 680, 639, 645 (the transcription of 'Sleepers, Wake') and finally 768 which is a very long "theme and variations".
I am fond of Faure's Requiem. The serenity and peaceful nature of this piece will always be its advantages. I have probably discussed this, but I really like the 'Sanctus'; a very simple movement with simple melody with harp accompaniment; a perfect picture of what we think of as 'Heaven'. MSO and MSO chorus, under Richard Gill gave straightforward reading of it. The choir sang beautifully although I would prefer the sopranos to sing more angelic-like in the Sanctus and In Paradisum. The performance could've been more effective with better soloists though; Antoinette Halloran has a fine voice but her vibrato is probably a bit too much for the angelic 'Pie Jesu'; Samuel Dundas has a darker timbre voice than what I would've liked. I prefer a baritone with 'lighter' timbre to deliver the solo in the Offertoire and Libera Me. All of this just comes down to your personal preference.
I noticed the following things when I was following the score while listening to Faure's Requiem before the concert and confirming it in the concert: the violins are not frequently used. Viola players would absolutely love this piece as they have all the spotlights and become the main driving force of the melody most of the time (with Cello).
After the break, it's time for Saint-Saens' Organ symphony. Richard Gill's tempo was on the slow side in the first movement, and therefore I felt that the orchestra did not really jump on the momentum to push the piece forward. The second movement was different; and it was heartfelt performance. Actually, come to think about it, I always prefer the 2nd movement compared to the last big movement which starts with a big chord from the organ. Richard Gill finally pushed the tempo towards the end of the piece. Combined that with well-executed fast runs from the orchestra, a timpani being thumped out, fanfare from the brass, and a massive C chord from the organ, you'll definitely will have the audience on loud cheers.
The encore of the night is Ravel's Pavane for Dead Princess. I rue another Pavane for encore. Why can't they play like one of Saint-Saens rarely heard tone poem as the encore? Sigh.
- Faure Requiem
- Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
Antoinette Halloran Soprano
Samuel Dundas Baritone
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra Chorus - Jonathan Grieves-Smith Chorus Master
Richard Gill Conductor
Fresh from his massive all Bach works organ recital for Melbourne International Arts Festival, Calvin Bowman presented an all Bach program which I won't go to details. There are 4 pieces, BWV 680, 639, 645 (the transcription of 'Sleepers, Wake') and finally 768 which is a very long "theme and variations".
I am fond of Faure's Requiem. The serenity and peaceful nature of this piece will always be its advantages. I have probably discussed this, but I really like the 'Sanctus'; a very simple movement with simple melody with harp accompaniment; a perfect picture of what we think of as 'Heaven'. MSO and MSO chorus, under Richard Gill gave straightforward reading of it. The choir sang beautifully although I would prefer the sopranos to sing more angelic-like in the Sanctus and In Paradisum. The performance could've been more effective with better soloists though; Antoinette Halloran has a fine voice but her vibrato is probably a bit too much for the angelic 'Pie Jesu'; Samuel Dundas has a darker timbre voice than what I would've liked. I prefer a baritone with 'lighter' timbre to deliver the solo in the Offertoire and Libera Me. All of this just comes down to your personal preference.
I noticed the following things when I was following the score while listening to Faure's Requiem before the concert and confirming it in the concert: the violins are not frequently used. Viola players would absolutely love this piece as they have all the spotlights and become the main driving force of the melody most of the time (with Cello).
After the break, it's time for Saint-Saens' Organ symphony. Richard Gill's tempo was on the slow side in the first movement, and therefore I felt that the orchestra did not really jump on the momentum to push the piece forward. The second movement was different; and it was heartfelt performance. Actually, come to think about it, I always prefer the 2nd movement compared to the last big movement which starts with a big chord from the organ. Richard Gill finally pushed the tempo towards the end of the piece. Combined that with well-executed fast runs from the orchestra, a timpani being thumped out, fanfare from the brass, and a massive C chord from the organ, you'll definitely will have the audience on loud cheers.
The encore of the night is Ravel's Pavane for Dead Princess. I rue another Pavane for encore. Why can't they play like one of Saint-Saens rarely heard tone poem as the encore? Sigh.
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