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.
Showing posts with label saint-saens. Show all posts
Showing posts with label saint-saens. Show all posts
Sunday, 25 October 2009
Tuesday, 11 August 2009
3MBS Classically Melbourne - Orchestra Victoria: Hamer Hall - 6 August 2009
Featuring:
- Carl Maria von Weber Die Freischutz overture
- Saint Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Melody EotvosHuygens Principle
- Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
Andrea Lam - Piano
Marko Letonja - Conductor
At first, I did not want to write a review for all of this, but after reading the review from the Arts Hub (which explains why I only wrote this review today), I should perhaps question some of the things mentioned there.
If anyone who thought that this concert was the best concert or fantastic or magnificent, then perhaps give my review a miss, and read this review instead.
If you're still reading, my words below might change your opinion of this concert. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.
Let me rant a little bit. I know a large number of people who said the concert they attended is fantastic, gorgeous, etc. They never found bad things to say in a concert, although perhaps the brass sections were off by miles during the performance. Bless them if that's the case, cause they will never have a bad time during even the most unbearable concert. Same case with reviews, some critics just don't seem to be able to write bad stuff about a concert.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. Perhaps it's my curse, but I can't deny myself when a performance does not entertain me. This concert is one of the concert that I found myself bored during the performance. Let's start with Die Freischutz which was a solid good start to the concert, although I have some reservations with the Horns in the beginning. I don't know about you, but if you read the review from the Arts Hub above, it doesn't tell you anything about the concert or even the piece itself. Romantic style? Sure, Weber it's a romantic, but an early one. React against classicism and order of Bach and Mozart? I wouldn't say so. There is one important passage in the piece which actually reminded me a lot of the first movement of Mozart's 40th symphony (you'll know it if you're familiar with Mozart 40). I would say that Weber is actually indebted to Mozart's compositional technique. Listen to the last few bars of the piece, the style is just so similar to the last few bars of Mozart's Jupiter symphony, especially the strings rhythm that ended the Jupiter.
I have heard Saint Saens 2nd Piano Concerto in the same hall, played by a fearless Simon Trpceski. I was so impressed with his performance, but less so with Andrea Lam's. She has the technique to play the concerto, but her performance was less satisfying due to several weird tempo changes in the outer movements. Also, the overall picture of how she organised her playing of this concerto is not convincing to me. The playfulness of the second movement perhaps can be brought out a little bit more. The orchestra itself missed some of the entries. One of the msot remarkable thing that I noticed is one of the front desk of second violins missed the entries in the beginning in the final movement because Andrea did not really pause much in between. She gave an encore: Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor, op. Post. Review in Arts Hub is wrong, the nocturne is NOT Nocturne in C minor as written in that review; and also NOT the Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No.1 (which I think it's vastly superior piece compare to the encore). The encore piece is the Nocturne that was used in the movie The Pianist; if that helps. I enjoyed Andrea's Nocturne very much, and honestly, I think, that's her best playing of the night.
There was a presentation for composers' award that night and Melody Eotvos and another composer from Melbourne won the prizes offered. Eotvos' piece 'Huygens Principle' has interesting description. It's about an experiment with 'observing the nature of waves in a pond'. I was looking forward to listening this composition, but ended up feeling a bit disappointed, although I enjoyed some of the musical ideas presented there, like the main theme that was played in several disguise in different instruments with different dynamics (IIRC). Perhaps I can write more about it if I listen to it again, but the chance of the piece is performed again in Melbourne is pretty low or close to zero - a fact for most contemporary composition.
Finally, a piece that I both love and hate. I love Pictures at an Exhibition in its original form - as a solo piano piece -. I love Sviatoslav Richter's Sofia Recital CD which gave me a wonderful listening experience, despite the audience cough and fingers slip in a couple of places. I hate Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by other: Horowitz's own transcription for solo piano or the famous Ravel's version for orchestra. The Promenade themes played by trumpets? Poo-poo. The piece accompanied with bad brass sections? Awful. That's what happened in the concert. I'm sorry for the harsh words, but I don't think the brass section was having a good night. Ravel's arrangement made the piece too pretty, too superficial, and lost its dark-Russian character. I was totally bored in the Old Castle, stayed in that boredom level until we reached the Baba-Yaga. The main reason is not the music itself, but Ravel's arrangement just made the music lost its appeal to me.
Finally, the night got better for me: the orchestra gave an encore - the Gavotte from Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. The best performance of the night, by far.
Other thing that I didn't enjoy: donation speech. I know that this concert is a free event. But, still...
One last note, I sat at the last seat of the right side of second last row in the Balcony! Almost at the top. The acoustic is surprisingly okay, considering the distance from the seat to the orchestra. I still can't say I enjoyed that seat though: I have to look down painfully throughout the performance.
- Carl Maria von Weber Die Freischutz overture
- Saint Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Melody EotvosHuygens Principle
- Mussorgsky Pictures at an Exhibition (arr. Ravel)
Andrea Lam - Piano
Marko Letonja - Conductor
At first, I did not want to write a review for all of this, but after reading the review from the Arts Hub (which explains why I only wrote this review today), I should perhaps question some of the things mentioned there.
If anyone who thought that this concert was the best concert or fantastic or magnificent, then perhaps give my review a miss, and read this review instead.
If you're still reading, my words below might change your opinion of this concert. Proceed with caution. You have been warned.
Let me rant a little bit. I know a large number of people who said the concert they attended is fantastic, gorgeous, etc. They never found bad things to say in a concert, although perhaps the brass sections were off by miles during the performance. Bless them if that's the case, cause they will never have a bad time during even the most unbearable concert. Same case with reviews, some critics just don't seem to be able to write bad stuff about a concert.
Unfortunately, I'm not one of them. Perhaps it's my curse, but I can't deny myself when a performance does not entertain me. This concert is one of the concert that I found myself bored during the performance. Let's start with Die Freischutz which was a solid good start to the concert, although I have some reservations with the Horns in the beginning. I don't know about you, but if you read the review from the Arts Hub above, it doesn't tell you anything about the concert or even the piece itself. Romantic style? Sure, Weber it's a romantic, but an early one. React against classicism and order of Bach and Mozart? I wouldn't say so. There is one important passage in the piece which actually reminded me a lot of the first movement of Mozart's 40th symphony (you'll know it if you're familiar with Mozart 40). I would say that Weber is actually indebted to Mozart's compositional technique. Listen to the last few bars of the piece, the style is just so similar to the last few bars of Mozart's Jupiter symphony, especially the strings rhythm that ended the Jupiter.
I have heard Saint Saens 2nd Piano Concerto in the same hall, played by a fearless Simon Trpceski. I was so impressed with his performance, but less so with Andrea Lam's. She has the technique to play the concerto, but her performance was less satisfying due to several weird tempo changes in the outer movements. Also, the overall picture of how she organised her playing of this concerto is not convincing to me. The playfulness of the second movement perhaps can be brought out a little bit more. The orchestra itself missed some of the entries. One of the msot remarkable thing that I noticed is one of the front desk of second violins missed the entries in the beginning in the final movement because Andrea did not really pause much in between. She gave an encore: Chopin's Nocturne in C sharp minor, op. Post. Review in Arts Hub is wrong, the nocturne is NOT Nocturne in C minor as written in that review; and also NOT the Nocturne in C sharp minor, Op. 27 No.1 (which I think it's vastly superior piece compare to the encore). The encore piece is the Nocturne that was used in the movie The Pianist; if that helps. I enjoyed Andrea's Nocturne very much, and honestly, I think, that's her best playing of the night.
There was a presentation for composers' award that night and Melody Eotvos and another composer from Melbourne won the prizes offered. Eotvos' piece 'Huygens Principle' has interesting description. It's about an experiment with 'observing the nature of waves in a pond'. I was looking forward to listening this composition, but ended up feeling a bit disappointed, although I enjoyed some of the musical ideas presented there, like the main theme that was played in several disguise in different instruments with different dynamics (IIRC). Perhaps I can write more about it if I listen to it again, but the chance of the piece is performed again in Melbourne is pretty low or close to zero - a fact for most contemporary composition.
Finally, a piece that I both love and hate. I love Pictures at an Exhibition in its original form - as a solo piano piece -. I love Sviatoslav Richter's Sofia Recital CD which gave me a wonderful listening experience, despite the audience cough and fingers slip in a couple of places. I hate Pictures at an Exhibition arranged by other: Horowitz's own transcription for solo piano or the famous Ravel's version for orchestra. The Promenade themes played by trumpets? Poo-poo. The piece accompanied with bad brass sections? Awful. That's what happened in the concert. I'm sorry for the harsh words, but I don't think the brass section was having a good night. Ravel's arrangement made the piece too pretty, too superficial, and lost its dark-Russian character. I was totally bored in the Old Castle, stayed in that boredom level until we reached the Baba-Yaga. The main reason is not the music itself, but Ravel's arrangement just made the music lost its appeal to me.
Finally, the night got better for me: the orchestra gave an encore - the Gavotte from Prokofiev's Classical Symphony. The best performance of the night, by far.
Other thing that I didn't enjoy: donation speech. I know that this concert is a free event. But, still...
One last note, I sat at the last seat of the right side of second last row in the Balcony! Almost at the top. The acoustic is surprisingly okay, considering the distance from the seat to the orchestra. I still can't say I enjoyed that seat though: I have to look down painfully throughout the performance.
Sunday, 15 March 2009
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 14 March 2009 - Before the Icons
Featuring:
- Einojuhani Rautavaara Before the Icons Australian Premiere
- Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor
- Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Janine Jansen - Violin
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
This concert is a little bit out of ordinary for me because of several reasons: I attended the open rehearsal of this concert on Wednesday that week, got a free ticket to the Thursday concert on Wednesday night. I then went to the concert on Thursday night, only have to be leaving early because of my other commitments, and finally went back again to the concert on Saturday - almost LATE! - for the full concert.
Let's start with the rehearsal. It was really the first time for me seeing MSO rehearse in Hamer Hall. The sight of musicians wearing casual shirts is interesting, very much contrasting to their formal attire during concert. More interesting sight is the shirts that Ashkenazy and Janine Jansen wore during rehearsal. They both wore a plain white shirt, but with a black and white picture of a composer imprinted in front of the shirt. I wasn't really sure who was the composers, but my best guess for Ashkenazy's is either Richard Strauss or Mahler and I'm 90% sure that Jansen was wearing Saint-Saens shirt (another 10% goes to Verdi).
The rehearsal started with Saint-Saens' violin concerto. There wasn't as much interaction between the conductor, soloist and orchestra apart from three or four interruptions during the first movement of the concerto. A little bit nitpicking here and there from Ashkenazy and that's about it. The same story goes with the 2nd and 3rd movement. Jansen played beautifully during the rehearsal, and I like her performance during rehearsal better compared to her Thursday's performance. After that, they went on playing the whole concerto again and that's it.
To my disappointment, I couldn't witness the orchestra rehearsing Strauss' Zarathustra. Instead, Rautavaara's Before the Icons were rehearsed and this time, there were a lot more discussions between the orchestra and Ashkenazy. The music didn't hit home for me, but I grew to finally like it during Saturday's performance.
There was some drama going on with the audience sitting just in front of me on Thursday performance. There were this elderly couple which behaved in perfectly fine manner until the middle of the Rautavaara piece. The lady started passing a candy to her husband, and they both started unwrapping the candy and they both did it in how a person would do thing in concert hall: quietly. However, unwrapping candy quietly in concert hall is no easy feat, and it would actually took longer than the usual time to unwrap it. As most people are aware of, the unwrapping sound is rather distracting, and is actually one of the deadly sins in going to concert. Their attempt went on for one minute before I noticed one lady sitting in front of the couple started shooking her head. The usher then came and tried to ask them to stop. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of quiet passage, so the usher had to use some hand signs to convey the message which was not understood by the gentleman. The lady wasn't too happy being told by the usher, and muttered her disgust. The usher, thinking that her message was understood, left the couple, but would you believe it, the couple continued unwrapping the candy! It took a gentleman who sat in front of the couple to turn around and cast his disgusted look and expression to the lady before the lady started to realise what's wrong with her. With that, I lost 3 to 5 minutes trying to enjoy the piece, and subsequently I did not get the rest of the piece. A pure disaster, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Jumping straight to Saturday, I myself almost committed another sin in going to concert - being late! I was solving this hard Samurai Sudoku (I solved it before the concert, if you wonder :) ) before I realised that I was running out of time to go to concert. I arrived there seconds before the performance started and had to inconvenient quite a number of people because I was sitting in the middle row. Okay, now to the performance..
The Rautavaara piece was described as a 'Pictures at an Exhibition', a series of musical portray of one standing before these Orthodox icons: 'The Death of the Mother of God', 'Two Village Saints', 'Black Madonna of Blakernaya', 'The Baptism of Christ', 'The Holy Women at the Sepulchre', and 'Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist'. The equivalent of 'Promenade' in this piece is called the 'Prayer'. The piece started out with two big bangs, only to be really quiet for a long long time, until we reached the 'Two Village Saints' where the playful folk theme echoed in winds and strings. Then it continued again, but to be honest, I'm not sure where the music were until we reached the end of the piece. There were one melody that I loved in the piece that was played by the strings, and one nice chorale played by the brass during the end. If I were to sum up the piece, I would say it is an impressionistic piece with plenty of modern harmonies imbued - not unlike Takemitsu's pieces.
After being challenged by 'Before the Icons', we were sweetened by the romantic third violin concerto of Saint-Saens. Here, the music is much more accessible, the playing of the soloist was great and supported well by the orchestra. The gorgeous melody in the second movement was very much suited with Jansen's lovely tone. The duet between the clarinet and the soloist is quiet beautiful. The third movement showed some fast, close to furious, playing from the soloist and the joyful end of the movement brought much applause from the audience. Comparing the performance of the Thursday and Saturday, I've found that there were some not-so-perfect notes during some of the moments when the soloists needed to play ascending notes. Other than that, I loved her playing very much. She looks gorgeous in her dress (she wore the same dress on Thursday and Saturday), played elegantly with some knee flexing actions involved. She looked totally involved in the music, 'banging' her head during some of the orchestral tuttis and marching passages. Also, she gave a beautiful rendering of Bach's Sarabande from the 2nd Partita for solo violin as the encore for both performances. Lovely tone, although I prefer Bach to be played in more masculine tone.
On Thursday, I left early during the Zarathustra and felt a little bit underwhelmed by the famous opening. It simply wasn't grand enough. The section following the opening was gorgeous and I left during 'Of the Great Longing' when the organ played the quotation from the Magnificat - IIRC. The Saturday's performance was a great one, this time the opening was grand. The timpani stroke was as powerful as it can be, the brass was amazing and the organ in the end (whoa!). The rest of the movements were played very much straight forward, with credits must be given to the orchestra's front-desk strings for fine playing. Love the two gorgeous ladies from the viola section. One distracting thing during this performance is the sound of Ashkenazy's watch when he conducted the piece.
A very fine concert, with a chance to see two musical giants in the same concert. The concert was quite popular, around 90% of the seats were occupied. The next concert is actually today's ACO concert (embarrassment of the riches - too much fine music in a space of less than 24 hours!), I'll blog about it later.
- Einojuhani Rautavaara Before the Icons Australian Premiere
- Saint-Saens Violin Concerto No. 3 in B minor
- Richard Strauss Also sprach Zarathustra
Janine Jansen - Violin
Vladimir Ashkenazy - Conductor
This concert is a little bit out of ordinary for me because of several reasons: I attended the open rehearsal of this concert on Wednesday that week, got a free ticket to the Thursday concert on Wednesday night. I then went to the concert on Thursday night, only have to be leaving early because of my other commitments, and finally went back again to the concert on Saturday - almost LATE! - for the full concert.
Let's start with the rehearsal. It was really the first time for me seeing MSO rehearse in Hamer Hall. The sight of musicians wearing casual shirts is interesting, very much contrasting to their formal attire during concert. More interesting sight is the shirts that Ashkenazy and Janine Jansen wore during rehearsal. They both wore a plain white shirt, but with a black and white picture of a composer imprinted in front of the shirt. I wasn't really sure who was the composers, but my best guess for Ashkenazy's is either Richard Strauss or Mahler and I'm 90% sure that Jansen was wearing Saint-Saens shirt (another 10% goes to Verdi).
The rehearsal started with Saint-Saens' violin concerto. There wasn't as much interaction between the conductor, soloist and orchestra apart from three or four interruptions during the first movement of the concerto. A little bit nitpicking here and there from Ashkenazy and that's about it. The same story goes with the 2nd and 3rd movement. Jansen played beautifully during the rehearsal, and I like her performance during rehearsal better compared to her Thursday's performance. After that, they went on playing the whole concerto again and that's it.
To my disappointment, I couldn't witness the orchestra rehearsing Strauss' Zarathustra. Instead, Rautavaara's Before the Icons were rehearsed and this time, there were a lot more discussions between the orchestra and Ashkenazy. The music didn't hit home for me, but I grew to finally like it during Saturday's performance.
There was some drama going on with the audience sitting just in front of me on Thursday performance. There were this elderly couple which behaved in perfectly fine manner until the middle of the Rautavaara piece. The lady started passing a candy to her husband, and they both started unwrapping the candy and they both did it in how a person would do thing in concert hall: quietly. However, unwrapping candy quietly in concert hall is no easy feat, and it would actually took longer than the usual time to unwrap it. As most people are aware of, the unwrapping sound is rather distracting, and is actually one of the deadly sins in going to concert. Their attempt went on for one minute before I noticed one lady sitting in front of the couple started shooking her head. The usher then came and tried to ask them to stop. Unfortunately, it was in the middle of quiet passage, so the usher had to use some hand signs to convey the message which was not understood by the gentleman. The lady wasn't too happy being told by the usher, and muttered her disgust. The usher, thinking that her message was understood, left the couple, but would you believe it, the couple continued unwrapping the candy! It took a gentleman who sat in front of the couple to turn around and cast his disgusted look and expression to the lady before the lady started to realise what's wrong with her. With that, I lost 3 to 5 minutes trying to enjoy the piece, and subsequently I did not get the rest of the piece. A pure disaster, and I'm sure I wasn't the only one who felt this way.
Jumping straight to Saturday, I myself almost committed another sin in going to concert - being late! I was solving this hard Samurai Sudoku (I solved it before the concert, if you wonder :) ) before I realised that I was running out of time to go to concert. I arrived there seconds before the performance started and had to inconvenient quite a number of people because I was sitting in the middle row. Okay, now to the performance..
The Rautavaara piece was described as a 'Pictures at an Exhibition', a series of musical portray of one standing before these Orthodox icons: 'The Death of the Mother of God', 'Two Village Saints', 'Black Madonna of Blakernaya', 'The Baptism of Christ', 'The Holy Women at the Sepulchre', and 'Archangel Michael Fighting the Antichrist'. The equivalent of 'Promenade' in this piece is called the 'Prayer'. The piece started out with two big bangs, only to be really quiet for a long long time, until we reached the 'Two Village Saints' where the playful folk theme echoed in winds and strings. Then it continued again, but to be honest, I'm not sure where the music were until we reached the end of the piece. There were one melody that I loved in the piece that was played by the strings, and one nice chorale played by the brass during the end. If I were to sum up the piece, I would say it is an impressionistic piece with plenty of modern harmonies imbued - not unlike Takemitsu's pieces.
After being challenged by 'Before the Icons', we were sweetened by the romantic third violin concerto of Saint-Saens. Here, the music is much more accessible, the playing of the soloist was great and supported well by the orchestra. The gorgeous melody in the second movement was very much suited with Jansen's lovely tone. The duet between the clarinet and the soloist is quiet beautiful. The third movement showed some fast, close to furious, playing from the soloist and the joyful end of the movement brought much applause from the audience. Comparing the performance of the Thursday and Saturday, I've found that there were some not-so-perfect notes during some of the moments when the soloists needed to play ascending notes. Other than that, I loved her playing very much. She looks gorgeous in her dress (she wore the same dress on Thursday and Saturday), played elegantly with some knee flexing actions involved. She looked totally involved in the music, 'banging' her head during some of the orchestral tuttis and marching passages. Also, she gave a beautiful rendering of Bach's Sarabande from the 2nd Partita for solo violin as the encore for both performances. Lovely tone, although I prefer Bach to be played in more masculine tone.
On Thursday, I left early during the Zarathustra and felt a little bit underwhelmed by the famous opening. It simply wasn't grand enough. The section following the opening was gorgeous and I left during 'Of the Great Longing' when the organ played the quotation from the Magnificat - IIRC. The Saturday's performance was a great one, this time the opening was grand. The timpani stroke was as powerful as it can be, the brass was amazing and the organ in the end (whoa!). The rest of the movements were played very much straight forward, with credits must be given to the orchestra's front-desk strings for fine playing. Love the two gorgeous ladies from the viola section. One distracting thing during this performance is the sound of Ashkenazy's watch when he conducted the piece.
A very fine concert, with a chance to see two musical giants in the same concert. The concert was quite popular, around 90% of the seats were occupied. The next concert is actually today's ACO concert (embarrassment of the riches - too much fine music in a space of less than 24 hours!), I'll blog about it later.
Sunday, 20 July 2008
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 19 July 2008 - Toward the Light
Featuring:
- Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
- Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5
Simon Trpceski - Piano
Thomas Dausgaard - Conductor
I'll be frank and just admit I subscribe to this concert because of Saint-Saens piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with the 2 other pieces when I made my decision to subscribe to this concert. It's a bit of gamble since I had bad experience with Richard Strauss music played by MSO. The last season concert of his 'Sinfonia Domestica' bored me - one of the concert that I just wished it ended as fast as it could. With Nielsen, I read someone saying in Amazon classical music board that he 'spoke as much as Mahler did with his symphonies but in half the time'. In other thread of the same forum when posters were asked to vote for the best symphony ever written, there are surprisingly a number of votes for his fifth symphony despite strong (and popular) competitors from say Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Dvorak symphonies. I'm curious to see what the fuss is all about.
To prepare myself for the concert, I listened to Till Eulenspiegel and Nielsen's fifth symphony 2 days before the concert. I actually fell in love with Till in the first listening! A character of quick wits and plenty of tricks, he was portrayed excellently by Strauss - the opening horn solo depicting Till is just delicious. The music is also delightful with plenty of tongue-in-cheek passages throughout. I especially love the market scene where you can just listen to the havoc of the market from the music. And how about the whistling tune that is played after Till fooled the scholars? Fantastic. This piece and Also Sprach Zarathustra - which I spend one full evening on listening and listening to it again - now made me look at Strauss' music in a more positive way.
Nielsen's fifth symphony is a very modern symphony. One just needs to listen to the opening movement and will be taken aback on how modern it sounds. Despite being modern, it never reached to the atonality of Schoenberg. The symphony projects the impression of victory through struggle. It has a number of powerful moment and the best known moment in the whole symphony is when the snare drum 'fights' against the rest of the orchestra in the second part of the first movement. I was not entirely convinced with the second movement when I first heard it, but second listening should give me a better insight.
Now to the concert. The orchestra played Till very well. Individual solos were wonderful. However, in the end I felt the performance lacked in drama compared to the performance of Furtwangler or Karajan. Till's death scene may serve as an example to this. It wasn't as dramatic as it could be. In a sense it's too bad since the scene where Till was captured and whistling desperately was very good portrayed.
Despite all of this, it's still a very good performance.
You won't believe how the Saint-Saens piano concerto was played. Such virtuosity, showmanship and clarity playing. Simon Trpceski is one of the pianist to keep your eye on the next time he gives the concert. He was thoroughly impressive in the concerto, and very much comparable to Stephan Hough's performance of the fifth piano concerto with MSO last season. The performance started off with a bang, the long piano line was given such power that might surprise unprepared listeners. The technically difficult long cadenzas were nothing for the pianist, he played it off easily and such clarity in the playing. The playing was never muffled even in the stormiest passages. The orchestra accompanied wonderfully throughout. After the first movement, the pianist - would you believe it! - took some time to adjust his tie bow. He then proceeded and gave a most exciting Scherzo. In some points of the performance, he even moved his body as if he was dancing to the tune. This scherzo remained a crowd pleasing movement, several of the audience clapped after this movement. I don't blame them, the playing was just delicious. The finale started off in a similar fashion with the first movement - with lightning speed attack to the stormy opening. My heart started racing from the beginning of the second movement and it didn't stop until the last note of the finale. That showed how intense and exciting Simon Trpceski playing was. He gave two encores, the first one was very poetic - I regret not listening closely to him when he mentioned it before he played. The second encore was a composition by his fellow Macedonian composer. Both pieces were wonderful.
Nielsen's fifth symphony was next. A very good or rather, excellent first movement. The battle scene between the snare drum against the rest of the orchestra was so powerful and when the 'noble' theme came out victorious, I was emotionally overwhelmed. I again have a little bit of problem understanding the second movement, although the fugues (there are two fugues in the second movement) were now a bit clearer to me. The conductor is to be applauded for his energetic conducting and the powerful sound he extracted out from the orchestra.
Last note that I want to make about the concert is the number of attendance. Poor MSO, this concert was the less-attended concert that I've been to so far this season. Almost half the stall seats were empty! The circle seats were much better, it was 75% full. The balcony fared the worst, from a quick glance, I can tell that 80% of the seats were empty. This situation really saddens me and I can only think of one reason on the low number of attendance: this is the third performance out of 3 of the program.
Next concert: my highlight of this MSO season: Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Brahms' first symphony on 2 August. Two of my favourite works. Can't wait till the day comes!
- Richard Strauss Till Eulenspiegel's Merry Pranks
- Saint-Saens Piano Concerto No. 2
- Carl Nielsen Symphony No. 5
Simon Trpceski - Piano
Thomas Dausgaard - Conductor
I'll be frank and just admit I subscribe to this concert because of Saint-Saens piano concerto. I wasn't familiar with the 2 other pieces when I made my decision to subscribe to this concert. It's a bit of gamble since I had bad experience with Richard Strauss music played by MSO. The last season concert of his 'Sinfonia Domestica' bored me - one of the concert that I just wished it ended as fast as it could. With Nielsen, I read someone saying in Amazon classical music board that he 'spoke as much as Mahler did with his symphonies but in half the time'. In other thread of the same forum when posters were asked to vote for the best symphony ever written, there are surprisingly a number of votes for his fifth symphony despite strong (and popular) competitors from say Beethoven, Mozart, Haydn, Bruckner, Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky, Mendelssohn and Dvorak symphonies. I'm curious to see what the fuss is all about.
To prepare myself for the concert, I listened to Till Eulenspiegel and Nielsen's fifth symphony 2 days before the concert. I actually fell in love with Till in the first listening! A character of quick wits and plenty of tricks, he was portrayed excellently by Strauss - the opening horn solo depicting Till is just delicious. The music is also delightful with plenty of tongue-in-cheek passages throughout. I especially love the market scene where you can just listen to the havoc of the market from the music. And how about the whistling tune that is played after Till fooled the scholars? Fantastic. This piece and Also Sprach Zarathustra - which I spend one full evening on listening and listening to it again - now made me look at Strauss' music in a more positive way.
Nielsen's fifth symphony is a very modern symphony. One just needs to listen to the opening movement and will be taken aback on how modern it sounds. Despite being modern, it never reached to the atonality of Schoenberg. The symphony projects the impression of victory through struggle. It has a number of powerful moment and the best known moment in the whole symphony is when the snare drum 'fights' against the rest of the orchestra in the second part of the first movement. I was not entirely convinced with the second movement when I first heard it, but second listening should give me a better insight.
Now to the concert. The orchestra played Till very well. Individual solos were wonderful. However, in the end I felt the performance lacked in drama compared to the performance of Furtwangler or Karajan. Till's death scene may serve as an example to this. It wasn't as dramatic as it could be. In a sense it's too bad since the scene where Till was captured and whistling desperately was very good portrayed.
Despite all of this, it's still a very good performance.
You won't believe how the Saint-Saens piano concerto was played. Such virtuosity, showmanship and clarity playing. Simon Trpceski is one of the pianist to keep your eye on the next time he gives the concert. He was thoroughly impressive in the concerto, and very much comparable to Stephan Hough's performance of the fifth piano concerto with MSO last season. The performance started off with a bang, the long piano line was given such power that might surprise unprepared listeners. The technically difficult long cadenzas were nothing for the pianist, he played it off easily and such clarity in the playing. The playing was never muffled even in the stormiest passages. The orchestra accompanied wonderfully throughout. After the first movement, the pianist - would you believe it! - took some time to adjust his tie bow. He then proceeded and gave a most exciting Scherzo. In some points of the performance, he even moved his body as if he was dancing to the tune. This scherzo remained a crowd pleasing movement, several of the audience clapped after this movement. I don't blame them, the playing was just delicious. The finale started off in a similar fashion with the first movement - with lightning speed attack to the stormy opening. My heart started racing from the beginning of the second movement and it didn't stop until the last note of the finale. That showed how intense and exciting Simon Trpceski playing was. He gave two encores, the first one was very poetic - I regret not listening closely to him when he mentioned it before he played. The second encore was a composition by his fellow Macedonian composer. Both pieces were wonderful.
Nielsen's fifth symphony was next. A very good or rather, excellent first movement. The battle scene between the snare drum against the rest of the orchestra was so powerful and when the 'noble' theme came out victorious, I was emotionally overwhelmed. I again have a little bit of problem understanding the second movement, although the fugues (there are two fugues in the second movement) were now a bit clearer to me. The conductor is to be applauded for his energetic conducting and the powerful sound he extracted out from the orchestra.
Last note that I want to make about the concert is the number of attendance. Poor MSO, this concert was the less-attended concert that I've been to so far this season. Almost half the stall seats were empty! The circle seats were much better, it was 75% full. The balcony fared the worst, from a quick glance, I can tell that 80% of the seats were empty. This situation really saddens me and I can only think of one reason on the low number of attendance: this is the third performance out of 3 of the program.
Next concert: my highlight of this MSO season: Tchaikovsky's violin concerto and Brahms' first symphony on 2 August. Two of my favourite works. Can't wait till the day comes!
Friday, 28 September 2007
Melbourne Symphony Orchestra concert 28 September 2007 - Organ Spectacular
Featuring:
- Howard Hanson Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky
- Richard Mills Soundscapes for Percussion and Orchestra
- Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
Richard Mills - Conductor
Claire Edwardes - Percussion
Calvin Bowman - Organ
To be honest, I went to this concert because of the Organ Symphony. Got my ticket on the day of the performances and there's really not much seats left to choose from although I really wanted to get a seat in the balcony. In the end, I sat at the second last row of the hall - Melbourne Town Hall -. As a result, I couldn't see the whole orchestra clearly, but that's to be expected from the cheapest ticket.
There was an organ recital before the concert, featuring works by Bach, Liszt and Graeme Koehne - a living Australian composer apparently -. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat has typical Bach's melody with some of passages resembled much of the first movement of his second Brandenburg Concerto - I think -. Liszt's Consolation in D flat impressed me the most out of the whole piece performed. This strikes me because I think Liszt is a not-so-good composer. Koehne' Gothic Toccata starts out slow and soft only to develop into an abrupt and very - VERY - loud piece. An old lady sitting beside me even covered her ears during the very end of the piece. She said, "It reminds me of factory sound or rail train". It looks like she had some bad memories on that topic and she was trying to stop the organ sound reaching her ears - a futile effort. Despite that, I kinda like the piece and I think it will be very fitting for a war or battle scene in the movie. By the way, the organist is Calvin Bowman, he also played the organ part in Saint-Saens symphony later.
And now the main program, the concert starts with Howard Hanson's elegy. A piece written in memory of his friend and great conductor - Serge Koussevitzky, the piece was good. It has this simple melody that I unfortunately have forgotten (Sorry Hanson!), that keeps reappearing in the elegy representing the deceased great conductor. The audience's reception was not very enthusiastic - the conductor did not appear the second time after he went backstage as the applause died down shortly after it started.
Now the second program - a work composed by the conductor. The lovely soloist, Claire Edwardes took the stage and literally blazed through the piece written as a concerto for percussion. She played at least 7 or 8 different instruments in total, some of them I didn't even recognise. The concert is full of virtuosity showmanship, fast passages in xylophone and tambourine and in one movement, she played the drums faster than a professional rock or band drummer - no kidding. The concerto also featured plenty of musical sound that represents the sounds of 'bull-frogs and crickets at night in Brisbane gardens'. A wonderful piece and audience seemed to be thrilled by the soloist's performance. Long applause followed.
Last program, the highlight of the night - Organ Symphony. The first movement was slightly slower than the recordings that I'm familiar with but was very well-played. The second movement is the best moment of the concert for me, I shivered throughout the whole movement. Again, it was a tad slower than the recordings that I know but that's what makes the difference - I enjoyed every single note of that movement. Also, I noticed the sweet organ part in that movement which I never know its existence in the recordings. The rest of the symphony is played brilliantly by the orchestra. My slight complaint was the timpani strikes at the end of the symphony wasn't as loud as I wanted it to be. The organ completely overpowered the poor timpani and as a result the timpani wasn't exactly highlighted during that time - which I very much like to be the case. The audience then erupted after the end of the symphony and after quite a long applause, we were given an encore - the famous Faure's Pavane.
Summing up, a very fun and memorable night. Not happy with the seating - I should've gotten a balcony seat to have a better view of the orchestra. The programs were well-played and very enjoyable. Live orchestral music is still worth going. And this concert was almost full-house (99% of the seats are occupied) - the 'crowdiest' concert I've been to.
Next concert: Schumann's piano concerto - next week!
- Howard Hanson Elegy in Memory of Serge Koussevitzky
- Richard Mills Soundscapes for Percussion and Orchestra
- Camille Saint-Saens Symphony No. 3 'Organ'
Richard Mills - Conductor
Claire Edwardes - Percussion
Calvin Bowman - Organ
To be honest, I went to this concert because of the Organ Symphony. Got my ticket on the day of the performances and there's really not much seats left to choose from although I really wanted to get a seat in the balcony. In the end, I sat at the second last row of the hall - Melbourne Town Hall -. As a result, I couldn't see the whole orchestra clearly, but that's to be expected from the cheapest ticket.
There was an organ recital before the concert, featuring works by Bach, Liszt and Graeme Koehne - a living Australian composer apparently -. Bach's Prelude and Fugue in E flat has typical Bach's melody with some of passages resembled much of the first movement of his second Brandenburg Concerto - I think -. Liszt's Consolation in D flat impressed me the most out of the whole piece performed. This strikes me because I think Liszt is a not-so-good composer. Koehne' Gothic Toccata starts out slow and soft only to develop into an abrupt and very - VERY - loud piece. An old lady sitting beside me even covered her ears during the very end of the piece. She said, "It reminds me of factory sound or rail train". It looks like she had some bad memories on that topic and she was trying to stop the organ sound reaching her ears - a futile effort. Despite that, I kinda like the piece and I think it will be very fitting for a war or battle scene in the movie. By the way, the organist is Calvin Bowman, he also played the organ part in Saint-Saens symphony later.
And now the main program, the concert starts with Howard Hanson's elegy. A piece written in memory of his friend and great conductor - Serge Koussevitzky, the piece was good. It has this simple melody that I unfortunately have forgotten (Sorry Hanson!), that keeps reappearing in the elegy representing the deceased great conductor. The audience's reception was not very enthusiastic - the conductor did not appear the second time after he went backstage as the applause died down shortly after it started.
Now the second program - a work composed by the conductor. The lovely soloist, Claire Edwardes took the stage and literally blazed through the piece written as a concerto for percussion. She played at least 7 or 8 different instruments in total, some of them I didn't even recognise. The concert is full of virtuosity showmanship, fast passages in xylophone and tambourine and in one movement, she played the drums faster than a professional rock or band drummer - no kidding. The concerto also featured plenty of musical sound that represents the sounds of 'bull-frogs and crickets at night in Brisbane gardens'. A wonderful piece and audience seemed to be thrilled by the soloist's performance. Long applause followed.
Last program, the highlight of the night - Organ Symphony. The first movement was slightly slower than the recordings that I'm familiar with but was very well-played. The second movement is the best moment of the concert for me, I shivered throughout the whole movement. Again, it was a tad slower than the recordings that I know but that's what makes the difference - I enjoyed every single note of that movement. Also, I noticed the sweet organ part in that movement which I never know its existence in the recordings. The rest of the symphony is played brilliantly by the orchestra. My slight complaint was the timpani strikes at the end of the symphony wasn't as loud as I wanted it to be. The organ completely overpowered the poor timpani and as a result the timpani wasn't exactly highlighted during that time - which I very much like to be the case. The audience then erupted after the end of the symphony and after quite a long applause, we were given an encore - the famous Faure's Pavane.
Summing up, a very fun and memorable night. Not happy with the seating - I should've gotten a balcony seat to have a better view of the orchestra. The programs were well-played and very enjoyable. Live orchestral music is still worth going. And this concert was almost full-house (99% of the seats are occupied) - the 'crowdiest' concert I've been to.
Next concert: Schumann's piano concerto - next week!
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