What was the last concert you went in 2015?
Posted by: kuma on 11 January 2015
My first concert for 2015 started with youthful pairing of Paul Lewis/Vasily Petrenko at the Orchestra Hall last night.
- Elgar In the South (Alassio)
- Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 5 (Emperor)
- Rachmaninov Symphonic Dances
Petrenko opened with Elgar's 'In the South' Overture and I was pleasantly surprised how lively and energetically it was played. Even the CSO musicians seemed more upbeat and animated than usual. I throughly enjoyed Petrenko's refreshing take on this tune.
Lewis has been a *regular* at the CSO for a few years. His Emperor Concerto is heroic, bold and confident as I expected him to be. The only draw back I felt was the orchestra was a bit soft and not as rhythmic feeling they were trailing a tad behind Lewis. A bit of a surprise really after such a lively Elgar piece.
Lewis did not offer his own cadenza in the Emperor but he played Schubert's Allegretto in C Minor as an encore. The trouble was he was still on the Beethoven mode. ( I love his Beethoven but not totally sold on his Schubert work )
Symphonic Dances was exciting Petrenko keeping the CSO on their toes. Perhaps it did not have the menacing weight of Berliner/Rattle set but the CSO Brass rose to the occasion adding an extra brilliance.
And it was cool that noone coughed after the final gong and kept the silence for a pretty good duration.
Oh. I also ordered "Fair Weather" Graham. Lots of good reviews on Amazon but quite pricey I thought.
Same here. 
Crosby, Stills & Nash at the Brighton Centre - front row (just by Stills)!
OK, I wasn't looking forward to this, as "Our House" and "Marrakech Express" are barf-inducing crap, and "Teach Your Children" and "Almost Cut My Hair' represent hippie sanctimoniousness at its very worst, but on the whole this was a good gig. The Cros was in very fine voice, and Stills is a monster guitar player. I particularly enjoyed "Wooden Ships", "Deja Vu" and "Long Time Gone".
Setlist:
The Big G at the RAH last night. Great show, much tighter than the recent Brighton warm-up but ruined by two turds who kept trying to film it with their iPads. 
Oh, the perils of modern gig-going!
Gilmour (again) at the RAH, last night. No iPad filmers this time round. Disappointingly the setlist was the same, and no Crosby and Nash as there was on Wednesday night.
But DG played fantastically well, stretching out his solos on "The Blue" and "Money", and adding much more power to "Astronomy Domine", "Today" and "Sorrow".
The playing on "The Blue" and "A Boat Lies Waiting" was absolutely sublime.
.......ruined by two turds who kept trying to film it with their iPads.
+1. This ruins most concerts for me these days. Glowing screens continously distracting in the foreground. And if people insist on video, can they at least turn their F%$#*&g phones sideways! The utter stupidity of vertical video shooters is as least as annoying as the videoing itself.
In Vancouver. Great concert. One of the best I've seen this year. Perhaps the best.
25th Sept - Gilmour at the Albert Hall, with Denis A, Steve H, Adrian (Lontano) and Jane of this forum, plus Alan and Sally of Chord Cable Co.
No change in setlist from the previous two nights, no Crosby and Nash as there was on the Wednesday either, but probably of the three nights so far this was the best, with DG at the top ofhis game, with top-notch versions of "AD", "FOS", "OAI" and "Today". The excellent company and a nice dinner helped too. 
Top marks to Denis for securing such good quality seats - row 19 in the Arena. An interesting experience being "underneath" the laser grid.