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.
Songhoy Blues in Whelans Dublin.
One of those gigs where it starts of sedately enough and I'm thinking, indeed this is very good, technically and I'm glad I bothered, and then it started building up to a real crescendo as crowd was invited up on stage and we all did our best to dance in our own unique ways.
blistering guitar playing, great tight band, not much not to like.
The next day I listened to their album on Tidal and they really are much better live, a grittiness and intensity that just didn't come across anywhere on the record.
SJB
Songhoy Blues in Whelans Dublin.
blistering guitar playing, great tight band, not much not to like.
SJB
Excellent, good to know SJB.
Im off to see them tomorrow night in Birmingham.
they are playing in a small pub in Kings Heath, should be a really intimate and rocking atmosphere.
I bought the album when it came out and love it, but if live they add an 'edge' to it, that's going to be great.
Ill post back Tuesday!
Tonight, Joe Bonamassa, at Leeds First Direct Arena....................should be great! 
Joe and the band on top form, though the sound balance at the venue left room for improvement. 
All in all, though, a belter of a set, lasting, a full value for money, two and a half hours. 
Dave.
Saw Radu Lupu last night and the Cleveland Symphony. The program was a piece from Messianen, Beethoven's 4th piano concerto and Strauss's Also Sprach Zaratushtra.
The starting piece was good sounding, but just a starter. The 4th with Radu Lupu was great. It was not about virtuosity of Radu but about the fantastic tone quality he is producing when playing piano, just sitting on a normal chair and playing.
The last piece after the break was good but didn't have the brutality to be great....
This is season I have a great place in the third row just far enough and close to the podium.
More photos to follow...
Originally Posted by Bert Schurink:
The last piece after the break was good but didn't have the brutality to be great....
Sounds like Franz Welser Most ( Cleveland Musical Director ) was at work.
In some quarters Franz is known as "Frankly Worse than Most".
I picked up his Strauss and Bruckner CD to check him out what's that all about.
I think I've seen Dylan 20 or 25 times. This was the best I have ever seen him (having amazing seats helped too, I guess - we could see every crack and crag on Dylan's face). We able to see all of the great man's shuffles, gestures and facial expressions. And guess what? He was having a great time and seemed entirely happy in both his and his songs' skin(s). This was Bob the vaudevillian, the seasoned showbiz trouper, playing songs he wanted to play rather than the ones he was expected to. Hell, I even enjoyed "Blowin' In the Wind" - shorn of its associations, and the stench of 60s folky sanctimony, its inner beauty was revealed. And that version of "Scarlet Town": wow! Oh, and that band. Simply stellar.
Bach Collegium Japan:
Masaaki Suzuki, Conductor and Harpsichord
Joanne Lunn, Soprano
Program
- BACH "Brandenburg" Concerto No. 2 in F Major, BWV 1047
- VIVALDI Concerto in C Major for Recorder, Strings, and Continuo, RV 443
- HANDEL Gloria in B-flat Major
- BACH Flute Sonata in E Minor, BWV 1034
- VIVALDI Concerto in C Major for Oboe, Strings, and Continuo, RV 450
- BACH Cantata No. 51: "Jauchzet Gott in allen Landen!"
I have never attended a proper concert at Church except for weddings and funerals but my concert companion friend told me about this *chapel* for pipe organ concert he frequents. All gothic Rockefeller Chapel in University of Chicago Campus was built to mimic an old Medieval English architecture. Rockefeller wanted the whole campus to look like the Oxford University.
Very Gothic. Very Halloween.
Unfortunately our seating was too far ( row 33 ) to appreciate what’s going in terms of performance due to excessive echoes even when the house was filled. By the time the sound wave gets to us all I could hear was out of sync individual instrument. Also the size of the band was much smaller than I expected.
So Brandenburg Concerto No.2 sounded as if musicians were doing their own thing. Also the sound was much too soft from where we sat and I could hardly hear Suzuki’s harpshcord. Fiddles and recorder did ok but I did not like the trumpet player as he missed a few keys and totally sounded out of place at times.
Lovely Joanne Lunn’s voice also was uneven ( lower registers disappearing from where we sat and she did not have a long reaching projection to fill the hall ) but I loved her bell like transparent tone just as I have heard on her recent Mozart Requiem LP.
Notables were two Vivaldi pieces with young soloist rocking out. Particularly a recorder and oboe soloists.
The concert closed with Bach Cantata No.51 and an additional encore followed by CD signing. The venue and the whole atmosphere were much more intimate and relaxed. And the whole effect of Baroque music played in a suitable decor added a theatrical visual enhancement.
Post concert, I got to inspect harpsichord Suzuki used.
It’s a replica of a Gräbner made in 2004 by John Phillips in the US. The score had all sorts of notations written in Japanese. 
Suzuki and Lunn relaxing post concert.
Currently they are touring in the US moving to South and then to the East Coast ending in Boston MA on November 8 so if you are near by check out their gig. Notable venues are Library of Congress in DC and Carnegie Hall in NYC.