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.
Morton,
Do report back how she does. Female conductors are still scarce today.
Beatrice Rana playing Op.54 sounds interesting, too.
Allyson McHardy mezzo & Lydia Teuscher soprano
Handel's Messiah
Bernard Labadie : Conductor
Lydia Teuscher soprano
Allyson McHardy mezzo-soprano
Jeremy Ovenden tenor
Kyle Ketelsen bass-baritone
I enjoyed my first Messiah uncut concert.
Labadie's direction was rhythmic and pacy and very fresh, and I love the Tenor ( Jeremy Overden ) who had the best control and reach. Soprano lacked the transparency a bit and frequency transition was not smooth. Mezzo had a nice warm quality in the midband but lost a note definition in tough spots.
The strings had a very nice warm glow which is unusual for generally cool balanced CSO strings at the Orchestra Hall which added to the welcoming inviting feel. I don't think this was one of those large flashy in your face extravaganza. Rather simpler and honest which I much prefer than commercialised version. It was done tastefully.
Familiar 'Hallelujah' chorus was nice but quieter tunes that followed had much more impact on me.
In spite I have heard a better singing off records, the sheer scale and the power of human voice had a tremendous emotional appeal. I see why this is popular as the melody lines are so easy to remember.
Time I caught up!
5th November, at the Lexington near King's Cross, the second UK gig by teenaged Catalan rockers Mourn (above), who had just finished recording their second album. A lot of the new material shows a distinctly Beefheartian bent. Only their second UK gig, fewer than 100 there (the audience mostly consisted of friends, curious tourists and Lexington regulars.
Great show though.
17th November at The Barbican in London, a double-header with Manu Katché and Ibrahim Maalouf.
The hugely charismatic Lebanese trumpeter was on imperious form, backed by a brilliant band (Frank Woest - pian; Scott Colley - double bass; Clarence Penn - drums; Rick Margitza - saxophone). His set was built around a tribute to the great Egyptian singer Oum Kahltoum and it was 90 minutes of sheer brilliance.
Review here if anyone's interested.
Katché's set was, by contrast, jazz-rock by numbers, and pretty tedious to boot. The players, while all undoubtedly good, never gelled. Unlike Maalouf, it wasn't much fun.
The Magic Band (yes, Beefheart's old mob). Went along to Under The Bridge (a pretty decent venue, even if it is too close to Chelski's ground for comfort) after being persuaded by a friend.
Line up was:
John “Drumbo” French – Vocals, Harmonica, Saxophone, Drums
Mark “Rockette Morton” Boston – Bass Guitar
Eric Klerks – Guitar
Andrew Niven – Drums
Max Kutner – Guitar
I have to say, they were absolutely blistering, particularly Kutner on guitar.
On to 25th November. At the wonderful Café oto in dalston, East London, enigmatic guitarist/singer/songwriter Mdou Moctar, originally from Niger, played the first night of a two-night residency. He was brilliant - no wonder he is known as the Hendrix of West Africa!
Even better were the support, the fabulous Malian band Imarhan, a kind of edgier younger brother to Tinawiren.
29th October, U2 at the 02 (a freebie, thank gawd I didn't pay for it as I like neither band nor venue).
This was the first time I'd seen the band since 1987, which demonstrates both my age and U2's longevity. They're a funny band. Leaving aside Bono's utter knobishness, I cannot for the life of me understand why they are so huge. Their sound is weedy (even their most powerful songs, like "Bullet The Blue Sky", wouldn't stand comparison to, say, Led Zep), the rhythm section doesn't really swing, and their latterday material lacks even that fist-in-the-air anthemic quality of their early material. It's all bluster, passion without anger.
Still, the staging was extremely impressive, and it was good to have a very special special guest in the great Patti Smith.
Afternoon concert at Symphony Hall Birmingham;
Debussy: Prélude à l’après-midi d’un faune
Schumann: Piano Concerto
Sibelius: Lemminkäinen Suite
Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla – conductor
Beatrice Rana – piano
I had not seen Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla before; she was almost dancing on the podium, she certainly conveyed her enthusiasm to the orchestra.
Beatrice Rana was excellent and after prolonged applause played a short solo encore, but as seems normal, did not say what it was, probably more Schumann, but I did not recognise it.
What was slightly disappointing to notice was that even though I am now 60 years old, I would say that that majority of the audience was around my age or older.
Classical music really has to try and attract a younger audience, hopefully without in anyway dumbing down.
Morton,
Sounds like it was a good show. Looks like a good program, too.
How did she do on Sibelius piece?
In the US, there is some effort to generate some interest in classical music. For Chicago, I think the attendees are getting a slightly younger than say 10-15 years ago where I felt like I was at a funeral home every time I attended a concert. But recently I see more young folks and students attending which gives me hope.
But on balance, Carnegie gets younger audience than the Orchestra Hall for sure.
Getting an exciting younger conductor might help ( like BSO snatched your Andris Nelsons for instance )
Programming for any symphony management to attract everyone is certainly challenging, I reckon.
So who's the music director for CBSO now?
P.S. I just looked at the schedule of CBSO. Lovely Nicola Benedetti is playing Szymanowski. Are you going? 
Morton posted:
We saw Nicola Benedetti play Szymanowski about a year ago, so this year it is the turn of the equally lovely Baiba Skride who is to play the Szymanowski first Violin concerto on 4th Feb. in a concert which also includes the Shostakovich Symphony No. 10, a particular favourite of mine.
There is still no permanent replacement for Andris Nelsons, so we do see a lot of new guest conductors, which is quite nice, and Edward Gardner remains as the Principal Guest Conductor.
Biba Skride:
Here's the name I don' hear often but I saw her YouTube video? and loved the way she plays.
Rotating guest conductors can be fun. They must be *auditioning* by trying out different ones.
Do you have your wish list for the next music director?