What was the last concert you went in 2015?

Fatoumata Diawara & Roberto Fonseca, Barbican in London, Sat 30th May.

As it was Saturday night, me and MrsH decided to make a weekend of it and stay over as it would have been a bit of a trek for a night.

First of all, the venue. Great place, neither of us had been there before.

The food in the Food Hall was really good value for London and extremely tasty.

After a couple of drinks we then settled in to the Concert Hall for the gig.

Great support, Yael Naim (no, I didn't write that wrongly!), a French Israeli vocalist/pianist, really got the audience ready for the main act.

The main act, well, what can I say, it was spellbinding.

Mix between African, Cuban, Jazz, superb energy and amazing vocals, even if I didn't understand what was being sung about!

Luckily Fatou or Roberto gave a quick insight to a lot of the songs before kicking them off.

The enjoyment and general happiness of the main two and their excellent 4 piece backing band really rubs off on the audience, I was smiling from start to finish.

Finishing with 'Bibisa'', and using it as a great singalong, dance along and outtro to the band, had everyone up and boogie-ing.

Great night, thoroughly recommended if you like the Mali/Cuban sound.

Hey I went to a gig!

Lord Huron, Brudenell Social Club, Leeds.

Good enough it was too, although I think they played one song from the first album several times, and one song from the recent album several times. They are two good songs though!

The Brudenell is always fun. Anyone else been?

Bruce

Just back from a short break in Vienna, for which, the highlight for me was a performance of Siegfried at the Vienna State Opera conducted by Simon Rattle.

Stephen Gould is probably the best Siegfried I have heard & Tomasz Konieczny was a superb dark sounding Wotan.

For once the production did not try to be too clever & had some nice touches such as Wotan digging Erda out of the ground with a shovel at the start of act 3.

Simon Rattle was careful with the power of the orchestra so as not to overwhelm the singers but in passages such as the Act 3 overture or Siegfried’s journey up the mountain to Brunnhilde they made a glorious sound.

Photo is up to my usual standard!

Wow. nice!

Yes it was! I’m only sorry that we could not stay a little longer to see Gotterdammerung which is on Sunday.

There is a lot for music fans in Vienna such as the Mozart Museum which is in the residence he occupied from 1784 to 1787.

Morton,

I am envious.

Is it easy to get a good seat without being a subscriber?

What an amazing instrument, very interesting indeed!

Thanks for sharing kuma.

Tinariwen last night in a tiny field outside Deal in Kent. Less than 500 people in all at the concert. Once they found their groove through the cold wind it was magical!

Wow, I would have loved to have been there...shame it was a cold wind.

Richard

Belle and Sebastian - Westminster Central Hall. Don't even start me on the bar arrangements (it's a Methodist place of worship), but the music was, well incredibly happy. The Boy With The Arab Strap was just fantastic.

Before that, Public Service Broadcasting (supported by Smoke Fairies) at The Roundhouse. Really great, especially the film before they came on about people who film the whole show with their mobiles - hilarious.

Next up, PiL in October. Can't wait.

Hi Kuma, it all depends on what you want to go & see.

It was only after we booked the holiday, just after Christmas, that I wondered what was on at the Opera during the four days we were there; we had a choice between Salome and Siegfried.

Tickets to non-subscribers are available from 2 months before the performance. As that date approached I could see that the previous Ring Cycle had very limited availability to non-subscribers, Die Walkure for instance was completely sold out. Salome, however had lots of seats left for its performances.

Being a bit of a Wagner nut, for me there was no contest, so I got up at 6:00 in the morning on the first day tickets became available only to find I had to wait till 7:00 which is 8:00am Vienna time when there were about half a dozen stalls seats left. I managed to get a couple in row 13, so quite happy.

As you can see from this link, there are no seats for Gotterdammerung.

https://www.culturall.com/tick...&type=month_menu

Had we stayed a few more days I would have tried for standing tickets (there is a nice standing area at the back of the stalls) or returns of which there was at least one for Siegfried.

Wagner can get a bit of a bad press on this forum with some particularly inane comments but in the real world he remains extremely popular. 

A particularly fine evening at the Wormsley estate with Garsington Opera listening to the opening performance of Intermezzo by Richard Strauss. Not a particularly well known or performed opera, but Garsington managed to extract an excellent evenings entertainment. A few glasses of Bolly on the lawn before and a lovely picnic on the terrace in the interval made for a fantastic start to the summer season.  Tickets are booked for Cosi fan tutte in a few weeks time.

Dedication indeed.

I suppose no pain no gain but standing through the entire Wagner opera might be challenging for most. 

I have read that getting The Bayreuth tickets is like a lottery.

My perception ( from notice looking in ) that Wagner opera does not have the same universal appeal of Mozart opera. I haven't still sat through the entire Wagner opera except the Tristan und Isolde.

Standing would definitely not be my first choice & I’m pretty sure my wife would not be too happy either, but as you can see from this photo, at least there are some rails to lean on.

The standing area looked full for Siegfried, so it can be done.

I would agree that Mozart is more popular than Wagner, I only know 2 other people who are as hooked as I am on the Bayreuth magician, yet tickets are always hard to get!

Many of the recent productions at Bayreuth are not to my taste, the current Ring looks truly awful, but I would still like to go, probably to Parsifal, if possible. A friend & I tried to get tickets without success back in the 1970’s; now that I have retired I may give it another try.

Are they still doing that Euro-trash production?

I would be happy just to stand inside the building filled with such rich history.

Parsifal is not on this year but as far as I know this is still the current version.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bTaQu7ivsRM

Like you I would be happy just to have a guided tour. In fact we had decided to go to Nuremberg in the spring of 2013 only to find out, just in time, that the Wagner Museum at Villa Wahnfried was closed for refurbishment & this in the bi-centenary year! It is still closed.

Later in the year we went to Lucerne & so were able to visit Tribschen where Wagner lived from 1866 to 1872 when he left for Bayreuth. This museum is well worth a visit. 

Fleetwood Mac, Birmingham Genting Arena (NEC).

One of the best concerts I have been to in many years. Sound was very good for such a barn like arena. Stevie Nicks has still got it, amazing voice. Christine McVie is also back with the band, very good as well.

I will be in the MEN arena un Manchester on Friday to watch them again, really looking forward to seeing the full line up 

Marc-André Hamelin at the McGill University Pollack room, Thursday night.

Haydn : Piano Sonata Hob. XVI : 41

Field : Andante inédit for piano in E flat major, H. 64

Villa-Lobos : Rudepoema

Debussy : Images, Livre I.

Liszt : Venezia e Napoli

Last time he came to Montréal, I had tickets but spent the evening recovering from open heart surgery instead! This time I got to hear - and see - him play live. Impressive. His technical abilities were as usual extraordinary, but he also played some pieces with a level of emotion that he doesn't always display.

It would have been a great concert but for a last-minute change to the program: Marc-André Hamelin decided to play Villa-Lobos' Rudepoema (a 20-minute aggressive outburst thet deserves its name - a Rude Poem, apparently composed as a portrait of Arthur Rubinstein) instead of Schubert's D.960 that had been initially programmed. Not what one would call an upgrade. Apparently Hamelin will play the D.960 here in Montreal this fall and he didn't want to play the same piece twice. Huge disappointment nonetheless.

Claude

ClaudeP,

It's an interesting piece and how did the audience react to it?

I kind of liking this. A bit Stravinsky like wih a huge A bomb at the end.

Here, Rubinstein playing it and I actually prefer this version. 

Thanks for making me aware of this tune.

I saw Ride last week at Terminal 5 in New York. Great to finally see them live, but I thought the sound was poor. Of course, it didn't help matters one bit that I went to the Naim NYC event just before the show! The Naim for Bentley system is incredible -- easily the best in-car audio I've ever heard.

I Was at Longborough for Tristan and Isolde last night. Longborough is a 600 seat opera house in the Cotswolds just north of Stow on the Wold with room for a 90 piece orchestra in a deep pit mostly under the stage. http://www.lfo.org.uk/ Last night was a fine start to this years festival.

Just come back from the listening to Verdi's Requiem at King's College in Cambridge in the Ante Chapel ... Absolutely out of this world.. The acoustics and atmosphere have got to be one of the best..and the performances were superb..

Simon

Nice!

Small and cozy. The best type of venue.

My wife & I are going on Tuesday, really looking forward to it.

We have just come back from Pelléas et Mélisande, Welsh National Opera, at Birmingham Hippodrome, a fine performance.

The programme said that the previous WNO production of Pelléas et Mélisande was conducted by Pierre Boulez! I don't know how I missed that.