What was the last concert you went in 2016?

Cheikh Lo at Under the Bridge (yes Chelsea Football ground!). Excellent - fun and musical.

Cdb posted:

Cheikh Lo at Under the Bridge (yes Chelsea Football ground!). Excellent - fun and musical.

I was there too! I was a bit alarmed at the first number, which was way too "Smooth FM" for my tastes, fortunately things hotted up after that.

Loved the percussionist and his smart use of the elbow, and I thought the sax player was superb.

Milk Carton Kids - Mitchell Theatre, Glasgow (Celtic Connections, 30th Jan)

Maybe not to everyone's taste, but if you are a fan of exquisite harmonies (think Everlys or Gilian Welsh/David Rawlings) and great guitar playing, then you should check out this duo.

Their performance last night was fantastic. Kenneth Pattengale is an exceptional guitarist - just have a listen to the track "Heaven" from their "The Ash and Clay" album. Of their genre/type, it doesn't get any better.

The big surprise for me was that their stage banter (a very dry humour) & presence was way better than I had expected. Well worth the admission, and I will certainly look out for them the next time they are in the area.   

The bonus was a Canadian support act that I had expected would just be a novelty act. James Hill on Ukulele and vocals, with his wife Anne Janelle on Cello and vocals. Now I have never been a ukulele fan, but Hill's playing (a bit more akin to bluegrass mandolin) was stunning and their vocal harmonies pretty tight. Really enjoyable and a great support act for the MCKs.

Temple Of Rock 

Manchester Academy - Thursday 28^th

 Another superb show, although with the rhythm section of the Scorpions you’d expect nothing less. Played tracks from the excellent latest album Spirit on a Mission, Scorpions, UFO and MSG. Best £25 I’ve ever spent.

Kevin-W posted:

Cdb posted:

Cheikh Lo at Under the Bridge (yes Chelsea Football ground!). Excellent - fun and musical.

I was there too! I was a bit alarmed at the first number, which was way too "Smooth FM" for my tastes, fortunately things hotted up after that.

Loved the percussionist and his smart use of the elbow, and I thought the sax player was superb.

I did think they took a little while to get in their groove - Cheikh Lo on the percussion seemed to prompt the other players. I hadn't realised before that he was originally a drummer. Agree about the sax player! 

Did they come back for an encore? We left after they had introduced the band and done their bows.

Clive

Cdb posted:

Kevin-W posted:

Cdb posted:

Cheikh Lo at Under the Bridge (yes Chelsea Football ground!). Excellent - fun and musical.

I was there too! I was a bit alarmed at the first number, which was way too "Smooth FM" for my tastes, fortunately things hotted up after that.

Loved the percussionist and his smart use of the elbow, and I thought the sax player was superb.

I did think they took a little while to get in their groove - Cheikh Lo on the percussion seemed to prompt the other players. I hadn't realised before that he was originally a drummer. Agree about the sax player! 

Did they come back for an encore? We left after they had introduced the band and done their bows.

Clive

 

Yes Clive they did - and excellent it was too.

Last night we went to hear Vitaly Pisarenko play Rachmaninov's Piano Concerto No.3. at the RCM in London. He was supported by the RCM Philharmonic conducted by Martin Andre.

It's a rare treat indeed to hear such a talented pianist play one of the most challenging pieces ever composed, and Pisarenko did not disappoint.  As usual, we were seated within spitting distance of the piano and so you not only experienced up close the wonderful music making but also the sheer physical and emotional effort involved.  Quite an experience, and one that will not be quickly forgotten.

As a bonus the evening opened with a new 10 minute orchestral piece called Velvet Spires composed by a young Dani Howard.  It aimed to be a musical interpretation of the view from a window in the Prague Conservatory.  Really rather lovely...

Symphony Hall Birmingham last night for quite a varied programme;

Baiba Skride violin & Olari Elts conducting.

The Shostakovich in particular was quite amazing, the short fast scherzo taken at a tremendous lick.

Also yesterday the new musical director of the CBSO was announced, it is to be Mirga Gražinytė-Tyla who I saw doing a Sibelius programme a few weeks ago.

Morton,

Hope Mirga will work out for CBSO. Interesting choice there. I am curious to know how she does compared to Nelsons.

btw, Skride will be making a CSO debut next season at the Orchestra Hall! I am so psyched to get to hear her live! 

Vieux Farka Touré at the Turner Sims, Southampton. What a guitar sound, sensual, passionate, hard rocking and danceable too. In fact he had us dancing in the aisles, one of those sights you thought you'd never see at the Turner Sims  :-)

Chris

kuma posted:

Morton,

Hope Mirga will work out for CBSO. Interesting choice there. I am curious to know how she does compared to Nelsons.

btw, Skride will be making a CSO debut next season at the Orchestra Hall! I am so psyched to get to hear her live! 

Well I think you will be pleased with Skride; she had a great ovation at Birmingham & was eventually persuaded to give a short encore.

There was an interview with Mirga in yesterdays Times, she plans to do a bit more smaller orchestra stuff , Mozart, Haydn, & also what was described as the ‘national’ composer of Lithuania, Mikalojus Ciurlionis, not someone I know too much about!

Thursday night, in the Sala Verdi of Conservatorio di Milano:

the student Orchestra played Milhaud (Scaramouche), Donatoni (Fire, for four women's voices and orchestra), a work by a student an Stravinskij's Oiseau de feu. Audience full of young people, a nice thing.

Paul Jones and Dave Kelly, last Sunday evening, Inverness Eden Court, One Touch Theatre.  An excellent two hours of (mostly) acoustic blues in a cracking little venue.

Scritti Politti at The Roundhouse last night.

Really good. Green Gartside's voice remains as youthful and honey smooth as ever. Not enough singers cite Nietzsche, Derrida and Duchamp between songs, and none with Green's cheeky brio.

Morton posted:

kuma posted:

Hope Mirga will work out for CBSO. Interesting choice there. I am curious to know how she does compared to Nelsons.

btw, Skride will be making a CSO debut next season at the Orchestra Hall! I am so psyched to get to hear her live! 

Well I think you will be pleased with Skride; she had a great ovation at Birmingham & was eventually persuaded to give a short encore.

There was an interview with Mirga in yesterdays Times, she plans to do a bit more smaller orchestra stuff , Mozart, Haydn, & also what was described as the ‘national’ composer of Lithuania, Mikalojus Ciurlionis, not someone I know too much about!

Thanks for your reply Morton.

It's smart for her not to play the same repertoires Nelsons did to avoid a direct comparison.

I just got back to my hotel after seeing the New York Philharmonic play Mahler's 6th Symphony at the Lincoln Center (sic).

Wow! A wonderful interpretation by Semyon Bychkov. At least 120 musicians on stage, including FOUR harps, and a lot of percussion, I've never heard an acoustic ensemble quite so mindblowingly loud.

I had a front row seat, which was actually cheap ($50) because of 'restricted view', but I was literally at the feet of the principal violinist, and although I could not see the players at the back (until their richly deserved 10 minute standing ovation), I can't believe there was a better view than the one I had. Terrific evening.

The Who at Wembley Arena. Awesome. They don't make them like that anymore.

I was yesterday at the concert of Behzod Abduraimov, a young piano player as part of my pianissimo series. The venue was this time the older Prinz Regententheater, a nice venue with atmosphere as you can see in the below picture...

While the sound is not as good as in the other venue. I was close enough to have a great sound. 

He started with the four Chopin Ballades. And while one can definitely hear how technically accomplished he is, I found the artistic value weaker. I was missing the story in the notes. And only in the 4th ballade he was playing what I would like to hear with these pieces. I had a short check with Pollini this morning to understand what I was missing (while Pollini is not the best Chopin player as well).

After the break he played Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exibition. And this was a completely different experience. It was a brilliant performance with only small flaw in the middle. Also the encore which where quiet and introspective where very good.

So clearly an artist with great potential which most probably needs some more time to mature.

Bert Schurink posted:

I had a short check with Pollini this morning to understand what I was missing (while Pollini is not the best Chopin player as well).

kuma posted:

Bert Schurink posted:

I had a short check with Pollini this morning to understand what I was missing (while Pollini is not the best Chopin player as well).

Perhaps I should correct - I don't like him so much on Chopin as others....

I've only heard one Pollini/Chopin recording, scherzos I think. I remember it being pretty brutish. 

I like my Chopin with lots of canons buried in flowers.

Israel Nash at The Garage. Sadly the sound was poor. Distorted in the bass/bass drum area. Otherwise very good.

Joe Jackson at the London Palladium on Saturday night - awesome.  To come Jeff Lynne's ELO, Seal, Elton John, Billy Joel and 10CC.