What was the last concert you went in 2016?

On his 92nd birthday Sir Neville Marriner conducting ASMIF at Cadogan Hall.  Mozart and Bizet. Feeling hugely privileged to have heard him live and seen how a true maestro brings out the best from musicians.  Can't say enough about the venue either. Beautifully converted and refurbished to combine the acoustic and the aesthetic.

A very decent performance of La Boheme by the Swansea Operatic Society at the Wolsey theatre, Ipswich.

 A relatively quiet year for gigs so far, but managed a few.  Joe Jackson and Go Go Penguin at The Sage, with King Blues at The Academy in February.  Clint Mansell at the Sage in March.  The Fall at the Academy a couple of days ago and Shonen Knife coming up next week at the Sage.    The highlight to date was definitely Go Go Penguin, but also well impressed by Clint Mansell who I knew nothing about and only saw as a result of a friend giving me the tickets.  Looking forward to WOMAD again in July.

Regards

Nic

Not so much a concert really, but the music to last night's Royal Ballet performance of The Winter's Tale played by the ROHO was a real surprise and highlight of the evening.  This is some of the most enjoyable ballet music I've heard and the standard hardly flagged throughout the 3 hours so top marks to composer Joby Talbot.  

Here's a little video of Joby Talbot explaining some of the background to his composition;

Had a fabulous night of live music last night; Martha Tilston at Findhorn.  There were only around 100 folk there which made for a very intimate gig and Martha was very generous with her time at the interval, happy to chat and sign CDs; and what a voice - a thing of true beauty!

And the band...

And off to Inverness to see Main Street Blues tonight.

Cheers,

Ian

Amazing set from Fat Dave at the Albert Hall last night - nearly three hours of sonic bliss. He bafflingly remains wedded to some poor material ("Giri in the Yellow Dress", "Coming Back to Life") but he remains by some margin the world's greatest guitar player and is still a superb singer.

Sometimes spine-tinglingly lyrical, sometimes apocalyptically powerful (it beggars belief that a 70 year old can make a guitar sound like a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, as he did on "Sorrow")... he even incorporated, by way of tribute, Prince's "Purple Rain" into his own solo on "Comfortably Numb".

We had superb seats, which cost £110 a pop but I have to say it was worth every single penny.

Best I have ever seen him outside of the Floyd. Top marks, Mr Gilmour!

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Kevin-W posted:

Amazing set from Fat Dave at the Albert Hall last night - nearly three hours of sonic bliss. He bafflingly remains wedded to some poor material ("Giri in the Yellow Dress", "Coming Back to Life") but he remains by some margin the world's greatest guitar player and is still a superb singer.

Sometimes spine-tinglingly lyrical, sometimes apocalyptically powerful (it beggars belief that a 70 year old can make a guitar sound like a 9.0 magnitude earthquake, as he did on "Sorrow")... he even incorporated, by way of tribute, Prince's "Purple Rain" into his own solo on "Comfortably Numb".

We had superb seats, which cost £110 a pop but I have to say it was worth every single penny.

Best I have ever seen him outside of the Floyd. Top marks, Mr Gilmour!

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Sounds like a wonderful evening, albeit pricey, Kevin.  I'm envious. 

Circa £35 an hour seems excellent value to me!

G

GraemeH posted:

Circa £35 an hour seems excellent value to me!

G

When you put it like that, Graeme, I agree. Cheaper than most Premier League football matches in fact. 

Seth Lakeman (solo) at the The Ropetackle Centre , Shoreham-By-Sea.

An excellent set mostly "old" stuff a couple of tracks from a forth coming album, which he and the band will tour later in the year.

Seth plays amplified violin , 4 and 6 string guitars and Bouzouki and stomp board. Something I don't think I've heard before was an "electronic" sort of digeridoo, set a note and it played away in the back ground , quite atmospheric.

MDS posted:

Sounds like a wonderful evening, albeit pricey, Kevin.  I'm envious. 

It was Mike. I'm often critical of the Big G for playing it safe and for not varying his setlists very much, but lst night he played (and sang) so exceptionally well I was happy to enjoy some perhaps overly-familiar material. To be fair, he added a couple of numbers ("WDYWFM?" and "CBTL") that weren't played at the RAH gigs last year.

I am really looking forward to the concert of Lang Lang I will see this evening in Munich. The program is as follows, I will of course try to make some photos and give an impression...

Bach: Italienisches Konzert F-Dur BWV 971
Tschaikowsky: „Die Jahreszeiten“ – Zwölf Charakterstücke op. 37b
Chopin: Vier Scherzi: Nr. 1 h-moll op. 20, Nr. 2 b-moll op. 31, Nr. 3 cis-moll op. 39 und Nr. 4 E-Dur op. 54

So the concert experience with Lang Lang was a bit of a challenge. While I left Nuremberg 3,5 hours before the concert, traffic around Munich was so crazy that I unfortunately missed the part of the concert before the break with the Seasons from T and Bach. I though was very happy to at least see the Chopin part. The Scherzi was a a part with great highlights but also somethings to be desired. In the startup of the 1st Scherzi, he played all the notes and of course with his technique in a fabulous way, however I missed a bit the story telling. In the slower piece and especially also the pianissimo pieces he was brilliant and unsurpassed. The other Scherzi where better balanced with all brilliance in the more sensitive parts.

so all in all impressive but not completely jaw dropping as some concerts I saw from him before....

Crawley The Hawth Theatre, 27th April.

Illegal Eagles, very good and extremely enjoyable evening, good sound, all that one would expect, including a selection of the various solo releases.

Muti Conducts Verdi's Falstaff

Ambrogio Maestri baritone (Sir John Falstaff)

Eleonora Buratto soprano (Alice Ford)

Luca Salsi baritone (Ford)

Rosa Feola soprano (Nannetta)

Saimir Pirgu tenor (Fenton)

Daniela Barcellona mezzo-soprano (Mistress Quickly)

Laura Polverelli mezzo-soprano (Meg Page)

Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani tenor (Bardolfo)

Luca Dall'Amico bass (Pistola)

Saverio Fiore tenor (Dr. Caius)

Muti is just excellent everytime he conducts operatic program. I purchased tickets last year after I got to listen to a young Italian soprano Rosa Feola in Mozart Requiem program. I was impressed with her sweet holographic bell like singing voice.  She certainly did not disappoint yesterday playing Nannetta. ( Rosa in a far right in a white gown ) I was only a few feet away from her and totally mesmerized by her singing. Whilst the rest of soprano exhibited a slight upper midrange glare, Rosa's voice was effortless and smooth all the way to the top key.

It was a long program but Muti kept a crisp fresh pacing with exceptional clarity ( even a bit Toscanini-esque! )  I was not bored at all and rather surprised how well the singers and orchestra were in tune at all time particularly the last act with a large chorus in the background.

I much enjoyed this tight leashed performance with a sparkling wit than his usual more legato overly romantic style he's been doing with the CSO. ( very different from his Philly days )

Falstaff is a charming opera which noone dies at the end and contains many witty lyrics. The lead tenor Maestri was just a perfect fit for the role.

Muti Conducts Verdi's Falstaff X

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

7:30pm

Tuesday, April 26, 2016

Verdi

PROGRAM

Verdi Falstaff

PERFORMERS

 

Chicago Symphony Orchestra

 

Riccardo Muti

 conductor

Ambrogio Maestri

 baritone (Sir John Falstaff)

Eleonora Buratto

 soprano (Alice Ford)

Luca Salsi

 baritone (Ford)

Rosa Feola

 soprano (Nannetta)

Saimir Pirgu

 tenor (Fenton)

Daniela Barcellona

 mezzo-soprano (Mistress Quickly)

Laura Polverelli

 mezzo-soprano (Meg Page)

Anicio Zorzi Giustiniani

 tenor (Bardolfo)

Luca Dall'Amico

 bass (Pistola)

Saverio Fiore

 tenor (Dr. Caius)

- See more at: http://cso.org/calendar/index....sthash.ARXpcpTB.dpuf

Tania Chen/Steve Beresford/John Leidecker/Stewart Lee performing John Cage at Cafe Oto, London, Monday 25.4.16

Blimey, an unexpectedly challenging evening, with Leidecker seemingly not in control of his electronics and wincing every time something loud occurred, Chen carefully doing the right things on the piano but not caring how much noise she made with her sheet music and putting down sticks etc, and in Indeterminacy, the sound guy letting Lee's mic feedback and be drowned out by every loud percussive moment. Frustrating.

Were any other members there and have any thoughts?

Haitink/CSO + Till Fellner

Program
Mozart Piano Concerto No. 22 in E-flat Major, K. 482

Strauss An Alpine Symphony Op. 64

The concert started out with am Austrian pianist Till Fellner who I am not at all familiar with. Clear and even handed style but perhaps a bit too well mannered for my taste missing Mozart's playful attitude. My favourite Rondo was played beautifully polished with an exciting Hummel's cadenza. I felt, however, the slow movement was lacking tension and transparency.

Incidentally, the first CSO performance of the No.22 was in 1924 with Wanda Landowska and Frederick Stock.

Haitink who just turned 87, surprisingly, conducted standing all the way though. ( last year a stool was provided for him ) A huge orchestra for this epic tone poem the entire stage was filled to the brim with extra musicians, Thunderstorm and wind machines, large percussion section plus an organ and even there was an off-stage brass group consisting of an additional twelve horns, two trumpets, and two trombones. Also like the Mahler's 7th, cowbells, too.

Overall it was a spectacular showing particularly a big nod to the CSO brass for providing brilliant yet full boddied brass section providing much of shapes and textures for the story telling.  String section was a bit on steely and bright side but they were off set by warmer tone fleet of cellos. Haitink kept a brisk tempo with a gentle touch rather than iron fist command. There was not the same level of insights as his last year's Mahler, however. 

It's a different type of program, I know but focus was all on large dynamics and missing a bit of micro details which adds an intimacy.

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I have to lower the tone from the High-Brow gigs posted lately....!

April 29 - Iron Maiden Christchurch NZ. - Spinal Tap Live. Enough said.

April 30 - Black Sabbath Dunedin NZ - Absolute legends. What a band. What a show.

Don't fret, any type music is good music, it's just the snobs seem to think only classical is proper music.

It's good to rock out.

BigH47 posted:

Don't fret, any type music is good music, it's just the snobs seem to think only classical is proper music.

It's good to rock out.

Jeez, BigH47, this is mighty charitable of you to hold back and just keep us all guessing about who the local bullies are.   Nothing short of absurd and grossly overgeneralized stereotypical rhetoric nonetheless.

I have re-read the last page and see nothing that would ever provoke such a response.  Seems you may have some unresolved issues going on? 

Maybe you are just having a bad day?  (I am told that biting the head off a bat will help cheer you up?)

Nerina Pallot, Gorilla, Manchester.  Probably the most enjoyable concert I've ever been too, excellent, intimate venue and a great support act and Nerina and her band were superb through-out.  She's a very talented and personable lady and well worth seeing. 

dayjay posted:

Nerina Pallot, Gorilla, Manchester.  Probably the most enjoyable concert I've ever been too, excellent, intimate venue and a great support act and Nerina and her band were superb through-out.  She's a very talented and personable lady and well worth seeing. 

I agree, she's great fun and is always superb live.  Looking forward to seeing her again when she heads north.

BigH47 posted:

Don't fret, any type music is good music, it's just the snobs seem to think only classical is proper music.

It's good to rock out.

Yeah. I hate those pompous types, too. I see them often on other internet music boards filled with bunch of humourless stiffs!

I did find out that classical music can be groovy and funky as disco. ( just haveta find the right performer! )

Here's a *rockin'* piece.

It's pity that we no longer have someone like Bernstein to make classical music bit more accessible for the rest of us.

He talks about *high-brow* classical music at around 3 min. in. and goes on to discuss the differences in interpretations.

I always figured that if Mozart was born 200 years later he'd have been a rock star.