Classical Music Mayhem!!

Went to Dublin last friday to hear the following:

RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra
Anthony Marwood violin
Ladies of the National Chamber Choir
James MacMillan conductor

Vaughan Williams Fantasia on a theme of Thomas Tallis
Adès Violin Concerto
Holst The Planets

A truly enjoyable night with a nice selection of music.This was my first time hearing Ades violin concerto and while im no fan of hamony- starved contemporary music this was impressive overall.The soloist Marwood was a colossus and brought the house down.

Wed March 15th 7.30pm Glasgow City Halls., Scotland
Robert Spano BBC SSO
The Programme: Britten - Serenade for tenor, horn and strings
Mahler - 5th Symphony

The Players for Britten: Andrew Kennedy - Tenor, David Pyatt - Horn

The concert opened with Brittens' Serenade. This was not something I'd heard before, but after hearing it, it is something I WILL get. The Serenade contains 8 pieces, the first and last being played solo horn on natural harmonics. Pyatt, winner of the 1988 Young Musician of the Year, brings in the Serenade with intelligence and balance. Then the Orchestra starts up and Kennedy joins in with the Pastoral. His singing is clear and he stands quite erect throughout the performance, only wobbling his head occasionally, but he's enjoying it - unfortunately enjoying it for him seems to mean staring straight ahead and only sometimes finding enough in the poetic librettos to wobble. Still, he has a fine voice, his singing is beautiful, and all is well. He ends the Sonnet with its namesake, and his voice finishes it more than satisfactorily. The last piece, an offstage horn, is played beautifully and wistfully by Pyatt to end the Serenade. Plenty of applause, but somewhat belated, Spano stood wondering if anyone knew he had finished and near shrugged his shoulders before the clapping started. My hands were sore.

Next, the main event, Mahlers 5th. The Funeral March begins, and Spano looks like he knows where he's going. Elizabeth Layton, leader of the Orchestra, looks like she loves Mahler in a dreamy way, and I near fall in love with her too in a dreamy way.

The timpani are spot on, and Robert Spano gives it hell in the second movement, making sure the Orchestra keep in synch with his expressions and body movements, fleeing from first violins to double bass to absoloutley superb trumpet by Mark O'keefe, with passion from Spanos feet upward. This is quite in order as Mahler marked the movement to be played stormy, with vehemence.

The Scherzo third movement is a real tickler, Spano gives it the earthy folky feel it deserves, and it lives up to its title scherzo (literally 'Joke'), and the triangle is heard!

The famous Adagio fourth movement comes on with the conductor paying attention to the downbeats, and a magnificent weariness is born here, the World is just too much to take in, and the Orchestra under Spano lets us know that.

Many of the themes come together for the finale, the Adagio being prominent in this performance, and it is here we can hear (where Mahlers learning from Bachs scores) a fine balance of Polophony. There are melodies here not intertwined, but bouncing off each other in a coherent way, meeting and culminating in an expression of optimism and complete joy.

Noteworthy were Mark O'Keefe on trumpet, an absoloutley spellbinding job with no silly vibrato, David Flack (Horns), Simon Johnson and Philip Weldon (great Trombones).

My only problem with the entire performance was the Brass and Woodwind being one or two decibels louder than expected - Spano gave no let up in this and there WAS some drowning going on. But then, that may be because of where I was sitting (in the cheap seats, above right of Orchestra) or the Hall acoustics - this was the only major flaw if one can call it that - it is Mahler, and Mahler liked his horns and trumpets etc to be loud as hell. Overall, it was a superb performance, one I will remember, and Radio 3 rightly have recorded it for broadcast at a later date.

Well done Spano and the BBC SSO.

Nice review M. Acoustics will always be an issue, especially if you are in the cheap seats! The last concert I want to at the Barbican Hall I was in the very cheap seats as far away a from the orchestra as you can get. I could just about hear Beethoven's 9th (Haitink conducting a large orchestra) above my mild tinitus! The again my previous concert to that At St John's, Smith Square I had a very good seat, close to the action, yet the ceiling of this church is so high the music sounded as it it is going up over my head and not forward as on should expect.

going to see Mahler's 3rd by the Adelaide Symphony Orchestra (where i live) in two nights time. should be fun.

I wouldn't normally associate Mahler with 'fun', but I look forward to reading your review!

Lucky you - can be quite an experience. The Adelaide SO are a good band, certainly from what I remember of some excellent David Porcelijn discs in the past (playing Peter Sculthorpe if memory serves).

Hi Folks,

I will be at the next Ottawa Symphony Orchestra concert:

Monday November 17, 2008

Willan
Overture to an Unwritten Comedy

Britten
Four Sea Interludes from Peter Grimes

Vaughan Williams
Job

Next we visit England, focusing on the poetry of the theatre – an Overture to An Unwritten Comedy (from that British transplant to Toronto, Healey Willan); the brilliantly evocative Sea Interludes from Britten’s early masterpiece, the opera Peter Grimes; and the remarkable vision of Vaughan Williams in Job, his masque for dancing (to which we will add the illuminating paintings from that earlier English visionary, William Blake).

This is my second year subscriptions, maybe it's not the top notch orchestra but I like their repertoire.

Marc

The local symphony had a concert on Saturday celebrating NASA's (National Aeronautics and Space Administration for the non-Yanks) 50th anniversary. Three guesses as to what music was played (and two of them don't count).

This non-Yank knew what NASA meant before you were born!

Let me guess--you were an old man when they landed on the moon?

I was 3 years old.

Well shoot, you're not that old (either that or you think I'm a lot younger than I am).

When were you born?

1977--I'm 31 years old (soon to be 32). By math you're 11 years older than me.

And so as I had estimated my original statement (re NASA) was correct.