Classical Music Mayhem!!

I'd been wondering what had happened to Paul Daniels since he gave up his TV magic show. No wonder he made you laugh...

Oops!

That's what comes from posting late at night, it was of course Paul Daniel...

I've gone and fixed the original post.

So did you get around to seeing this Rod?

I went to check out what seating was available but all the reasonably priced seats were gone, in fact there weren't many seats left at all, which was not surprising really - this being a Gardiner event and so close to the day itself. Too bad, though Gardiner is not what I'd call an ideal Handelian.

Tonight I went to another WASO concert. The program was:

1. Mark-Anthony Turnage: Ceres

One of the asteroids Simon Rattle commissioned to accompany The Planets. While well played it was not something I liked, a little too dissonant for my taste.

2. Ludwig Van Beethoven: Symphony Nº6 "Pastoral"

Again very well played, quite enjoyable and from what I could see Paul Daniel was conducting not only without a baton but without a score. Again he was quite energetic and seemed in parts to be dancing.

3. Johannes Brahms: Piano Concerto Nº2

Not something I had listened to before but I liked it.

Saw the WASO's final concert hall appearance for the year. It consisted of the Emperor Waltz (Johann Strauss II), Powder Her Face: Overture, Waltz & Finale[i] (Thomas Ades), [i]La Valse(Maurice Ravel) followed by Gershwins Rhapsody in Blue & Bernsteins Symphonic Dances from West Side Story.

The music was well played and the Rhapsody got the toes tapping. I'm not so sure about the Thomas Ades though, conductor Paul Daniel recommended we imagine ourselves in a sleazy nightclub circa 1957 after having a few too many Vodka martinis. After listening to it I wish I had!

The evening finished on a rousing note with an encore of the 'Mambo' from the Symphonic Dances with the audience encouraged to join in, provided they could snap their fingers with an American accent

Brahms only wrote 2, and the second one is the better of them. The first was not received very well and was regarded as being too radical at the time, though modern audiences are a bit more jaded.

Saturday I visited the Nashville Symphony. I finally was able to hear Stravinsky's Symphony of Psalms live. I'm glad I did; the orchestration is unique - no violins or violas, two pianos, five trumpets (or maybe two of them were cornets), and the cellos and double basses are in the front rows. It was followed with Argento's setting of Egar Allen Poe's Annabelle Lee, with the verses sung by an off-stage tenor, which again was unique. It concluded with Rachmaninov's four-movement setting of Poe's The Bells.

Once more I appreciated the acoustics of the symphony hall. In the Bells, in one passage it goes from a tenor solo to a full-force choral interjection, and up in the balcony, I could feel the force of it.

Overall, it was a great night. It ended with my friend and I backstage talking with a violinist about, of all things, prog rock.

For the last few years the West Australian Symphony Orchestra has held a free concert on The Esplanade (A park between the City of Perth & the Swan River) to close off the concert season.

Last night's concert had a distinctly Russian cast and comprised:

*.Glinka:Ruslan & Ludmilla Overture
*.Tchaikovsky:Excerpts from the Swan Lake Suite
*.Mussorgsky (Arr Rimsky-Korsakov):Night on a Bare Mountain
*.Rachmaninoff:Vocalise (for Cello)
*.Tchaikovsky:The finale from Symphony Nº.4
*.Shostakovitch:Tahiti Trot
*.Tchaikovsky:Tatiana's Letter Scene from Eugene Onegin
*.Stravinsky:The Infernal Dance from the Firebird Suite
*.Shostakovitch:The Romance from the Gadfly Suite
*.Tchaikovsky:Excerpt from the 1812 Overture (Cannons courtesy of the 7 Field Battery, Australian Army Reserve. Bells courtesy of the bells of the Perth Bell Tower, formerly of St. Martins London).

The performance was truly excellent, let down by two things. First there was some sort of event going on across the road, providing an endless supply of "doof-doof" music as backing. Secondly the conductor, Guy Noble, spoilt Night on a Bare Mountain for me with political jokes before and after the piece.

Perhaps the cannons should have been pointed in the direction of the doof-doof music (unless is was AC/DC of course)? If by accident a few live rounds mysteriously found their way into the pile of blank shells I'm sure the judge would have been sympathetic...

They were, sadly though all they had were blanks...