What concerts are you looking forward to? (Part II)

[Christo]

Some major Ralph Vaughan Williams heard live in concerts, all in the Netherlands, many with major orchestras in Amsterdam, Utrecht and Rotterdam:

Symphonies:
No. 2, A London Symphony (in 2015, Utrecht, and last Sunday next door a stunning performance, see before)
No. 3, A Pastoral Symphony (in 2015, Rotterdam)
No. 4 in F minor (in 2017, under Sir Mark Elder, Rotterdam Phil)
No. 5 in D major (in 1987, Amsterdam)
No. 7, Sinfonia Antartica (in 1993, Den Bosch, and last week: Rotterdam Philharmonic under Tarmo Peltokoski, paired with The Planets -- absolutely superb, The Planets even better than anyone on CD, Johan Herrenberg and I agreed)

Some other pieces:
Concerto for two pianos and orchestra (c. 1990, Amsterdam)
Violin concerto, Concerto Accademico (c. 1986, Amsterdam)
Concerto for oboe and string orchestra (1985, Amsterdam)
Concerto Grosso for string orchestra (1987, Amsterdam)
Fantasia on a Theme of Thomas Tallis (2016, Amsterdam; one time more with small ensemble, Rotterdam c. 2008)
Five Variants of Dives and Lazarus for harp and strings (2015, Utrecht)
The Lark Ascending, for violin and orchestra (2017, Rotterdam Phil, under Sir Mark Elder and paired with La Mer & Prélude a l'après-midi d'un faune)
Flourish for Wind Band (2019, Utrecht)
Dona Nobis Pacem (2012, Nijmegen; 2024, Amsterdam, and one time more in Amsterdam c. 1990)
On Wenlock Edge (2024, Utrecht)

[brewski]

On Saturday, Jan. 18, at 8:00 pm (EST), the Detroit Symphony Orchestra will livestream the following concert, with conductor Daniele Rustioni and violinist Francesca Dego:

Camille Pépin: Les Eaux célestes
Shostakovich: Violin Concerto No. 1
Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring

[Iota]

Boulez: Sonatine Pour Flûte et Piano, Messagesquisse

Sophie Cherrier (flute), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Jean Guihen-Queyras (cello), Pierre Boulez (conductor)

In a nod to the very lucky @ritter managing to get a ticket for the amazing-looking Boulez Anniversaire tonight (see upcoming concerts thread), I put on these two works full of Boulezian thrills and spills, and placing some pretty extraordinary demands on the musicians. Great stuff.

[ritter]

Boulez: Sonatine Pour Flûte et Piano, Messagesquisse

Sophie Cherrier (flute), Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
Jean Guihen-Queyras (cello), Pierre Boulez (conductor)

In a nod to the very lucky @ritter managing to get a ticket for the amazing-looking Boulez Anniversaire tonight (see upcoming concerts thread), I put on these two works full of Boulezian thrills and spills, and placing some pretty extraordinary demands on the musicians. Great stuff.

Greetings from the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez of the Philharmonie de Paris. The concert starts in 5 minutes (and the Sonatine and Messagesquisse will be performed by the same soloists as in those recordings). 

[Iota]

Greetings from the Grande Salle Pierre Boulez of the Philharmonie de Paris. The concert starts in 5 minutes (and the Sonatine and Messagesquisse will be performed by the same soloists as in those recordings). 

Good to get a despatch from the front! Hope the spirit of Pierre is abroad tonight! 

(Meant to post this in the WAYLTN thread, hence the now superfluous reference to this one ..  )

[arpeggio]

My wife and I will be celebrating our fifty-fifth anniversary on the January 25.

We are going the Met HD broadcast of Aida.

[Florestan]

My wife and I will be celebrating our fifty-fifth anniversary on the January 25.

We are going the Met HD broadcast of Aida.

Congratulations and many happy returns! 

[Duke Bluebeard]

My wife and I will be celebrating our fifty-fifth anniversary on the January 25.

We are going the Met HD broadcast of Aida.

Congratulations! That is no small feat. My parents will be celebrating their 54th this June.

[Crudblud]

14 Feb - Leonore Piano Trio playing works by Clara and Robert Schumann

21 March - Hallé plays Brahms Symphony No. 1 and Liszt Piano Concerto No. 1 (Mariam Batsashvili soloist)

19 May - Ensemble 360 plays chamber version of Ravel's Ma mère l'Oye, Schumann's Piano Quintet, plus Farrenc and Duruflé

Only the first one is definite right now, but the plans are there.

[brewski]

On Friday at 2:00 pm (EST), another livestream from the superb Frankfurt crew:

Frankfurt Radio Symphony
Bryan Cheng, cello
Erina Yashima, conductor

Kareem Roustom: Ramal (2014)
Saint-Saëns: Cello Concerto
Tchaikovsky: Symphony No. 1, "Winter Dreams"

[ultralinear]

Tonight's performance in Quatuor Danel's continuing Shostakovich/Weinberg cycle came to an abrupt end during the (admittedly very vigorous) 2nd movement of Weinberg's 12th Quartet, when the second violin's bridge suddenly snapped.  I don't think I've ever seen that before - a player snapping a string, yes, from time to time - even, on one occasion, a bow - but never a bridge - before tonight.  Marc Danel said he'd never known it happen either.  And it was dramatic - went with a real bang, causing the player almost to fall off his chair, amid general consternation as to what the hell just happened.

They said they'll work another performance in somewhere later in the series - but it surprised me that no-one carried a spare of such a basic but vital item - not the players, and not anyone in the London home of chamber music.  Let alone a spare instrument just in case.  Can't help feeling there's a lesson in there, folks.

[mahler10th]

The Concertgebouw is holding Mahlerfest again, first time in some decades.  Is anyone going to any of it?  My Sister has bought me a 60th Birthday gift, a ticket to see Fischer and the BFO thump out Mahler 2 in the Concertgebouw in early May. The Ressurection Symphony. On a Sunday MORNING!
Mahler 2 has always been my favourite Mahler work - only the ending of this and the anguish of the 10th (and something by Atterberg) have made me cry!  I will perhaps be bawling my eyes out there.  But for me, this one Concert is a once in a lifetime gift.  For anyone who knows me from way back, it might surprise you that I have NEVER been to another Country outside the UK, or flown in a jet plane (only turbo-prop!).   I have attended Concerts across the UK, standard stuff, but attending a super expensive Concert at the Concertgebouw with Fischer at the helm for Mahler...on a Sunday bloody morning...this is a different level...

[brewski]

The Concertgebouw is holding Mahlerfest again, first time in some decades.  Is anyone going to any of it?  My Sister has bought me a 60th Birthday gift, a ticket to see Fischer and the BFO thump out Mahler 2 in the Concertgebouw in early May. The Ressurection Symphony. On a Sunday MORNING!
Mahler 2 has always been my favourite Mahler work - only the ending of this and the anguish of the 10th (and something by Atterberg) have made me cry!  I will perhaps be bawling my eyes out there.  But for me, this one Concert is a once in a lifetime gift.  For anyone who knows me from way back, it might surprise you that I have NEVER been to another Country outside the UK, or flown in a jet plane (only turbo-prop!).   I have attended Concerts across the UK, standard stuff, but attending a super expensive Concert at the Concertgebouw with Fischer at the helm for Mahler...on a Sunday bloody morning...this is a different level...

Color me completely envious. In the early 2000s, I heard Mahler 2 at the Concertgebouw with Chailly (around the time he was recording his cycle) and it was, as you say, a once in a lifetime gift.

At the risk of saying too much, for the moment will only add "bon voyage," and I hope it's a Sunday morning you will replay for a very long time.

[Judith]

Wonderful concert performed Saturday evening by

Sinfonia of Leeds
conductor David Greed soloists Luke O Toole and Céline Saout

performing
Boulanger D'un Matin de Printemps
Mozart Concerto for Flurlte and Harp
Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique🎶🎶

[ritter]

If I can extend a (business) stay in the French Riviera in March to include the weekend, I might have the rare opportunity of seeing Martinů's Juliette, ou la clef des songes fully staged at the Nice Opera. The new production is performed in French (AFAIK, both French and Czech can be considered "original" languages for this piece), is conducted by Antony Hermus, and staged by Jean-Philippe Clarac and Olivier Deloeuil (Le Lab). I've never heard of any of them, or of any of the cast members.

Not that I am the greatest Martinů fan by any stretch of the imagination, but I do find his surrealist opera very interesting.

[Brian]

I have heard of Hermus from CPO recordings, but that's all. Would not pass up that opportunity...especially as it means extra days in the south of France!

Forgot to report on a nice little local concert from Tuesday:

Respighi - Trittico Botticelliano
Vaughan Williams - The Lark Ascending
Beethoven - Symphony No. 4

Dallas Chamber Symphony
Richard McKay, conductor
Sarah Ying Ma, violin

Had not listened to the Vaughan Williams piece in ~15 years. It was not quite as syrupy or cutesy as I feared, nor quite as interesting as I could have hoped, but was nice enough. The soloist was lovely. The Respighi was a gorgeous performance of a great favorite work, and the Beethoven was bubbly and bouncy. The Chamber Symphony's limited resources as a part-time group were only noticeable with the timpani, a small portable set that sounded like a distant low rumbling sound rather than a drum. Really though, love their enthusiasm, approachability, newcomer-friendliness, somewhat creative programming, and the 60-90 second introductions by conductor McKay, who is very good at conveying the main points of interest to a lay audience of first-timers quickly and with passion.

[lunar22]

I went to a concert yesterday with the local Stuttgart Philharmonic which combined for the first time I've ever seen one of the greatest symphonic masterpieces by both the top Nordic composers -- Nielsen 5 and Tapiola. Very logical but rarely done. Richard Hickox's son conducted and I would say on that experience that he's an emerging talent with some particularly striking string tone in Tapiola (The Philharmonic are only Stuttgart's third symphony orchestra so particularly impressive). The main obligatory concerto was the Schumann Cello which has nothing to do with the other works which were all from the 1920's but, in another somewhat unusual move, the soloist also appeared in the second half for "Poème" by Henriette Bosmans which, if hardly earth-shattering was quite pleasant, especially the coda.

By the way, just on the previous post, I retain an allergy to "The Lark Ascending" -- one of VW's most over-played and overrated works, I'm afraid.

[lunar22]

I don't think I've ever seen that before - a player snapping a string, yes, from time to time - even, on one occasion, a bow - but never a bridge - before tonight.  Marc Danel said he'd never known it happen either.  And it was dramatic - went with a real bang, causing the player almost to fall off his chair, amid general consternation as to what the hell just happened.

I'm confused here -- according to https://arcana.fm/2025/01/17/quatuor-danel-shostakovich-weinberg-8-2/ the bridge indeed collapsed but a replacement was found. That concert seems to be one day earlier but of course delayed posting could account for that discrepancy.

[ultralinear]

I'm confused here -- according to https://arcana.fm/2025/01/17/quatuor-danel-shostakovich-weinberg-8-2/ the bridge indeed collapsed but a replacement was found. That concert seems to be one day earlier but of course delayed posting could account for that discrepancy.

I can only suppose that the concert resumed after a significant interval.  I was far from being the first to leave - by that point the musicians had apologised for the premature conclusion, taken their ovation and left the stage, and maybe half the audience was already on its way out - which in the Wigmore Hall takes time, especially if you were sitting at the front, as I was.  TBH I was not that sorry to be leaving as I hadn't enjoyed the evening particularly, but even so I would have stayed had there been the slightest indication that it might resume.

I once went to a performance of Shchedrin's opera The Left Hander where the conductor (Gergiev) failed to show up, and it was announced that we could all apply for refunds.  Rather than heading home immediately we went to the bar, and were still sitting there an hour later when it was then announced that he had turned up after all and the show would start shortly, in a hall that by then was three-quarters empty.

[Christo]

The Concertgebouw is holding Mahlerfest again, first time in some decades.  Is anyone going to any of it?  My Sister has bought me a 60th Birthday gift, a ticket to see Fischer and the BFO thump out Mahler 2 in the Concertgebouw in early May. The Ressurection Symphony. On a Sunday MORNING!
Mahler 2 has always been my favourite Mahler work - only the ending of this and the anguish of the 10th (and something by Atterberg) have made me cry!  I will perhaps be bawling my eyes out there.  But for me, this one Concert is a once in a lifetime gift.  For anyone who knows me from way back, it might surprise you that I have NEVER been to another Country outside the UK, or flown in a jet plane (only turbo-prop!).   I have attended Concerts across the UK, standard stuff, but attending a super expensive Concert at the Concertgebouw with Fischer at the helm for Mahler...on a Sunday bloody morning...this is a different level...

Bought one ticket, just to be sure. Second front row, left side. Limited view, very much OK with me. See you, perhaps, and will probably bring one or two friends with me. Unique occasion, I know. My second Mahler 2 ever. Greetings, enjoy, Johan