Concerts: previews / reviews

[T.D.]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

...the program looks too damn good to not give it a go.

 

Oh yeah. Very interesting program!

[A Lark Ascending]

Quote:

Soundings: New Music at the Nasher

Flutist Marina Piccinini and Pianist Andreas Haefliger in Duo Recital

Piccinini and Haefliger bring to life fascinatingly different compositional perspectives in a recital that will explore: classical form in Boulez’ Sonatine (1946) and Prokofiev’s Sonata Opus 94 (1943); homage works by Carter in Scrivo in vento (1991) and Adès’ in Darkness Visible (1992); and music written in celebration with Franck’s A Major Sonata (written as a wedding present for the violinist Eugène Ysaÿe) and Dalbavie’s Nocturne (composed an anniversary gift for this evening’s artists).

**********************

That's my ideal type of concert progamming - a couple of pieces unlikely to scare the horses and then others to challenge expectations.  

[JSngry]

Yeah, good gig tonight. Other than the Franck, which struck me as being a lot of not so much (due to performance or composition, I can't say, but the damn thing just went on and on and was very "etude-y" in it's construction, it seemed), it was an evening of highly lucid performances of some pretty meaty musics. The Prokofiev was a delightful surprise, in some ways the anti-Franc, it did have a more traditional structure and such, but the details moved shit along instead of making waves by treading water.

Everything else was more "contemporary" (whatever that means), but my wife dug it all, and she will balk at "that type of thing" if it loses her, so I don't know if my sense that this music was being played "from the inside" might have not been entirely imagined? These pieces virtually sung in their shapings and phrases and placement of cadences. There was a lack of raw passion, but no shortage of feeling, sensitivity. That's not a trade I automatically make,but in this case, no question, it was a fair trade.

Special mention to the tone of Piccinini, one of the fullest, fattest flute tones I've ever heard, live or recorded. Just gorgeous, and loud when it needed to be, in all registers. Haefliger was fun too, and ok, I forgot about Stanley Turrentine & Shirley Scott when it came to having reservations of non-comedy husband/wife duos. Don't know it this was at quite that level of Ultimate Intimacy, but qualms definitely not justified here. They talked too, talked about the musics, what it meant to them, both before and during the sets. Haefliger got a good one in when he related what Boulez told him when for whatever reason on whatever occasion he functioned as a page-turner for Haefliger ("Don't worry, I can read it") that one certainly hopes is factual!

The house was shamefully small, maybe 150 people (and about half of them coughed...we've had a warm winter, wtf? DFW. WTF?), too many empty seats, especially on the two front rows "reserved for friends of Soundings", but kudos to all involved for just having it  It was refreshing.

[A Lark Ascending]

Handel: Orlando (Birmingham Town Hall)

The English Concert; Harry Bicket director / harpsichord; Iestyn Davies; Carolyn Sampson; Erin Morley; Kyle Ketelsen; Sasha Cooke

...or 'Trouble in Arcadia'. Enjoyed 'The Messiah' in Cambridge (which also had Davies and Sampson as featured chirps) just before Xmas so much that I was on the lookout for another big Handel oratorio or opera. I don't think I've ever seen a baroque opera in the flesh before (though I've enjoyed a few on DVD and CD). A concert performance without staging or costumes.

I was a bit apprehensive as to whether I'd be able to keep my attention through three hours of 18thC opera. In the event it was utterly compelling. Needless to say the playing and singing were highly professional (I'm not qualified to comment on where it lies in the grande hierarchy of 'performance'). What amazed me was how Handel used the slender resources at hand - essentially strings and harpsichord with occasional use of bassoon and two oboes and one early aria with two horns - to created such a rich and varied setting for the singers. The mad scenes in Act II and early Act III were just so restrained compared with what I'm used to in 19th and especially 20thC operas (Wozzeck or Peter Grimes it was not!). 

Despite being in civvies (sort of) and just stood on the stage the singers did enough acting to convey the drama of the preposterous plot. I'm not sure if it was meant to be a comedy but they played it for laughs in places (and got a genuine response from the audience rather than that annoying cognoscenti tittering you get so often at the jokes that most listeners know are there) without disrespecting the piece. Some of the arias had spine-tingling moments - an absolute beauty where the singer was shadowed by two violas and, the moment that really brought the house down, one of Sampson's arias. I used to find baroque/classical note-warbling incredibly irritating but last night I really got a sense of the difficulty and sheer physical effort that must require. 

On the look out now for more baroque opera/oratorio (I'd love to see a Rameau) - shouldn't be long. Handel wrote a zillion.

Birmingham (a place I've not been to for about ten years) was, like Manchester, Oxford and every motorway in England, a building site.  

Can be seen in London, Amsterdam and New York in the next few weeks - highly recommended. Not sure how the theorbo player gets his instrument on the plane. Not sure how he manages to play it...John McLaughlin, eat your heart out.     

Edited February 27, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

Still looking for a good opera opportunity here. Sounds like you've got good options, Bev. Enjoy!

DSO tonight:

 

Quote

James Gaffigan conducts

Behzod Abduraimov piano

Ryan Anthony trumpet

David Matthews English horn

• ADAMS Tromba Lontana
• COPLAND Quiet City
• TCHAIKOVSKY Piano Concerto No. 1
• SCHUMANN Symphony No. 4

If not for the Schumann, I could be convinced to stay home this evening. But it should be fun enough.

[A Lark Ascending]

England is small but densely populated. If you are prepared to travel a bit (or more to the point, have the time for it) there are a fair few centres that put on operas within 2-3 hours journey (and some much closer). 

[JSngry]

13 hours ago, JSngry said:

Still looking for a good opera opportunity here. Sounds like you've got good options, Bev. Enjoy!

DSO tonight:

 

If not for the Schumann, I could be convinced to stay home this evening. But it should be fun enough.

Well, no, not really. The band played great, and soloist Abduraimov was a bitch and  a half. But Gaffigan...I don't know. Too much "clean"-ness for my taste, or more to the point, clean-ness to no real purpose other than itself.

Then again, this was not a presentation geared towards what I'm "looking for", and lord knows, that's hardly the point of any of this, is it. But I'm not at all a fan of Copland, and the Tchaikovsky has been whored out for so long by so many that if I say that the entire thing sounds like insincere, and actually almost effective, damage control for that horrid opening, well, that's how I hear it.

The Adams piece that opened the evening was actually pretty interesting, but it segued into Quiet City w/o a pause, and whatever interest had been building (and there was some) slowly dissipated into Coplandia. I'm not into "Copland", so that didn't really do anything for me. Although, in both pieces, trumpeter Ryan Anthony was gorgeous, as he consistently is. I can honestly say that hearing him on a regular basis has really opened my ears up to what "classical trumpet" is "about" more than anybody has, ever (and I say that as somebody who came up in the environs of UNT/NTSU, where the classical trumpet program was totally badass). Ryan Anthony, thank you.

Which leaves the Schumann, which is also where I was looking for some character out of Gaffigan, and felt felt let down. This orchestra has proven that it can do pretty damn near anything that is demanded of it, not always without some struggle, but ask and they reach down and give. So...

There's an obsessive quality to this piece, it kind of OCDs about repeating shit (in it's own way there's a minimalist quality about it, at least at root, maybe?), and it seemed to me that Gaffigan wanted to pretty that up rather than bring it out. Tempos seemed a  little too brisk, pulse a little too steady, dynamics a little under-confronted, I don't know...but nothing really "stuck" for me. Maybe it's all on me, that, but then again, I left the house wanting to be persuaded. Didn't happen.

Here's the whole thing in a nutshell - the most entertaining portion of the evening for me was reading the program notes about the Schumann, which contained this delightful little gem: But less than a year after he led triumphant performances of the revised symphony, Schumann threw himself into the Rhine where he was rescued by fisherman. So, I'm needing to smell some fish or something here and all I got was a postcard saying Greetings From Sunny Lake Rhine!!! No fish, no river, no fisherman pulling some crazy motherfucker out of the river.

Just sayin'.

 

[A Lark Ascending]

Schumann is one composer I've never warmed to. Apart from Dichterliebe which for some reason clicked. I had a real go at the symphonies a year or so back but I can't remember anything about them (my loss, I stress, no fault of Schumann). There's a black hole in my listening between Schubert and Brahms/Bruckner - there's something in the harmony of high Romanticism that doesn't work for me. Which is odd because I can wallow in a warm bath of the most glutinous Late Romanticism for days.  

Programme notes! Now there's an issue in itself. I like a booklet that gives me a bit of a map of the music to be heard, especially in contemporary or unfamiliar music. I've seen some very good ones of late - the ones at the Boulez, Villa-Lobos, Musgrave and Birtwistle immersion days I went to in the last three years were exemplary, really helping you find your way in the music. I use them at home. Too often programmes tend to be potted biographies, historical contexts of the pieces with just a few unsystematic comments on the music itself. All the blurb on the performers (essentially lists of some of the things they've done before) could be dispatched with a web link. As for the pages of adverts for expensive watches, posh restaurants and fee-paying schools ("we've got your social aspirations nailed, culture-vulture!")....I know, they have to cover the costs. I only buy a programme if the music is unfamiliar to me - I'm starting to train myself to read up before on established pieces I don't know. 

Edited February 28, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

Our program notes are free. Nice young people in tuxes hand them out as you enter the hall, along with a how are you doing this evening? Enjoy the concert! The customer-facing staff in the Meyerson proper is overwhelmingly African-American, so I wonder if that's part of a community-inclusion deal that the Dallas City Council negotiated into the funding deal, or if it somehow became a job-tradition that's been handed down between family/friends, or just what. But yeah, the programs are free, and the people who hand them out (hell, the staff in general) are generally friendly people with no "stuffy waiter" pretense. You can count the number of those type of staff you encounter on pretty much one hand. If one is to be intimidated about "going to the symphony", the intimidation will not come from the customer experience itself.

The DSO program notes were for years written by Laurie Shulman (ha!), and they were semi-encyclopedic affairs of both biographic and musical detail. Problem was, reading about a piece without having first heard it is useless (to me, anyway), so what is the alternative if not reading the notes while listening to the band play? I like to listen first, read later. They'd make great liner notes, but for program notes...too much for me.

Ms. Shulman also is (or has been)  the "go to" for pre-concert talks in all kinds of series all over the city, and she's the same way there, just detail after detail after micro-detail, but with no recorded examples to illustrate what she's going on about. If you already know the music at hand, you might benefit from this type of purely verbal presentation, but if not...perhaps not so much. It veers into the "dancing about architecture" zone after a while. She's an impressivley gushy lady,but her enthusiasm is only sometimes contagious, I'm afraid. But sometimes it is!

Schulman has been a fixture on the scene, one might even call her an "institution", but she announced her "retirement" last year. This year, the job of providing the DSO program notes has gone to Rene Spencer Saller, and there could not be a more pronounced difference in styles. Ms. Saller is very much a member of the "just the facts" school of writing, although she does have an ear for what facts are relevant to the piece and about the composer. I LOL-ed when I read that line about Schumann and the Rhine, the drollness of it was marvellous, I thought.

Something else about Saller - her writing background is as a feminist rock critic http://www.altweeklies.com/aan/rene-spencer-saller-music-criticism-without-the-testosterone/Article?oid=154251

But - she's out of St. Louis, a city which has a history of having a well-informed and highly discriminating classical/new music scene, and she writes about that as well: https://renespencersaller.wordpress.com/about/

So, a totally different voice, and to tell the truth, I prefer reading Ms. Saller's notes. They set the table rather than eat the food for you.

About that high Romanticism, I know what you mean in a general sense, I think. The harmonies don't really do anything remarkable (except for when they mimic Beethoven), and there's an element of narcissism to it, I think, the way that even the most trivial element is fawned on as if, yes, getting back to the tonic from this dominant is soul-draining hard work, please weep both with me and for me, and I dunno man, I'm just not convinced that it needs to be all that, ya' know? OTOH, the element of narcissism could lend it self to some pretty gripping psychodrama if approached objectively, you know, don't engage it emotionally, engage it objectively, and all the weird OCD stuff in it, let that be OCD instead of "Art". See where that takes things. The Schumann thing last night was rife with opportunities to do that, the repetitions were obvious, the "offness" of them being there like that was not engaged, though.

Now, what would a reading focusing on that sound like? Hell if I know. That's why I'm on the ides of the stage I'm on. But I'd sure be happy to entertain the notion of somebody on the other side trying, I would not feel that my trust had been violated.

[A Lark Ascending]

Free programme notes! Wow! I did get a single sheet summary with a string quartet concert I went to last year. But they are usually at least £2.50. If I remember correctly they were £5 a go at Proms last year - I didn't buy one for any of the concerts I went to. 

The pre-talks sound good. I used to skip them but have taken to going recently where offered. 

[papsrus]

I think free programs are typical in the U.S. They're often used to promote upcoming events and are attractive for advertisers wanting to capture the high-end consumer, clearly. The "magazine" I get each time I attend our quaint little opera house is a thick guide to the entire season, printed on heavy-stock paper, full color throughout. It's akin to a full-sized, high-end magazine, really. 

---------------

Harpsichordist Mark Kroll has been performing around town here over the winter and I attended a concert of his at the Church of the Redeemer yesterday afternoon in a program of music by Francois Couperin, a French Baroque composer whom I knew nothing about going in.

Kroll, who clearly has some chops, having served as the Boston Symphony Orchestra harpsichordist for some time, described Couperin in his pre-concert talk as the greatest composer of harpsichord music -- before allowing that of course Bach created greater music, but in his opinion Couperin created the best music for harpsichord. ... A distinction without a difference, perhaps, but point taken.

And the music was incredible, me in the front pew on the aisle, groom's side. Perfect. I was literally the first one in the door and so got the prime seat. As a few more folks started to trickle in and Kroll was adjusting his seat and such prior to the concert, he advised the folks who were taking seats on the left (bride's side, so to speak) that the right side was going to be better musically. Yes. I think most folks like to sit on the left because want to see their keyboardist's hands. Not me.  

And catching snippets of conversation from folks sitting behind me prior to the concert, there were at least a few harpsichord aficionados in attendance -- one guy overheard to claim he had three of the instruments in his home; another described to his companion the technicalities of how a harpsichord string had kind of a double vibration that gave it its unique tone. 

Anyways, to the music. Incredible melodies, layered and repeated and layered again in a series of songs beginning with a somber C-minor "La Tenebreuse Allemande" and progressing quickly through more fanciful and happier fare, most of which were basically popular dance tunes of the time. Beautiful.

Not being familiar with the composer, I sensed a kind of halting rubato thing going on at times, as if there were quarter rests in odd places that almost gave the music a halting, stop and go quality. But the variation in cadences were clearly complex and intended. (I was going to describe it as almost as if he was reading the music for the first time and was playing it in a sort of "feeling things out" kind of way, but that's not quite it.) It was as if one hand was staggering things at times while the other was continuing on in the normal flow of the music. A very subtle thing, really, but clearly there. I concluded this sort of halting, stop-and-go thing was due to the music being primarily a dance music and the rests were intentionally there to facilitate some fancy dancin' on the floor.

And at other times the music flowed seamlessly and beautifully and the harpsichord sounded just so lively. Very impressive. 

And the audience, which filled about the front third of the pews, was as quiet as a church mouse. A very enjoyable concert.

I'll have to investigate Copuerin.   

 

 

[A Lark Ascending]

2 hours ago, papsrus said:

I think free programs are typical in the U.S. They're often used to promote upcoming events and are attractive for advertisers wanting to capture the high-end consumer, clearly. The "magazine" I get each time I attend our quaint little opera house is a thick guide to the entire season, printed on heavy-stock paper, full color throughout. It's akin to a full-sized, high-end magazine, really. 

I never thought I'd say this, but it looks like US capitalism has a thing or two to learn from British capitalism! Free programmes! Isn't that Marxism?

******************

That Couperin concert sounds like fun. Trying one or two solo keyboard live performances is on my list of personal taboos to break. I have a few Couperin records on piano but, I must me honest, I've never been able to sit and just listen to them. They tinkle away in the background. I find listening to solo music I lose the thread very quickly - another case where a decent 'map' would help me. 

[JSngry]

otoh, programs at sporting events generally run in the $5-$15 range. So, cultural events are like, oh, thank you for spending your money, here's some value added", whereas sporting events are more hey, you've already spent this much just to get in here, so don't stop now!.

But remember, no overt subsidies and grant money for sporting events, just big tax breaks for team owners.

I fully enjoy going to both, so this is said with objectivity, not rancor or snarl. But the only circumstances I'd even consider paying for a program to a cultural event (as opposed to a pop gig) is if it were a high-profile artist on a high-profile tour that was being ran like a pop event.

[papsrus]

3 hours ago, A Lark Ascending said:

That Couperin concert sounds like fun. Trying one or two solo keyboard live performances is on my list of personal taboos to break. I have a few Couperin records on piano but, I must me honest, I've never been able to sit and just listen to them. They tinkle away in the background. I find listening to solo music I lose the thread very quickly - another case where a decent 'map' would help me. 

Isn't that the wonderful thing about live music, though? Aside from just the "live" aspect of the music surrounding you, a live performance can offer an altogether new avenue into music that may just not be there in a recording. 

I listened to John Luther Adams' "Become Ocean" the other day on the radio. It was a live performance recorded last fall by the LA Philharmonic. Now, this is a piece of music I could not imagine sitting and listening to in my living room more than once. But I couldn't help but think while listening that it would be overwhelming to experience live. 

[A Lark Ascending]

11 hours ago, papsrus said:

Isn't that the wonderful thing about live music, though? Aside from just the "live" aspect of the music surrounding you, a live performance can offer an altogether new avenue into music that may just not be there in a recording. 

I listened to John Luther Adams' "Become Ocean" the other day on the radio. It was a live performance recorded last fall by the LA Philharmonic. Now, this is a piece of music I could not imagine sitting and listening to in my living room more than once. But I couldn't help but think while listening that it would be overwhelming to experience live. 

If the music has staying power (related to the context of my listening) I could listen to it many times live or on record. 

I've got back into going to live classical events in the last three or so years after a long period of not attending concerts. What I like is that in a concert I'm more likely to give music the maximum focus I'm capable of. No distractions, no wandering off to the computer when you get to a dull bit. I also like the visual clues - I frequently find that even in a piece of music I've listened to many times I'll suddenly notice - 'Oh, that bit was a solo viola' - I've the tune in my head but I've never really thought about the instrument playing it. The way the string sections interact are so much easier to follow with the visual clue (as always I'm speaking as someone with no musical training whatsoever...a lot of this is second nature to the musically trained). [Although Kent Nagano has a very different preference to this in his opening answer to this Q&A - http://www.theguardian.com/music/2016/feb/29/facing-the-music-conductor-kent-nagano]

When I hear a piece of music on record that really catches my attention I like to hear a live performance for those reasons. But when I hear something new or only hazily known previously in concert I'm generally anxious to hear it again on record soon afterwards (there's a recording of Orlando winging its way to me at present!). 

Edited March 1, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[papsrus]

Fidelio -- Beethoven

Sarasota Opera House

 

Beethoven's only opera is a simple tale about a wife, disguised as a man, who infiltrates a dark, nasty prison to free her unjustly held husband. All ends in a joyous -- and loud -- celebration.

This is clearly an opera where the orchestra and Beethoven are out front, and the orchestra sounded great -- full and confident in the music for such a modest crew, probably around 40 musicians. The pit is a resonant one. At least on this night. I also really, really enjoyed that each of the three acts was preceded by lengthy and quite beautiful preludes. 

Sung in German with recitative spliced in here and there, but in a way that kept things moving along, never lingering. (That's what recitative is supposed to do, right?)

Somewhere near the end of the first act, with the orchestra building these beautiful layers of Beethoven that seemed to just climb and build and climb higher, four of the main characters were weaving these harmonies in and around each other in this seamless, magical way that was just really quite beautiful. 

This was the first time I think I've really "felt" an opera, to the point were I was somewhat moved emotionally at times. And it was the music, entirely.

I think when I reflect on the evening, this was also a case where the whole was more than the sum of the parts -- this is a regional opera company after all, not The Met. The orchestra may have been a little loose in ensemble here and there, but the music itself elevated them in a visceral way. Some of the singers were noticeably stronger than others, as is typical. The stagecraft may have been a little quaint and the production (by "production" I mean just the way people moved around on stage) a little stilted at times. But taken as a whole, this was a pretty fine evening of music where pointing out the flaws would be missing the point.

And while Fidelio may not be a "great" opera when stacked up against Wagner or Mozart or Verdi or whomever, it is without doubt a rich musical feast. It's Beethoven.

I had a good time.

 

 

 

 

 

Edited March 2, 2016 by papsrus

[papsrus]

Vienna Philharmonic, Valery Gergiev conductor.

Hayes Hall, Naples (Fla.)

Wagner -- Prelude to Parsifal

Wagner -- Good Friday Spell from Parsifal

Tchaikovsky -- Manfred Symphony

 

This concert was one of two featured during this first year of a three-year residency that the Vienna Philharmonic is doing in Naples; the residency consisting of a couple of concerts, some chamber performances, talks and sessions with student musicians over three or four days. 

I sat fourth row, dead center. The massive orchestra filled the entire stage, which extended pretty far back. The back wall was entirely covered with organ pipes, floor to ceiling, wall to wall. Cosy hall seats 1,470. 

The Vienna strings were drop-dead gorgeous in the Parsifal Prelude and Good Friday Spell. Full and entirely enveloping, precise and seamless, powerful and crystal clear all at once. A Ferrari. Hearing Vienna play Wagner -- wow.

The Manfred Symphony is a bit of an odd piece, programmatic and kind of not easy to get hold of if you're not familiar. At least for me. I had only listened to it once a few months ago, deliberately choosing not to listen again prior to going to the concert. So rather than trying to follow along -- get with the program, so to speak -- I chose to just let the music wash over me in an uncritical kind of way. "Uncritical" is probably the wrong term; what I mean is my lack of familiarity with the piece kind of forced me, or allowed me to just try to be in the moment with it without "thinking" about the music. Without trying to connect any dots. Which all sounds simple enough but can be a little tricky sometimes for me, at least. 

Gergiev, wielding his toothpick for a baton, was a little more animated than I anticipated. I've seen him a couple of times in concert videos and I recall him being someone who doesn't use a lot of body language. And I suppose that was true tonight as well, but busy, expressive hands, pulling here, softening there, whirling in big circles as if cranking  a giant wheel that steers the band. And the orchestra instantly responsive to his gestures. Something to behold, really.

A couple of quick Vienna, walzty things for encores wrapped up the evening in a brisk two hours.

 

 

 

 

 

 

[papsrus]

Three quick postscripts:

I figured out from reading a NYT review of the same concerts performed at Carnegie Hall last weekend that the encores were Johann Strauss' "Kaiser Waltzes" and "Pleasure Train" polka. 

Secondly, at the conclusion of each piece last night (except for the shorter encores), the audience let the final notes fade away to a dead silence that hung in the air for literally 10 - 15 seconds, which seems like a lot longer when you're sitting there, the concert hall still and silent. I don't think I've ever experienced that before; more typical for the audience to jump in and start applauding within a few seconds.

Finally, despite Sarasota and Naples being pretty similar demographically -- large retirement populations -- the audience in Naples was in general quite a bit younger than what we get here in Sarasota. Largely 60s and over, but plenty of younger folks as well, which was nice to see. Here in Sarasota it's pretty typical to see people in walkers and wheelchairs, or elderly couples hanging onto one another just to stay upright, bless 'em. In Naples, everyone seemed to be striding along under their own steam. And as I said, more than a few in their 30s and 40s. 

 

[A Lark Ascending]

5 hours ago, papsrus said:

Secondly, at the conclusion of each piece last night (except for the shorter encores), the audience let the final notes fade away to a dead silence that hung in the air for literally 10 - 15 seconds, which seems like a lot longer when you're sitting there, the concert hall still and silent. I don't think I've ever experienced that before; more typical for the audience to jump in and start applauding within a few seconds.

It could be a swallow and summers delusion but the last few orchestral concerts I've been to have not seen the end spoilt by the 'look at me everyone, I know when the piece ends' idiot bawling out before the last note has faded. Again I might be reading more into it than is there but I noticed the conductors very visibly holding their arms in the air for several seconds after the last note, their relaxing signalling that it was appropriate to applaud. 

The worst example of "narcissistic public schoolboy syndrome" was in a performance of Boulez' 'Pli Selon Pli in London last year...the most distracting bellow as the last note was sounded. I'm generally completely opposed to the death penalty but I'd gladly vote for the introduction of punishments modelled on Vlad the Impaler's methods for toffs who do this.       

Edited March 3, 2016 by A Lark Ascending

[JSngry]

A potentially interesting evening this Saturday at DSO:

BACH AND BEYOND

TON KOOPMAN conducts
DEMARRE MCGILL flute

TELEMANN Suite No. 3
C.P.E. BACH Flute Concerto in A Major
HANDEL "Entrance of the Queen of Sheba" from Solomon
J.S. BACH Suite No. 3

The Wikki entry on Koopman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_Koopman

states a preference for period instrumentation and such (is that the same as the HCP thing?), which seems highly unlikely to be the case here. McGill is a highly gifted in-house talent.

Any advance commentary on conductor and/or repertoire is certainly welcome!

 

[Larry Kart]

2 hours ago, JSngry said:

A potentially interesting evening this Saturday at DSO:

BACH AND BEYOND

TON KOOPMAN conducts
DEMARRE MCGILL flute

TELEMANN Suite No. 3
C.P.E. BACH Flute Concerto in A Major
HANDEL "Entrance of the Queen of Sheba" from Solomon
J.S. BACH Suite No. 3

The Wikki entry on Koopman

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ton_Koopman

states a preference for period instrumentation and such (is that the same as the HCP thing?), which seems highly unlikely to be the case here. McGill is a highly gifted in-house talent.

Any advance commentary on conductor and/or repertoire is certainly welcome!

 

I think you mean HIP (historically informed practices). HIP pretty much includes period instruments but adds further would-be info (or guess work) about how the music of those times was played. The biggest specific HIP fuss of recent times, I believe, was when Joshua Rifkin claimed (with pretty good evidence behind him) that Bach's major vocal works (like the Mass in B Minor and the various Passions) were not originally performed by large bodies of singers but one voice to a part. You can't imagine the uproar, and from previously HIP inclined ensembles and conductors, too. I think that Koopman was among those who resisted. In any case, I have some Koopman recordings I like (e.g. his Handel Organ concerti) and have heard others I didn't care for. BTW, I may be wrong about this, but I think I recall reading that he was in poor health lately.

[JSngry]

yes, HIP, not HCP, "informed", not "correct", thanks.

Sounds like it might be an interesting evening if the conductor is able to perform. Opening night is tonight, and no last-minute conductor change emails have been received yet, so hopefully we're all good to go with that.

[T.D.]

I don't know much about Koopman (don't own any recordings I can recall off the top of my head), but he's one of the really big-name HIP conductor/scholar/musicians. Innumerable recordings, incl. complete Bach cantatas (cond.) and organ works (playing). No doubt he has many fans, but likely many bashers as well.

Gotta be worth seeing, provided health allows him to appear. [Aside: I recall that the famous conductor Klaus Tennstedt was frequently in poor health; back in the '90s his scheduled NYC appearances were always eagerly anticipated but invariably seemed to get cancelled.]

[JSngry]

Unfortunately had to leave at intermission, as Mrs. JSngry took ill (she's ok, thanks). Bummed about missing the Bach. Liked what I heard, though, Sepia Bach much more than Telemann. Some really nifty harmonic games, C.P.E had, Telemann, not so much, but...not his fault, I'm sure. Crazy to think about how wrong the "wrong notes" once really were, and all that it took to get to the point where there are no wrong notes, just bad ideas...that's a trip, really.

Koopman was there, and conducted with neither podium nor baton, and was a lot like van Zweden in terms of body investment in his conducting, albeit to totally different ends. That was an interesting thing to see in terms of traditions being continued in some ways while being abandoned in others. He had a really zany crooked smile and these crazy old-school glasses, and the lack of a podium did make an impact as far as total "presentation" went, I think. Lack of baton, too, but small orchestra with a guy standing just in front of it, not in front of and above it, that was...interesting.

Significantly smaller orchestra on stage, no idea if this is customary or part of the HIP thing. Also struck (again) by how "objective" this period of music is. Not lacking in passion, but the music is - or seems today to be - almost entirely in the math, and the less "ego" is present in the performance, the more clearly the math, and therefore the music, is allowed to speak for itself. Of course, I'd be lying if I said that a steady diet of Baroque music wouldn't drive me crazy, especially knowing all that came/comes after, that's the irony about the objectivity of it, it's impossible to be objective about hearing it, but oh well, life is like that, right? But I can imagine how truly crazy Beethoven must have begun to sound in real time as he kept on moving into all the things he moved into. And for that same reason, I think that's why most of Mozart tends to "offend" me, it's all the math AND all the ego, same equation just amped up on Mountain Dewroids or something, no reformulation.

Anyway, nights like this, when my ability to form an even halfway "informed" opinion based on too much of anything other than my immediate reaction, are both thrilling and disgusting.

[A Lark Ascending]

1 hour ago, JSngry said:

I think that's why most of Mozart tends to "offend" me, it's all the math AND all the ego

Don't write him off too quickly. There's a reasons he is revered by musical eggheads, performers and the wider listening public (not many composers manage all three!). 

The thing I try to do (and I emphasise try) with music before the late 19thC (after that I feel I'm reacting naturally rather than trying to get in the door) is to imagine how the music would have sounded to people listening at the time. We've listened to everything that came afterwards and so a lot of what was striking to the original audiences we probably don't even notice. Obviously I can't hear that by myself but with a bit of reading you start to get an idea of why Mozart (or Bach or Beethoven...) are held in such reverence. 'Greatness' is a term bandied around very easily (the idea that all you need is a Glenn Gould recording and the "greatness" of Bach descends on you like the Holy Spirit); I'd say it lies in the relationship between what was being written then and what had been written before. It takes a lot of listening (more than I've done and at a more analytical level than I'll ever manage) to really get to that but over time the mist starts to thin. 

Don't know if you know it but the Mozart "Serenade in B flat, K.361 "Gran partita"" might give you a different experience of Mozart. That and the Jupiter Symphony broke my aversion to Mozart in the late 80s. 

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Sounds like a great concert - I'm on the lookout for a bit more baroque live myself. There's a good one coming up next Saturday locally with the Orchestra of the Age of the Enlightenment (nice grand title!) with an all Bach programme - sadly it clashes with a folky concert I've already booked.