The composer Luigi Nono took great care in specifying how his Prometeo should be performed by musicians placed in different parts of the performing space. The end result, as those who went to these first UK performances at the Royal Festival Hall discovered , was a spatial experience that defies conventions (that being performers on stage and the audience on the other side) - with various soundscapes swirling above our heads. Diego Masson and Patrick Bailey conducted the various chamber orchestra, singers and actors with much precision.
Those of us London-centric folks easily forget there are great concert halls in other parts of the world. I remember as a young kid buying DG LPs with von Karajan on the front cover conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. So as my first visit to the city, a visit to the Philharmonie to listen to the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra was a must. Ivan Fisher started the evening's concert with Haydn Symphony 88. A light and delightful work. As I'd expected, the acoustic of the hall was amazing - probably a good 2.5 second of reverberation - and much more generous than the Royal Festival Hall in London. The strings sounded sweet and the timpani came through clearly with definition. The audience was then treated to Béla Bartók's Seven Pieces for Choir and Chamber Orchestra: the Berlin Phil reduced in size occupying only half of the stage while the Netherlands Youth Choir took the other half. These young performers (all female) sang in Hungarian from memory - not easy at all - and rea...
Comments
Post a Comment