Zemlinsky and Mahler 3 London Philharmonic

I was slightly (just slightly?) shocked by the volume of reviews on the day after the LPO's season opening concert - eight! I thought Petra Lang was superb singing Zemlinsky's Six Maeterlinck Songs - she really got across the moodiness and darkness of these songs. And it was a delight to hear works by a contemporary of Mahler.
Then onto one of the longest symphonies in the repertoire - Mahler 3. The opening fanfare was bold but restrained. Jurowski took quite an episodic reading of this massive movement - and refrained from pulling about too much. The recapitulation of the fanfare with the four cymbals was gigantic. The 2nd and 3rd movements brought about a different sound world - as intended by Maher's naturalistic score. Petra Lang returned in the 4th movement "O Mensch!" with her rich and dark tone. Then there was the contrasting 5th movement - when the Trinity Boys Choir and sopranos/altos of the London Philharmonic Choir came charging in with their angelic voices. The final movement was tender, luscious and warm. The whole symphony was wonderfully put together - and it was very enjoyable too!

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Hearing the Berlin Philharmonic at the Philharmonie

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...

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