Diary of a Culture Hedonist

The evening concert started with the overture of Lohengrin. Jukka-Pekka Saraste took a poised temple and the strings of Singapore Symphony rose to the ocassion to provide that mythical sound. This probbaly was intedned to set the mood for the Four Last Songs - I guessed. Evelina Dobračeva was the star soprano. Frühling got off to a sure, if a little safe start. The best was probably Beim Schlafengehen, sung with great stillness. September and Im Abendrot felt unblanaced - Dobračeva's subtle words were somehow lost among the swell of orchestral sound. This was followed by Morgen - probbaly the best song of the evening, perhaps the very light orchestration helped. Jukka-Pekka Saraste and SSO were on surer footing with Sibelius 5. The first movement was brisk with lightness and details. The second and last movements felt cohesive, leading to the well known tune in the finale. If only there were more people in the concert hall to enjoy the music.

Now how often does one get to hear Ligeti's "joke" Poème symphonique? It came about recently at the British Library. Or rather, it was performed in the old British Library reading room. 100 metronomes arranged neatly on a platform, lit, and poised to commence. After a short introduction, a small team of museum staff flicked the metronomes and the performance started. It was a cacophony of sound echoed by the reading room's unique acoustic. It's strangely mesmerizing and hypnotic. From time to time, some metronomes came together into unison, and then dissipated. It had an organic quality to it. If one ever wondered, it took about 25 minutes until the last remaining metronome on Largo came to a stop. It was fun!

The Schoenberg 'Theme and Variations Op. 43b' opened this San Francisco Symphony concert under the baton of Michael Tilson Thomas (MTT). It was a very tonal Schoenberg with a rich tapestry of sound, though we detected a bit of stiffness in the orchestra - not sure why. This was followed by Henry Cowell 'Piano Concerto' - its Proms debut. Well, the soloist Jeremy Denk did a lot of thumping and elbowing to the Model D on stage - interesting to have heard it. Denk then played a short encore 'Piano Sonata No2, 3rd Mov.' by Charles Ives (contemporary of Cowell) with much subtlety and finesse - arguably the best piece in the first half of the concert. Then it was Mahler Symphony No 1. MTT conducted without score and somehow the whole band was transformed. The mysteriousness of the opening movement, the slightly decadent dances in the middle movements, through to the visceral 'young' Mahlerian sound world of the last movement were all beautifully played. The ...

Poulenc's piano concertos are fun to watch and listen to. Last night, Alexandre Tharaud played his piano concerto with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. There was not question of his command of the keyboard - fingers gliding elegantly up and down, and always dancing with the orchestra (musically speaking). Yannick Nézet-Séguin ensured there was much harmony on stage and maintained a brisk tempo for this fun work. This was followed by Prokofiev Symphony No. 7 - a short work with rich colours and rhythmic brilliance. The concert concludes with Poulenc Stabat Mater (as I was on stage singing it).

The soloist Yundi was an up and coming star in the piano world until Lang Lang came along and stole the limelight. So it was a delight to get a chance to listen to Yundi play Tchaikovsky piano concerto no 1. The opening movement had a certain briskness to it. Yundi's long phrases were punctuated by percussive interjections from the brass section of the orchestra. Apart from a few slips, this movement was well played. The second movement had an unsteady start - with Yundi pushing for a brisker tempo than what the orchestra was prepared to give - so the first few phrases rocked a little. But everyone was soon back in "concert". The last movement was probably the best - the orchestra kept pace with the soloist. The fiendishly difficult cadenza gave Yundi the opportunity to show off his virtuosity - fingers flying cross the keyboard. The second half of the concert was Sibelius second symphony. This gave me the real opportunity to hear the San Francisco Symphony Orchestra ...

The first item of this concert was Brett Dean's Komarov's Fall . I thought it was entertaining - that the violins imitated the bleeping sounds inside the space capsule, and the "panic" in the control room, and the fateful fall. No doubt it's a good piece to introduce to young kids with astronomy / astrophysics aspirations. And this formed a not-too-demanding opener of this concert with Marin Alsop conducting the London Philharmonic Orchestra. This was followed by John Adams Doctor Atomic Symphony . Having seen the opera quite recently at the English National Opera, I was intrigued by how this might sound - and whether it conveys the full range of emotions. On balance it was an atmospheric work - and the famous aria sung by Oppenheimer was carried over as a trumpet solo. It worked I thought. And the LPO played beautifully under Marin Alsop's direction. The final item was Gustav Holst's The Planet Suite. So often one hears bits of it on the radio. And on...

When I head 'Heaven is Shy of Earth' at the 2006 BBC Prom, it already sounded good. The vast space of the Royal Albert Hall was atmospheric for the naturalistic sound world that Anderson was creating, and Angelika Kirchschlager was fine with the role. But the revised version of the work premiered last Friday by the BBC Symphony Orchestra and Chorus gave the work a new and improved hearing. Susan Bickley took up the soprano role this time - her timbre and motherly voice really suited the work. The new 'Gloria' was tightly sang by the BBC Symphony Chorus. Oliver Knussen gave the whole work balance and shape - all somehow felt more complete.

Well, it's not often I leave home to go to a gig after dinner . My friend's band Silvermoths was playing at The Night Shift at the Queen Elizabeth Hall last night. This was the "warm up" session at 9pm - where they played a few numbers including some of their compositions. The QEH was packed with a very engaged if chatty audience. Then at 10pm, the Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment with Rosemary Joshua played an hour of Carelli, Handel and Vivaldi. I was at first intrigued and subsequently enjoyed this format - a late start so you are not dashing from work and trying to chow down dinner in a hurry. Drinks are permitted throughout - so you can be nursing a pint of beer or swirling a glass of merlot while listenting to Corelli. The presenter (Alistair Appleton) added a relaxed atmosphere and provided a dialogue between the audience and the on stage performers. Of course, the OAE played the music wonderfully. After the concert, there was a DJ cueuing some tracks...

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...

Semyon Bychkov and the National Youth Orchestra kicked start their BBC Proms concert with Dukas The Sorcerer's Apprentice . It was well put together. A good pace. There was a lot of contrast. And clearly the whole orchestra enjoyed this colourful piece. This was followed by Julian Anderson's Fantasias (its London premiere). The first movement gave a bold and staunch start of the work - being scored for just brass instruments. The subsequent movements took the listeners to different naturalistic soundscapes. The most intriguing part was the tapping of the mouth pieces and col legno which created a "tropical rain fall" inside the Royal Albert Hall. All in all it was a delightful experience (and the audience seemed to like it too). Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique argually was the weakest piece. Whilst the players were full of enthusiasm, the first movement took a long time to settle - passion was lacking. The subsequent movements got better. The dance and the march ...

The young cellist Danjulo Ishizaka was the soloist in Prokofiev's symphony-concerto for cello and orchestra op 125. The work began with poise and confidence. Jurowski led the London Philharmonic Orchestra with much rhythmic precision. Ishizaka's virtuosity was in much evidence as his fingers danced on the strings delivering those seemingly impossible double / treble stops. Yet in the more mellow and slower passages, there was a lot of sincerity and lyricism. The cello-orchestra interplay came across well too. No doubt he exerted great pressure on his cello. Towards the beginning of the final movement, Ishizaka looked at Jurowski, then the whole orchestra stopped playing: the A string snapped! Ishizaka left the concert platform briefly, came back with a shiny new A string. There was a bit of a chuckle in the audience when the soloist and conductor were working out where to pick up the work. Everyone got back into the work quite quickly and the final section allegro marcato was...

Fresh off the plane from conducting a successful run of Bizet Carmen at the Metropolitan Opera, Yannick Nézet-Séguin worked tirelessly with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and Choir for this evening's concert at the Royal Festival Hall. It started with Le tombeau de Couperin . There was a lot of poise in the orchestra's playing - kind of stately yet pensive at the same time. This was followed by Pavane pour une Infante défunte . The players in the orchestra caressed each and every phrase. The sound was lush and intimate - not a single harsh note. And the horns carried their parts well. Debussy's Nocturnes was next. The first of the three movement work Nuages started with the lower string section portraying floating clouds, which got darker as the piece progressed - but not angry ones. The middle movement Fête was a lot of fun with fantastic playing from the brass section. A small section of the sopranos and altos joined in the last movement Sirenes with a seductive sou...

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...

It is a rare event when I go to a chamber choir concert - somehow the slots are taken up by grand operas and other big choral gigs. Anyway, upon a friend's recommendation ("what do you mean 'you don't like Debussy'" as the punch line) I trotted along to listen to Londinium to perform an eclectic programme of a cappella pieces. The highlight was Holloway's "He-she-together" - a rarely perform work by this living composer. The high voices wailed convincingly and the men seemed subdued by them! The two Howells pieces (Take him, earth, for cherishing) was sung with gusto and precision. Not sure whether the Elgar worked (Go, song of mine). The Debussy (Trois chants de Charles d'Orléans) was well sung - though I still didn't get it. All in all an enjoyable night out listening to fine choral singing in St Mary-le-Bow.

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.

The last time I was in a concert hall in Australia, I was a performer on the stage of Perth Concert Hall. So it's nice for a change to be front of house at the relatively new City Recital Hall at Angel Place yesterday evening. It has the look and feel of Symphony Hall in Birmingham - except it's about 1/3 smaller. The Australian Brandenburg Orchestra started the evening with a Sinfonia by Brescianello - which showed off the acoustic quality of the hall - resonant and bright, not sloppy at all. The star of the evening then appeared to sing a setting of Stabat Mater by Marco Rosano (an Italian film and TV composer). The work by and large had an alla breve quality with mostly slow movements. The writing was probably best described as mock-Baroque. While the work showed off the voice of its dedicatee Andreas Scholl, the music became tedious quite quickly - somehow it lacked the richness of musical styles or architecture that one expects to find in a genuine Baroque work. An...

Lang Lang (郎朗) opened his concert at the Royal Festival Hall with Mozart's piano sonata K 333. He played it with much fluidity, though I was not sure whether it was Lang Lang or Mozart that I was listening to. His playing of Schumann's Fantasie in C was captivating - with longing pensive moments (at least for a 25 year old). The second half of the concert began with him describing the few Chinese works that we was going to play. It was nice to see such a young performer at ease on stage not performing but talking to the audience. These pieces were playful yet evocative of Chinese (taking a broader sense as he made a point to describe the west Chinese origin of one of the pieces) poetic and instrumental colours. These were followed by a stylistic playing of a Granados. We were then thrown into the complex Wagnerian world with Liszt's transcription of Liebestod from Tristan und Isolde - Lang Lang was able to sustain a rich and complex orchestral sound taking us through to...

The much anticipated re-opening of the Royal Festival Hall was officially upon us. There was neither pomp nor circumstance: even the Duke of Kent was happy to be amongst the audience rather than in the ceremonial box. The opening work by Julian Anderson was a lovely collage of choral and orchestral textures - both expansive and intimate. The Byzantium section was marvellous - just hearing a wash of organic and energetic sound. Jurowski conducted the work with much confidence. This was followed by Firebird which really showed off the hall's new found dynamism. The rest of the programmes was somewhat eclectic including the last movement of Beethoven 9th Symphony (The reviewer from New York Times obviously did not realise there was a cast change - Philip Langridge and Brindley Sherratt were replaced by Simon O'Neill and Neal Davies). Marin Alsop brought the evening to a stylish and climatic end with Bolero.

It was billed as a "Warm Up Event". But I think it was to do with contracts signed prior to the discovery of asbestos at the Royal Festival Hall which added six months to the renovation programme. Gustavo Dudamel conducted the Gothenburg Symphony Orchestra in Strauss Four Last Songs and Mahler 5th. The band made a good sound tough the upper strings were a bit subdue (or was it the Hall?) The Four Last Songs were a bit fast to my liking - and it was only Beim Schlafengehen where I felt the tempo was right. Measha Brueggergosman sang relatively well, though her BIG HAIR was in the way of the sound projection. Mahler 5th was thunderous and supple at the same time - the latter much helped by the strong viola and lower string section. It was exciting and forward but could do with a bit more rubati. Otherwise it was an enjoyable evening out at this much loved venue.

OK, two concerts in a row of relatively modern music in a week! The baby-face Edward Gardner conducted Britten's A Charm of Lullabies and Phaedra with Sarah Connolly singing. The narrative was free flowing with drama. This was followed by Anderson's Symphony - the opening rustling (produced by back of bows scratching along the strings) was atmospheric with wonderful evocation of nature and felicity.  The concert concluded with Walton's Symphony No 1 - not my favourite work: I still prefer him going crazy with strings, percussion and voices (i.e. Belshazzar's Feast). But hay ho, can't have everything.