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src/content/posts/2024-10-25-ehnes-lpo/index.md

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+---
+title: "Ehnes, Elder, LPO: Ravel, Bruch, and Strauss"
+publishDate: "2024-10-25"
+tags: ["classical-live", "royal-festival-hall"]
+---
+
+## Programme
+
+**19:30, 25 October 2024, Royal Festival Hall**
+
+James Ehnes violin<br />
+Sir Mark Elder conductor<br />
+London Philharmonic Orchestra
+
+- Ravel: Ma mère l'Oye
+- Bruch: Violin Concerto No. 2
+- Strauss: Ein Heldenleben
+
+https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/a-heros-life/
+
+----------
+
+Ack, I'm actually writing this almost a month after the concert, so I don't remember much.
+Add to the fact that I don't know the pieces very well... (apart from the Bruch, which I've attempted to play a few times before).
+So I don't really have anything intelligent to write.
+So, this post will just exist to say that I went to this concert!

src/content/posts/2024-10-27-faust-wigmore/index.md

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+---
+title: "Isabelle Faust & co., Wigmore Hall"
+publishDate: "2024-10-27"
+tags: ["classical-live", "wigmore-hall"]
+---
+
+## Programme
+
+**19:30, 27 October 2024, Wigmore Hall**
+
+Isabelle Faust violin<br />
+Anne Katharina Schreiber violin<br />
+Antoine Tamestit viola<br />
+Jean-Guihen Queyras cello<br />
+Christian Poltéra cello
+
+- Schubert: String Quartet No. 15 in G
+- Schubert: String Quintet in C
+
+https://www.wigmore-hall.org.uk/whats-on/202410271930
+
+----------
+
+I remember this concert a little better than the [previous one](../../posts/2024-10-25-ehnes-lpo)... perhaps it's just because I know this music a bit better, and also it's a concert that I had really intended to go for.
+Anyway, I think I must have bought this at a time where I really liked Schubert.
+Although I still do, I've really been starting to feel that Schubert's pieces are too long and requires way too much concentration...
+The quartet and quintet of this performance both fit that bill, in my opinion: their opening movements are almost 20 minutes each.
+
+As it happens, I was rather stingy and got myself a seat at the back of the hall.
+And for reasons that aren't entirely clear to me, they kept some lights on near the back.
+So I made the most of it by reading _a book_ during the performance (George Eliot's _Middlemarch_).
+I do sort of wonder what the people around me thought of that!
+I did make sure to flip pages without making any noise, but I'm sure that it wasn't very conventional.
+
+As for the music itself, it was fine!
+I'm writing this article about a month late, so I can't really remember the _exact_ points I wanted to write down, even though I do remember making some notes in my head on the day.
+I suppose I'll have to let it slide.
+I do remember that they tuned between _every_ movement, which did get a little bit distracting—I wonder what was up with the conditions that day.

src/content/posts/2024-11-10-makela-lso/index.md

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+---
+title: "Klaus Mäkelä with the LSO"
+publishDate: "2024-11-10"
+tags: ["classical-live", "barbican"]
+---
+
+## Programme
+
+**19:00, 10 November 2024, Barbican Hall**
+
+Andrej Power violin<br />
+Klaus Mäkelä conductor<br />
+London Symphony Orchestra
+
+- Sibelius: Tapiola
+- Prokofiev: Violin Concerto No. 2
+- Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring
+
+https://www.lso.co.uk/whats-on/stravinskys-the-rite-of-spring-10-nov-24/
+
+-----
+
+I don't know Tapiola.
+It was fine.
+Prokofiev was fine too (although I kind of feel it lacked some intensity; I don't know if that's just me having a seat faraway from the stage, or if it was the performance).
+
+I imagine most people came to hear Mäkelä conduct The Rite of Spring.
+He's one of the most hyped conductors at the moment: one can't help but wonder whether this is the musicians' opportunity to gauge whether they would like him as their chief conductor in 2034 or whatever.
+He's also recently released a recording of Stravinsky's ballets with the Orchestre de Paris.
+
+To be honest, the main thing I noticed about Mäkelä's conducting was that it felt almost exaggerated.
+I'm sure he's very talented (otherwise big orchestras wouldn't be lining up to work with him), but sometimes it bordered on theatrical.
+Presumably the players already know the piece so well that they wouldn't be distracted.
+
+The performance was great, though; it was full of excitement and very well-controlled.
+That said, although I've performed the _Rite_ before, I don't think I actually know it well enough to comment on interpretative choices.
+It's something I still kind of struggle with with orchestral music: with a soloist in a concerto, or a recital, it's quite easy to notice when they do something different.
+But with an orchestra, it's harder to notice small changes in a score that is really quite expansive.
+Maybe this is something I can work on by listening to recordings, I don't know.
+
+Perhaps the more sobering part of this performance was walking out of the door and hearing a couple in front of us remarking that 'he's quite young, he must be in his mid-thirties'.
+Him being young is, of course, true.
+But if you look up his age, he's in fact not even 30 yet: he's 28 this year, which means that he's younger than me.
+
+I'll bet Klaus can't do web development, though.