diff --git a/src/content/posts/2024-10-25-ehnes-lpo/index.md b/src/content/posts/2024-10-25-ehnes-lpo/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..98ba172 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/2024-10-25-ehnes-lpo/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,26 @@ +--- +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
+Sir Mark Elder conductor
+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! diff --git a/src/content/posts/2024-10-27-faust-wigmore/index.md b/src/content/posts/2024-10-27-faust-wigmore/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..04b0bed --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/2024-10-27-faust-wigmore/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,38 @@ +--- +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
+Anne Katharina Schreiber violin
+Antoine Tamestit viola
+Jean-Guihen Queyras cello
+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. diff --git a/src/content/posts/2024-11-10-makela-lso/index.md b/src/content/posts/2024-11-10-makela-lso/index.md new file mode 100644 index 0000000..d338424 --- /dev/null +++ b/src/content/posts/2024-11-10-makela-lso/index.md @@ -0,0 +1,45 @@ +--- +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
+Klaus Mäkelä conductor
+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.