A blistering hot concert at the NCH last night!

Clinker

• Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich) Dawn on the Moscow River (Khovanshchina)
• Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (Alexander Toradze, piano)
• Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor

National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Alan Buribayev, conductor.

This was stunning!! Buribayev looks very young (he's 30) and small (conductors, like dictators, are often small), but he really knows what he was doing: very precise gestures picking out particular players, enormous vigorous ones when required giving a sense of making the players want to give, rhythmically very taut. So Dawn on the Moscow River was very atmospheric and powerful.

But the real stunner came with the arrival of Alexander Toradze (a great big Georgian bear of a man who has recorded the Prokofiev piano concertos with the Kirov and Gergiev*). He had big wedges under the back legs of his piano stool to tilt it forwards and often rose up out of it to swoop down on the keyboard again. The third piano concerto is a wonderful work, with the typical Prokofiev mixture of crystalline beauty and cutting sarcasm, brilliant orchestration and driving rhythms. Toradze and the orchestra gave it everything: it was a volcano erupting. One feature of this concert was applause between movements (not all) and this wasn't the kind you get at gala concerts where there's a clueless audience, this was an audience stunned by the wonder of what they had just heard and unable to forbear from reacting to it!

Toradze in Prok 3 on YouTube:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PiOgo_mgrs

There was long applause after the concerto and eventually Buribayev pushed Toradze onto the piano stool, and he played a Scarlatti sonata (which made out was what Prokofiev might have sounded like if he were sane!): beautiful, and a delightful, gentle contrast to what had gone before. Again long thunderous applause, and the tapering off, Alan Smale jumped up to lead off the orchestra for their break, when Toradze came back and they all had to sit down again! He was beaming and said something like "What a phenomenal orchestra... and to take on such a crazy soloist!" and announced another encore, the precipitato from Prokofiev's Seventh Piano Sonata. Well. Wow! Gosh! I know this well (very exciting, very powerful, shattering music with a motoric rhythm and an awful lot going on. I never heard it sound like this: I have three recording of the sonata and and they (for all their individuality) are more like to each other than any is to Toradze, and this was fantastic: he was finding things in it I'd never heard before, but which add to whole. It was almost an orchestral conception of the work, with massive sonority... it would have been worth coming for this alone! Incredible.. and to be able to know something of this complexity and sheer difficulty so well as to be able to dash it off as an encore... words fail me!+

And then the symphony, possibly Shostakovich's best. If this had been an Anissimov concert, one would have been very grateful for the wonderful concerto, but would have accepted that the symphony would probably be mediocre (not to knock Anissimov: a conductor who is pretty much guaranteed to have at least one very good work in a concert as not an inestimable quantity). This, however was to be an epic concert: the Shostakovich lived up to the Prokofiev!!!! Orchestra and conductor outdid themselves. Wonderful.

The concert hall was maybe 2/3 full. Really it ought to have been bursting. Martha Argerich will be performing the same work on Sunday (if she turns up!), with the RPO and Dutoit, her ex. It's sold out, with tickets at €45, €60, €70, €80, €90. Will it be as good? I doubt it! One element of continuity however is guaranteed: ther will be plenty of clapping between the movements!

I wonder what that old miseryguts Dervan will say about last night's concert in The Irish Times? If bad, ignore it, if good, you heard it here first!


*Straight onto my "must have" list, and why not? I adore the Prokofiev piano concertos and have since first I heard them, long ago.

+Has Toradze recorded Prokofiev piano sonatas? Please, please, please....

The Mad Hatter

Wow, sounds amazing. Wish I was there.

I'll be at the Argerich tomorrow night, though - will post what I think.

Clinker

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

I'll be at the Argerich tomorrow night, though - will post what I think.

I'm envious. When I fork out the cash for a star concert like that, I over-anticipate and it never lives up to my expectations. Plus I always seem to be sitting next to somebody noisy who is clearly bored. But now I think: this might have been the last chance I'll ever have to hear Martha Argerich live!!

The Mad Hatter

Clinker wrote: »

I'm envious. When I fork out the cash for a star concert like that, I over-anticipate and it never lives up to my expectations. Plus I always seem to be sitting next to somebody noisy who is clearly bored. But now I think: this might have been the last chance I'll ever have to hear Martha Argerich live!!

Heh, no way I'd have been able to afford a ticket myself - got one as a present

tbh I'm almost as excited that it's an all-Prokofiev programme as I am that it's Martha.

Clinker

The Mad Hatter wrote: »

Heh, no way I'd have been able to afford a ticket myself - got one as a present

tbh I'm almost as excited that it's an all-Prokofiev programme as I am that it's Martha.

It is a nice programme: unusually so for the NCH Celbrity Series: they usually play very safe!

banquo

I've heard from a few sources now that they were most excellent the other night.

My kudos to them. I haven't seen a really good performance since the Symphonie Fantastique over a year ago.

Doshea3

Rob, Symphonie Fantastique was September 2007! :O

And what about the Scriabin Poem d'Extase?

I have to say that I heard a really excellent performance of the Liszt 1st piano concerto with Bernd Glemser (a favourite pianist of mine) there a couple of months back with the NSO. Amazing.

funky penguin

Not to usurp, but was there last night for Mozart's Piano concerto in A and Beethoven's 9th.

Sitting down for 2 hours listening to such wonderful music I couldn't help but smile all the way through! I think the hairs were consistantly up on the back of my neck for the 9ths final movement.

tSubh Dearg

Did you spot me in the choir? Wish I had see you to say hello afterwards.

From the point of the view of the choir balcony the orchestra were playing an absolute blinder for the Beethoven and Markson's face was all smiles the whole way through. He really wears his emotions on his face when things go just the way he likes them.

It's a tough sing, as a soprano my voice was wrecked at the end from the endless string of high As. But it's worth it for the feeling invoked in the music.

banquo

funky penguin wrote: »

Not to usurp, but was there last night for Mozart's Piano concerto in A and Beethoven's 9th.

Sitting down for 2 hours listening to such wonderful music I couldn't help but smile all the way through! I think the hairs were consistantly up on the back of my neck for the 9ths final movement.

I really, really, really wanted to go. Mostly for the A Major, oddly enough. Also, good use of ''usurp''.

Clinker

funky penguin wrote: »

Not to usurp, but was there last night for Mozart's Piano concerto in A and Beethoven's 9th.

Sitting down for 2 hours listening to such wonderful music I couldn't help but smile all the way through! I think the hairs were consistently up on the back of my neck for the 9ths final movement.

Usurp away: the April 24 can only hold interest for so long! As I suspected, Dervan gave that concert a stinky review in The Irish Times and showed his contempt for the audience's loving it!

I wish I'd been along on 1 May, a colleague managed to wangle a ticket for it, but I hadn't got round to it in time! I'll be along next Friday.

funky penguin

oooooo, Rach's second concerto! I'm going to try and get a student concession... spent all my money on a decent tickt for last friday! (and Boris Berezovsky, which I can't wait for!)

Doshea3

Speaking of student concessions...a girl in the NCH box office told me recently that 'RTE aren't really doing the standby tickets anymore'. I feel like crying. RTE would rather not sell the tickets at all and deprive students of one of the few chances to see a decent live concert in this country than knock a measly few euro off the ticket prices. They have their priorities right, anyway.

Pianist2891

Doshea3 wrote: »

Speaking of student concessions...a girl in the NCH box office told me recently that 'RTE aren't really doing the standby tickets anymore'. I feel like crying. RTE would rather not sell the tickets at all and deprive students of one of the few chances to see a decent live concert in this country than knock a measly few euro off the ticket prices. They have their priorities right, anyway.

yep, this is true, as a couple of my own students said the box office told them that as well. To think that for £5 you can see Covent Garden Opera House performances as a student with a standby ticket, same applies for Albert Hall, Queen Elisabeth etc etc etc. So yes, empty seats are preferable rather than giving students and young people the chance to actually see a live concert. Keep your money and save it all for a Proms concert or something of the sort....appalling really. :mad:

The Mad Hatter

Pianist2891 wrote: »

yep, this is true, as a couple of my own students said the box office told them that as well. To think that for £5 you can see Covent Garden Opera House performances as a student with a standby ticket, same applies for Albert Hall, Queen Elisabeth etc etc etc. So yes, empty seats are preferable rather than giving students and young people the chance to actually see a live concert. Keep your money and save it all for a Proms concert or something of the sort....appalling really. :mad:

And then classical musicians go around wondering why everyone thinks they're elitist. I really hate attitudes like this. (The NCH's, I mean.)

Doshea3

I think it is our mission as the new generation of classical musicians to kill elitism in music—in attitudes to performance, music education and in basic accessibility to music as an art form. Discussing this with a friend, I think we need in the short term to form an organisation—a musicians' co-op, as it were—and publish a newsletter to inform people about music, opportunities and education, advertise and review events and generally make people see that classical music is not a dead art form reserved for the elite few with enough money and sponsorship to make a name for themselves. In the long term we need to set up a small recital venue in Dublin city that people can have access to for putting on recitals at no cost to themselves—simple affairs that people can present informally and charge a small fee for (a fiver at the door, say). This is where music needs to go. We need to take music from the elitists and give it to the people.

May the revolution begin.

The Mad Hatter

Doshea3 wrote: »

I think it is our mission as the new generation of classical musicians to kill elitism in music—in attitudes to performance, music education and in basic accessibility to music as an art form. Discussing this with a friend, I think we need in the short term to form an organisation—a musicians' co-op, as it were—and publish a newsletter to inform people about music, opportunities and education, advertise and review events and generally make people see that classical music is not a dead art form reserved for the elite few with enough money and sponsorship to make a name for themselves. In the long term we need to set up a small recital venue in Dublin city that people can have access to for putting on recitals at no cost to themselves—simple affairs that people can present informally and charge a small fee for (a fiver at the door, say). This is where music needs to go. We need to take music from the elitists and give it to the people.

May the revolution begin.

Heartily seconded. I have 'secret plans' in this direction myself at the moment. More details when they're underway.

Doshea3

Excellent. Let me know. (Facebook message me...nudge nudge.)

banquo

The revolution can't come soon enough.

I'm a publications nerd. I bore girls in bars with the differences between roman and humanist fonts. I can be found in Eason measuring page margins against my thumb. I can help with the newsletter.

I'd say that first we need to list all the major problems in education, access, etc. I've got a whole lot of issues with the education side of things - even a quick scroll through the thread here about orchestration classes says a lot.

Doshea3's idea for the performance site is good.

Screw it, let's just set up our own school, performance site, publication, the lot.

Clinker

Clinker wrote: »

• Mussorgsky (orch. Shostakovich) Dawn on the Moscow River (Khovanshchina)
• Prokofiev Piano Concerto No. 3 in C major, Op. 26 (Alexander Toradze, piano)
• Shostakovich Symphony No. 10 in E minor

National Symphony Orchestra of Ireland
Alan Buribayev, conductor.

This was stunning!! Buribayev looks very young (he's 30) and small (conductors, like dictators, are often small), but he really knows what he was doing: very precise gestures picking out particular players, enormous vigorous ones when required giving a sense of making the players want to give, rhythmically very taut.

Anyone else who enjoyed this concert as much as I did will be pleased to know that Buribayev is to be the replacemant for Markson. From an announcement on the RTÉ site dated 25 May:

RTÉ today announced Kazakh conductor Alan Buribayev as the Principal Conductor Designate of the RTÉ National Symphony Orchestra. He will succeed Gerhard Markson, who has held the role from September 2001 and who made his final appearance as Principal Conductor last Friday in the closing concert of the RTÉ NSO subscription season. Alan Buribayev will be Principal Conductor Designate for the 2009-2010 season and will take up the position of Principal Conductor in September 2010 on a three-year contract, conducting the RTÉ NSO in a minimum of eight concerts a year.
Having made three appearances with the RTÉ NSO between 2006 and 2009, Alan will return in May 2010 to conduct two concerts as part of the RTÉ NSO 2009-2010 season. His first concert (7 May 2010) features Tchaikovsky's 'Pathétique' Symphony, Shostakovich's 2nd Piano Concerto with Finghin Collins and a new piece by Irish composer Jennifer Walshe. His second concert (28 May 2010) features Berlioz' Symphonie fantastique, Beethoven's 'Emperor' Concerto with pianist François-Frédéric Guy and Mozart's Magic Flute Overture.

funky penguin

AH! AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH! AH!

FF Guy playing the emperor! AH! AHHHHHH!!

MUST. GET. TICKETS!

Ahem.

Plus, I didn't know Collins had Shostakovitch in his rep.

Dirigent

funky penguin wrote: »

Plus, I didn't know Collins had Shostakovitch in his rep.

Musically he's an excellent pianist, but I have to wear a blindfold.

The Mad Hatter

Dirigent wrote: »

Musically he's an excellent pianist, but I have to wear a blindfold.

Doshea3

Yeah, his histrionics are just unbearable. And he's got far worse over the last few years.

The Mad Hatter

Doshea3 wrote: »

Yeah, his histrionics are just unbearable. And he's got far worse over the last few years.

I have it on good authority that that's a result of being taught by John O'Connor...

funky penguin

HA! I'd believe that.

It is true, he waves his arms like a conductor.....I swear he put the NSO off when he played Mozart there recently!

ana ng

funky penguin wrote: »

AH! AH AH AH AH AH AH AH AH! AH!

FF Guy playing the emperor! AH! AHHHHHH!!

MUST. GET. TICKETS!

Ahem.

Plus, I didn't know Collins had Shostakovitch in his rep.

It's not a terribly difficult piece though, would be easy enough for him (arm-waving and all) to add it.

Doshea3

O, JO'C has a lot to answer for. I went to see Fin and Huge Thingy do the Liszt concertos a year or two ago. Fin played No. 2 and overdramaticized the arpeggios of the first piano entry so much my friend went into fits of laughter.

Clinker

Dirigent wrote: »

Musically he's an excellent pianist, but I have to wear a blindfold.

This is what everyone says about him: has word got back to him yet, and if it has, why doesn't he do something about it? It really is a pity, because if you can ignore this stuff he's really a very good pianist. I didn't realise this the first time I saw him, so off-putting was his gurning!

Civilian_Target

Ah, I've seen that guy before, at the Proms in London.
He is amazing.

When he came out at first I wondered how this big fat man was going to play a good piano concerto (Prokofiev II), but he burned a hole right though it, it was absolutely stunning.

Civilian_Target

Yeah, actually, the second quote sums it up

http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/2007/interact/reviews/28aug.shtml

Dirigent

Tonight was certainly blistering! Dresden Staatskapelle, wunderkind Harding on the podium. Schumann first half, powerful, intensive playing from Renaud Capuçon. But the real magic came after the break: Brahms #2, magniifient. Then as an encore Weber's overture to Der Freischutz. The night just kept getting better.

I've heard Harding a few times before and he didn't fully convince me. Until tonight. The guy had such total control of the band, it was in the same league as Rattle with the Berlin Phil last Sept.