Concertonet Interviews

My series of interviews has continued.

Here is here an interview of Misha Damev who runs the Migros 100% Classics, another one of Tobias Richter, General Manager of th Grand Théâtre de Genève and what must be the first interview of the OSR's new President Florence Notter.

Summer music in Geneva

My article dans Concertonet ici.

Interview with David Greislammer

is here.

In French. Very original approach for his new orchestra, proof it is still possible these days to create an orchestra.

Concertonet

The Chamber orchestra Wien Berlin was in town and the review is here and I wish they had played better works.

Concertonet

K Yamada and the OSR's latest concert review is here (In French).

Concertonet

I was in the lovely Alte Oper in Frankfurt and caught a fine concert by the Oslo Philharmonic. See here and in English this time.

Concertonet

My interview with Metin Arditi, President of the Swiss Romande Orchestra here in Concertonet

Concertonet

My review of Sir Antonio Pappano's Geneva concert with his Santa-Caecilia orchestra is here.

A great evening and why is this the first time that visiting orchestras play William Tell ouverture as an obvious encore ?

Concertonet

Sir Antonio Pappano will conduct today in Geneva his Santa-Caecilia Orchestra. My interview with him in Concertonet is here.

Concertonet

My interview of Pascal Rophé, new chief conductor of France's ONPL is here (in French)

Concertonet

I attended the concerts and masterclasses at the Arc Festival Academy ages ago. Luck and good fortune have allowed me to interview for Concertonet Pierre Réach who used I heard play and teach students some superb Schubert. His interview is here, in French, and his comments on orchestral writing and views on China should not be missed.

Concertonet

My interview of the new OSR director is here. (in French)

Concertonet

My review of the OSR under C Dutoit with an amazing E Pahud is here.

Concertonet

My review of the last concert of the OSR in Geneva is here. http://www.concertonet.com/scripts/review.php?ID_review=8910.

Concert Hall acoustics

Have a look at the lively blog of the Orchestre de Paris. It is in French but contains a very smart comment on the acoustics of the Vienna Musikverein: "One can hear every instrument, even in a fortissimo ... " (my translation ...).

This is a very important point raised by Christian Leblé..With the improvement of the Salle Pleyel, resident orchestras like the Orchestre de Paris and the Nouvel Orchestre Philharmonique dramatically improved their coherence, dynamic range and overall balance. On the other hand, I was living in London when the LSO moved fro the Royal Festival Hall to the Barbican and felt that something broke. Unfortunately, this can work both ways, up and down.

The Orchestre de la Suisse Romande which I cover for concertonet plays in Victoria Hall. It is a charming concert hall but a very narrow one where tuttis are muddled. It works fine say for a Chamber ensemble but saturates for a Mahler Symphony.

In such conditions, Orchestras cannot improve and it is no surprise that good orchestras thrive in superlative acoustics (Boston, Amsterdam ...).

Bad conscience of a critic

I really wanted to do a positive report on Alexandre Tharaud's Geneva concert. He is an excellent pianist full of originality which I have often enjoyed in the past. His first half entirely devoted to Scarlatti was great but the Chopin left me somewhat puzzled and I could not in all honesty be as upbeat as I really wanted to.(My comments however were high praise compared to my colleague Sebastien Foucart at Barenboim's Chopin recital.)

There is a passage in the carnets of Roland Barthes about Chopin that probably explains what happened: I do not remember the exact words that Barthes used but his comment is that he had troubled enjoying Rubinstein in Chopin because his rubato was different than the one he himself used when playing.

Maybe what this is implied here is that for Chopin more than any other composer, we know some works so well via recordings that any changes are going to be making us feeling uneasy. I grew listening to Rubinstein and Pollini whose style could be described as more objective and coherent than other performers, Horowitz coming to mind for one. Because of this, every diversion and change of pulse is going to jump to our face as the "rubato different from the one we are used to ..."

(Since I am speaking of Rubinstein, I have to tell a personal story. When I was a kid, Rubinstein could often be spotted at concerts of the likes of Barenboim, Pollini, Ashkenazy, ... I remember seeing for the first time at a Barenboim Beethoven Chopin Piano recital in January 1976 where I was amazed as much by his presence as by the Waldstein Sonata which I was hearing for the first time ...

I must have been 14 and remember once crossing someone asking myself if this guy knew how much he looked like Rubinstein until 5 minutes after, I realised that I had walked past my idol and called me all sorts of names ...

He lived actually not far. I started going to school with the cover of the record of Chopin's first concerto in my bag to ask for an autograph just in case. Needless to say, I never walked past him although my grandmother did and came back praising how approachable and charming he was ...

Whenever I hear a record of him playing, I still marvel at the cantabile, the naturalness of tempi, ..., and his unobtrusive runbato)

Bloggers

Blogging is fun. One can write short messages, update them if needed, add pictures and videos in a few seconds. I cannot do any of these when I write for Concertonet whose readership is more than 20 k worldwide. This is not an issue of paying a price to reach such an audience, it is a genuine complement to te work done in Concertonet.

I have added a few blogs on my personal list. Most except one are written by people who like me do not seem to be performers but commentators. On an overgrown path is the one that got me started thanks to the encouragement of its writer, Bob Shingleton. All of you must be aware of Alex Ross whose book The Rest is Noise is a must-read. Alex has developed several outstanding pages where he analyses musical examples showing how the language of composers evolved in parallel during modern times. I look forwards to his forthcoming new book: listen to this. The two newcomers are Intermezzo and Boulezian. Like Bob's, both originate from the UK. One has always informative and unusual news, the other one some sound comments. Both must be having a great time listening to the Schoenberg Beethoven cycle given by Daniel Barenboim and his Berliner forces.

The one blog which stands aside is the one by John Adams, often labelled the most played composer of our time. I cannot recommend too strongly Adams's music which I discovered while studying at Harvard in 1990. Rattle came to conduct the BSO in the choral piece Harmonium. Probably, the only reason this very piece is not as often played is because it requires a large number of performers. It is definitely a masterpiece which blends Sibelius-like lines with modern harmonies and a mastery of orchestration. After hearing it, I was so much in the sound world created by the piece that I "suffered" in the noisy Boston Metro. I felt very lucky to catch him conducting Boulez's own Ensemble Intercontemporain in his music as well as in the iconic Nixon in China. I heard the controversial Klinghoffer whose music, especially the choruses are superb but whose message behind the stiry escapes me.

In addition to his music, Adams is a prolific writer and his autobiography is a fascinating study of how he assimilated and then integrated and developed outside complementary and conflicting musical styles to create his own. Again, this is a must-read. His blog is witty and entertaining and he does not comment on other people works. It is the very example of a creators blog, not a mere critic one.