Intermezzo

2013-14 seasons for London's big three orchestras revealed

London's biggest orchestras have now all released details of their 2013-14 seasons.

The London Philharmonic Orchestra listing is here.  The remainder of their The Rest is Noise series is unfortunately no more adventurous than the first. But there some worthwhile concerts tucked away in there, the main highlight being Peter Grimes on 28 September with Stuart Skelton in the title role.

The Philharmonia listing is here. The dates announced so far oddly include very few for principal conductor Esa Pekka Salonen. One of his rare appearances will be La damnation de Faust, which kicks off the season on 26 September, with Gerald Finley as Méphistophélès.

The LSO season listing, mentioned in an earlier post, can be downloaded here.

None of the listings mention booking dates, but I suspect only the operas will cause any serious jostling for tickets. As for the rest, based on recent experience it may be worth gambling on discounts appearing later.

Southbank Centre 2012 - 2013 season revealed

Well, part of it anyway. The Shell Classic International series, London Philharmonic Orchestra, Philharmonia and OAE details are up.

Highlights are fewer than hoped, but Zurich Opera's Der fliegende Holländer, conducted by Alain Altinoglu and starring Bryn Terfel, is among them.  There's a lot of Strauss too, including the LPO's  final scene of Salome with Karita Mattila and Thomas Hampson.  Anna Caterina Antonacci joins the OAE in a programme that includes excerpts from Les Troyens and rarely-heard Gluck. 

Visiting orchestras are few, presumably for budget reasons, but there's an interesting Brahms/Schoenberg programme from Michael Tilson Thomas and the Vienna Philharmonic, and Ivan Fischer returns with the Budapest Festival Orchestra and some Bartok. Predicatably, there's almost no contemporary music; the LPO's cannily branded 'The Rest is Noise' season, like the book, concentrates on familiar favourites from the first half of the last century.

On sale dates are:
Shell Classic International - Members booking 25 January, General booking 14 Feb
LPO, OAE and Philharmonia - Members 2 February, General 14 Feb

Chamber Music and Piano details have yet to be revealed - the booking dates are Members 28 February and General 6 March.

Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Festival Hall

Tristan und Isolde: Philharmonia Orchestra - Royal Festival Hall, 26 September 2010

This semi-staged production arrived in London at the end of a mini-tour that took in the unholy trinity of  Lucerne, Dortmund and Birmingham. No surprise after all that practice to hear unusually disciplined playing from the Philharmonia - barely a note out of place all night. The puffed-up programme note - irritatingly braggadocious as an X Factor contestant - claims it "has the greatest claim of any orchestra to be the UK's national orchestra". Well, on this showing they were certainly the best-rehearsed.

an afternoon with Andris Nelsons

Philharmonia / Nelsons / Lugansky - Royal Festival Hall, 28 February 2010

What's the secret to selling out the Royal Festival Hall? Timing. A 3pm start on a Sunday guarantees seats will be snapped up by grannies who don't like going out after dark, kids who aren't allowed to stay up late, and coachloads from outside the M25 who want to get home before midnight. And there's the added bonus of no competing classical attractions. The hall was packed, yet a similar (arguably better) programme from the same artists on Thursday night has so far attracted only half the numbers. 

A Sunday matinee regular told me it's the same story every concert. And when I visited Birmingham last year on a weekday afternoon, I found a healthy audience there too. So why aren't there more afternoon concerts? Are events scheduled for the convenience of the artists and the venues alone? Why can't organisations subsidised by taxpayers' money make more of an effort to give as many people as possible the opportunity to attend?

A swift and punchy La forza del destino Overture made an anomalous start to the Rachmaninov-heavy programme - and it took longer to rearrange the stage afterwards than it did to perform it - but at least it whetted the appetite for some full length Verdi from Andris Nelsons (none scheduled as far as I know).

The muscularity and accuracy of Nikolai Lugansky's playing didn't quite compensate for its lack of poetry and passion in Rachmaninov's Second Piano Concerto, but at least Nelsons whipped up the Philharmonia into something approaching excitement.

His exuberance doesn't rub off on the Londoners quite as readily as it does on his own CBSO, but they succumbed in Rachmaninov's Symphonic Dances, quite the most vivid and thrilling playing I've heard from them in ages. Leaping around the podium like a monkey who's spotted a banana on the other side of the bars, Nelsons cuts a lanky, ungainly figure, and I sometimes wondered how the band could follow his beat. Yet somehow the three movements were beautifully paced to culminate in the mad, spiralling dance of death. He coaxed clear and incisive playing, always beautifully balanced, and avoided vulgar overstatement despite the temptations inherent in the vivid, expressive writing.

And all over in time for tea.

 

bargain Britain is cheapest for classical music

It's often assumed that generous public subsidy for the arts in continental Europe must make tickets cheaper. Not necessarily so. I compared prices across the globe for a selection of orchestral concerts next month, taking in the US too for good measure (scroll down for full list).

The first thing to notice is that in London, the LPO charge nearly twice as much (£55) as the LSO (£32)for their top-price tickets. Could that be one of the reasons why their concerts are only half as full?

But to catch the LSO in Paris will cost you more than twice as much (£75) as in London (£32). The Philharmonia, too, is more expensive (£75 and £45). The LPO however charge a comparatively cheap £48 in New York, less than they do in London (£55), and less than the NY Phil (£72) at the same address.

It's cheaper to see the Vienna Philharmonic at the Barbican (£55) than in Vienna (£94), and the heavily-subsidised Orchestre de Paris (£53) and Munich Philharmonic (£51) are both pricier at home than the LSO or Philharmonia, and only marginally cheaper than the LPO.

Looking at the bottom end of the price scale, all three London orchestras offer tickets at £7 to £9 (and plenty of them). The lowest price elsewhere is generally at least twice that, and goes up to £46 for the Berlin Philharmonic and £30 for the LA Philharmonic.

Of course this is only a handful of concerts, but I believe the results are broadly representative. And while the current euro exchange rate is on the weak side, it doesn't make a lot of difference.

The list:

• LSO at the Barbican £7 to £32
• Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall £9 to £45
• LPO at the Royal Festival Hall £9 to £55
• Vienna Philharmonic at the Barbican £12 to £55

• LSO at Salle Pleyel, Paris €10 to €85 (£9 to £75)
• Philharmonia at Théâtre des Champs-Élysées, Paris €5 to €85 (£5 to £75)
• LPO at Avery Fisher Hall, New York $22 to $75 (£19 to £48)

• Orchestre de Paris at Salle Pleyel, Paris €10 to €60 (£9 to £53)
• Vienna Philharmonic at Konzerthaus Wien €18.90 to €106.20 (£17 to £94)
• Berlin Philharmonic at Philharmonie Berlin €52 to €112 (£46 to £99)
• Munich Philharmonic at Gasteig, Munich €11.70 to €57.50 (£10 to £51)
• New York Philharmonic at Avery Fisher Hall, New York $29 to $112 (£19 to £72)
• LA Philharmonic at Walt Disney Concert Hall, LA $47 to $160 (£30 to £102)

(the conversion rates used were $/£ 1.56 and €/£ 1.14)

Esa-Pekka's Project is Tristan

The Philharmonia are opening their 2010/11 season with a bang - or rather, a semi-staged performance of Tristan und Isolde.

Gary Lehmann and Christine Brewer head a fabulous cast that also includes Anne Sofie von Otter and John Relyea. Bill Viola provides projections and Peter Sellars is named as "artistic collaborator", so I assume what we'll be getting is a show that has already been seen in the States under the banner of The Tristan Project - a widely praised film and music combination that may enrage a certain section of the audience with its on-screen striptease and gay Tristan. Seat prices go up to £75, but that compares well with New York's $500.

Tickets went on sale today to Southbank members (public booking opens on 22 February) and are going fast already.

The rest of the Philharmonia's season includes a Bartók series, and of course more bleeding Mahler, this time a full symphony cycle from Lorin Maazel. Come 2012, we'll all be able to whistle every tune he ever wrote.

Cheap tickets for ENO's Rigoletto and Philharmonia Orchestra

Ticket deals currently available from lastminute.com include various Philharmonia concerts and ENO's Rigoletto at £10-£20 (a discount of up to 75%).

There's also "Britain's favourite singer" Katherine Jenkins for £25 but you probably didn't need to know that.

Gustavo Dudamel in rehearsal with the Philharmonia

Given that the Philharmonia's Saturday evening concert with Gustavo Dudamel and Emanuel Ax sold out weeks in advance, I was surprised at the sparse attendance for the final rehearsal earlier in the day. Perhaps people aren't aware that the Philharmonia open some of their rehearsals to the public (the list is here) for a very reasonable £3. (The LSO do too - here's the next one - but the LPO are more secretive.)

Not that rehearsals are a complete substitute for the real thing, but at the very least you gain some insight into the way a conductor works and what he thinks about a piece. I struck lucky here. Dudamel knew the work (Mahler 5 and Mozart's Piano Concerto no 17) so well a score was unnecessary. And the Philharmonia were clearly well-drilled too, only the pizzicato viola sounding completely unrehearsed. All that was needed was to align minds at a few key points.

Dudamel took each movement of the Mahler straight, then went back through a staggering number of individual points he'd somehow managed to retain in his head. He doesn't talk much, but he does sing plenty: "is like di-di-da-da-da-DA-DA-di - yes! more DA-DA-DA!" As he bounced around the podium in a bright orange jumper, his enthusiasm could not have failed to touch every single member of that orchestra. And yet he proved the received wisdom that he's fuelled by passion alone is quite wrong-headed. His tweaks were specific and sensible, with instructions like reducing vibrato or volume directed at balance and textural clarity.

The Mozart seemed so polished it barely needed rehearsing, but of course it got one anyway, with Emanuel Ax adding plenty of (sadly inaudible) comments at each break.

I only took a couple of pictures - mostly because a couple of professional photographers were there taking loads from all angles. With luck they may turn up on the Philharmonia website at some point.

What's on in London in February

David McVicar brings his chipolata-stuffed Rigoletto back to the Royal Opera House on 10 February.  Star-power is limited to veterans Leo Nucci and Paolo Gavanelli sharing the title role but this is Verdi at his most unbreakable so that's all it needs. We wait eagerly to see what Francesco Meli and Ekaterina Siurina can make of the Duke and Gilda. More Ekaterina in recital at St John's Smith Square on 20 February.

George Benjamin's highly-praised shortie Into the Little Hill gets its long-awaited London premiere in the Linbury Studio on 14 February. It's coupled with Birtwistle's Down by the Greenwood Side. Still no casting details on the ROH site, whatever that means.

But the major event of the month at Covent Garden is the premiere of Tim Albery's new production of Der fliegende Holländer on 23 February with Bryn 'teh Chin' Terfel as the Dutchman.

At ENO, Jonathan Miller's new La Bohème opens tomorrow. And you are duly warned that John Adams's irredeemably dim-witted Dr Atomic, which I saw in New York last autumn (well the first half anyway: I walked out at the interval) arrives on 25 February. On the plus side, it has a far better production and cast than the material deserves.

Opera Holland Park slip through the park gates and catch the 391 to Richmond Theatre where from 24 February the simple country folk can enjoy their brilliant Tosca from last summer. There are two casts - Amanda Echalaz, the best Tosca in town, sings on 25 and 27 February and 1 March.

The Barbican presents Handel's oratorio Samson on 12 February, for which The Sixteen are joined by a terrific line of of soloists including Mark Padmore, Gillian Keith, Catherine Wyn-Rogers and Roderick Williams. And on 22 and 23 February, the LSO record Berlioz's Te Deum with Sir Colin Davis

Wigmore Hall's bargain-priced 4 o'clock Sunday song recitals continue with two artists on the brink of major careers - Jacques Imbrailo on 15 February and Lucy Crowe on 22 February.

On 21 February Gustavo Dudamel makes an eagerly-awaited return to London, where he conducts the Philharmonia in Mahler's 5th at the Royal Festival Hall.

And at the same place tomorrow night, 4 February Matthias Goerne joins Neeme Jarvi and the LPO for Mahler's Kindertotenlieder coupled with a purist-agitating rarity - Mahler's arrangement of Beethoven's 9th. There's a free talk at 6.15 for anyone who's interested in the background to this fascinating molestation. The photo below shows Mahler conducting Beethoven's 9th in Strasbourg in 1905.

No sleep till Vienna - Alfred Brendel bows out

Philharmonia Orchestra / Mackerras / Alfred Brendel - Royal Festival Hall, 12 October 2008

On Tuesday Alfred Brendel leaves England via the majestic portal of Basingstoke to commence the final leg of his farewell tour, which winds up in Vienna's Musikverein on 18 December.

Tonight was London's chance to say goodbye as he took to the Royal Festival Hall stage in front of a packed house, the even more senior Sir Charles Mackerras and the Philharmonia Orchestra in tow.

His choice of parting shot, as it will be for that final Vienna concert, was Mozart's Piano Concerto No.9 in E flat, the 'Jeunehomme', the work which perhaps captures the composer's genius most perfectly in its sweeping play of emotional contrasts and invention. Brendel, modest and thoughtful as ever, never sought to impose himself, but gently drew out the sparkling wit of the outer movements and the bleak, bitter core. The Philharmonia were alive to every nuance and contributed to a perfectly-crafted whole.

It was a performance above criticism, a fitting end to a mighty career.

How odd then that it was decided to follow concert convention, and place this work in the first half, with a Dvorak symphony to follow in the second. Perhaps it was simply Brendel's choice, humble to the last.  

 

The Royal Festival Hall's standing ovation for Alfred Brendel:
 

Joseph Calleja supersizes it

Joseph Calleja / Tatiana Lisnic / Philharmonia / Reynolds - Cadogan Hall, 11 June, 2008

Barbiere Overture - Rossini - orchestra
Recondita Armonia - Tosca – Puccini – Joseph
Mesicku na nebi - Rusalka – Dvorak – Tatiana
Carmen Suite - Bizet - orchestra
La fleur que tu m'avais jetée - Carmen - Bizet - Joseph
Caro Elisir….Esulti Pur La Barbara – Elisir d’ amore Donizetti – Tatiana and Joseph
William Tell Overture - Rossini - orchestra
O figli, o figli miei.....Ah, la paterna mano – Macbeth - Verdi - Joseph
Eccomi in lieta vesta - Capuleti i Montecchi - Bellini - Tatiana
Maristella: Io conosco un giardino – Pietri – Joseph
Je veux vivre - Romeo et Juliette - Gounod - Tatiana
Intermezzo - Manon Lescaut - Puccini - orchestra
O Soave Fanciulla - La Bohème – Puccini – Tatiana and Joseph

Encores: Meine Lippen sie kussen so heiss - Giuditta - Lehar -Tatiana, Torna a Surriento - Joseph, Brindisi - La Traviata - Verdi - Tatiana and Joseph 

After Erwin Schrott cancelled his Cadogan Hall date, prompting legal action from the promoter, it looked like refund time. But fortunately Joseph Calleja stepped into the breach, together with his wife, soprano Tatiana Lisnic. Although Calleja has waistcoat-straining 'vocal support' where Ervino has pecs, in all other respects it turned out to be a more than fair trade.

Calleja's voice was even bigger than I remembered it  - earsplittingly so from the front rows.  Some of the brightness of old is gone, but this is no disadvantage, as his timbre has become darker, more assertive - simply more grown-up for want of a better term. The idiosyncratic vibrato now seems drastically tamed, all his training artfully subsumed into a sound so clean, firm and apparently effortless that you might think he was singing to himself in the shower. His tonal palette is not especially broad, and as for dynamic range, on this display it stretched only from ff to fff. But every sound is a beautiful one, and in the evening's selected repertoire it was enough. 

I would have preferred some bolder programme choices, but to be fair, the cornerstones of his current operatic repertoire were a practical selection for the very mixed Cadogan Hall audience. What's more, Calleja presented these most ancient of chestnuts with an enthusiasm and evident affection that made them sound anything but overfamiliar. Anyone not slayed by his voice must have been won over by his congeniality and warmth.

Tatiana Lisnic, a charming silvery soprano, was a more than adequate duet partner. Her coloratura drifted, and she lacks Calleja's Bryn-like charisma, but her confidence and her performance improved as the night went on.  Her Lehar encore showed her at her best.

The Callejas had the luxury of the Philharmonia behind them, a mixed blessing, as more gusto and less refinement might have helped in places. But Julian Reynolds managed to whip up enough enthusiasm for a mad ride through the William Tell Overture, and crowned the evening with a late addition to the programme, a supersmooth Manon Lescaut Intermezzo (hay, smy tune!). As ever in these sort of mixed recitals, I would have preferred more singing though.

Joseph Calleja won't be back in London until next year, when he stars in La Traviata at Covent Garden, this time with Renee Fleming.

Gergiev does Mahler; Dudamel does a dance

LSO / Gergiev - Barbican, 5 June 2008
Philharmonia / Dudamel / Shaham - Royal Festival Hall, 8 June 2008

When I started this blog I promised myself I'd write about every performance I attended. Time has a way of defeating the best of intentions, but in the spirit of completeness I'll just catch up briefly on this pair of baffling performances from two of the most idiosyncratic conductors around.

You can't accuse Valery Gergiev of inconsistency. For this last concert in his Gergiev's Mahler™ cycle with the LSO, the Ninth Symphony coupled with the Adagio from the unfinished Tenth, he blistered forward with the same seat-of-the-pants drive he's displayed throughout the series.

I'm not sure adagios are meant to be that reckless, ländlers that turbulent, but it's undeniably riveting stuff. Lest anyone raise the old no-rehearsal issue, a scattering of precision-schooled climaxes proved that the requisite homework had been completed.

It's music making that lives in the moment, it speaks to the heart rather than the head, and standing back and thinking too hard might have highlighted some curiously back-to-front orchestral balance in places, the lack of measure in tempos. Bizarre but thrilling, and rapturously received by an exceptionally attentive and well-behaved audience. And congratulations to the LSO for (literally) sweating it out in the sub-tropical temperatures of the apparently non-airconditioned Barbican Hall.

 

And if anyone was going to top that, it would have to be Gustavo Dudamel. He whizzed the Philharmonia through Smetana's Overture to The Bartered Bride, found the perfect partner for Dvorak's Violin Concerto in the exuberant but lyrical Gil Shaham, and finished up in blockbuster style with Tchaikovsky's Fifth. 

When a performance is delivered with such rampant joy in music making, it's impossible to criticise. Dudamel jiggles like a battery-operated muppet, his full-body conducting channelling every rhythm, his woefully tuneless bathtub singalong uninhibited in its madness.

Yet it's no sideshow act -  the Philharmonia played with flair and precision, their characteristic lush, warm string sound the base of perfectly balanced textures. And there was no lack of thoughtfulness in the repose of the Dvorak Adagio or the grace of the Tchaikovsky Valse.

A truly special performance that left every single member of the audience with a smile on their face - and how many times does that happen?

 

Muti and Lupu celebrate in style

Philharmonia Orchestra/Muti/Lupu - Royal Festival Hall, 2 December 2007

Maestro Riccardo Muti is so popular round these parts that he got as much applause at the start of this concert as most ordinary mortals would at the end. Well, it was a special occasion -- the 35th anniversary of his first performance with the Philharmonia in fact.

Reprised from that first concert, and with a nod to the recent reopening of the Royal Festival Hall, the starter was appropriately enough Beethoven's Consecration of the House Overture. Not quite Beethoven's finest moment, but the Philharmonia gave it a sprightly and attentive run through, Muti extracting a light but disciplined sound.

It's impressive - and mysterious - how Muti continues year after year to resemble an only-recently retired footballer. A great haircut and plenty of vegetables perhaps? Radu Lupu, who joined the orchestra for Schumann's Piano Concerto, is amazingly four years younger than Muti, though his wispy silver hair and lush beard lend him a far more venerable appearance.

I was glad to be seated close to the stage for this evening. Lupu snuggled up to the keyboard and treated the barn-like Royal Festival Hall to a performance that would have been equally at home in the most intimate of salons, orchestra notwithstanding. I don't know how well this travelled to the balcony. But from where I sat, his gentle touch and delicate shading brought a reflective, autumnal quality to the work. The few moments of volume or virtuosity truly dazzled in contrast.

Lupu is not a pianist who bludgeons the listener with his talents -- he simply radiates his serene empathy with the music and allows us to share in the glow. Such a shame that his London appearances these days are so scarce. The toned down orchestra tiptoed around him with a contained grace that revealed all the subtleties of the scoring.

Another repeat from Muti's very first Philharmonia concert was Mussorgsky's Pictures at an Exhibition. Ravel's orchestration spreads the spotlight around the whole orchestra like a multi-part concerto, and the tremendous discipline of the Philharmonia's playing ensured there were no weak links, with particularly fine playing from the horn and trumpet soloists. It was a well-drilled account, lacking a degree of spontaneity perhaps, but immaculately balanced. Muti whipped up plenty of energy and a few moments of real fire, but ended the evening as he'd begun it - not a bead of sweat, not a hair out of place.

The Royal Festival Hall at chucking out time:

Lupu plays from Beethoven's 32 Variations in C minor in Italy, not long ago I'd guess. Despite the not so great sound and picture quality, this is a marvellous portrait of his technique at work: