Orchestra of the Royal Opera House / Antonio Pappano / Thomas Hampson / Klaus Florian Vogt - Cadogan Hall, 27 February 2011
It's not often the worker bees of the Royal Opera House orchestra are released from their Covent Garden nest. It's not often either that the Cadogan Hall, despite its fine acoustic, hosts much worth listening to. But after Andres Orozco-Estrada's splendid Tonkünstler Orchestra they managed to pull a second terrific evening out of the bag.
CBSO / Nelsons - Symphony Hall, Birmingham, 16 September 2010
Was it worth travelling all the way to Birmingham and back for just 90 minutes of music? You bet.
The CBSO kicked off their season and their Mahler cycle with the 8th Symphony. A cast of 600 filled the stage and the choir stalls and stretched around the side galleries.
Prom 34: Deutsches Symphonie-Orchester Berlin / Ingo Metzmacher / Leonidas Kavakos - Royal Albert Hall, 10 August 2010
Though the BBC chose not to mention it anywhere, Tuesday night's Prom marked Ingo Metzmacher's final concert as chief conductor of the DSO. Regular readers may have gathered from previous posts the flavour of German orchestral politics, and the extraordinary influence wielded by public funding bodies there. Metzmacher's departure is another twist on the familiar story. Denied the cash required to fill what he considers essential orchestral positions, Metzmacher shocked everyone including his orchestra by choosing to resign.
Continue reading "Prom 34: a little Nacht music from Ingo Metzmacher and the DSO" »
A few events that may have slipped beneath your radar:
If you missed out in the ticket scrum for Esa-Pekka Salonen's Philharmonia Tristan und Isolde at the Royal Festival Hall with Gary Lehman and Violeta Urmana, you might consider travelling to Birmingham Symphony Hall (where the sound is also immeasurably better) on 23 September 2010 for the UK premiere. Not many tickets left so don't hang around too long.
Birmingham is also the furthest south that Opera North will bring their new Das Rheingold (semi-staged) next summer. It's on 24 June 2011 and there are plenty of tickets left at the time of writing, though the best are going fast.
Antonio Pappano and the Royal Opera House orchestra take a rare step outside Covent Garden on 27 February 2011 when they perform at Cadogan Hall. Thomas Hampson and ~Klaus Florian Vogt~ join them for the chamber version of Das Lied von der Erde, with Wagner's Siegfried Idyll also on the bill. Tickets went on sale yesterday.
Every orchestra in the country seems to be doing a Mahler cycle this year, and the CBSO are no exception, with what might turn out to be the best of the lot.
Their 2010-11 season begins with a bang on 16 September when Andris Nelsons conducts the supersized Symphony No.8 (repeated on 18 September). I haven't heard Nelsons' Mahler yet, but how's this for a review, from Hilary Finch in the Times:
Later in the year Nelsons conducts No's 5 and 9, and the remainder of the symphonies are shared by Sakari Oramo, Vassily Sinaisky and Jac van Steen. Sir Charles Mackerras conducts Kindertotenlieder, and the Mahler cycle rounds off on 12 June 2011 with a visit from Simon Rattle for Das Lied von der Erde, with Magdalena Kožená and Michael Schade.
There's more to life than Mahler of course, and I'm going to be checking out some of Nelsons' other concerts if I can find the time to whizz up to Birmingham. Unlike some of today's younger conductors, Nelsons is emphatically not coasting on charm or enthusiasm, nor is he being overhyped by an industry in search of the next cash cow. He's the real thing, and Birmingham is lucky to have him.
Be warned that the Mahler 8 and the Simon Rattle concert are selling well, so don't leave booking these too late.
There are also a few tickets left for this Saturday's concert performance of Lohengrin, conducted by Nelsons (and featuring Kostas Smoriginas as Schaunard if you believe the website), in case you need to escape the football.
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