A belated thank you, opilec, for those pictures of Charles Mackerras in Vienna.

Dr Theatre must be at work again as CM obviously has the same charisma; vivid memories of him when his  moon shaped features literally beamed over at us when he stepped into the orchestra pit, at The Coli, in the70s.  He always looked pleased to be there, despite the setback of backstage politics at the time.  Thrilling reminders of his Janacek, of course, and he was always on a par with Goodall in The Ring cycle and Mastersingers.

And what a concert it was! It was scheduled to finish at 9:30pm…it actually finished at 10:50pm!! Somebody got their timings ever so slightly awry – I’ll be interested to hear how Radio 3 manage to squeeze it into the 1 ¾ hour Performance on 3 slot on Tuesday!! We had Purcell, Rameau conducted by Norrington, Mozart’s double piano concerto, which was great fun, although I’d be interested to know how much of the pianoforte sound carried to the back of the hall. Jurowski conducted some zinging Haydn, followed by a semi-staged ‘Wolf’s Glen’ scene from Weber’s ‘Der Freischutz’ conducted by Mark Elder – semi-staged, house lights off, pit desk lamps on for the orchestra with atmospheric lighting; this was incredibly dramatic. The evening finished with nearly 80 players on stage, including Vladimir Jurowksi on second harpsichord(!), in Handel’s Firework Music, conducted by the marvellous Charles Mackerras – a glorious noise. This gala had a real party feel about it and there was a wonderful sense of ‘coming home’ to being back in the old place.

Hi opilec! Do listen on Tuesday - to whatever R3 manages to broadcast! What was the Mackerras/ Philharmonia concert like and what did you make of the RFH? Biggest problem last night was where to find the cloakroom! Then, having located it, found only two staff on duty who didn't inspire me with confidence that they'd be able to cope at the end of the concert, so I grabbed my coat and brolly in the second interval to stash under my chair.
I was in the Annexe...whoops, Side Stalls, as we must now call them and noticed that those seats further from the stage are now angled towards it. The gangway at the back of the front stalls is narrower which will means it will take even longer for those in the stalls to eventually take their seats!    Difficult to judge the sound, but somebody who worked there said that the recent Mahler 3 showed what a difference the refurbishment had made, especially to the brass sound. Certainly, I felt there was more bass resonance. How did it sound in the Janacek?

I'm pretty sure it was a baroque contra-bassoon.

We keep just missing each other, George! Really enjoyed Benvenuto Cellini at the Barbican on Friday, btw.

Here's the baroque contrabassoon:

http://www.dulcians.org/LV_contra.htm

Impressive, isn't it?!

Opilec,

Glad you enjoyed the production of Kata (though as you already know, I didn't much care for it). Interesting what you say about the audience, they seemed pretty enthusiastic on the Friday.

It's interesting that you too found the the sound of the RFH much better for the Janacek, it was a stunning performance, and certainly the highlight of the evening. I have been wondering if maybe they'd tuned the hall with that in mind, which was why the sound was less than ideal in the first half (in particular I think the piano carried very oddly).

If I get round to it, I'll write out my thoughts in more detail.

As to the OAE, I'll listen to some on Tuesday, and I'm curious to hear the fireworks. Of course, what I'd really like to hear in the flesh in Mackerras doing the wind version he recorded so brilliant all those years ago (but for many reasons I suspect that's unlikely), I'd also be interested if rerecorded it, as I suspect he'd go a bit more briskly now. However, as a whole I don't think I'd have been able to stomach the concert as I have a serious aversion to Norrington.

bws

p.s. I don't know if you've had a chance to listen to the Oramo, but I should have mentioned, the rather poor (and especially harsh sound), is entirely the fault of the engineers (the BBC now outsources that work up here) who managed to get a very different sound to the one we were treated to in the hall.

Norrington did one of his 'aren't I clever' turns to the audience at the end of the Rameau on Saturday but he was out-clowned by some way by Richard Egarr and Robert Levin in the Mozart Two Piano Concerto. Just about forgiveable in an anniversary concert, I suppose, but personally I would have preferred it without. (Oh dear, that's almost a humourless grump). It's just that the music was high-spirited and fizzy enough by itself without the added mugging.

Sir Charles conducts Missa Solemnis on TTN.

Tuesday 2.54 am.