Planning on being there on 19th and July 4th, Ian. Bevvies all round. 

Well I'd like to hear what eru thought of it, but until he posts (I expect he's having a beer a two now) you'll have to make do with the impressions of a violinist non-pianist who doesn't really know the repertoire but might just have an OK pair of ears......

I thought he was bloody brilliant.

Rachmaninov's Etudes-Tableaux no.s 7, 8, and 9 just came off really well.  No.7 especially.  "Poise" and "crispness" I think are good words.  Occasionally I felt the lower registers got lost a little when the upper chords were pedalled, but that could just have been the room.  And there was the odd misfire when leaping for higher notes.  But all told, these performances had drive and vigour, and a really good sense of direction.  I liked it a lot.

The Brahms intermezzi were every bit as good as in April, if not better.  I think the thing I like about eru's Brahms is that I can hear the overall structure, the phrase shapes and then nuances within those.  It's a very organic experience listening to it, like something is growing, breathing, swaying.  And it has a definite direction.  3 notes always lead somewhere (or go away from somewhere...)

Ragamuffin was again great fun.  Perhaps in the early stages a little cloudier than at the earlier gig?  But as the work went on eru got back into his stride and really brought it off with aplomb.

You boarders who keep missing eru's gigs really should get your acts into gear.  You really are missing something.

The other performer was really good too.  (I won't name her, seeing as I'm not going to name eru).  She started with the 15th of the Vingt Regards.  It took me a while to get used to the fact that she moved around so much (eru is quite straight), and I felt her laying was a bit flat in the early stages.  This regard has three chords leading to a fourth, and that pattern keeps repeating.  I found the 3 chords didn't go anywhere, and couldn't work out whether I liked this or not (and I spent some time trying to experience it as just 3 chords all the same).  In the end she moved on to the section where the LH alone takes up the chords and the RH goes off and does something fancy.  I was gobsmacked.

Her Beethoven Sonata Op.2 No.2 was damn good too.  Different work, but I found the bottom was not swamped by the top, and here was some terrifically crisp interpretation (and electric runs!  My fave!).  Occasionally I was distracted by inconsistent note lengths, and it was a sadly underwhelming ending.  But a very accomplished player and someone to watch out for.

Two very different presentations.  eru walked on, did the business, minimal fuss about all that bowing nonsense....  but was visibly in a completely different space when sat on the piano stool - totally connected with what he was doing.  The other spoke about her two works (I found it annoying), moved around a lot (I got used to it), and had several hand flourishes after quite phrases (never got that one).

This was all a revelation for me.  I am an emphatic player and I have been told I move a lot.  But I find my  movement is a physical by-product / reaction to having to get the bow to do what I want (and not at all conscious).  I also find that chamber musicians can read what I am about to do very easily.  What surprised me today was that I really enjoyed watching someone look so calm and still and yet get such movement out of the music.

Top marks, eru.

Looking forward to the next gig.

Tommo

I didn't go to this one. I've heard (and sung) Carmina Burana several times too often. The performance had probably been hyped on Classic FM, which is no doubt good for audience figures but may bring indiscriminating audiences. (Is there a snob smiley?) And Petrenko, I think, has a strong unofficial fan club - audiences always seem to go mad if he's on the podium. Does it count as a standing ovation when it's only a minority of the audience, as it was at the Mahler concert?  I always stay firmly sitting down.

I thought the audience behaviour where I was sitting was better than average if anything, Mary: no talking during the performance; no mobiles went off; nobody waited for the opening bars before rooting around for their glasses, hankies etc.  Even the incredibly badly-designed text booklet (8 sides of stiff A4 stapled in a way that made it near-impossible to use quietly) didn't cause too much disturbance as most people didn't try to follow it.  I couldn't comment on how discriminating they were.


It was certainly a majority standing to applaud last night.  I thought it might be a local tradition (from what I've seen anyone who doesn't get a standing ovation at the Concertgebouw, for example, might want to consider following another profession) but I don't remember it from when I used to go to the Phil years ago.  I don't think it was the Petrenko effect - Vernon Handley certainly got the same treatment (OK, perhaps not so much whistling!) a few months ago, as you'll remember ; though I actually did think that was a very good performance.  Strangely enough, the jazz audiences seemed less demonstrative.


I'm regretting missing that one even more now, George.  The August 1st Prom looks very attractive.

Perhaps it's just Liverpool hyperbole, so to speak? I know that's not the word, but I'm thinking of the Liverpool tendency to say "millions" when they mean "quite a lot" - a tendency to exaggerate. The only time I saw it years ago was when Britten came to a performance of the War Requiem (with Pears and Heather Harper singing). The standing ovation was directed to the composer, who was in  the staff box at the back of the hall.


Thank you very much for this, George. I hadn't seen it. There were microphones at the concert, but not BBC microphones, I don't think. They may have recorded it for an RLPO own label CD

I was going to go and see a concert at the Salle Pleyel this evening - Boulez conducting Schoenberg, Berg and Mahler. On the other hand the pieces won't be my very favourites by the said composers. And on the other other hand I went to the general rehearsal today for an EIC concert tomorrow: Grisey Quatre chants pour franchir le seuil with Barbara Hannigan. I'm in no shape to listen to anything else after that. Even though it was only the general and even though even in concerts the Intercons aren't always tip-top at considering the visual aspect of their performance (and are thus inclined to make silly faces at the slightest opportunity) that was one of the most stunning things I've heard for ages. Hannigan was incredible; her voice is quite 'straight' and she doesn't overdo the emoting but that's exactly what's needed in this music I think. Anyway her accuracy in the microtones is a wonder in itself (I wish it were more of a compliment to note that in that respect she did at least as well as any of the instrumentalists and better than nearly all of them) and her voice had plenty of spin all the way up.

I'd never heard the piece before but it was an absolute kick in the guts (I mean that in a good way). What a loss Grisey's death was (further evidence for that last night with L'Icône paradoxale and the night before that with Le Noir de l'Étoile)...

The gig itself is at 21h in the Pompidou centre in case anyone's in the neighbourhood. (I'll be at the general rehearsal for something else, alas.)

It's even funnier when it goes wrong, believe me, and I speak from personal experience! I played that so many times, barely a year went by when it didn't rear its head.


Lovely! Am envious.