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IgnorantRockFan
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« on: 23:01:51, 02-09-2008 » |
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That was amazing. Whoever it was that predicted I would like it (Richard?) was absolutely right  |
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Allegro, ma non tanto
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #1 on: 23:25:16, 02-09-2008 » |
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I've just got home and it was wonderful.
I was a bit disappointed by the onde martenot. I was imaging a cuddly little thing a bit like a Womble.
I was in the gallery for the first time. I found the most comfortable postion at first was leaning my arms on the gallery, with a straight back. This meant that I listened to the Prelude and Liebestod, and first five movement of Messaien on my knees.
I suspect Wagner would think it was only his due.
After hearing Ravel and Debussy in the last week, what a relief to have a French composer with a bit of oomph.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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harmonyharmony
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« Reply #2 on: 23:44:00, 02-09-2008 » |
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I was a bit disappointed by the onde martenot. I was imaging a cuddly little thing a bit like a Womble.
I've just had one of those keyboard-redecorating moments... That was amazing. Whoever it was that predicted I would like it (Richard?) was absolutely right I love Turangalila. (I've even dismembered part of it as Stuart will well remember...). I think I've only heard it live once though at The Sage, Gateshead. |
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'is this all we can do?' anonymous student of the University of Berkeley, California quoted in H. Draper, 'The new student revolt' (New York: Grove Press, 1965) http://www.myspace.com/itensemble |
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Bryn
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« Reply #3 on: 00:18:37, 03-09-2008 » |
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Just got home too. Rattle and the Berliners done good, though I thought the snare drum a bit tenuous at times. Shame about the clumsy oafs in the lower boxes on the left of the Hall, and the trio of fidgets immediately behind me, one of whom managed to jangle her multiple bracelets throughout quiet periods, and another of whom suddenly started rustling what sounded like a paper bag during Jardin du sommeil d'amour, and then apparently proceeded to vomit into it.
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perfect wagnerite
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« Reply #4 on: 07:27:51, 03-09-2008 » |
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I was a bit disappointed by the onde martenot. I was imaging a cuddly little thing a bit like a Womble.
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At every one of these [classical] concerts in England you will find rows of weary people who are there, not because they really like classical music, but because they think they ought to like it. (Shaw, Don Juan in Hell)
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Mary Chambers
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« Reply #5 on: 08:48:42, 03-09-2008 » |
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I'd never heard it before, so I thought I'd better give it a go before hearing it live tomorrow. An odd mixture, I thought. Some of it sounded like 1930s film music. I didn't really get it, I don't think. It'll be interesting to compare the live experience, which should be better (if noisier).
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George Garnett
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« Reply #6 on: 09:09:13, 03-09-2008 » |
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It is a joyous thing, isn't it. Lucky old Messiaen. I kept listening out for Rattle-tics to disapprove of since I know we are meant to but no complaints at all on that score from me. Very impressive and to my ears anyway the high definition Berlin sound suited it perfectly.
Delighted to hear you managed to get a ticket for the Liverpool performance tomorrow, Mary. There's no question: it is one of those works that reveals much more of itself in live performance. Enjoy!
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« Last Edit: 09:18:20, 03-09-2008 by George Garnett »
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HtoHe
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« Reply #7 on: 11:02:36, 03-09-2008 » |
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I thought the performance of Turangalila was marvellous and, for once, I was sitting in an area free of disturbances. There was the odd clunk as inadequatedly attended things dropped to the floor but none of the really annoying things like people chatting during the performance or illuminating their blackberries (?) so they catch the corners of all their neighbours' eyes or squeezing their plastic water bottles etc etc.
I thought the programme notes were a marvellous aid to following the piece. It is, after all, very complex and the way each movement was described without fuss or technical language was, in my opinion anyway, an object lesson in how these things should be done.
Must dash now. That's almost certainly my last live Prom. With luck I'll be back home to catch the 2nd half of tonight's prom on the radio.
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #8 on: 11:07:46, 03-09-2008 » |
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I was probably distracting my neighbours by trying to read the very interesting notes, at least between the movements. I hope I was not distracting.
From the gallery, the arena prommers, when I noticed them, struck me as remarkably still.
I didn't notice any bird song. The notes didn't mention any. Was Olivier practicing a self denying ordinance and not including any for a change?
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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rauschwerk
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« Reply #9 on: 11:19:41, 03-09-2008 » |
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I didn't notice any bird song. The notes didn't mention any. Was Olivier practicing a self denying ordinance and not including any for a change?
Jardin du Sommeil d'amour has birdsong on the piano throughout, namely the songs of the nightingale, blackbird and garden warbler. And at the start the next movement we can imagine the lovers awoken by a strident dawn chorus from the piano. |
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #10 on: 11:22:14, 03-09-2008 » |
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I was probably distracting my neighbours by trying to read the very interesting notes, at least between the movements. I hope I was not distracting.
From the gallery, the arena prommers, when I noticed them, struck me as remarkably still.
I didn't notice any bird song. The notes didn't mention any. Was Olivier practicing a self denying ordinance and not including any for a change?
Oo no, it's certainly in there. It's mainly in the Jardin du sommeil d'amour but there's also a fair bit in Chant d'amour 2 for example. This was still before he specified in the scores what the actual birds were. That kicked off in the early 1950s thanks partly to meeting the ornithologist Jacques Delamain in 1952. |
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richard barrett
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« Reply #11 on: 11:23:37, 03-09-2008 » |
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I didn't notice any bird song. The notes didn't mention any. Was Olivier practicing a self denying ordinance and not including any for a change?
Jardin du Sommeil d'amour has birdsong on the piano throughout, namely the songs of the nightingale, blackbird and garden warbler. And at the start the next movement we can imagine the lovers awoken by a strident dawn chorus from the piano. And indeed it's only in later pieces that birdsong-transcriptions really come to the foreground in Messiaen's music. |
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Ian Pace
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« Reply #12 on: 11:24:29, 03-09-2008 » |
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Messiaen's use of birdsong before the 1950s was more general, allusive (in the tradition of other composers before him such as Beethoven or Debussy, even when there are specific birds in mind), as compared to the more literalist (in a certain sense) renditions to be found in the Catalogue d'Oiseaux and many other works. That's perhaps a reason why the birdsong in the Turangalila (and in a few places in the Vingt Regards) isn't so obviously striking as such.
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'These acts of keeping politics out of music, however, do not prevent musicology from being a political act . . .they assure that every apolitical act assumes a greater political immediacy' - Philip Bohlman, 'Musicology as a Political Act'
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Don Basilio
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« Reply #13 on: 11:28:38, 03-09-2008 » |
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I obviously don't listen to enough birds to recognise them when I hear them.
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To every thing there is a season, and a time to every purpose under heaven.
A time to weep, and a time to laugh: a time to mourn, and a time to dance
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oliver sudden
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« Reply #14 on: 11:32:58, 03-09-2008 » |
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"I had already, for a long time, devoted myself to noting more or less accurately the songs of birds, but without knowing which of them I was writing down... Jacques Delamain had used his spare time to study birds, and had become over the years an amateur who was recognized and respected by experts. And if his books are not strictly speaking scientific, they are none the less completely accurate, ornithologically speaking. It is he who taught me to recognize a bird from its song, without having to see its plumage or the shape of its beak, or its flight, so that I no longer mistook a blackcap for a chaffinch or a garden warbler." He did use birdsong more 'ornamentally' for the most part at that stage, DB, so it's entirely possible that the foreground of your attention was rightly elsewhere. |
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