Recent Concerts You've Enjoyed

Thought this might be a fun thread and a way to find out about acts on tour.

My wife and I saw the Smoke Fairies at the Tractor Tavern last evening as the opening act for Rasputina. The Smoke Fairies are a 'folk blues' duo from Wales and have been described as "Bob Dylan's dream." I thought that their debut release "Through Low Light and Trees" was one of last year's best. It was just the two principles singing and playing guitar. Really terrific concert with excellent acoustics and thankfully not too loud.

If you are ever in Seattle, the Tractor Tavern is a great venue in the Ballard neighborhood. Very fun people watching...I think my wife and I were the only ones without tattoos! I got to chat with them after their set and had my LP signed. I love the lilting Welsh accents!

Here's a video of "Hotel Room" from their debut LP:

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I just heard Yannick and the Philadelphia Orchestra perform Mahler's 7th at Carnegie Hall. All I can say is, I have no idea why that building, built in 1891, is still standing. Yannick blew the freaking hinges off the doors. The encores lasted over 10 minutes. ( I saw M7 played at Lucerne 2 years ago with Petrenko and the Berlin. I am honestly not convinced they played the same piece of music!!)

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M7 follow-up

A bit of orchestral trivia. A friend of mine who plays trumpet (and who has played w the Philadelphia Orchestra), heard M7 in Philly 2 days ago and called it a once-in-a-lifetime concert, much like the way I felt after hearing it in Carnegie last night. One reason why is the following. The principal trumpet position is currently vacant in Philly. What the top orchestras often do for vacant positions is "borrow" principals from other orchestras for major performances, which is what Philly did for M7. They "borrowed" Esteban Batallan from the Chicago Symphony for their M7 performed in Philly on April 11, Carnegie last night, and again in Philly for the next 2 nights . Batallan is considered among the greatest of all-time trumpet players. In the last movement there is high C after high C and he nailed all of them with power rarely heard. Here is a facebook from Tony Prisk, the 2nd trumpet in Philly who said the following about Batallan (on the right):


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No wonder last night felt electric at Carnegie. If I could, I'd go to Philly to hear it again tonight but I'm hearing Beatrice Rana performing Rach 2 tonight here with the NY Phil at Geffen Hall. (All I'm trying to do is catch-up to Ked for concerts attended this season ;) )
 
M7 follow-up

A bit of orchestral trivia. A friend of mine who plays trumpet (and who has played w the Philadelphia Orchestra), heard M7 in Philly 2 days ago and called it a once-in-a-lifetime concert, much like the way I felt after hearing it in Carnegie last night. One reason why is the following. The principal trumpet position is currently vacant in Philly. What the top orchestras often do for vacant positions is "borrow" principals from other orchestras for major performances, which is what Philly did for M7. They "borrowed" Esteban Batallan from the Chicago Symphony for their M7 performed in Philly on April 11, Carnegie last night, and again in Philly for the next 2 nights . Batallan is considered among the greatest of all-time trumpet players. In the last movement there is high C after high C and he nailed all of them with power rarely heard.

Living in Chicago, I'm fortunate to hear Esteban Batallan regularly. The principal trumpet chair at the CSO is named for the legendary Adolph (Bud) Herseth. Esteban is a worthy successor to Bud Herseth. He was pleased when I said that to him at a dinner last year.
 
Yuja Wang at Carnegie Jan 28, 2023

Last night was one for the ages. It was certainly a once in a lifetime event even for the storied Carnegie Hall, which has seen more than its share of historic one night stands over its 100+ year history. Yuja Wang came down from her spaceship and performed all four of Rachmaninoff’s piano concertos plus the Rhapsody on a Theme by Paganini with Yannick Nézet-Séguin and the Philadelphia Orchestra. The concert lasted over 4 ½ hours (not including her encore). Rachmaninoff, the last of the great romantic composers, was surely smiling from the beyond.

The concert had a wrinkle as the performance was stopped about a minute into the 3rd movement of the first piece (Rach 2) because someone in the audience had a heart attack. Fortunately, Yannick announced from the stage 3 hours later, that the man had surgery (probably a cardiac stent) and survived. (Considering the demographics of a classical music concert audience, I’m surprised I haven’t seen this before.) Yannick was so gracious by saying “we say music is life, but life itself is even more important” as he announced the man’s successful outcome. They restarted the concert from the beginning of the 3rd movement.

The concert was simply extraordinary. Sheer talent and artistry in the extreme. I’ve made over 70 trips around the sun and saw something I have never seen before. At the end of the last piece (Rach 3), Yannick got on his freakin’ knees on stage and bowed to Wang 3 times. Now that is something you don’t see every day and most likely I will never see it again. Just in case you needed convincing that we all just witnessed something very special, all doubt was removed when you saw the musicians going crazy at the end by banging their music stands with their bows and applauding as vigorously as the audience as if they just saw some imaginary concert that was a combination of a Beatles reunion on the Apple rooftop, Sinatra at the Sands, Fitzgerald in Berlin, Freddie Mercury at Wembley stadium and Van Cliburn in Moscow ( he received a 9 minute standing ovation). I lost count of how many curtain calls Wang took before her encore.

Her dresses may not be as famous as her playing, but she did not disappoint there either with a change during each intermission. Don’t be fooled by the fashion side show. (The Kinky Boots outfit brought down the house to thunderous applause before she played). This is an artist of immense substantive talent. She could wear a potato sack. Nobody would care.

Rach 2 (left) Rach 1 (right)
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Rach 4 plus Rhapsody (left) Rach 3 (right)
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It is worth noting that there is a long history of Rachmaninoff and the Philadelphia Orchestra. Rachmaninoff first conducted his masterpiece 2nd symphony with the Philly Orchestra in 1909, where it remains a signature work for the Philadelphians to this day. (He was a triple threat as composer, conductor and one of the greatest pianists of his era). The Philly connection is also augmented by the fact that Yuja Wang is Curtis Music School graduate and has played with Yannick and the Orchestra many times. The same program was performed in Philly the previous 2 nights (as opposed to all 4 concertos plus the Rhapsody in 1 concert as done yesterday) which prompted Yannick to say in an interview that the magic of their chemistry could never have happened if they did not know each other well musically, which they surely do.
This is a fascinating piece about that once-in-a lifetime concert that was posted 2 weeks ago.

 
Well, I was miffed at Yuja Wang's performance with the Toronto Symphony last year. Tickets were expensive and it was clear that most people were there to see her. The evening was mostly filler and then she performed the Rach 3 in the second half of the programme. 40 minutes and that was it. By contrast, John Pizzarelli was in town a couple of weeks ago - tickets were a fraction of the above. After a one hour opening set by a local female jazz vocalist, he took to the stage and gave us 90 minutes of great music as well as a few homespun anecdotes a la his Radio Deluxe show. I hate getting gouged for anything including concerts.
 

This was incredible. And since this isn’t a major population center you can get close to 10th row center stage easily. Which we did

They used period instruments so it sounded like it would have when it was composed.
 
Greetings from Music City

With all due respect to Nashville, Austin or any other place that calls itself Music City, there is only one greatest Music City in the world and that is Vienna.

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My wife and I decided to visit Vienna immediately before I would go on solo to the Munich show, so we could see the once in a lifetime 200th year anniversary performance of Beethoven's 9th Symphony (conducted by Ricardo Muti) at the Musikverein. More on that shortly.

Suffice it to say that Vienna is a stunning city. It has more magnificent grand 19th century buildings then I can recall in any city from my many travels throughout the world. Of course, this was greatly facilitated by the fact that the single family ruled the throne for 600 years (Hapsburgs; ~1500’s to 1918). This allowed them to build essentially whatever the hell they wanted unimpeded, without worrying whether another administration in four year’s time would shut things down or change their overall plan for the city’s design. I don't know how they do it but every building, like the entire city, is immaculate and clean. You could eat off the subway station platforms, they’re so clean! I don't know if they have a secret cleaning crew that scrubs each building stone with formula 409 in the middle of the night, but however they do it, it's damn impressive. It also didn’t hurt that they managed to do this due to 600 years of relative peace throughout their empire as the matriarch, Maria Theresa, was a baby factory, churning out 16 kids (9 daughters) most all of whom were exported like cheese to marry other European rulers. Smart, although you have to wonder what she told her daughters when they turned 15. "Sorry Maria (seems every woman was named Maria) but you have to wed that ugly SOB from (pick a country) for us to continue to prosper. Have fun and send us a postcard every once in a while"....

We began our Viennese musicfest at the State Opera where we were treated to a superb performance of Donizetti’s L’Elixer D’Amore (Elixer of Love) featuring a rising start in the Opera world, Spanish tenor Xabier Anduaga, age 29. I’ve been to many operas but never have I seen an audience go nuts to the point that after his famous aria ‘Una Furtiva Lagrima” in act 2, they relentlessly called out for an encore, which he honored. Encores for operatic arias are often frowned upon and rare. Some conductors refused to do them (e.g. Karajan) because they thought it interrupted the flow of the performance. Thus, what we heard was quite rare. (It was equally rare to watch an opera where nobody dies!) Here’s is a YouTube video of that aria from Anduaga’s debut appearance at the Metropolitan Opera in 2023. Wowza.


Everybody knows the names of the great opera singers of the past. But it is the new stars like sopranos Nadine Sierra and tenors like Anduaga that are the future of opera. Highly recommended to hear if they perform near you. This is vocal art at its highest level. Their appearances are easily found on their web sites. Both are booked world-wide for at least 2 years in advance.

Next up was a beautiful chamber performance by one of the many unknown orchestras of Vienna (there’s the Kaiser orchestra, the Brahms Orchestra, the Mozart orchestra, and the Mahler orchestra among these). Not a surprise as the kids in Vienna all play instruments well by age 10. The performance by the 7 member group we saw was of classic centuries old favorites, but it was the location that surprised me. Anybody recognize this guy?

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Theodor Billroth is a name that every medical student knows because of the abdominal surgery techniques he pioneered such as the partial gastrectomy and gastrojejunostomy that are still used today. He was also president of the Vienna Medical Society in the late 1800s, and the lecture hall where we heard the concert was named in his honor because he was also an exceptional musician! It was a beautiful setting to hear the hits of the day by Mozart, Brahms and of course Strauss.

Before I share my experience at the Musikverein, I’ll share a tale of woe.

I knew it would be very difficult to obtain tickets for the performance that I wanted to see as this was part of a subscription series long sold out. I therefore reached out to independent ticket brokers in Vienna and all but one refused to help me because they said tickets were impossible to get. In September of 2023 I therefore wired money to a broker who said that he could not guarantee specific seats until it was closer to performance time. Even though they had an office right across from the state opera, they stopped answering e-mail and phones in January of 2024. Fortunately I was able to get seats through my hotel concierge a week before my arrival. In checking the Internet I could see I was one of several dozen folks who were scammed by the agency I sent money to. At the very least, I thought I should report him to the local police. They told me there were several reports already filed, but they spent 30 minutes taking information from me including confirmation of bank wiring instructions and receipt, and they proceded to file a report in great detail. I could not believe the effort they put into this. They treated it as if it was the Brinks robbery. I told them that in New York I would have been waved out of the police station in the first three seconds, as it is well known that shoplifters and murderers are no longer prosecuted or brought to justice there. They laughed. I then went around the corner and bought them a box of chocolate which they appreciated. It is no wonder that Travel and Leisure magazine called Vienna the most livable city in the world for 5 out of the past 6 years.

I also want to give a shout out to Goran (WBF’s Golum) who telephoned a friend in Vienna and asked her to stand in line for returned tickets that were sold to the public on the morning of April 29th. She managed to secure some for me but they were standing room only or seats in back of the organ, which is not something I aspired to so I ended up giving them away. The orchestra does this intentionally so folks that cannot afford ordinary tickets are not deprived of culture. The standing room seats were €5 each and the seats in the organ balcony were €15. I'm not going to tell you what I paid for seats in the partierre, but I paid more than for some audio cables that I own!

Now, on to the performance. The first thing that crossed my mind that night was that I finally understood why Dave Wilson considered hearing music in the Musikverein a life changing experience. It is well known that he designed and voiced the latest midrange driver of his speakers to help him reproduce what he considered a reference sound based on what he heard at Musikverein. Now I understand why. It would be foolish to try to state what others have said repeatedly. In the classic survey of the famed acoustician Leo Baranek, the sound of the Musikverein Is consistently rated the number one Music Hall in the world. I could describe the acoustics in great detail and depth, but why bother? If you are interested, here is an article that describes the sound of the hall far more eloquently than I could ever hope to do.

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To be continued
 
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Part 2:

I’ve been to many of the world’s great halls, and even in great halls, every seat sounds a little different. I walked around the partierre (orchestra floor level) as the musicians were warming up and could easily hear the pros and cons of different parts of the hall for a variety of instruments. But once the performance started, my audio brain just turned off, so overpowering was the sense of where I was and what I was listening to. The tears started when the basso started his solo in the 4th movement. I was just overwhelmed. Looking around the room, I could see I was not alone. People who I thought might have trouble walking almost seemed to levitate out of their seat, The energy was tangible and palpable. The performance was recorded by cameras and there were at least 15 microphones that were used to record the performance. Somehow, I doubt there will ever be anything one could capture even with a good spot-miked recording compared to what I heard in that magnificent hall.

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Two sonic impressions are noteworthy. To begin I would say this is the best sound of violins that I have ever heard in a performance hall, and that is saying something. There’s a golden richness and tone about it that is simply exceptional. Of course, every seat is different and from my seat on the right side of the Partierre, the sound of the violas unfortunately came from the back of the instruments, whereas seats more towards the middle of the hall would enjoy a better balanced and immediate sound of the violas.

Second, I think a key to the sound of the hall was accurately stated in the referenced Tumbler article which said: “There are a number of reasons for the Musikverein’s good stage acoustics. One is that the orchestra gets a lot of support from early reflections. The “cueball” reflections off the balcony undersides are particularly critical…”. But I think it’s more than that. The tympani on the left and the double bass on the right are under those balcony overhangs. This very much reminded me of the extra bass one might get by moving speakers back towards the corner or wall of a room. It sure seemed like a bass reinforcement mechanism at work to me.

The biggest mistake I made was not staying another 2 nights to hear Klaus Mäkelä and the Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra perform Bruckner’s 5th Symphony in the same hall. (Mäkelä was recently appointed the new director of both the Chicago Symphony Orchestra and the Concertgebouw in 2027. In the meantime, he currently leads the Oslo Philharmonic and the Orchestra de Paris. Not bad for a 28 year old kid!). But even if I wanted to stay, tickets have been long sold out. Looks like I’ll have to go to the Munich HiFi show on Thursday and listen to some half million dollar stereos instead. :cool:

The last stop on the pre-Munich Hi-Fi show classical music tour was hearing the Munich Philharmonic conducted by Paavo Järvi play Mahler’s Kindertotenlieder and Symphony #1 by Hans Rott. No need to say much about the hall, as it is a temporary hall that is being used while their regular hall is being renovated. Songs about the death of children is not exactly music to dance to, but the mezzo-soprano Okka von der Damerau sang it beautifully. The highlight of the evening however was Rott’s first Symphony. Rott was a contemporary and friend of Mahler, and the favorite student of Bruckner. However his first Symphony received such a severe rebuke from Brahms, that it literally drove Rott crazy, and he was eventually hospitalized for psychiatric issues, eventually drying of tuberculosis at age 26. It is his only Symphony and one can't help wonder what might have been. Not surprisingly, since he was taught by Bruckner, there is some very beautiful and fine brass scoring. Paavo Järvi, knows what he wants and how to get it from the orchestra. The orchestra really plays with verve and plays vigorously The woodwinds were particularly outstanding, and their principal clarinetist reminded me of Philly’s incomparable Ricardo Morales. Not being familiar with the piece, I really enjoyed it. I hope it gets played more often.

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Marty,

Congratulations on attending a very special performance of Beethoven's Ninth!

The acoustics of concert halls is a very interesting topic. Willem Boning's blog which you referenced seems to be one of the best sources of information and opinion. It would be good if he updated the and added to the blog, but perhaps that's now "politically" unwise as he's a consultant with Arup.

His index https://fromthesoundup.tumblr.com/ind has links to many halls. I found his comments on Berlin and Paris particularly interesting. I strongly prefer traditional seating in front of the orchestra and being able to see all of the musicians. The vineyard style halls have way too many seats with non-optimal orchestral balance.
 
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The standing room seats were €5 each and the seats in the organ balcony were €15. I'm not going to tell you what I paid for seats in the partierre, but I paid more than for some audio cables that I own!
You can't trick me. You use Ching Cheng:)
 
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I suspect that the good acoustics in the Musikverein are partly due to a compact stage and relatively high risers.

Marty: Are the risers are high enough so that most of the audience in the Parterre can see the musicians and get some direct sound?
 
Marty,

Congratulations on attending a very special performance of Beethoven's Ninth!

The acoustics of concert halls is a very interesting topic. Willem Boning's blog which you referenced seems to be one of the best sources of information and opinion. It would be good if he updated the and added to the blog, but perhaps that's now "politically" unwise as he's a consultant with Arup.

His index https://fromthesoundup.tumblr.com/ind has links to many halls. I found his comments on Berlin and Paris particularly interesting. I strongly prefer traditional seating in front of the orchestra and being able to see all of the musicians. The vineyard style halls have way too many seats with non-optimal orchestral balance.
Thanks for that link.. lots of interesting reading
 
Loved the Munich High End 2024 Show.! On the way back though we spent a few days in Paris as the Saint- Germain- Des- Pres Jazz Festival was on. Kind of reminds you why you are always seeking to improve your hifi stuff ;)

At the Auditorium De'Alliance Francaise venue, Kareen Guiock-Thuram's interpretation of songs by Nina Simone was inspired!
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