Simon rattle/Berlin Philharmonic

[bonzo75]

Got tickets to their Sibelius 5, 6, 7 on one night, and Mahler 2 on another, all in Feb. Pretty excited. This on the back of Dudamel's Beethoven 5th, Wagner, and Mahler's fifth is pretty good eh?

 

[ack]

Excellent! Post pictures; I love Rattle and Magico Dudamel!

 

[bonzo75]

Excellent! Post pictures; I love Rattle and Magico Dudamel!

Saw Dudamel last Thursday and Friday - pretty energetic and lively, large scale. Quite a contrast to Gardiner who did Beethoven's fifth with a light period orchestra

 

[ack]

If you get a chance, watch Dudamel conduct Mahler's 2nd at your own Royal Albert Hall - notice the performers' emotion at the end

 

[bonzo75]

The Albert Hall actually has poor acoustics. I avoid watching there, prefer Barbican and Festival Hall for orchestras, Wigmore Hall for smaller scale stuff (chamber, arias), and St. Martin's for Baroque. I watched the Royal Philharmonic (Albert HAll's resident orchestra) do Beethoven's 9th there. They repeated the performance at barbican and it was multiple times better. That said, RAH is a great venue for rock and blues, I have seen Eric Clapton 3 times there.

 

[awsmone]

Saw Rattle live with Berlin phil doing Mahler's 2nd as well as his Mahler 1 ( his 2nd is very personal)

Wonderful experience....

Am enjoying Dudamel's rise

Could he be the next Carlos Kleiber?

Be interested to hear his interpretation of Beethoven's fifth

 

[Whatmore]

Dudamel's Rites of Spring is simply amazing

 

[soundArgument]

I heard Dudamel's very first performance in the United States - Mahler 1 with the CSO. I can assure you that he is not the next Carlos Kleiber, nor is he even the next Simon Rattle or Riccardo Muti.

I heard the BPO twice in October in Berlin, and the experience was something. One of the concerts was with Andris Nelsons. I'm convinced that he's the conductor of the future.

Enjoy the shows, Bonzo!

 

[astrotoy]

I heard Dudamel's very first performance in the United States - Mahler 1 with the CSO. I can assure you that he is not the next Carlos Kleiber, nor is he even the next Simon Rattle or Riccardo Muti.

I heard the BPO twice in October in Berlin, and the experience was something. One of the concerts was with Andris Nelsons. I'm convinced that he's the conductor of the future.

Enjoy the shows, Bonzo!

Very interesting perspective on Andris Nelsons. We saw him conduct the Vienna Phil last year - 2 concerts in Berkeley, on their US tour. I told my wife and some friends that Nelsons reminded me a lot of Carlos Kleiber in his conducting technique, use of both arms and hands and body. I never got to see Kleiber live (I guess a lot of people can say that), but the DVD's of his concerts are fascinating to watch and hear, much like Nelsons was live. Boston is very fortunate in getting him, hopefully for the long term. I must be getting old - I saw Munch conducting the BSO when I was in college - Leinsdorf was the new BSO MD. Nelsons is the age of our daughter!

Larry

 

[astrotoy]

I've only been at RAH a couple of times. Most recently was a couple of years ago and I think the acoustics have been improved over an earlier visit. However, the basic huge size and circular shape of the RAH are really hard to deal with. It's also a good venue for circus acts and ice skating shows. We've been going to the relatively new Cadogan Hall, near Sloane Square, the past couple of years where the RPO seems to have taken either primary or at least a secondary residence. It is smaller, at 900 seats, than Barbican or RFH, and seems to suit their forces pretty well.

Wigmore is by far our favorite London venue - intimate, with great acoustics for solo or chamber music or even medium small ensembles. It is only about 6 blocks from our London timeshare, and usually has 9 concerts a week - so there is plenty to see and hear. They even have a nice little restaurant downstairs for a pre concert dinner. My only complaint is that at 6'2", my legs are not designed for the row spacing - like economy on typical US domestic airlines. Each year we go to Wigmore, the audience has seemed to aged a year - more walkers and wheel chairs. We even had a concert stopped this past year for announcements for the person with the hearing aid that was making a loud, high pitched noise, to please turn it off. I'm afraid the plea fell upon deaf ears!

Larry

 

[ack]

If you want to get an idea of what the BSO sounds like now under Nelsons, get this CD, recorded during his inaugural performances last fall