SFS & MTT - 2nd Concert
Well, their second concert was a bit different. First, there was a concerto. Lynn Harrell was the cellist, playing Schumann's cello concerto. Schumann's cello concerto was never an exciting piece. It was flat, without any climax or capturing melody. Perhaps it was my bias. Harrell's performance was average. But his encore was really crap. He played Schumann's Traumerei. It seemed that he was in a hurry. There was no rubato, no double stoppings - just a plain Traumerei. Yes, his bowing was good, but there was no music at all.
I shall not say much about the piece by Charles Ives because I don't know it, but the orchestra was much more together compared with the first night.
Brahms Symphony No.2 was the focus of the concert for me. This time the SFS lived up to the expectation. They were, again, much more together (I guess they were paying more attention in the second concert). The brass and the woodwinds were excellent, with a full but controlled sound; the strings were warm and sweet. I was listening to Carlos Kleiber's version before going to the concert. It turned out that MTT was quite close to Kleiber, except that his speed was slower than that of Kleiber in the final movement. Overall speaking, I am quite satisfied with the second half.
But the encores! I couldn't believe my ears - they repeated what they played on the first night, but only the Chinese piece and the Brahms Hungarian Dance! How could they do that? Am I going to listen to the same stuff tonight? They should have prepared more encore pieces for the trip. It is utterly not fair for those who attend more than one concert. I was quite disappointed about this. But then, it was kinda compensated by the excellent Brahms.
I am looking forward to attending the pre-concert talk tonight and the Mahler No.10.
I shall not say much about the piece by Charles Ives because I don't know it, but the orchestra was much more together compared with the first night.
Brahms Symphony No.2 was the focus of the concert for me. This time the SFS lived up to the expectation. They were, again, much more together (I guess they were paying more attention in the second concert). The brass and the woodwinds were excellent, with a full but controlled sound; the strings were warm and sweet. I was listening to Carlos Kleiber's version before going to the concert. It turned out that MTT was quite close to Kleiber, except that his speed was slower than that of Kleiber in the final movement. Overall speaking, I am quite satisfied with the second half.
But the encores! I couldn't believe my ears - they repeated what they played on the first night, but only the Chinese piece and the Brahms Hungarian Dance! How could they do that? Am I going to listen to the same stuff tonight? They should have prepared more encore pieces for the trip. It is utterly not fair for those who attend more than one concert. I was quite disappointed about this. But then, it was kinda compensated by the excellent Brahms.
I am looking forward to attending the pre-concert talk tonight and the Mahler No.10.
posted by Andy at 2/11/2006 10:44:00 AM
1 Comments:
I watched Beauty and the Beast last night. In general, I don't really like it, both the dance and the music. Fortunately, there was 1 pas de deux I really like. That's why the beast changes back into the prince and dances with the belle. Very touching and I could feel all the audience were so absorbed in the performance.
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