performed by Eero Heinonen, or below by someone who may or not be the same person (cover image by Dennis Buchner) It’s unlikely that when you hear Sibelius’ name, you think of anything he wrote for piano. Whether it’s any … Continue reading Sibelius: Eight pieces, op. 99
featuring Piotr Anderszewski Something Old, Something New A world premiere, an old favorite, and a tough sell on Sibelius It’s not every concert you go to that you need to hear a work you haven’t heard live before. I’m working on … Continue reading NSO’s Lemminkäinen
performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä, or below with the Helsinki Philharmonic under Leif Segerstam Det är synd om människorna (One feels pity for human beings). August Strindberg (cover image by Radek Grzybowski) Well, we saw Sibelius a … Continue reading Sibelius Symphony no. 4 in Am, op. 63
performed by the Voces Intimae Quartet, or below by the Copenhagen String Quartet (cover image by Hans Eiskonen) It turned out as something wonderful. The kind of thing that brings a smile to your lips at the hour of death. … Continue reading Sibelius String Quartet in Dm, op. 56 ‘Voces Intimae’
featuring 黃心芸 (Hsin-Yun Huang), viola The dilemma! There were two concerts this evening, and I really wanted to go to both of them. If you’ve read any of my other concert reviews, you’ll be aware that we have two major … Continue reading NSO: Osmo Vänskä & Sibelius
featuring Yu-Chien Benny Tseng (曾宇謙), violin After a very hot day in Taipei and a train ride back down to the new(ish) opera house, which I haven’t visited for almost exactly four months, I find myself yet again in one of … Continue reading Esa-Pekka Salonen & Philharmonia Orchestra
or The Wood Nymph performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä I’m excited about the next few posts for this series because they touch on a special type of tone poem. There’s nothing anywhere (that I recall) about patriotic or … Continue reading Sibelius: Skogsrået
(Spring Song) performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä If ever there was a piece that felt like one of those rare, never-to-be repeated moments in life, blue sky, sun’s warmth on your back, in a picture-perfect landscape … Continue reading Sibelius: Vårsång
performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä En saga is the expression of a state of mind. I had undergone a number of painful experiences at the time and in no other work have I revealed myself so … Continue reading Sibelius: En Saga, op. 9
Bear with me here. This concert (or the general experience of the evening) was far more outstandingly outstanding than I’d prepared for. There are some concerts you look forward to and know will be once-in-a-lifetime chances, like being able to hear Gurre Lieder live last year (quite a production), or The Philharmonia last month, and some you go to just because it’s a nice chance to hear a piece live again, with no real concern for the performer or real anticipation for the program…? Think of it this way. There are different kinds of dinner plans: I may make plans far … Continue reading Concert Review: Taipei Symphony and Karen Gomyo
Once in a while, there’s a thing that you look so forward to that you can’t even concentrate, the day seems to go by slowly, and you cannot wait for this thing you know will be so amazing to arrive. Perhaps it’s a dinner at a fancy restaurant, or a vacation, or some kind of meaningful thing; it’s different for everyone. But then when you get there and it starts happening, it’s more meaningful and powerful and enjoyable and moving than you had thought it could be. Even the highest of expectations were exceeded. Perhaps that sounds corny, but it’s … Continue reading Concert Review: Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra in Taipei
This is not a piece I’m going to spend lots of time analyzing the history of in preparation for a dissertation on the subject. It was just a passing thought I had based on this week’s music piece for Thursday, and I thought I’d talk about it. It’ll make more sense when you know what that piece is, but for now, it’s at least worth talking about in the context of Mahler.While he seemed to have garnered some praise and recognition in his time for his works, most prominently the eighth symphony, he was known during his lifetime far more … Continue reading The composer and conductor: which comes first?
Welcome back to another Tuesday of concert reviews. After the abomination of horns that severely marred Mahler’s fourth, I was pleased to be sitting in front of the Evergreen Symphony Orchestra again. Heard their Mahler before. It was some Lexus-sponsored program or something. I really only bought the ticket because I saw Liszt’s E major concerto and Sibelius’ second symphony on the program. I was concerned the program had changed or I’d bought the wrong ticket when I saw a cellist featured on the program that Saturday night. I was sick, but wasn’t going to miss the concert. I was … Continue reading Concert Review: Evergreen Symphony- An evening of concertos
A musical scavenger hunt of sorts. “He’s making a list… he’s checking it…” oh, only about half a billion times. I got this idea from this thread at Talk Classical which you may not be able to read without logging in. This is essentially an exercise in musical sudoku. There is ZERO inherent quality that a first symphonies of multiple composers would have in common, save it being the first one they wrote. Prokofiev’s first as a kind of musical caricature is so different from the ambitious first symphonies of Brahms or Mahler or Rott (his only, as I know, thanks … Continue reading The favorite symphonies list
performed by the Gothenburg Symphony under Neeme Järvi (below is Järvi with the Orchestre de Paris) Quite a nice first symphony, from a composer whom I’ve come to really enjoy. He has a distinct voice among the late Romantic composers … Continue reading Sibelius Symphony no. 1 in Em, op. 39
performed by the Lahti Symphony Orchestra under Osmo Vänskä I cannot think of a better contrast to the previous Mahler symphony as this piece. Do I love it? Yes. Does it make me want to stop everything I’m doing and … Continue reading Sibelius Symphony no 3 in C, op. 52
performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle, Nigel Kennedy, violin And just that fast it is 2014. This ones’s been brewing for a while and I didn’t know when to do it. I suppose now is … Continue reading Sibelius Violin Concerto in D minor, Op. 47
performed by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra under Simon Rattle (or below in an equally wonderful recording with the Lahti Symphony under Osmo Vänskä) This one’s been brewing a while. It has been the most thorough preparation of any … Continue reading Jean Sibelius: Symphony no. 2 in D major, Op. 43
Fugue for Thought 