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Daniil Trifonov and Chicago Symphony. He played the Bates piano concerto written for him. Wonderful. Trifonov is our artist in residence next year and also will play in the CSO piano series. Can’t wait.
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A much smaller event than most of those listed here. On June 30. Chamber music - Saint-Saens cello concerto and Brahms quintet for strings and clarinet. At La Loingtaine, in Montigny-sur-Loing, France. About an hour's drive from Paris. Wonderful young musicians who come here to rehearse before going on to Kyoto, Paris, Berlin, London, Brussels, and many more venues, including the US. Places like La Loingtaine are little known, but so vital to the young and upcoming musicians of the world. Imho, we should celebrate these initiatives with all the same energy we bring to the big concert halls of the world. https://laloingtaine.org/fr/la-loingtaine-2/
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Constance Lindgreeen This seems like such a lovely venue, and only 50 minutes from Gare de Lyon (where my office was!).
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Gail Starr It's an amazing space. The driving force is its founder, Masako Sauliere, assisted by her violinist daughter Aki, and Aki's cellist husband, Raphael Bell, who now live in Belgium when they're not touring. In addition to the concerts, there's a summer music school and Masako is also working on publishing various works.
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Constance Lindgreeen I would love to visit the next time I’m in Paris! Do you live nearby?
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Gail Starr Alas, not any longer. We were there for 14 years...and just went back to visit friends.
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Constance Lindgreeen I can imagine how sad you were to leave! (I would be). I hope you have an equally lovely concert venue near your new home.
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Mikhail Pletnev in Hamburg, he played Skrjabin Preludes & Chopin Preludes - and I was in love
I just love his artistry and his way of playing 
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Yesterday I attended Tina Guo's live "open rehearsal" concert at a performing arts center. There was also a Q&A after the concert. Tina Guo played her electric cello throughout and featured her modern pieces including Mongolian throat singing, her "prehistoric" electric cello. The ensemble included electric bass, which performed a very interesting solo using pedals to change into a synthesizer tone, an electric guitar which played comping and some shred soloing, three percussionists (rock drum kit drummer, a large mixed/asian orchestral kit drummer, and a side drum percussionist), with the rock drum kit performing a lengthy solo, and three vocalists (two asian-style vocalists and a soprano vocalist). Tina Guo had two stage costume switches and performed in the front-center position. The concert was music only, without any dialogue or performance notes.
During Q&A after the concert, a music student in the audience asked about how to move forward within a performance career and Tina Guo rightfully mentioned that she moved forward in performance by dropping out of USC music school to focus on performing and jokingly said, "drop out of school, kids" (she is correct). This again points out the failures of today's music academia to provide useful paths towards an working career or innovative career, especially of classical music academia. Someone else in the audience during Q&A mentioned that what she was playing is considered "illegal" by academia which got a big laugh. Another question was asked by an aspiring film composer newly moved to Los Angeles about how to juggle networking events with musical work, to which Tina stated in a detailed way that she has only ever focused on her performance and practice and never on networking, assuming her talent would draw work to her, essentially putting the emphasis on quality creative output rather than networking. Her fellow musician agreed with this zero-networking approach. This contrasts to typical Los Angeles advice which emphasizes playing a 'cocktail-party' game in an effort to connect to opportunities.
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Next Tuesday, the Choir of King's College, Cambridge is performing in Melbourne, Australia and I can hardly wait to hear them live for the first time!
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Several weeks ago I heard Evgeny Kissin at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco.
Program: Piano Sonata No. 27, Opus 90 by Beethoven
Nocturne in F-Sharp Minor by Chopin
Fantasie in F Minor by Chopin
Four Ballades by Johannes Brahms
Sonata No. 2 in D Minor by Prokofiev
One of the most electrifying performances I have ever heard. I attend performances at Davies frequently anbd have heard enthusiastic audience response, but I have never heard such rapturous and sustained applause. I can't wait until he rfeturns to San Francisco next season!
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Don St. Louis wish I could have been there!
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The Columbus Symphony Orchestra played last month under the dome of Ash Cave in the Hocking Hills of Ohio, with the superbly musical Associate Concert Master, Gyusun Han, who let the musical lark ascend (Vaughn Williams) while the gentle trickle of a waterfall and the sights and sounds of birds chirping as they flitted in and out of their nests in the walls of the cave accompanied her. It wasn't pure Williams, but maybe thank goodness for that. The combined effect was a little like listening to Rautavaara's Cantus Arcticus.
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Mary Such a poetic description!
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What an amazing venue!
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Yuja Wang at Tanglewood 3 nights ago. It was also exciting to see other great artists (Emmanuel Ax and YoYo Ma) in the audience enjoying her performance and giving her a standing ovation.
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What a demanding and generous program! It sounds great :-).
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Krystian Zimerman playing a piano recital in Hong Kong.
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I recently had the great good fortune to hear Emmanuel Ax at Davies Symphony Hall in San Francisco. The first part of the program consisted of two Beethoven Piano Sonatas (No. 13 in E-Flat Major and No. 14 in C-Sharp Minor), and a number of short works by Schoenberg. What an interesting juxtaposition! The second part of the program included more short pieces by Schoenberg and then an amazing performance of Schumann's Fantasy in C Major (Opus 17). Whew!!!
For encores, he played the Liszt transcription of Schubert's Serenade and Chopin's Nocturne in C# Minor (Opus 27, No. 1).
A truly wonderful evening of beautiful piano music!
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I haven't been to a concert lately, because I live in the interior of Brazil. But I managed to attend a recital by Valentina Lisitsa in Belém, playing Rachmaninoff's 24 preludes and as an encore the prelude op. 27, no. 2, waltz in C sharp minor, the minute waltz and the heroic polonaise by Chopin and Liszt's rhapsodies 2 and 6. The woman is unmarriageable.
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Last concert attended: in Charlottesville, Virginia, Richard Goode playing Beethoven's last three sonatas and half a doze bagatelles. Sublime!
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Something quite different! Our local community band members in Juneau Alaska joined the local Taku Winds group this weekend to play a concert of all indigenous composers for Native American Heritage Month. Heavy on percussion, I played marimba, vibraphone and bells (no piano though) and we had a local professional percussionists and even a World premier of a song written by a local composer. Pieces included “Raven”, “Wolf song”, a “Gathering of Eagles”, by Robert Buckley and Sinfonia India (a wicked piece mixing 5/4, 2/4, 7/8, 3/8, 6/8, 2/2, etc). Check them out on YouTube.
