That seems to be the final veredict by Michael Church at The Independent about this recital that included the set of songs “The Nursery” by Musorgsky, the “Moravian folk poetry in song” by Janacek, Dvorak’s “Biblical songs” and Bartok’s “Village scenes”:
Kozena skilfully rendered the dialogue between child and adult, and got wittily under the skin of each encounter, but she sometimes missed the essential lightness. Schiff, meanwhile, had none of that that lightness, preferring to stay within his Germanic great-pianist comfort-zone. And thus missing the point: what we needed was not a great pianist but a great accompanist, which implies a completely different mind-set.
Opposites attract each other. Everyone knows. The art is just that they put right. In this, however, Sir Simon Rattle is a master. In his recent program with the Philharmonic, he makes Beethoven’s 1st Piano Concerto, played by Mitsuko Uchida, the nimble-fingered, supple intelligence in person, crack on Sibeliu’s 1st symphony.
And coloratura soprano Barbara Hannigan did wonderfully too, with a rendition that presented the Ligeti pieces in not just stunning but weird way- now THAT is a compliment
For the guys at Berlin Morgenpost, Hannigan provided a sensational journey towards new music and Rattle’s Sibelius was a resounding success thanks to Rattle’s great hability to restore its originality.
Next thursday the Berlin Phil’s Digital Concert Hall has a proposal you can’t refuse: Ligeti’s Atmosphéres, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto nº1 and for the grand finale, Ligeti again: Misteries of the Macabre for coloratura soprano and orchestra plus Sibeliu’s Symphony nº.
Mitsuko Uchida joins Simon and the Berliners next thursday.
The soloists will be: Mitsuko Uchida, piano -woooooowww- and soprano Barbara Hannigan.
And if you want to know what Ligeti sounds like before you sign in for this great program, check out the video:
If you are a veteran of life, you don’t need to worry: Simon will lead the berliners in order to guide you through Britten’s Young Person’s Guide to the Orchestra. And as you probably know, it will be a fantastic trip, that will make you feel younger.
So go ahead and convince a young person to join you…
As reported by this Rattle-fan last year, next February sir Simon and his kick-ass berliners will bring joy to Madrid and Zaragoza on the 23 and the 24.
Sir Simon and the Berlin Phil go to Spain..
And this is what those lucky spaniards are going to get: Wagner, Schoenberg, Brahms, Sibelius, Beethoven and Ligeti. Mitsuko Uchida, japanese high priestess of the piano will be joining them… BRAVOOOOOO!!!!!!!!
The digital concert hall keeps delivering the goods…
Next saturday the Beliners will have an unusual guest: Ton Koopman, baroque wiseman. And no, it will not be a strech, since super maestro Koopman is one of the experts on early music that has already worked with symphony orchestras and now he’ll add the Berliner Philharmoniker to that great list.
Ton Koopman leads the Berlin Phil next Saturday at the Digital Concert Hall
The repertoire goes like this: J.S Bach’s Orchestral Suite Nº3 , his Motet Lobet den Hernn, alle Heiden and the Magnificat in D major BWV 243. And if you think that’s about it, you are sooo wrong: Haydn’s Symphony Nº98 is also on the list.
In the second week of Cleveland concerts marking the 85th birthday year and the 45th anniversary year of Pierre Boulez’s American professional orchestra debut with The Cleveland Orchestra, the conductor/composer will lead the Orchestra in a program of music by Mahler at Severance Hall on Thursday, February 11; Friday, February 12; and Saturday, February 13, at 8:00 p.m.
The menu for the evening will be: the Adagio from Symphony Nº10 and Das Knaben Wunderhorn. More info after the click.
This man never stops. Only to breath, maybe, but he just keeps moving and doing more things for music, for culture, for humanity in general.
“Tired?” he says. “Of course. I need periods of rest but I never weary of music.”
Barenboim: never weary of music.
A perfect statement that comes from a musician that considers Beethoven’s music a challenge and a proposal for young generations to go further. And this applies not only to young musicians, but to people in general, as he said it during the series of masterclasses that were recorded. For Maestro Barenboim, there is a lot to life to be understood and music can be the perfect way to start.. but there is also reading:
Like one of his heroes, the pianist Artur Rubinstein, he prides himself on the breadth of his reading. “Rubinstein had thousands of friends,” Barenboim recalls. “But he once said to me: ‘I don’t have a single friend among other pianists, because they have only one book at home, and that’s the telephone book.’ Now, with the internet, musicians don’t even need the telephone book. No wonder they’ve lost their central role in society.”
I venture to think about a reason for this: the web offers you the chance to create your own world, without thinking about the physical obstacles and about the physicality of everything… and music is all about the physicality of everything. And if you live in the world, you do not put yourself in a little shelf, away from everything… and music is not an excuse for that either, hence the Divan, one of the greatest projects that put together music and social concern:
“Therefore what we in the Divan say is: military solution impossible; political solution forever distant; so let’s see what happens on a human level. Let’s see what happens if we accept that the destinies of these two peoples, Israelis and Palestinians, are inextricably linked. In that case, we have to try to understand the other people’s point of view, even if we don’t agree. It’s vital to fight the ignorance on both sides, especially as it’s a wilful ignorance.”
The Divan is Barenboim’s baby, and boy, is he a proud daddy. He loves what he and late professor Said were able to create: a space for knowledge and the chance to build a different future. This has been quite and adventure, many times a lonely effort, since for many it is easier to point and search for culprits than to actually think of a human solution.
To build a solution: easier said than done. And that is why Beethoven is vital now, he, the builder of solutions through sound.
.. La era en que se necesitaban buenos obreros, se acabó. Necesitamos gente creativa.
... We need more creative people that can turn things around, we don't only need good workers, any more; these days are over.
Watch videos at Vodpod and other videos from this collection.
