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Evenings entertainment
Jun. 7th, 2008 01:40 pmWent to a concert last night, courtsey of daisee chain. I would put a link in, but apparently Southbank Centre's web hosting is ruthless about deleting details about past events. Anyway, it was the Budapest Festival Orchestra performing Stravinksy and Dvorak.
I hadn't heard Dvorak before, and I liked it, but it wasn't memorable. The Cello Concerto and the cello soloist were wonderful, and the flautist was equally great.
But the Stravinsky! I'm now firmly convinced that it takes a East European orchestra to do him justice. The first piece was wonderful, the strings did a great job. But the finale was my favourite piece of classical music, the Firebird Suite, and it was beautiful. They got slightly out of time in what is commonly known as 'that fast bit' but recovered nicely and the finale was breathtaking. There were actual tears.
However, they need to work on the triangle. It was incredibly noisy, and frankly, when listening to sweeping strings and mournful wind, having a damn TRIANGLE over the top is just wrong, wrong, wrong. And he never ever got it right, every time it was too loud. The addition of the tuba to the piece, on the other hand, was wonderful, and pairing it with the double basses was a genius move.
And now I want to hear the Russian National Orchestra perform Stravinsky.
I hadn't heard Dvorak before, and I liked it, but it wasn't memorable. The Cello Concerto and the cello soloist were wonderful, and the flautist was equally great.
But the Stravinsky! I'm now firmly convinced that it takes a East European orchestra to do him justice. The first piece was wonderful, the strings did a great job. But the finale was my favourite piece of classical music, the Firebird Suite, and it was beautiful. They got slightly out of time in what is commonly known as 'that fast bit' but recovered nicely and the finale was breathtaking. There were actual tears.
However, they need to work on the triangle. It was incredibly noisy, and frankly, when listening to sweeping strings and mournful wind, having a damn TRIANGLE over the top is just wrong, wrong, wrong. And he never ever got it right, every time it was too loud. The addition of the tuba to the piece, on the other hand, was wonderful, and pairing it with the double basses was a genius move.
And now I want to hear the Russian National Orchestra perform Stravinsky.