As you go through the doors to the Royal Albert hall, the first word that goes into your head is “wow”. The Royal Albert hall is the biggest building/concert hall that you can imagine. As you sit down, the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra walk in one by one and start to tune their instruments. The lights dimmed and the leader of the orchestra violinist Duncan Riddell walked in. Shortly behind him came the conductor, American Andrew Litton. He climbed up on the podium and tapped his baton.
I was lucky enough to receive tickets for the London Philharmonic Orchestra at the final concert of this year’s Bath Mozartfest. The performance started with Mozart’s Ave verum corpus, sung by the Bath Camerata. Having had little previous experience of classical music, the sheer quality of the sound coming from the orchestra astounded me at first. The music flowed beautifully and the balance between the Orchestra and the Choir was near perfect. They next played Mozart’s Clarinet Concerto in A major, with Michael Collins on the Clarinet. Each movement was played brilliantly, Michael Collins’ skill on the Clarinet quite simply remarkable giving a consistently magnificent performance. The second movement was particularly good, it was slow, but in a good way, and very calming to listen to.
Brahms: Piano Concerto No. 2 in B flat major, Op. 83
Beethoven: Symphony No. 3 in E flat major, Op. 55
With the opening bars of the Brahms, it was clear that something special was coming from both the London Philharmonic Orchestra and pianist Leif Ove Andsnes. As the first movement unfolded, Andsnes displayed an intelligent musicality that spoke of years of experience. The most noticeable thing about the opening of this concert was how almost three thousand people could sit in complete silence and just listen. Firstly, the sublime quality of the sound that the LPO are capable of producing is breathtaking. Combined with Jurowski, the LSO and Mr. Andsnes, achieving near perfection in timing, technique and intonation, this extraordinary Concerto wielded complete emotional power over the audience.
The first thing you see before the curtains open or the orchestra starts up, is what looks like half a very large pink wrapped present jutting out on the left hand side of the stage. Soon this has become an entire set, symbolising turrets, Hades pit, the desert and dungeons, all with only a few small shifts and rotations, carried out by the “actors” , who can often be seen walking across the stage as guards, prisoners or peasants.
Was it good? In one word, Yes. How good? In one word, Fantastic. Have you seen better?
The venue of this concert is outstanding. The style of the building is amazingly modern and has a breathtaking view of the canal from the restaurant. Outside is basically made of glass and inside there is lots of art and sculptures. The wood furnishing of concert hall one is so sleek. My dad met a carpenter who worked on it and he said it was made out of one large Bavarian Oak.
It seems incredible that an orchestra can create power, emotion, expression and musicality in one performance. The Philharmonia Orchestra combined all these things, making their show at the Festival Hall spectacular. After watching the orchestra perform Smetana’s Vltava, Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No.4 and Dvorak’s Symphony No.8, it left me inspired to create music of my own and to listen to a wider variety of composers.
Elgar – In the South (Alassio)
Mendelssohn – Violin Concerto in E minor Op. 64
Ian McQueen – Earthly Paradise (BBC commission: world première)
Edward Elgar, having lived until February 1934, is one of the more contemporary composers of the ‘classical’ genre. Elements of Strauss, Mahler and other late romantic composers can be heard throughout this symphony; Elgar makes good use of the expansion of the modern Orchestra, including not just strings, but brass, woodwind and plenty of percussion. As soon as the orchestra begins to play I am impressed. Partly because of the quality of sound, partly because of the already apparent togetherness of the orchestra, but mainly because of the sheer energy exerted from the first few bars alone. There was something powerful, yet calming in how the orchestra worked together as a team, as one body. They didn’t just produce a sound - they created an atmosphere. As the piece hit its peak point in the music about 7 minutes in, I realised that not only was it entertaining to hear, but also enjoyable to watch - you could see from the expression on each of the performer’s faces that they were enjoying themselves as much as we were.
I didn’t realise how good The Sixteen were until I saw them performing live. The fact that I could hear the clarity and expression of the words they sang despite the enormous size of St Albans Cathedral was amazing. The Sixteen are a well-known choral group and they performed nine pieces, including works by Byrd, Sheppard and Tallis - three very well-known choral composers.
Before the concert began, the conductor and one of the soprano singers talked about each of the pieces The Sixteen were going to perform. They were extremely enthusiastic about the music and knew all the little details in each piece. This talk was an interesting beginning for the concert.
On the 31st March I went to the Coliseum in London to see Swan Lake performed by Ballet Nacional De Cuba. Swan Lake was the first ballet Alicia Alonso staged for her new company back in 1948. The company now has a brilliant reputation worldwide for their outstandingly talented male performers. Tickets sold out for this performance which was called ‘the hottest tickets in town’ by ‘Visit London’.
