Concert: Glinka, Khachaturian, Dvorak (RFH 20.01.05)
Monday, January 24th, 2005 12:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthFirst Kulture of the year, and very pleasant it was.
The Glinka piece was the Russlan and Ludmilla overture, very Slavic, very fast, very short. Khachaturian is best-known for having written the theme to The Onedin Line [ for non-Brits and Young Persons, this was a 1970s TV series about tall ships], though at the time (1950s) he thought he was writing his Spartacus ballet. We heard Piano Concerto #1, played by Boris Berezovsky. It sounded like a great deal of other 20th-century Russian piano music (Rachmaninoff etc) -- rather frantic in places, discordant, dramatic et cetera -- but was enlivened by all sorts of odd orchestration. The original score calls for a flexatone (apparently rather like a musical saw) but the Philharmonia cheated, and used doubled violins instead. There was a man shaking a metallic, rattly thing around: as he was in the percussion section (and did not seem to have snuck in from the cheap seats) we decided he was supposed to be doing it. There was something that sounded horribly like a penny whistle. It was all very Modern. But the finale was joyously tumultuous, and there were some interesting Eastern influences (Khachaturian being not strictly Russian, but Armenian).
Was thinking of leaving at the interval, since I thought I knew Dvorak's New World (9th) symphony. In fact, like many, I 'know' the Largo (Hovis advert), and very nice it is too: but not at all representative of the rest, which is much faster and more Russian (full of folk tunes and lilting minor-key melodies), though the final movement also reminded me of Negro spirituals, work songs etc. Much more vivacious than I'd expected: must listen to more Dvorak.
Did you know that Dvorak invented rock'n'roll? "I am now satisfied," he wrote in 1893, "that the future music of America must be founded on what are called the Negro melodies. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil: they are America."
Philharmonia splendid as ever: Boris B perfectly adequate, though did not excite me: guest conductor Lief Segerstam splendidly Scandinavian, flowing white beard and merry smile and all. Should've been on a Christmas card. Very cheering.
The Glinka piece was the Russlan and Ludmilla overture, very Slavic, very fast, very short. Khachaturian is best-known for having written the theme to The Onedin Line [ for non-Brits and Young Persons, this was a 1970s TV series about tall ships], though at the time (1950s) he thought he was writing his Spartacus ballet. We heard Piano Concerto #1, played by Boris Berezovsky. It sounded like a great deal of other 20th-century Russian piano music (Rachmaninoff etc) -- rather frantic in places, discordant, dramatic et cetera -- but was enlivened by all sorts of odd orchestration. The original score calls for a flexatone (apparently rather like a musical saw) but the Philharmonia cheated, and used doubled violins instead. There was a man shaking a metallic, rattly thing around: as he was in the percussion section (and did not seem to have snuck in from the cheap seats) we decided he was supposed to be doing it. There was something that sounded horribly like a penny whistle. It was all very Modern. But the finale was joyously tumultuous, and there were some interesting Eastern influences (Khachaturian being not strictly Russian, but Armenian).
Was thinking of leaving at the interval, since I thought I knew Dvorak's New World (9th) symphony. In fact, like many, I 'know' the Largo (Hovis advert), and very nice it is too: but not at all representative of the rest, which is much faster and more Russian (full of folk tunes and lilting minor-key melodies), though the final movement also reminded me of Negro spirituals, work songs etc. Much more vivacious than I'd expected: must listen to more Dvorak.
Did you know that Dvorak invented rock'n'roll? "I am now satisfied," he wrote in 1893, "that the future music of America must be founded on what are called the Negro melodies. These beautiful and varied themes are the product of the soil: they are America."
Philharmonia splendid as ever: Boris B perfectly adequate, though did not excite me: guest conductor Lief Segerstam splendidly Scandinavian, flowing white beard and merry smile and all. Should've been on a Christmas card. Very cheering.
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Date: Monday, January 24th, 2005 01:30 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: Monday, January 24th, 2005 05:45 pm (UTC)It could be argued that Ridley Scott's most impressive artistic achievement remains taking a piece of music from a work explicitly inspired by America, and managing to irrevocably associate it in the minds of millions with cobbled streets and flat caps.
MC