[concert] Berg/Mahler, Philharmonia, RFH, 22.03.09
Tuesday, March 24th, 2009 12:09 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
tamaranthBerg (Piano Sonata #1, Kammerkonzert); Mahler (Symphony #9). Royal Festival Hall, 22nd March 2009. Esa-Pekka Salonen (conductor), Mitsuko Uchida (piano)
I didn't know the Berg pieces: now I know that I don't care for them. "Undermined by chromaticism," says the programme; "on the brink of atonality". "Nasty modern stuff," says I.
The Kammerkonzert (for piano and a 13-piece virtuoso ensemble) was interesting because not only did the pianist have a page-turner (who occasionally tried to turn the page before the pianist was ready) but the violinist also needed his pages flipped: he, though, managed by switching music stands, leaving Salonen to rearrange his scores. On the whole, though, this was music to switch off: I couldn't relate to it, or find positive emotions (or even wholesomely negative ones such as 'grief', 'death') in the music, or make sense of more than a few passages of call and response. Too many voices, too confusing for me.
The Mahler was big and bright and evocative: calm and stately, cheery and bacchanalian, stirring. I found it moderately hard to follow -- it's 81 minutes, and I don't know it at all -- but there was enough happening (intriguingly, pleasantly, movingly) to keep me engaged.
I didn't know the Berg pieces: now I know that I don't care for them. "Undermined by chromaticism," says the programme; "on the brink of atonality". "Nasty modern stuff," says I.
The Kammerkonzert (for piano and a 13-piece virtuoso ensemble) was interesting because not only did the pianist have a page-turner (who occasionally tried to turn the page before the pianist was ready) but the violinist also needed his pages flipped: he, though, managed by switching music stands, leaving Salonen to rearrange his scores. On the whole, though, this was music to switch off: I couldn't relate to it, or find positive emotions (or even wholesomely negative ones such as 'grief', 'death') in the music, or make sense of more than a few passages of call and response. Too many voices, too confusing for me.
The Mahler was big and bright and evocative: calm and stately, cheery and bacchanalian, stirring. I found it moderately hard to follow -- it's 81 minutes, and I don't know it at all -- but there was enough happening (intriguingly, pleasantly, movingly) to keep me engaged.
