Recent Concerts You've Enjoyed

Thought this might be a fun thread and a way to find out about acts on tour.

My wife and I saw the Smoke Fairies at the Tractor Tavern last evening as the opening act for Rasputina. The Smoke Fairies are a 'folk blues' duo from Wales and have been described as "Bob Dylan's dream." I thought that their debut release "Through Low Light and Trees" was one of last year's best. It was just the two principles singing and playing guitar. Really terrific concert with excellent acoustics and thankfully not too loud.

If you are ever in Seattle, the Tractor Tavern is a great venue in the Ballard neighborhood. Very fun people watching...I think my wife and I were the only ones without tattoos! I got to chat with them after their set and had my LP signed. I love the lilting Welsh accents!

Here's a video of "Hotel Room" from their debut LP:

[video]

 

Yuja Wang is an extremely talented pianist. I've heard her here in Chicago. Last week Klaus Makela conducted conducted the CSO in the Mahler #5. At a reception after the Friday concert I had the opportunity to meet Klaus Makela. I understand that he and Yuja Wang are an "item".

 

The CSO brochure for 23/24 season is now out.
I noticed that on April 4,5 & 6 Yuja Wang is doing Bartok Piano Concerto #2 and Klaus Makela is conducting. The program also includes Shostakovich Symphony #10.

 

The CSO brochure for 23/24 season is now out.
I noticed that on April 4,5 & 6 Yuja Wang is doing Bartok Piano Concerto #2 and Klaus Makela is conducting. The program also includes Shostakovich Symphony #10.

I hope they won’t be canoodling!! One does not canoodle during Bartok let alone (and heaven forbid) with lashings of fearsome shosty symphonics close nearby.

Like many I’m a bit of a huga Yuja fan. Klaus Makela is clearly something of a wunderkind having launched with a Sibelius 7 x symphony cycle on Decca at just 26 years of age .

Typically exceptionally awesome Decca recording on it too, and I’m warming to it as a cycle overall but I’ve always been a bit more for the epic landscape style Barbirollied drama with Sibelius dude and am missing the breathless romance quite a bit in young Klaus’s take. Though he does create quite a fascinating tension and pulse throughout in his taut conducting of these performances. There’s some lovely lyrical dance like moments in places. Would be interesting to hear him with Schubert. Not going to shift me out of being a big barbirolli boy with Sibelius though.

The Shostakovich 10 however might be a good fit for Klaus with the kind of grip that he has displayed in his conducting style shown in some of his first recordings.

Decca are teasing his upcoming Stravinsky album releasing the first moments of his Rite of Spring and he shakes up this snippet of Stravinsky with a serious red hot go… maybe he’ll be a moderns guy.

 

Killer set with Orrin Evans (p), Eric Revis (b) and Marvin “Smitty” Smith (d) at The Royal Room last night. Three of the best musicians on the planet playing to less than 100 people. Sigh

 

The Eagles- Hotel California Tour

I've said here over the years that my wife and I are huge Eagles fans and have followed them since their very first tour. My wife got us tickets a few months ago as a birthday present and it involved a quick 2 hour drive from South Orange County to Palm Desert where they were playing at a new arena ( Acrisure) too which I had never heard and certainly wasn't there when we were last in the desert 2 years ago . A quick search showed it opened Sept 2022 with a capacity of 10,000 . As a quick aside this arena was truly 21st century and immediately off Interstate 10 and is easily accessible as everything was automated and digital right down to purchasing parking using your credit card and your license plate. Inside the arena, all drinks and confections were ordered using countless computers and screens throughout the arena to order. You pay and then turn around and it's like the old New York Automats as you punch in your code and open window and take your order. The attempt at eliminating human employment were quite evident at this arena. The arena itself was filled and acoustically it was one of the best arenas Ive been in.

As for the performance I can tell you that "none " of them have lost a beat. They all sing well and can still play their instruments with uncanny ability. We saw them last in 2018 at The Forum just before Glen Frey died. I had never heard his son Deacon do his dad's songs as he apparently left the band to pursue his own interests last year

Glenn Frey's Son Deacon Departs Eagles After Filling In for Late Father

Deacon Fey, son of late Eagles co-founder Glenn Frey, has left the band after replacing his dad following Glenn's death in 2016.

www.rollingstone.com

Well last night Deacon was a surprise add to the show last night and sang 4-5 of his dad's all time hits. At the age of 25 he was truly a star and looked like a young Glen Frey. He is a skilled guitarist as well

Joe Walsh was his proverbial weird self but when it comes to playing the guitar he has few equals. He always reminded me of Keith Richards as I watched him play . Both to me are greatness.

Timothy B Schmit has not changed in looks or abilities and he can still play a mean bass guitar. Remember it was Timothy who reunited the group and hence the album When Hell Freezes Over

The other great add to the show was Vince Gil who has also been touring with the Eagles for the past 3 years. He too sings a lot of Glen Frey's hits and was a remarkable singer

As for Don Henley, his voice and talent remain unparalleled IMO for a 75 yo man. He ran the show, and as usual sang his vocals both playing drums or guitar. Last night he was also playing percussion and singing

The Eagles also have their faithful backup guitarist whose solos left the arena applauding for more ......Steuart Smith who also has played with them for years

But the highlight of the show last night was a backup symphony of 40-50 members of the Desert Symphony as well as a choir from Cal State Fullerton who made this concert one of the best I've seen in many a moon

Show started on time at 8:00 and finished 1115 after 3 encores. They sang all the old ones which literally had thew crowd mesmerized from start to finish.

The only other thing worthy of comment is that in the almost 50 years I have lived in Southern California I can never remember a winter as cold and so rainy . When we left my house yesterday morning it was rain and by the time we came over the pass and into the desert all we could see was snow. This plus the fact that coming home today there were snow flurries 10 miles from where I live.

So for us it was a 150 mile drive worth every penny if you're an Eagles fan. Highly recommended if coming to an arena near you

 

what winter in Southern California usually looks like

 

here's what we saw yesterday same time of year.......

 

 

 

Steve, that weather system made it to over here last night.
It may remind you of why you left Toronto.

 

I'm just west of Toronto, a view down the side path toward the back yard. Ugh.

 

I'm just west of Toronto, a view down the side path toward the back yard. Ugh.

Steve, that weather system made it to over here last night.
It may remind you of why you left Toronto.

View attachment 105523

precisely the reason I left Toronto. Winter was my enemy! It was tough being a practicing obstetrician in Toronto during those snow falls. It was taking my life in my hands, each drive to the hospital during winter.

 

Zubin Mehta conducting Symphonie Fantastique at Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight



I measured SPL routinely at 85dB to 95dB, peaking at 100dB.

 

Zubin Mehta conducting Symphonie Fantastique at Walt Disney Concert Hall tonight

I measured SPL routinely at 85dB to 95dB, peaking at 100dB.

Thanks for the photo from the first row. A great view of the conductor and the nearest musicians.

I look forward to your photo from the last row.

Any comments on the live sound versus the reproduced sound from your audio system?

 

Any comments on the live sound versus the reproduced sound from your audio system?

I thought my stereo was a reasonably believable miniaturized version of what I heard live.

It is clear to me, for one, that my stereo is instantly what I call "room limited." I can futz with tubes and amps and this and that, but the only way to make a quantum leap in suspension of disbelief would be to place the whole system in a larger room.

The comparison was aided by my use of a recording which I think sounds wonderful: The Chesky reissue of Berlioz Symphonie Fantastique, Massimo Freccia, The Royal Philharmonic (CR1). I defer to Marty and Kedar and others, but I think this is a great performance and a fantastic recording. After I played this Chesky for the first time I decommissioned my Reference Recordings version of this piece.

(A topic for a different thread, but I believe that one way to look at what we are trying to achieve with our systems is to get our stereos good enough that we consider them "room limited.")

 

Sometimes, you have to go through hell to get to heaven.

Last night I attended one of my regular Carnegie Concert Series with the Philadelphia Orchestra. Unfortunately, Yannick was ill and unable to conduct, but fortunately, Marin Alsop was available to conduct Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring. It was far and away the best performance of this piece I ever heard. It’s what you go to live concerts to experience. Whoever said “White Men Can’t Jump” must have not even considered what a 67-year-old white woman could do. Marin Alsop seemed to defy gravity as she caught air at least 3 times by my count where both feet left the floor while she conducted the orchestra to a frenzy befitting the piece. I was always disappointed she didn’t get the NY Phil job a few years ago (which went to Jaap Van Zweeden) which many thought was likely as she was a famous protégé of Bernstein. She became the first female conductor of a major American Orchestra (Baltimore) and now leads the Vienna Radio Symphony Orchestra and is also the Chief conductor of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at their summer home at Ravinia. It was a heck of a performance on short notice, but she and the orchestra just smoked it. Marin Alsop rocks!

I wish I could say the same for the piece that was played before intermission, which was the NY Premier of John Adams commissioned work Vespers of the Blessed Earth which featured a chorus and so many damn instruments they had to put about 20 musicians in the front 2nd tier balconies on both sides of the house. As the music played, a screen above the orchestra listed what seemed to be every creature that was, is, or will be extinct. One can only hope this piece of music quickly becomes extinct as well. I understand the benefits of supporting new music compositions by contemporary composers. But when the results sound like a cat scratching a chalkboard, sorry, but I’m out. Stravinsky’s landmark piece written in 1911 (at age 27) is widely considered the first piece of modern orchestral music and was surprisingly well received right from its premier in 1913. You can bet it will still be played in another 110 years and for good reason. On the other hand, I’d be shocked if the Adams piece has any longevity to it at all. One can only hope. Based on the murmurs of the audience following the piece, I’d be very surprised. The best comment I heard from somebody next to me was this. The last section is about a rare bird in Hawaii that went extinct around 1987. The movement was based on the birdsong of the male, whose call was left unanswered. The audience member quietly suggested that if that bird heard this piece, he would have died voluntarily a lot sooner. Everyone around him nodded in agreement. You get the picture.

 

When Tinka and I went to Walt Disney Concert Hall a couple of weeks ago to listen to Symphonie Fantastique we had to suffer through 20 minutes of some experimental music thing. A lady sang directly into the open lid of the piano (trying to generate some sort of horn effect?) while a child squawked next to her in some foreign language.

 

On Astrud Gilberto’s birthday, we listened to bossa nova in a bar across the street where Jobim wrote “Girl From Ipanema”.

 

Possibly the best concert I had seen was a few years ago when I watched Bach's St. Matthews Passion at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. It goes on for 3 hours, and if not performed well, can be tremendously boring. Unfortunately it plays only during Easter, so you don't get a chance to see it often as it clashes with Easter holidays. However, I got a chance this time at my favorite hall, the Sheldonian (made in the 1600s) in Oxford, and it was remarkable. St. Matthews Passion is grand... like a much larger scale and longer Bach cantata, with everything from choir to solo vocals to solo instruments, intricate melodies.

I watched Lisa Batiashvili perform Beethoven's concerto at Barbican, and I have been recently trying to compare many of Beethoven performances on the various aspects of each movement including the cadenza. My favorite is Lola Bobesco's on EMI - it is a live performance, hence when I was listening to this Barbican performance it reminded me most of the Lola Bobesco one. I also love Schneiderhan's second and third movement on DGG, and this one is not expensive. Heifetz is 6 minutes faster than Lola Bobesco and 10 minutes faster than Oistrakh...however for me not as emotional. And a poor vinyl recording, so I prefer to listen to it on digital. I don't like Kogan's testament reissue at all. All the best buying the 5k+ original, or Oistrakh's 1k+

This is Bobesco

Yesterday I heard Shostakovich 9th (with a Tchaikovsky violin concerto that was not so good, one in June was brilliant), and day before a brilliant chamber concert led by Sheku Kenneh Mason. They performed the nicest sextets I have heard. He is on residency with the Philharmonia this year at the Southbank, and I will watch him and Nicola Bendetti perform Beethoven's triple concerto later this June.

Last week was in San Sebastien on my honeymoon (yes, slipped that in) and we watched a concert there. The local hall has brilliant acoustics! San Sebastien (in Spain) is normally a food capital, and if someone wanted to plan a food holiday there feel free to PM can help plan out.

 

Possibly the best concert I had seen was a few years ago when I watched Bach's St. Matthews Passion at Manchester's Bridgewater Hall. It goes on for 3 hours, and if not performed well, can be tremendously boring. Unfortunately it plays only during Easter, so you don't get a chance to see it often as it clashes with Easter holidays. However, I got a chance this time at my favorite hall, the Sheldonian (made in the 1600s) in Oxford, and it was remarkable. St. Matthews Passion is grand... like a much larger scale and longer Bach cantata, with everything from choir to solo vocals to solo instruments, intricate melodies.

I watched Lisa Batiashvili perform Beethoven's concerto at Barbican, and I have been recently trying to compare many of Beethoven performances on the various aspects of each movement including the cadenza. My favorite is Lola Bobesco's on EMI - it is a live performance, hence when I was listening to this Barbican performance it reminded me most of the Lola Bobesco one. I also love Schneiderhan's second and third movement on DGG, and this one is not expensive. Heifetz is 6 minutes faster than Lola Bobesco and 10 minutes faster than Oistrakh...however for me not as emotional. And a poor vinyl recording, so I prefer to listen to it on digital. I don't like Kogan's testament reissue at all. All the best buying the 5k+ original, or Oistrakh's 1k+

This is Bobesco

Yesterday I heard Shostakovich 9th (with a Tchaikovsky violin concerto that was not so good, one in June was brilliant), and day before a brilliant chamber concert led by Sheku Kenneh Mason. They performed the nicest sextets I have heard. He is on residency with the Philharmonia this year at the Southbank, and I will watch him and Nicola Bendetti perform Beethoven's trio later this June.

Last week was in San Sebastien on my honeymoon (yes, slipped that in) and we watched a concert there. The local hall has brilliant acoustics! San Sebastien (in Spain is normally a food capital, and if someone wanted to plan a food holiday there feel free to PM can help plan out).

The Bobesco audio video was quite enthralling until some Bell End started talking over it