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]

 

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).

Many congratulations Ked on tying the knot… does she have a Vyger and SET and horns?

Sheku Kenneh Mason is an interesting cellist, lots of eclectic choices in his performances. Bit variable in terms of how it comes off at times but some really lovely moments came through in his last album Song. Nicole Benedetti is good… should be a great concert.

 

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. (...)

I think that if you find that your system suffers from miniaturization you have to play with speaker position, cables and system fine tuning. Do you get imaging well outside the borders of your room?

 

Many congratulations Ked on tying the knot… does she have a Vyger and SET and horns?

He'd be happy if she had a flat with some room in it or a house.
Congrats Kedar.

 

Congratulations, Kedar!

Tinka and I wish you, Angela and cat a lifetime of happiness, health and love!

And no broken cartridge styli.

 

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).

Congrats Ked! Now you will have a travel partner!!!

 

Congrats Ked! Now you will have a travel partner!!!

no, I started travelling for hifi when I had settled with her many years ago. Since that took me out of the dating scene. This month we just formalised it. As I pointed out earlier, there is not a single guy in this hobby who is actively dating. Many guys started on their journey after they settled with a woman. Ron too started his hifi upgrade path after he settled with Tinka. Mike and Gian have been doing this for 50 years just because they married early. Gian married his school mate. The guys in this hobby who are single are out of choice because they don’t want to go down that path again.

 

no, I started travelling for hifi when I had settled with her many years ago. Since that took me out of the dating scene. This month we just formalised it. As I pointed out earlier, there is not a single guy in this hobby who is actively dating. Many guys started on their journey after they settled with a woman. Ron too started his upgrade path after he settled with Tinka. Mike and Gian have been doing this for 50 years just because they married early. Gian married his school mate. The guys in this hobby who are single are out of choice because they don’t want to go down that path again.

Well congrats on the formalization! I do wish you both would come and visit NYC in the future!

 

Congratulations, Ked, on getting married!

 

Just read the exciting news Kedar. Congratulations. As you wrote that you have been together for a while, I guess this will not affect your audio travel weekends.

 

I need to reassess my concert choices.

 

I need to reassess my concert choices.

Or your choice of concert companion.

 

I need to reassess my concert choices.
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If Pyotr Illyich knew that he could get an orgasm with his 5th symphony then where was he left to go with the 6th… maybe that’s why he named it Pathetique…

 

Or your choice of concert companion.

She faked it like Meg Ryan in “When Harry met Sally”

 

Many congratulations Ked on tying the knot… does she have a Vyger ?

She does now … An ‘Interesting’ choice of wedding present.

 

He'd be happy if she had a flat with some room in it or a house.
Congrats Kedar.

London real estate… can’t imagine large listening rooms to fit Altec dual flh and bass horns comes cheap

 

She does now … An ‘Interesting’ choice of wedding present.

I thought providing the turntable was the responsibility of the bride…

 

London real estate… can’t imagine large listening rooms to fit Altec dual flh and bass horns comes cheap

Heh ... London real estate? Can't imagine anything comes cheap in the wrath of Kahn.

 

Heh ... London real estate? Can't imagine anything comes cheap in the wrath of Kahn.

I look at the constant amazing program of live music available in London and think of having all the rich opportunity and wonder accessible… but then I look at the costs of living in a great contemporary cultural epicentre and am quickly tipped back into a more modest life balance again . That said I’d love to visit London and Europe for a few months every few years. Would be very nice.

 

I look at the constant amazing program of live music available in London and think of having all the rich opportunity and wonder accessible… but then I look at the costs of living in a great contemporary cultural epicentre and am quickly tipped back into a more modest life balance again . That said I’d love to visit London and Europe for a few months every few years. Would be very nice.

Yes, sounds nice. Lots of opportunities for the arts. I used to live on the east coast in the States, in the DC-NY-Boston metroplex so I've had a taste. Today big cities wherever hold zero interest for me.

 

Yes, sounds nice. Lots of opportunities for the arts. I used to live on the east coast in the States, in the DC-NY-Boston metroplex so I've had a taste. Today big cities wherever hold zero interest for me.

the trick to living in big cities is to treat them as your living room. Not by being homeless, but by treating the restaurants as an extension of your dining room, and all the activity resources (whether concert halls, any sports recreation centre, etc etc) as an extension of your living room. So you don’t have to think or plan much but you can wander in just as you would from one room in your house to another. People who live outside tend to value internal space much more as if only that belongs to them, and go outside only for groceries or to the mall, or to some advanced planned long trip