# 2014-2015 season is almost over. How was it?



## Radames

The major orchestras seasons ended weeks ago - those are Boston, Montreal for me. Smaller orchestras like Hartford, Vermont, Albany are all done. NAC in Ottawa goes on until next week - Pinchas Zukerman's last concert as music director. It's sold out - Beethoven 9th. Boston Youth Symphony is playing at Harvard this Sunday. June 21 has the Montreal Metropolitan orchestra with Rolando Villazón singing. That's pretty much it. There's a youth orchestra playing- L’Orchestre de la Francophonie up in Lachine on June 26. Then it's over. Really over. How was the season for you? I haven't counted the number of concerts. About 130 concerts for me. Add 3 in Montreal that I'm going to in the next couple of weeks plus the youth orchestra at Harvard Sunday and that will be about 134. It still wasn't enough - I missed a couple of good ones. The did Sibelius 5th Symphony in Hartford and I missed it. Had to work. I was to hear Thompson's Testament of Freedom a couple of weeks ago. But the Chinese tire on my car exploded and I missed it - blast the Chinese!

Highlights - season started in Albany with Elgar Enigma Variations and Bruch Violin Concerto No. 1 in G Minor with Josh Bell. I heard a great Tchaikovsky 4th at UConn when the Moscow State Symphony Orchestra was there. Some say they play it too fast - I like it fast. North American premiere of L'Aiglon in Montreal - a collaboration between Jacques Ibert and Arthur Honegger. I heard the Elgar Violin Concerto in Vermont. Should hear that piece more often. Michael Torke's The Winter’s Tale for Cello and Orchestra premiered in Albany. Joyce Yang played there too - Rachmaninoff Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini. Any concert with Joyce Yang is a highlight - even if she played chopsticks. 

My favorite Boston concert was probably when they played a spectacular new Gandolfi work for organ and orchestra -Ascending Light -and Mahler 6th. Heard a great Bruckner 7th and Nielsen 4th there too. Let's not forget the Boston Philharmonic: Rachmaninoff 2nd Symphony at Sanders theater last fall - first time Zander has conducted it. 

The Mariinsky Orchestra from St. Petersburg was in Troy NY over the winter doing Rachmaninoff’s First Symphony. That's surely a high point. Other foreign orchestras:Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra and violin soloist Nikolaj Znaider -Beethoven's Violin Concerto, Mendelssohn's The Hebrides Overture and Symphony No. 5. Also got to hear Gavrilov play the Rachmaninoff 3rd concert in Worcester with the St. Petersburg Symphony. The State of Mexico Symphony Orchestra was also there and I got to hear the Ponce Violin concerto. 

I got to hear a very good regional orchestra in Montreal play the Wagner Symphony last month. Also the Ferdinand David Violin concerto #5. Don't here those works much! Zubin Mehta was back in Montreal last month too - conducting Mahler 3. Got a standing balcony spot for only $50. What a deal. I can't resist a deal OR Mahler 3. The season's #1 high point.


----------



## Proms Fanatic

Sounds like you had a great concert season!

How far do you travel to get to all these places?


----------



## Radames

Proms Fanatic said:


> Sounds like you had a great concert season!
> 
> How far do you travel to get to all these places?


Montreal is very close - less than 100 miles. Hard to pass up a good concert that close. By distance I don't usually go more than 200 miles. That's not usually more than a 3.5 hour drive. Except when I go over to Portland, ME. That was one of the highlights I forgot - Janacek Glagolitic Mass last fall in Portland. It also takes a while to get down to Bard college where the American Symphony plays. Another highlight - Goetz Symphony in F Op.9 down there a few months ago.


----------



## BlackKeys

That's an amazing lineup of shows you saw! My city's orchestra is having their final show of the season tonight, summer will be so boring, haha.


----------



## manyene

We at Liverpool have had another great season, featuring Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky in anniversary years: we had the experience of hearing such rare works in the concert hall as the ' Winter Daydreams ' (Tchaikovsky's first Symphony). The RLPO's conductor Vasili Petrenko confirmed his Elgar credentials with a performance of the 'Dream of Gerontius' last night to finish a season: the Elgar First Symphony appears on two separate occasions, to mark the very fine Onyx recording that has just come out.


----------



## senza sordino

^^^^^^Radames, that's an impressive number of concerts to attend. And it sounds like you heard some smashing performances. I'm very pleased for you. 

12 concerts for me, one chamber group concert, one recital and four of my own performances with my amateur orchestra. 

Highlights for me:
Yo Yo Ma played Dvorak, cello concerto and sat in for Dvorak 8
Tasmin Little played Korngold
Kirill Gerstein played DSCH PC 2
Sibelius 5, Mahler 5, Britten War Reqiuem and RVW Fantasia on a Theme by Thomas Tallis

and we played Sibelius 2, LvB 9, Berlioz Harold in Italy, and the Brahms double concerto


----------



## Radames

manyene said:


> We at Liverpool have had another great season, featuring Richard Strauss and Tchaikovsky in anniversary years: we had the experience of hearing such rare works in the concert hall as the ' Winter Daydreams ' (Tchaikovsky's first Symphony). The RLPO's conductor Vasili Petrenko confirmed his Elgar credentials with a performance of the 'Dream of Gerontius' last night to finish a season: the Elgar First Symphony appears on two separate occasions, to mark the very fine Onyx recording that has just come out.


This one?








How is the hall in Liverpool? Montreal got a new one a few years ago - they needed it BADLY. The hall acoustics are really important. Vermont has a good orchestra but a terrible hall. I still loved the Elgar violin concerto I heard there.

I found a couple of more concerts to extend the season - Boston Civic Symphony is playing in NH on June 27. To me summer season doesn't begin until July - when Tanglewood opens.


----------



## phlrdfd

I only went to I believe four or five concerts this season, the least for me in about 20 years (I moved and it's not as convenient for me to go to concerts as it was when I lived within walking distance of the hall where the Philadelphia Orchestra play).

But if I had to pick one standout concert, it was a mostly Tchaikovsky concert led by Yannick Nezet-Seguin here in Philly. They performed highlights from the Nutcracker, but not the usual chunks. These were portions you usually don't here unless you listen to the entire ballet. Then after intermission, it was Tchaikovsky's 5th. No, it wasn't an adventurous program, but for much of the concert, if I closed my eyes, I could have sworn Eugene Ormandy was conducting. YNS must have been making a conscious effort to recapture the classic "Philadelphia Sound," and he nailed it perfectly. I practically floated out of the hall that night. I don't think I've been that excited by the overall sound of the orchestra since Sawallisch was Music Director.


----------



## papsrus

Highlight of the year for me was Muti and the Chicago Symphony Orchestra at Carnegie Hall in January. The programs was Mendelssohn - Calm Sea and Prosperous Voyage Overture; Debussy - La Mer; Scriabin - Symphony No. 3 "The Divine Poem."

Upgraded the day of the concert to a seat in the center, six rows from the stage. From there, the power of the orchestra was sensational. The strings magnificent. Quite an inspired performance, really. Some standing ovations feel obligatory. The one following this concert was rousing and well deserved.

Later in February I caught the Cleveland Orchestra at Miami's Arsht Center -- where they do a short winter residency each year -- performing Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 paired with Schostakovich's Symphony No. 6. I recall the orchestra was impressive for its precision and vigor, if not the overwhelming power of the CSO. Course, I was up in the balcony for the Cleveland concert, so a different aural experience. Lovely hall, and a treat to hear Franz Welzer-Most lead this world-class orchestra. 

A concert prelude featured a piano trio performing Beethoven's Piano Trio No. 5 in D major, then a violin quartet playing Quartet for Four Violins, by Grazyna Bacewicz, whom I'd never heard of before, but this spurred me to investigate her output a little bit. Enjoyed it. Nice little warmup treat.

Two other concerts of note:

The Dresden Philharmonic made a whistle stop here at my local hall and performed Beethoven's No. 7, along with Tchaikovsky's Variations on a Rococo Theme Op. 33 and John Williams' Suite from Memoirs of a Geisha. Cellist Johannes Moser was excellent and entertaining in the Tchaikovsky. The orchestra played the Beethoven sort of HIP style with no vibrato. Very nice. Then they played the finale to the William Tell Overture as an encore, which I found hilarious as it sent everyone to the exits with their pants on fire. I made a mental note to be doubly aware leaving the parking lot.

The final concert of note for me was a chamber concert that was part of the annual La Musica Festival held here at the Sarasota Opera House. Highlights of the program were Mozart's String Quintet in B flat major and Schumann's Piano Quartet in E flat Major, Op.47. Excellent. 

Honorable mention goes to the Verdi Concert given by the Sarasota Opera Orchestra with soloists and chorus. Another front and center seat for me for this concert (I usually sit in a forward seat up the balcony at the opera house -- great view and acoustics from there). The opera company has been staging Verdi operas for years, with the goal of working through the complete cycle -- which they will accomplish next season, I believe. Anyways, these Verdi concerts kind of go hand in hand with that. This year's concert featured the orchestra performing music from "Jerusalem," "Nabucco," "Un ball in maschera" and "Otello," among others.


----------



## Albert7

Utah Symphony season is over and highlights for me included all those Mahler symphonies 1-4, Ingrid Fliter playing the Beethoven Piano Concerto 4 while sight reading and Baiba Skride doing the Berg Violin Concerto. Lots of magical motions like Stravinsky's Symphony in Three Movements.


----------

