 The Clarinet BBoard
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Author: williamalex54
Date: 2013-12-31 20:45
should be archived.
http://www.medici.tv/#!/lang-lang-sir-simon-rattle-silvesterkonzert-2014
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Author: John Peacock
Date: 2014-01-01 02:59
Thanks for that tip - really impressive playing.
Lang Lang is the Martin Frost of the Piano. They both have showmanship
that would risk being irritating if their technical mastery of their instruments
wasn't so astonishingly complete. I'd love to see them do a duet....
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Author: williamalex54
Date: 2014-01-01 15:56
My pleasure......
Don't miss the Symphonic Dance No. 3 by Hindemith...several nice clarinet soli!
It starts at 1 hour 12 minutes.
Post Edited (2014-01-01 22:29)
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-01-01 19:43
The Prokoviev Piano Concerto #3 starts with an unaccompanied clarinet solo (Wenzel Fuchs). He's great throughout. The principal oboe is very good, but he's not Albrecht Mayer. A number of wind players (e.g., principal bassoon) are using ear plugs. Fine principal flute; exceptional piccolo player.
There are a fair number of women, including on horn, trombone and bassoon. The orchestra is in white-tie, but Rattle is in a sort of black Nehru jacket with heavily padded shoulders, and Lang Lang is in tails and a thin white button shirt with a plunging neckline. Some of the audience are shockingly casual.
Lang Lang keeps getting better. He's in really close rapport with the orchestra, which plays great. He's playing to himself and the orchestra. Even during the bows, he barely acknowledges the audience.
As usual, I'm unimpressed by Rattle. His motions aren't connected with the orchestra, which is playing without him. Nobody makes eye contact with him. A real conductor would match the orchestra to Lang Lang's very incisive style. Later on he freezes while the orchestra plays by itself, and many beats are given more than two seconds ahead.
Still, a really fine concert.
Ken Shaw
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2014-01-02 04:18
Ken- perhaps you're not aware that Berlin have 2 principals for every instrument. The other principal oboe (who is playing here) is Jonathan Kelly. Rattle brought him over to Berlin from the CBSO. He's a great player.
Regarding giving beats ahead of time: European orchestras don't play "on the beat" the way American orchestras do. I remember the first time I conducted. I gave the downbeat and nobody played. I was just about to ask what the problem was, and then everybody came in!
I also remember when Alan Gilbert conducted at our opera house. He spent 6 orchestra rehearsals battling to get us to play on his beat. Then we got to the rehearsals with stage and singers. He then spent the next 6 rehearsals trying to get the singers to not to sing too late. Of course he could have just left everything as it was and it would have worked perfectly.
I found that Wenzel Fuchs's sound on this recording doesn't really cut though and project when he plays mezzo forte or more. I found the same thing when I attended a recital of Andrea Ottensamer last year. He had a beautiful sound up to mf, but anything louder than that got lost in the sound of the piano. They are both fantastic musicians and absolutely top players. But I'm starting to think that their Legere reeds don't really project in louder dynamics?
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Author: Ken Shaw ★2017
Date: 2014-01-02 01:37
Liquorice -
I know about the dual principals in Berlin. Jonathan Kelly is a superb oboist, but Albrecht Mayer is a genius.
I haven't heard the orchestra live for many years (with Karajan around 1965). I remember that it was hard to tell the woodwinds apart. The principal clarinetist (Herbert Stahr, I believe) didn't project, either.
The video has lots of closeups of Rattle and the players - enough to see what's happening. The problem I saw was not delayed entrances but that Rattle was all over the place, and the orchestra wasn't paying any attention to him. I noticed the same thing in a Mahler 9th video a year or so back.
Did you see anything different in the video?
Ken Shaw
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Author: Liquorice
Date: 2014-01-03 04:16
Ken- I see plenty of eye contact between the players and Rattle. Obviously they are reading like crazy too in the Prokofiev because of all the notes. I really don't see how why you think Rattle's motions are not connected to the orchestra. You don't need to stand in front of the Berlin Philharmonic and beat time. You need to show phrasing, colours, rubato, articulation and mood. I think what Rattle is doing shows these things very clearly.
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