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Post by julesd68 on Sept 25, 2017 17:48:16 GMT
So, Sir Simon Rattle is now firmly at the helm of the LSO. I've been to a few Rattle concerts and been disappointed in each one of them. Especially the Sibelius Cycle a couple of years or so ago with the BPO at the Barbican! My god that was tedious in the extreme ... I would like to go to the LSO with an open mind but this interesting short review of his arrival does not fill me with much hope at all. I do hope the LSO programme won't be packed with modernist works. Audiences will surely dwindle after the initial fanfares have died down ... The photograph below could well end up being rather apt. www.telegraph.co.uk/music/what-to-listen-to/simon-rattle-barbican-review/ |
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 25, 2017 18:14:41 GMT
Ah, the Rattler returns to the UK.  Very seldom (if ever) an inspired conductor in my experience of his recordings. I really don't get what all the fuss is about. My god - I enjoy some modern classical music (more than most classical fans on TAS, I think!) but that concert sounds like something out of a nightmare. |
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Post by Slinger on Sept 25, 2017 19:47:54 GMT
...I really don't get what all the fuss is about. And yet there IS that fuss, and always has been it seems. He's definitely a Marmite job but it seems that Marmite lovers control some major orchestras. I like a lot of his Mahler output (yes, I had to mention Mahler guys  ) and he's done a cracking bit of Elgar in his time. He must have something to have got the gigs he's been offered and it's difficult to deny how much he raised the quality and the profile of the CBSO. I'm now going to sit down with a rather good bottle of Rum and will quite possibly drink myself into a state where almost any music sounds inspirational...apart, perhaps, from the content of Sir Si's opening LSO concert, Elgar excepted of course. Don't expect any more serious posts until further notice. |
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Post by jandl100 on Sept 25, 2017 19:57:47 GMT
I suspect The Rattler may be appreciated by those who prefer the musical score to be directly and unemotionally transcribed into sound rather than interpreted.
Vanska and Chailly are two more conductors who I similarly fail to hear the point of but are much in demand.
For a lot of composers, the score was merely the initiator for the performance rather than the be all and end all. I'm trying to recall a composer who explicitly said that, but my memory is failing me at the moment!
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 25, 2017 20:28:40 GMT
I suspect The Rattler may be appreciated by those who prefer the musical score to be directly and unemotionally transcribed into sound rather than interpreted. Nail on head. That was exactly my experience of several BPO concerts. I was completely unmoved... Would preferred to have summoned the spirit of Herbert VK to take over... VK was another Marmite character perhaps and may not have bothered talking to the orchestra much but made some great recordings with them. |
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Post by MartinT on Sept 25, 2017 21:20:56 GMT
Harrison Birtwistle  There has been one time when I heard Rattle perform live in a truly transcendental performance: Mahler's 2nd. That concert blew my mind, so epic that I have never forgotten it. That makes up for a lot in my mind. His recordings are more disappointing. |
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 25, 2017 21:38:38 GMT
Which orchestra was he conducting Martin for the Mahler 2?
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Post by MartinT on Sept 25, 2017 21:47:56 GMT
It was the CBSO, his best partnership.
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Post by julesd68 on Sept 26, 2017 16:24:33 GMT
Yes that would have been him at his zenith.
I've just ploughed through the entire Barbican schedule and whilst I have found some very interesting concerts that I might try and get to I can't find anything with Mr Rattle at the helm that interest me at all.
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Post by MartinT on Sept 26, 2017 18:37:30 GMT
He does seem to have a liking for Birtwistle type compositions that just have me running away.
There's dissonance for effect (Shostakovich did it so well) and then there's just constant jarring noise.
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) and he's done a cracking bit of Elgar in his time. He must have something to have got the gigs he's been offered and it's difficult to deny how much he raised the quality and the profile of the CBSO.
