Royal Festival Hall at Southbacnk Center, London
05.12.2010
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Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi
Piano: Angela Hewitt
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Mozart - Concerto #41
Schubert - Unfinished Symphony
Beethoven - Symphony #5
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It has been a while since I haven't attended a good symphonic concert. So I bought a ticket for this one. 8 pounds, a seat behind the orchestra. I love it there because I can follow both the conductor and the players. The conductor's face can say millions of things, things that you can't possibly see from behind him. I closely followed his eyes, his gestures.. it's great. Like this, the concert is much more intense. I have the same experience in Los Angeles when I attended a concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. He's too a fury of nature.
05.12.2010
.
Philharmonia Orchestra
Conductor: Christoph von Dohnányi
Piano: Angela Hewitt
.
Mozart - Concerto #41
Schubert - Unfinished Symphony
Beethoven - Symphony #5
.
It has been a while since I haven't attended a good symphonic concert. So I bought a ticket for this one. 8 pounds, a seat behind the orchestra. I love it there because I can follow both the conductor and the players. The conductor's face can say millions of things, things that you can't possibly see from behind him. I closely followed his eyes, his gestures.. it's great. Like this, the concert is much more intense. I have the same experience in Los Angeles when I attended a concert conducted by Gustavo Dudamel. He's too a fury of nature.
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Several things happened right at the beginning of the concert. But somebody told the story before me, so I took the liberty of inserting here the quotation. That person is the pianist, Angela Hewitt. And this story is posted on her official site. Some photos follow. Not too many. Just wanted to show you how Royal Festival Hall looks like. I enjoyed the concert very, very much.
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With the Philharmonia at the Royal Festival Hall (2010-12-06)
Getting back to London from Italy was a nightmare. I was awake on Friday for 22 hours. My flight to Gatwick was indeed cancelled, although I didn't find out until I got to Verona airport after 3 hours in a car driving down from the mountains. So I hopped on trains for several more hours and ended up in Sacile where the Fazioli factory makes its home. Mr. Fazioli himself picked me up at the station, and I practised for 2 hours as I was desperate to get some work done. Then I went on to Treviso for the flight back to London Stansted. It was also delayed until well after midnight, so I didn't arrive back home in London until 3 am (which was 4 am on the continent). Exhausted. After five hours sleep, I was at the Festival Hall to rehearse my fourth Mozart Concerto of the week with the Philharmonia and Maestro Dohnanyi. And then you won't believe what happened tonight. After the dress rehearsal this morning (an open one which many of the UK Friends of my festival attended as a special privilege, followed by a lunch reception), I was back at the hall in the evening for the 7:30 concert. At 7:29 there was a knock at my dressing room door. I wasn't yet dressed because I had all of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony to wait through, and I thought that gave me ample time to get ready. It was a member of the Philharmonia staff telling me their clarinettist had left half of his clarinet at home (just half??) and that he had to go back for it, by which time I had already guessed what she would say next. They wanted me to begin the concert with the Mozart. So what could I do but say fine, and jump out of my clothes and into my gown. The one thing i regret is that I had no time to eat my banana which I needed and which made me feel hungry half way through the first movement. But that wasn't all. When I walked on stage with the Maestro, bowed, and sat down, he turned around to find no score on his music stand! So we all waited several more minutes while somebody went to fetch it. And all this in front of a packed out Royal Festival Hall. You never know in life what's ahead of you. In any case, I enjoyed the performance and it was a pleasure to work with the orchestra (the last time was something like 23 years ago when I played a Beethoven "Emperor" with them in a tent at Leeds Castle). I very much hope it's not another 23 years until the next time.
.
Getting back to London from Italy was a nightmare. I was awake on Friday for 22 hours. My flight to Gatwick was indeed cancelled, although I didn't find out until I got to Verona airport after 3 hours in a car driving down from the mountains. So I hopped on trains for several more hours and ended up in Sacile where the Fazioli factory makes its home. Mr. Fazioli himself picked me up at the station, and I practised for 2 hours as I was desperate to get some work done. Then I went on to Treviso for the flight back to London Stansted. It was also delayed until well after midnight, so I didn't arrive back home in London until 3 am (which was 4 am on the continent). Exhausted. After five hours sleep, I was at the Festival Hall to rehearse my fourth Mozart Concerto of the week with the Philharmonia and Maestro Dohnanyi. And then you won't believe what happened tonight. After the dress rehearsal this morning (an open one which many of the UK Friends of my festival attended as a special privilege, followed by a lunch reception), I was back at the hall in the evening for the 7:30 concert. At 7:29 there was a knock at my dressing room door. I wasn't yet dressed because I had all of Schubert's Unfinished Symphony to wait through, and I thought that gave me ample time to get ready. It was a member of the Philharmonia staff telling me their clarinettist had left half of his clarinet at home (just half??) and that he had to go back for it, by which time I had already guessed what she would say next. They wanted me to begin the concert with the Mozart. So what could I do but say fine, and jump out of my clothes and into my gown. The one thing i regret is that I had no time to eat my banana which I needed and which made me feel hungry half way through the first movement. But that wasn't all. When I walked on stage with the Maestro, bowed, and sat down, he turned around to find no score on his music stand! So we all waited several more minutes while somebody went to fetch it. And all this in front of a packed out Royal Festival Hall. You never know in life what's ahead of you. In any case, I enjoyed the performance and it was a pleasure to work with the orchestra (the last time was something like 23 years ago when I played a Beethoven "Emperor" with them in a tent at Leeds Castle). I very much hope it's not another 23 years until the next time.
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