Comments on: Best Beethoven in Town from Leipzig Gewandhaus Orchestra http://classical-scene.com/2010/02/27/best-beethoven-in-town-from-leipzig-gewandhaus-orchestra/ a virtual journal and blog of the classical music scene in Boston Wed, 23 May 2012 03:34:37 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 By: Joe Whipple http://classical-scene.com/2010/02/27/best-beethoven-in-town-from-leipzig-gewandhaus-orchestra/comment-page-1/#comment-1780 Joe Whipple Wed, 03 Mar 2010 21:21:38 +0000 http://classical-scene.com/?p=2833#comment-1780 It seems the Gewandhaus is in top form, judging from the review here, in the Boston papers, and on the blog linked above. But the individual blogger — http://andrewvanz.blogspot.com/2010/02/concert-of-season.html — expresses some of what I only vaguely perceived in the Emperor Concerto. As he says, the orchestra plays with great homogeneity. Unlike him, I would have said it was bland. Neither the Concerto nor the Symphony excited me. As a non-musician, I struggle to put into words exactly why, but both felt somehow routine. To my ears, whatever the differences in tempo, the BSO's 7th a week earlier was more alive, more gripping. And the "Emperor" is one of my favorite pieces of music, so as long as the notes are played it cannot be bad. But again this performance was not exciting. To me, the best performance of the evening was the "Prometheus" Overture which concluded the evening as an encore. Maybe I should accept — as the 19th century humorist did with regard to Wagner's music — that the performance was better than it sounded, and that the shortcoming was in my untrained ear. It seems the Gewandhaus is in top form, judging from the review here, in the Boston papers, and on the blog linked above. But the individual blogger — http://andrewvanz.blogspot.com/2010/02/concert-of-season.html — expresses some of what I only vaguely perceived in the Emperor Concerto. As he says, the orchestra plays with great homogeneity. Unlike him, I would have said it was bland. Neither the Concerto nor the Symphony excited me. As a non-musician, I struggle to put into words exactly why, but both felt somehow routine. To my ears, whatever the differences in tempo, the BSO’s 7th a week earlier was more alive, more gripping. And the “Emperor” is one of my favorite pieces of music, so as long as the notes are played it cannot be bad. But again this performance was not exciting. To me, the best performance of the evening was the “Prometheus” Overture which concluded the evening as an encore.

Maybe I should accept — as the 19th century humorist did with regard to Wagner’s music — that the performance was better than it sounded, and that the shortcoming was in my untrained ear.

]]> By: Rezensionen aus Boston « Gewandhausorchester Tournee Blog http://classical-scene.com/2010/02/27/best-beethoven-in-town-from-leipzig-gewandhaus-orchestra/comment-page-1/#comment-1765 Rezensionen aus Boston « Gewandhausorchester Tournee Blog Tue, 02 Mar 2010 11:24:04 +0000 http://classical-scene.com/?p=2833#comment-1765 [...] “The Boston Musical Intelligencer” kürt das Konzert des Gewandhausorchester zum “Best Beethoven in Town [...] [...] “The Boston Musical Intelligencer” kürt das Konzert des Gewandhausorchester zum “Best Beethoven in Town [...]

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