Schwarz/Seattle Symphony plays Maher Fifth next week

[John Kim]

I will be at the Benaroya Hall on Thursday (10/1). Their M5th concert a few years back was one of the 4 or 5 best I ever heard. It had everything from start to finish: structure, well balanced polyphony, sensible tempos, grit and emotions, were all there. Of course, my best experience of this symphony remains with Jansons/Pittsburg Symphony Orch. concert.

John,

P.S. Following this M5th concert, they will play Shostakovich 15th, one of my favorite Shosy symphonies, in November.

[John Kim]

...heading to the hall...right now....hoping Schwarz will reproduce what he and his orch. had done before....


...will report later.

John,

[John Kim]

Sorry folks, but I had a terrible evening during the concert - stomach ache and cold sickness.

I was so sick that I didn't feel like reporting on the concert.

It's suffice to say that the first two movts which clocked at around 12 and 14 min. respectively were excellent but the Scherzo, at nearly 20 min., was episodic and not very coherent. The Adagietto was at a flowing tempo under 9 min. and the Finale was just fine although the final brass chorus could have had more swagger and bigger impact a la Karajan. My recollection is that they did it much better in the past. But that could be me who suffered during and after the concert  .

Regards,

John,

[sbugala]

I know what you mean, John. I developed a headache during my Saint Louis Symphony Orchestra Mahler 5th, and have dragged my feet on reporting my thoughts. 

I taped the next night's SLSO concert off the radio, but didn't listen measure for measure through it yet.  Hopefully, I'll have a favorable report.

[Tom B.]

WOW.....I wish still lived up in the North West. My former wife and i had season tickets for the Seattle Symphony with Schwarz conducting most of the time. We saw him from 1982 through 1993.

Since coming south, MTT is great, but I was discouraged with the lousy seats i was stuck with in the 2000 and 2001 seasons. The whole reason I wanted to go in the first place was to see the ever elusive Martha Argerich.......she canceled of coarse.


Tom B.    http://cgi.audioasylum.com/systems/134.html