M4 concert last evening

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

So I attended 2 concerts of M4 this week. I will only comment on the concert of yesterday. I couln't apreciate the one on thursday because of a bad placement, and because i was very tired by my day's work and driving.The National Orchestra of Lyon was conducted by Illan Volkov.The soprano was Camilla Tilling.
I can say i enjoyed the concert. It was a good concert, but not a great one. Why?
First it seems to me that particularly in this symphony the conductor has to be an alchemist in the mixing of colours,a poet in phrasing, a tighrope walker in the distribution of the rythmic energy. Unfortunately that was not always the case yesterday.The winds were often too much discreet and not enough individually characterized.The phrasing was not constructed and refined enough and the rythme sometimes laked  fluidity and sometimes on the contrary laked vigour (here I'm thinking to the 2nd mt that was not enough a scherzo).
Apart from that there were very beautiful and moving moments. The orchestra was very good and it was a pleasure to see the musicians play.The spirit in the 3rd was right and the fresh voice an style of Camilla Tilling did the succes of the final.The end was an angelic purity.
What i like in concerts  is that it's always a starting point to go further.What was great too is that just we returned home, my boyfriend asked me to play the version i want of M4.I chose the Zinman's one and we listened to it ,comparing and sharing our impressions.

[euphoria]

Camilla Tilling is my clear favorite for M4. I have the Zander M4 where she is the soloist.
She has an almost childlike voice which is so well suited for this symphony.

I can also reccomend her album Rote Rosen (Strauss Lieder) which offers a very different quality than more "mature" voices. It has a freshness to it that one rarely finds in these lieder.

[john haueisen]

Mathilde,

It sounds like you had a wonderful evening.  Hang onto that boyfriend!  Anyone who comes home from a Mahler concert and still wants to listen to more is definitely a keeper.

[sperlsco]

The National Orchestra of Lyon was conducted by Illan Volkov.

It's too bad that it wasn't a better concert.  I have a radio rip of Volkov and the BBC Scottish SO doing a very enjoyable M7.  I keep hoping to see his name as a guest conductor with the Houston SO. 

[Roffe]

I have problems with concerts. Or at least have had. In 1995 I was in Amsterdam, Holland at the ‘Mahlerfeest’ with the Amsterdam Concertgebouw Orchestra, The Vienna Philharmonic, The Berlin Philharmonic,  The BBC Welsh SO, The Gustav Mahler Jugendorchester, Claudio Abbado, Riccardo Chially, Bernhard Haitink, Riccardo Muti, Mark Wigglesworth, not to mention all the vocal solists (amongst them my absolute favourite mezzo A S von Otter) and the choirs. After that I didn’t attend a concert for many years; what could top this? These performances are memories I will have til the day I die (unless I disappear in mr. Alzheimer’s mist). These performances set the bar very very high (as do our favourite CDs and DVDs). We all know what we like Mahler’s music to sound like, and if it doesn’t, we are disappointed or at least don’t appreciate the concerts as much as we should.

Now I go to concerts again, but I try not to have any expectations at all, sometimes I’m positively surprised. There isn’t a better place to experience music than the concert hall; you watch, you listen, you experience, you enjoy........

Roffe

[Stürmisch Bewegt]

So do I. That's why I finally took tickets for Gatti's M8 in june.