Ligeti 100: Celebrating the composer in his centenary year (Gill / van de Wiel / Aimard / London Sinfonietta / Kaziboni)

14th October 2023
Queen Elizabeth Hall, London, United Kingdom

LIGETI 6 Bagatelles
LIGETI (arr. HANS ABRAHAMSEN) No. 5 "Arc-en-ciel" and No. 11 "En suspens" from Études
LIGETI Baladă şi joc
LIGETI Cello Concerto
NANCARROW Piece No. 2
UNSUK CHIN "Advice from a Caterpillar" from Alice in Wonderland
LIGETI Piano Concerto

Tim Gill (cello)
Mark van de Wiel (bass clarinet)
Pierre-Laurent Aimard (piano)
London Sinfonietta
Vimbayi Kaziboni (conductor)



I first saw Pierre-Laurent Aimard playing solo Ligeti in November 2004. 19 years later, same hall, for Ligeti 100, here at the Queen Elizabeth Hall, he returned to perform the "Piano Concerto" with the London Sinfonietta under Vimbavi Kaziboni. Despite opting for a Yamaha, the performance was considerably mellower than his two recordings (still pretty spiky), and the orchestra did not seem as rhythmically clear. The high register wind clusters at the end of II made a lot of audience covered their ears, which was probably the intended effect. The PC was the main event for a very mixed programme celebrating the great Hungarian composer. The "6 Bagatelles" for wind quintet (transcriptions of six pieces from "Musica ricercata") started the evening and was great fun. Impressive virtuosity. Hans Abrahamsen's arrangements of Etudes Nos. 5 and 11 were potent. Without having looked at the score, I thought "Arc-en-ciel" was too fast and not ethereal enough, and would love more oomph from those tenuto Bill Evans-inspired maj7 chords. "Baladă şi joc" for two violins is yet again more early folk-inspired germ cells that eventually made their ways to "Concert românesc". These early pieces play with extreme timbres and instrumental techniques on regular instruments and are always entertaining to watch and hear. The sharp turn to the "Cello Concerto" from Ligeti's sound-mass period made some challenging listening, but you have to admire soloist Tim Gill for holding the single pitch at one tone for extended periods of time. After the interval came Nancarrow's quirky, multi-metred "Piece No. 2". Evocative tonal piece from a true original. I should revisit Nancarrow. Unsuk Chin's bass clarinet solo excerpt from her opera "Alice in Wonderland" (soloist Mark van de Wiel) was an odd inclusion before the PC, even if just to highlight Ligeti's love for the absurd and existentialism, and that Chin being Ligeti's student. Not sure what to make of it. The choices of this Ligeti celebration is a bit outlandish and one would wonder why they didn't go for the "Chamber Concerto" and "Aventures" instead, but I would take it just for the rare performance of the fiendish PC.

Wagner: Das Rheingold (ROH / Kosky / Pappano)

Das Rheingold
Music Drama in Four Scenes
29th September 2023
Royal Opera House, London, United Kingdom

Composer Richard Wagner
Libretto Richard Wagner
Director Barrie Kosky
Orchestra Orchestra of the Royal Opera House
Conductor Antonio Pappano

Cast list at the bottom of post.



It all started with lust, then greed, followed by the will to power, then selfishness (and the will to live) led to the breakdown of morals, the death of the free hero (will) and the death of gods in a perpetual cycle. Haven't we seen all these themes elsewhere recently? I have avoided Wagner and operas all my life and fate decided that I should start with Das Rheingold in a new production by Barrie Kosky at the Royal Opera House. Pretty economical production, it seemed, with the entire preliminary evening of the Ring cycle taking place next to a fallen fragment of Yggdrasil, be it representing the Rhine, the heavens or Nibelheim, with the goddess of Earth, Erda, perpetually looking on. After two years of intensively catching up on operas and German Romanticism, I was instinctively (and unnecessarily) looking for an intellectual discourse with the determination to dissect all the symbolisms within 2.5 h but I foolishly forgot that an opera was there, first and foremost, to entertain through drama, which it did. That is not to say this production lacked depth, but it was mostly very direct and straightforward storytelling with some pretty coarse moments on stage. I don't know how this compared to productions from 1970s, but contemporary themes such as environmental conservation took centre stage, and otherwise the set and costumes seemed timeless. Singing was solid throughout. Little gimmicks and clear diction from Alberich, which was refreshing. The hyperactive Loge was a little irritating. The Rhinemaiden trio was potent. Fasolt was impressive. Pappano's orchestral support was great and the interludes were fantastic though it would be greater if the orchestra was more involved and integrated in the dramatic events themselves. Taped anvil-hitting sounds were a bit questionable by ROH standards. I agree with most reviews that it was a 4 out of 5 stars production - very enjoyable but not mind-blowing. I don't know how they are going to keep this minimalism all the way to Götterdämmerung in three years' time. If I am still in London, I will try and catch the rest.



Wotan - Christopher Maltman
Alberich - Christopher Purves
Loge - Sean Panikkar
Fricka - Marina Prudenskaya
Freia - Kiandra Howarth
Voice of Erda - Wiebke Lehmkuhl
Donner - Kostas Smoriginas
Froh - Rodrick Dixon
Mime - Brenton Ryan
Fasolt - Insung Sim
Fafner - Soloman Howard
Woglinde - Katharina Konradi
Wellgunde - Niamh O'Sullivan
Flosshilde - Marvic Monreal
Erda - Frances Campbell
Concert Master - Sergey Levitin

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 55 - Simon: Four Black American Dances; Stravinsky: Petrushka (1947); Gershwin: Concerto in F; Ravel: La valse (Thibaudet / BSO / Nelsons)

26th August 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

CARLOS SIMON Four Black American Dances
STRAVINSKY Petrushka (1947 version)
GERSHWIN Concerto in F
RAVEL La valse

Jean‐Yves Thibaudet (piano)
Boston Symphony Orchestra
Andris Nelsons (conductor)



A night of intoxicating rhythms with the Boston Symphony Orchestra and Andris Nelsons. On paper, at least. The more I listen to Stravinsky's "Petrushka" (1947 version tonight), the less I enjoy it as a concert piece, because a lot of mediocre conductors perform it without considering its ballet origin and it ends up sounding like a patchy orchestral mess. Nelsons was great to remind us of the narratives, but focused so much on the very fine orchestral playing at the expense of the dynamic, "physical" side of the music, which made it stale and tedious as it went on. Was it the performance or the score to blame? I think it's both. Gershwin's "Concerto in F" received a rare outing after the interval. I always wonder, how much abandonment should one play Gershwin with? Do you play it like jazz and improvise? But "Concerto in F" is the more note-perfect side of Gershwin. Jean-Yves Thibaudet gave a punchy, rhythmically incisive performance that was easily more impressive than his 2010 recording. He was always (literally physically) searching for introspective dialogues with the orchestral solos, but the orchestra did not necessarily reciprocate generously. Individual players, particularly the brass, were impressive in bringing the spikes and the blues, but one could not help but think that American music might not be Nelsons' expertise. Those big tunes needed to be milked a lot more, for a start. The Prom started with "Four Black American Dances" by Carlos Simon who was in the audience tonight. It was easily one of the more successful and satisfying efforts to incorporate traditional black music into the symphonic form, from pacing to orchestrations. The rawness of the dances were highly enjoyable and the explosive applause to the composer was well justified. Ravel's apocalyptic "La valse" finished it all. It was suitably episodic, elegant and nicely paced. This was Nelsons at his best. If only that was also true for the Stravinsky.

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 47 - Ligeti: Concert românesc, Violin Concerto; Mozart: Piano Concerto No. 23, Symphony No. 41 (Faust / Melnikov / Les Siècles / Roth)

20th August 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

LIGETI Concert românesc
LIGETI Violin Concerto
MOZART Piano Concerto No. 23
MOZART Symphony No. 41

Isabelle Faust (violin)
Alexander Melnikov (fortepiano)
Les Siècles
François‐Xavier Roth (conductor)



Baffling programme tonight, this Harmonia Mundi Prom. François‐Xavier Roth's versatile Les Siècles paired Ligeti with Mozart. The early "Concert românesc" is the fun, melodic, folk-inspired Ligeti that is the beginning of everything but is often overshadowed by his later styles. It is one of the first orchestral scores I bought, in fact, and proves to be essential listening (along with "Musica ricercata") for the appreciation of his later styles. Even early on, Ligeti experiments with extreme instrumental timbres and orchestral dynamics, like getting the strings to play sul pont. or con sord. at pp against brass at ff. Achieving that extreme sonic contrast with such clarity in the RAH was nothing less than impressive. The "Violin Concerto" is the supreme culmination of almost all of Ligeti's styles, and goes beyond. It calls for unusual instrumentaion (ocarinas!), scordatura, folk(-inspired) music, micropolyphony, microtonal clusters, natural harmonics, you name it. Isabelle Faust gave a muscular, no-nonsense and frankly Romantic rendition of this concerto (c.f. PatKop) with Strasnoy's cadenza. I particularly enjoyed the highly expressive slow movement. It was an Expressionist solo matched by French elegance from the orchestra with very little rustic quality you'd expect from Ligeti. Everything was wrong in the right way and right in the wrong way and it's wonderful. Mozart's PC23 was a bit dodgy. Using a fortepiano in the middle of the orchestra without halving the strings in the RAH meant you could hardly hear the soloist even up close. That aside, Alexander Melnikov's very liberal rubatos, excessive mannerisms and occasional additional ornaments meant it was far from note perfect, to the point of being outright wrong and missing entries. Pretty unforgivable for a Mozart concerto, really. Also played with period instruments (and the second violin leader with a LH violin), "Symphony No. 41" was forceful. Enjoyable, if a bit heavy-handed with some questionable pauses in the minuet and trio. This Prom was a bit mixed. I love this orchestra, but I'd rather hear them pairing Rameau and Ravel with Boulez instead.

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 36 - Ligeti: Requiem, Lux aeterna; R. Strauss: Also sprach Zarathustra (France / Presland / LPO / Gardner)

11th August 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

LIGETI Requiem
LIGETI Lux aeterna
R. STRAUSS Also sprach Zarathustra

Jennifer France (soprano)
Clare Presland (mezzo-soprano)
Edvard Grieg Kor
Royal Northern College of Music Chamber Choir
London Philharmonic Choir
London Philharmonic Orchestra
Edward Gardner (conductor)



Ligeti celebration turned into a Stanley Kubrick homage evening - you know which pieces already - but I was told that both the Ligeti "Requiem" and R. Strauss' evergreen "Also sprach Zarathustra" were actually also used in the latest Barbie film. That explained all the selfie-taking and beer-drinking crowd tonight. Sound mass period Ligeti is something I only appreciate as I grow older. If you pay attention to the individual lines, they are highly ordered, finely constructed and incredibly expressive. If you then overlay them in a cascading manner, you generate a complex "micropolyphony" texture that Ligeti is famous for. At which point does over saturation of human emotions become stochastic noise? If we struggle to listen to it, is it more a biological limitation of human perception than the music being an intellectual mess? Hearing the "Introit" and especially the intricate "Kyrie" live is quite a spectacular experience. The terrifying and spiky "De die judicii sequentia" was ironically vindicated at the spot when a woman passed out half way. The soloists Jennifer France and Clare Presland were astonishing, punching their sharp lines through the atonal mass with little pitching help. I think the combined Edvard Grieg Kor, RNCM Chamber and LP choirs were a bit thin at the bass end of the vocal spectrum. Ligeti would have probably loved the joke of someone setting the alarm off at the last note of "Lacrimosa" (Ligeti himself apparently timed it with a stopclock when he watched "2001"). After the interval, Ligeti's choral transcendence experience was completed by "Lux aeterna" being sung from the Gallery in pitch dark. Seamless singing swirling under the roof of RAH. Very special experience. The Strauss that followed was a bit average, however. Big tunes, big gestures, nice phrasing and pace, it was a functional performance by the LPO under Edward Gardner, but I find places like the fugue in "Von der Wissenschaft" very murky and "Das Tanzlied" not invigorating enough, certainly being overshadowed by the preceding ecstatic climax of "Der Genesende". Not quite the transcendental übermensch journey Strauss envisaged, but I guess it's a potent antidote to Ligeti for most in the audience.

"Thus Spake Zarathustra" (1883 - 1885) by Friedrich Nietzsche

Multiple things in the past two years led me to Nietzsche - Wagner, for example - so I felt obliged to read his works. It was, however, a big mistake on my part to start with the famous "Also sprach Zarathustra". It is not necessarily the philosophical ideas that are difficult to comprehend. In fact, I prepared myself by reading discussions on Nietzsche before and alongside reading this book, without doing which this book was basically unreadable. There are multiple reasons why this book is not suitable as an entry point to Nietzsche or, for that matter, any philosophy. Being a "philosophical fiction", it is not a systematic or logical discussion on anything, but a series of entirely allegorical stories musing on the moon, volcanoes and tarantulas, preached by this fictional hermit Zarathustra. Nietzsche was famously critical of Christianity, almost all the values and morality that go with it, and everyone who practises it, yet he uses the same strategy as Christian preachers to spread these ideas, which makes it unclear if the text is meant to be a parody or not, or if it is meant to be read in one way or another. The bulk of the book is basically Zarathustra directly attacking every facet of morality as we know it. All the German poetries, wordplays and symphonic qualities that supposedly make this work "a masterpiece" are lost in the English translation anyway, so all that was left was a lengthy, repetitive, questionable and one-sided polemic text that does not serve as a good basis for any constructive discourse (and anyone who attempts is destined to end up with some messy arguments). As philosophy discussions generally do, it leaves more questions than answers - Was he a nihilist? Was he just anti-Christianity (Zarathustra seems to like ideas from the Orient) or an outright atheist? Is the notion of the übermensch meant to be a practical resolution to any of the "problems" he identified, that men basically need to surpass oneself by being as selfish as possible? As a scientist, it is interesting to compare these ideas against implications from statistical mechanics and the theory of evolution, but that's a discussion for another day. Let's see if the essays are more readable.

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 27 - Bellido: Perú negro; Rachmaninov: Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini; Walton: Belshazzar’s Feast (Wang / Hampson / BBC SO & Chorus / Mäkelä)

4th August 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

JIMMY LÓPEZ BELLIDO Perú negro
RACHMANINOV Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini
WALTON Belshazzar’s Feast

Yuja Wang (piano)
Thomas Hampson (baritone)
BBC Symphony Chorus
BBC Symphony Orchestra
Klaus Mäkelä (conductor)



The power couple Yuja Wang and Klaus Mäkelä performing Rachmaninov's much-loved "Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini", what can go wrong? Nothing, if you like pyrotechnics. She has certainly come a long way since her 2011 recording with Abbado and it was evident in places like the mini cadenza of Var. XV that she has developed a significantly greater depth in her playing and matured from the sheer flurry of notes to more rounded phrasings and colourful tones. The problem was that the tempo was way too fast and they didn't allow slower moments like Var. XI to flourish, defeating its point of being a rhapsody. Quite often the over-zealous orchestra, fantastic as they were, drowned the soloist completely and tipped the sonic balance over. The units were individually impressive but the cohort gave the impression of being under-rehearsed - perhaps the time was instead invested in the mind-blowingly excellent "Belshazzar's Feast" by Walton that was to follow in the second half. It was 35 minutes of non-stop firework display for chorus and orchestra, and the BBC Chorus and Orchestra were on top form every moment. It was driven hard. The rhythms were incisive, the inappropriately erotic harmonies for a biblical story were all so well realised that every hair raised, and the diction from the chorus was impeccable throughout. Sure, the American baritone Thomas Hampson forcing a British accent with all the rolling Rs was quite amusing, but every time he sang he brought a breath of fresh air to the otherwise sumptuous-to-the-point-of-suffocating sound world. In the end, Mäkelä basically joined in to sing along till the end. It was a wild party. Please Decca, you need to record this. The evening started with Bellido's "Perú negro" which purports to celebrate the composer's home country's musical roots. Rhythmic orchestrations, mostly repetitive and harmonically stale, everything revolves around a single melody most of the time. Some find it entertaining, but unfortunately not my cup of tea. Impressive brass playing though.

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 16 - Rachmaninov: The Bells; Shostakovich: Symphony No. 5 (Hallé / Elder)

26th July 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

RACHMANINOV The Bells
SHOSTAKOVICH Symphony No. 5

Mané Galoyan (soprano)
Dmytro Popov (tenor)
Andrei Kymach (baritone)
BBC Symphony Chorus
Hallé Choir
Hallé
Sir Mark Elder (conductor)



22 years in the UK, I have actually never heard the Hallé and Mark Elder, live or on recording. So I am here tonight to correct this shameful record, before the Manchester baton is passed onto the Singaporean dude. Perhaps more importantly, I am here for a rare outing of Rachmaninov's "The Bells" (after Edgar Allan Poe). Rachmaninov is universally loved for his beautiful melodies and brilliant piano writings in his solo works and concertos, but his choral and orchestral works are incredibly difficult to pitch. The problem is, Rachmaninov comes across as being a conservative and, frankly, backward-looking composer. If you take away the pretty melodies, a lot of his orchestral writings build on old forms, sequences over long stretches of time and minimally developed thematic materials embedded in thinly veiled orchestrations, so quite often they are either militantly repetitive or dreary. "The Bells" suffers from this, I personally find, and it requires a large force so no wonder why it is not performed often. There are the occasional exciting moments, like III, but mostly it conforms to Rachmaninov's usual morbid taste and obsession with death, but one that drags on and gets stale unlike the Paganini variations. Don't get me wrong, the performance was excellent, the BBC Symphony Chorus and Hallé Choir were outstanding in presenting a full-bodied and homogeneous sound which I doubt you can get outside the British choral tradition, and Elder squeezed a sumptuous and detailed orchestral sound from the score that Rachmaninov probably didn't intend. The soloists blended perfectly into the whole texture. It was all-round fantastic. Is Shostakovich necessarily more groundbreaking? For most of his oeuvre, probably not, but his soundscape is certainly more colourful and varied, and the historical and political contexts add much emotional weight. I very much admired Elder's treatment of "Symphony No. 5" tonight, though it's not the usual temperament I am used to. When you grow up listening to Bernstein's Sony recording, you tend to think it's classical music's biggest middle finger, with all the sarcastic heroism mocking socialist realism. You don't get much of that with Elder here, but instead the highlights were the eerie and haunting slow movements in which each phrase was milked to the last drop. Incredible playing. The audience acted as if everyone was waiting for a big singalong in IV. Not insanely fast as some take it, but it's DSCH 5. Everyone will erupt in applause no matter what you do, and everybody did.

BBC Proms 2023: Prom 9 - Mariza sings Fado

21st July 2023
Royal Albert Hall, London, United Kingdom

Mariza (singer)
Luís Guerreiro (Portuguese guitar)
Phelipe Ferreira (guitar)
João Frade (accordion)
Adriano Alves ‘Dinga’ (bass guitar)
João Freitas (percussion)
London Contemporary Orchestra



Starting the season off with something slightly different - the Portuguese fado. When we did GCSE Music, there was this little module towards the end in which we had to get acquainted with several "ethnic" music genres, and the Portuguese fado was one of them. That's how I came to know Mariza, who is apparently the biggest modern fado star in the world. I only have one of her albums, "Fado Tradicional" from 2010, which I put on every now and then. My understanding of fado is very shallow, but that was sufficient to get completely blown away by this incredible Prom. It is basically a type of Portuguese popular song, with the key musical element being the intricate interactions among the singer, the Portuguese guitar and the guitar with the help of some bass and percussion. It's mostly melancholy music singing about regret and loss (i.e. the untranslatable word "saudade"), leading to the requirement of a very expressive, rich, decorated and nuanced vocal line reminiscent of modern day soul and gospel music. This is precisely what was on display for 1.5 hours straight tonight. Mariza has a deep, naturally captivating, soulful voice that keeps you hooked. There were several uplifting "dance" numbers which was unexpected. The sheer emotional range of the singing was astonishing. Let's put it this way - at this same spot in this same festival over the years, I was previously spiritually transcended by Schiff's "Goldberg Variations" and Rattle's Mahler 2. This was up there with those past experiences, even though I did not understand a single Portuguese word. The hall was filled with many passionate and emotional Portuguese expats who gave her the sort of applause one usually sees after a BPO Mahler, and surely that is saying something. Otherwise, all I saw was people of different backgrounds and skin colours coming together to celebrate and respect culture, clap, sing and dance when they feel like it. Every time I go to an ethnic music concert I walk out saying the same thing - diversity is so beautiful and what London is all about. Brexit and isolationism can go to hell.

Mutter's Virtuosi play Vivaldi, Bach, Previn and Bologne

20th June 2023
Main Auditorium, Berlin Philharmonie, Berlin, Germany

VIVALDI Concerto for 3 Violins, Strings and Continuo, RV 551
BACH Violin Concerto No. 1
PREVIN Nonet
BACH Brandenburg Concerto No. 3
BOLOGNE Violin Concerto No. 2

Mutter's Virtuosi
Anne-Sophie Mutter (violin and direction)



When in Berlin, I took meine Mutter to see Frau Mutter on her own turf. Really, seeing Anne-Sophie Mutter is never about hearing the composers, but how she overdoes everything in her own way, which is sometimes revelatory but mostly yields polarising results. I think she is done with the traditional Romantic concerto format now (and so have we), so she has been touring with her own hand-picked camerata Mutter's Virtuosi to perform Baroque and Classical works. Vivaldi three-violin RV551, Bach's A minor, Brandenburg 3... all a bit of an overkill for me personally, now that I am used to cleaner and leaner HIP sounds. Thrilling as virtuosic performances go, her ornaments and rubatos can quickly get on your nerves. The Previn "Nonet" felt a bit flat musically but it wasn't long. The real gem tonight was Chevalier de Saint-Georges' "Violin Concerto No. 2". Dubbed "the black Mozart", here's a composer who gets "rediscovered" in recent years. Mutter made a potent case for this concerto, showcasing all the daring melodic writings and curious harmonic shifts (going minor before the soloist even enters? Is this ever a thing in the Classical period?) Hopefully she will record it soon. Four encores, two Vivaldi (guess which two) and two John Williams. I just spent the afternoon at the Jewish Museum and finishing the night with "Schindler's List" was perfect. With a programme like this, it is impossible for the audience to dislike. The Philharmonie has amazing acoustics, even at the back of the balcony. London really needs a new hall. Also, the German audience seems much older than London. The London crowd is more exciting in that regard. Limited sampling, granted.