two civilized concerts
Oct. 16th, 2006 10:04 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
calimacThis weekend I attended two concerts which could best be described as very civilized events. The performers were all technically superb and expressed the music with utmost clarity. But except for a few odd moments here and there, the music had its feet firmly on the ground. It was plain, sober, and had not much much special to say. In short, beautiful but a little dull.
Conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt, having led the San Francisco Symphony in some Beethoven last week, returned this week with the other three Viennese classicists. Stephen Hough was soloist in Mozart's K.467 Piano Concerto, which will continue to be called the Elvira Madigan Concerto whether the program annotator likes it or not. Haydn's Clock Symphony, in which the wit broke out only in the titular tick-tock accompaniment in the Andante, and Schubert's Third Symphony, the one with the bouncy - or perhaps not so bouncy - clarinet theme, filled out the program.
Some time later, to le petit Trianon for a regular appearance by the Cypress String Quartet. Mozart's "Dissonant" Quartet, K.465, was so restrained and classical that one could have missed the titular dissonance altogether. Shostakovich's Quartet No. 11, one of his shortest and wittiest, was great fun, but missed entirely the slashing vehemence for which it should be known. Joined by two other players for Brahms's String Sextet, Op. 36, they brought more energy at the cost of some coherence. I did like the first movement, though: I think I'm finally beginning to like this one almost as much as the other Brahms String Sextet, Op. 18.
Conductor laureate Herbert Blomstedt, having led the San Francisco Symphony in some Beethoven last week, returned this week with the other three Viennese classicists. Stephen Hough was soloist in Mozart's K.467 Piano Concerto, which will continue to be called the Elvira Madigan Concerto whether the program annotator likes it or not. Haydn's Clock Symphony, in which the wit broke out only in the titular tick-tock accompaniment in the Andante, and Schubert's Third Symphony, the one with the bouncy - or perhaps not so bouncy - clarinet theme, filled out the program.
Some time later, to le petit Trianon for a regular appearance by the Cypress String Quartet. Mozart's "Dissonant" Quartet, K.465, was so restrained and classical that one could have missed the titular dissonance altogether. Shostakovich's Quartet No. 11, one of his shortest and wittiest, was great fun, but missed entirely the slashing vehemence for which it should be known. Joined by two other players for Brahms's String Sextet, Op. 36, they brought more energy at the cost of some coherence. I did like the first movement, though: I think I'm finally beginning to like this one almost as much as the other Brahms String Sextet, Op. 18.
