LSO 100th birthday concert

Did anyone else have the joy of listening to it yesterday. There was some fantastic playing, particularly enjoyed Yuri Bashmet and Midori playing the 1st movement of the Sinfonia Concertante, Ravel's La Valse, and the incredible pace at which they played Candide.
Happy Birthday LSO:banana:

 

Saw some of it - although of those only the Candide (and then a bit of the Brubeck). The Candide seemed pretty much the same as Lenny's recordings themselves - great fun music.

There's been a load of stuff on the R3 website about how crap the sound was - and I have to say I thought it was pretty unimpressive, given how good the LSO sound in the flesh - and I agree whole-heartedly with MTT's comment about their "attack" (so it seems a bit of a shame what I've heard of him with them didn't really make that much use of it :cry: ). They were aboslutely cracking a few weeks ago with Gergiev. I get to see them again on Sunday with Haitink ( :chunder: ) doing Mahler 6 - so there should be plenty of opportunity for attack there too.

I make it a matter of supreme duty now to avoid absolutely anything with Midori in it!

 

Sound wasn't great not by R3 standards. But there was some cracking music making. Midori actually played quite nicely, but Sarah Chang hacked her way through the Carmen Fantasy. Some of it was more than a little gross.
Mahler 6 with Haitink should be good. The only thing that makes me wish I lived in London is the music making that goes on.

 

Much to my surprise it was! OK, so it was fairly typical Haitink (severe, ultra-controlled, very Calvinist), but that mostly worked well in this symphony. The exception to this was the Scherzo - maybe "joke" is not quite the right description for anything in this symphony, but it really should have had more drive. The surprise to me though was that the slow movement was quite beautiful and touching. I actually much preferred this to the version they did under Jansons a year ago, and released on LSO live, which seemed a bit too hard and hysterical (a Jansons trait) - although a completely different listening position (this time central circle, rather than about 8' from the 2nd desk 1st violins previously) may also have contributed to that feeling.

And of course the LSO played superbly - and comprehensively outplayed the VPO (who did Mahler 9 here under BH a few months ago). As surprisingly, given their historical reputation, the string sound has a quite stunning sheen at present (maybe a bit harder than the Philadelphia that came a few weeks ago, but more characterful too). So of this series so far, I'd say it was 1) LSO, 2) Concertgebouw - Shostakovich 8, 3) Concertgebouw Bruckner 9, 4) VPO Mahler 9. So now it's roll on Berlin and Dresden. I do have to say that the LSO is the one orchestra I've heard in the last two years that have impressed every time (although I've not always been impressed by the interpretations - particularly from Jansons).

(R3 is broadcasting the concert this evening).