- Location
- London
Discovered this bit of nostalgia. I couldn't sing then either.
The cigar smoking Susan Bradshaw?I played that many years ago in quite an important London concert series. I can think of few conventionally notated pieces which emerge in so varied a manner according to who is playing it! Susan Bradshaw told me that Pierre Boulez was very annoyed by this piece, feeling that he'd lifted the material wholesale from his second sonata.
I like Barraqué's music very much, its sensuality feels no need whatever to mollycoddle its listeners, but its aesthetic for some reason now feels as dated as Messiaen's pre-1960s work.
She had a habit of tapping the ash on the hands of particularly poor students.Indeed-little ones and lots of them!
She had a habit of tapping the ash on the hands of particularly poor students.
Don't ask me how I know that![]()
Lucky you got the ticket!I'm in Switzerland at present I'm on a train from Zurich back to Bern, having been to a sparkling performance of Rossini's L'Italiana in Algeri at the opernhaus. A tremendous evening, with Cecilia Bartoli in excellent form in the title role.
Tickets at the Zurich opernhaus are very expensive. Mine was 98 Swiss francs and that didn't give a full view of the stage. Next price up was 220 francs!Lucky you got the ticket!
A very interesting performance. I've always found the Ravel cinematification of the craggy original to be completely at odds with its nature, but in the end why not? the opulence of the BPO and Karajan's mastery of transition are entirely appropriate and slightly weird, which gives its own pleasure.
Karajan 1988 BPO in Japan. Mussorgsky- Pictures at an exhibition.
30:08 Great Gate of Kyiv. The reason I always wanted to see the city (but never made it). p.s. I know there is no real Great Gate there. But still.
Miles better than Henry Wood's orchestration, though!A very interesting performance. I've always found the Ravel cinematification of the craggy original to be completely at odds with its nature, but in the end why not? the opulence of the BPO and Karajan's mastery of transition are entirely appropriate and slightly weird, which gives its own pleasure.
Ravel and Mussorgsky have the odds in their nature as French and Russian!A very interesting performance. I've always found the Ravel cinematification of the craggy original to be completely at odds with its nature, but in the end why not? the opulence of the BPO and Karajan's mastery of transition are entirely appropriate and slightly weird, which gives its own pleasure.