There are so many great concerts being streamed for us that we could have a whole Friday Miscellanea of nothing but envois. And we might be the better for it. So...
Great impromptu music making by Thomas and Léa outdoors under a tree:
And some really fine Haydn from Les Arts Florissants conducted by William Christie:
Thanks to commentator Marc for tipping me to the mini-festival of chamber music by Morton Feldman from Wigmore Hall. Here is the first of three programs:
Also from Wigmore Hall is the Doric Quartet playing Mozart K. 575. They are obviously called the "Doric" quartet because they have simple, circular capitals as opposed to the elaborate headdresses of the Corinthian Quartet.
I don't think we have heard enough Brahms lately so here, also from Wigmore Hall, are Stephen Hough and the Castalian String Quartet with quintets by Brahms and Carl Frühling. (I don't know where the Castalian Quartet got their name from...)
And that should keep you busy listening over the weekend!
And in case anyone might be interested, the Dutch broadcaster NPO Radio 4 is broadcasting/streaming the world premiere of James MacMillan's Christmas Oratorio in about half an hour, 0515 Pacific, from the Concertgebouw in Amsterdam. A co-commission of the London Philharmonic, the New York Philharmonic, the Melbourne Symphony, and the Dutch state broadcaster, it was supposed to have happened in London last month but the government's plague nonsense got in the way.
ReplyDeleteThanks, Marc, what would we do without you?
ReplyDeleteThere is some more humor available from the Composite Quartet but am not quite sure how to derive it.
ReplyDeleteI enjoyed listening to the MacMillan; there are several very beautiful parts, for the chorus specially and the symphoniae. That Hans Haffmans (the NPO presenter; he does a public radio series 'From the Concertgebouw' or something like that) and JM were already, in conversation after the performance, talking about how the four symphoniae, individual arias etc might be performed apart from the Oratorio itself may be suggestive.
I was wondering if anyone was going to notice my horrible pun. But honestly, if you call yourselves the "Doric" Quartet, aren't you asking for it?
ReplyDeleteOh I'm annoyed to have missed that broadcast, especially as I had tickets for the premiere. Can't see any way to watch to relisten on the NPO site unfortunately, hopefully it will pop up elsewhere.
ReplyDeleteI thought to look at the Boosey & Hawkes MacMillan page earlier and it seems to say that NPO Radio 4 is making the recording listenable on demand but I don't see it over there, either, not this morning anyway.
ReplyDeleteAha, took another look and found it, will listen tomorrow hopefully:
ReplyDeletehttps://www.nporadio4.nl/gids-gemist/2021-01-16
Gids & Gemist was the only one of those headings I didn't open, ha. Gemist ought to have rung a bell in the cobwebbed recesses of my poor head. Thank you!
ReplyDeleteWith respect to the first link en plein air, I found a Machaut piece performed outdoors as well. I am generally unhappy with most performances of Machaut's chansons but I thought this one was good by Cantica led by Emilio Villalba doing Douce Dame Jolie.
ReplyDeletehttps://youtu.be/vO1C_nQNls4
Rather less impromptu, but a really fine performance.
ReplyDelete