I’ve just finished watching the BBC Philharmonic playing Sibelius’ second symphony, led by a Finnish conductor, Eva Ollikainen. I suppose it shouldn’t be a surprise that a Finn can produce something so special with Sibelius – but that was a remarkable performance. Sibelius is my all-time favourite composer, but the second symphony has not been one of my favourite pieces to date (I prefer the “chillier” symphonies); but she turned it into something else – I was quite emotional by the end.
On Friday, I watched the Oslo Philharmonic, also conducted by a Finn – Klaus Mäkelä – playing Tapiola. The big hit of the night was “superstar pianist” Yuja Wang playing Liszt’ first piano concerto and that was amazing. However, I’d have traded it to hear that orchestra with that conductor play an all-Sibelius program, maybe with the violin concerto and the fourth or sixth symphony.
Anyone else been watching or listening this year? Anyone make a point of catching them every year? Has anything caught your ear this year?
I forgot about the “recently updated” ploy…
Here’s Yuja Wang’s first encore from Friday:
https://youtu.be/W9db-4LEaZ4
And Tapiola from the same concert:
https://youtu.be/cHi6_gGhA7w
Gee whiz. I hate to see a thread struggling like a bloated trout in a dried-up riverbed. Here’s my ten cents, and I hope it keeps it alive: no, I ain’t.
Andre Rieu’s let himself go
Huck’n’hell it’s Hucknall!
No matter, HP – over the years, many of my threads have been left dying on the vine. Having said that, I’m sure there used to be some contributors here with an interest in classical music.
Archie Valparaiso tried to groom me into liking the classicals a while back – he’s gone entirely over to the other side – but I kept my knees together. I make a cogent and ultimately irrefutable argument here:
https://falsememoryfoam.blogspot.com/2020/04/the-myra-nussbaum-memorial-lectures-why.html
Clearly, you made an irrefutable argument since not one – not a single one – of the comments mentioned classical music. Plenty of comments about Fat Freddy’s Cat, though – so definitely involved the “classics” but in a different wheelhouse…
I’ll watch Sibelius ‘ 2nd. I meant to watch that. On some days its my favourite of his symphonies. Definitely the most’ tuneful’ I think, just loads of great melodies without making you feel you have to be clever to understand it.
I loved Bax’s Tintagel, right on the first night I think it was? I know it well, but never actually watched an orchestra playing it before.
And Vaughan Williams’ A Sea Symphony.
I caught the Sea Symphony by accident, Arthur – forgot it was on and missed the first few minutes. Well worth the watching.
Sibelius – if it makes you feel that you need to be clever to understand it, then the composer has failed. Obviously, I don’t agree with you about late Sibelius – it hits me on an emotional level which has nothing to do with cleverness. I’d suggest watching the Tapiola performance above – emotional, elemental, pictorial…see what you think.
Apologies, I always end up advocating for late Sibelius…and Van der Graaf Generator…
As usual on here, I’m rethinking my comment as soon as I’ve typed it. I don’t know if I mean you “have to be clever”, but certainly in the case of the 7th symphony in particular it helped a lot for me to read up a little on what was actually going on in it, then it clicked for me in a way I don’t think it would have otherwise.
The 7th is maybe OVER-intellectualised, if anything. I don’t think you really need to know that it’s a “condensed” symphony, and how technically all the themes pull against each other simultaneously. But it certainly helps to listen out for certain things, and have an awareness why the climax sounds so prolonged and sounds slightly unresolved.
The 5th is another favourite. And when you get to that big theme in the final movement it works on a purely emotional level of course. But again I do think it helps to know a little bit about what is actually going on, technically speaking, in that part, and what makes it so special.
Maybe the reason the “chillier” late symphonies and tone poems work for me on an emotional level is that I’m a miserable sod – see VdGG – and I like the cold… 🥶
…also, in a world with Schnittke or Schoenberg, I can’t accept that anything produced by Sibelius is over-intellectualised…
Oof, yeah, that’s true. There is certainly far more intellectualised music out there. I’ve never listened to Schoenberg, but from what I’ve heard his stuff sounds more like a thought experiment than musical compositions. One thing you can’t deny about Sibelius is that the enjoyment of his stuff is definitely musical and emotional.
“Oof, yeah, that’s true.”
Which bit? 🤔
Ha, sorry. Not that you are emotionally cold (although come to that, who knows), but this bit : “…also, in a world with Schnittke or Schoenberg, I can’t accept that anything produced by Sibelius is over-intellectualised…”
I was just joshing, Arthur – thus giving the lie to my emotional coldness! Voilà! And arf!!
I’ve been here.
https://www.atlasobscura.com/places/sibelius-monument
I’d like to visit Finland – Sibelius is one of the main reasons (clearly not the only one).
We were there a day. Took the boat from Stockholm. We had a guided walking tour, a good way to see the highlights. Some fine buildings, architecturally reminiscent of St Petersburg, which is not so surprising.
My uncle lives there. Bone idle he is. I don’t know if there’s any more of that in the family.
…er…
I watched the night of music from video games last week, and it was very… meh. I skipped the preamble where they may have explained why these particular games/tunes were chosen for the Proms, but I found the selection very bland and not particularly gripping.
The only bits I remember now involved music from some Japanese games that I’ve never heard of and that did nothing for me, a nice bit from Journey, and a selection from Battlefield 2042 that featured far too much atonal noise. I love Battlefield 2042, but at no point while playing it have I thought, “Wow, this would sound great at the Proms.”
But the soundtracks of Skyrim or the Assassin’s Creed series? Now, they would make for a great Proms show.
Mentioned on Twotter that I liked Sib and now I’m being followed by a plethora of Finnish black metal bands. Which is nice.
I believe they are all very kind to their mothers…
@pencilsqueezer – I know it’s a Twit term: but I now have an image in my mind’s eye of you being followed around by Finnish black metal bands, whilst you go about your daily business…
I don’t have business anymore just whims. Flights of fantasy. Daydreams of outrageous intricacies and occasional biscuits.
The best biscuits!
Not Finnish Black Metal biscuits, then?
Sadly not but I want some of those now.
I’m very easily influenced when it comes to biscuits.
Do you eat your occasional biscuits from an occasional table?
Only occasionally. Mostly the biscuits are cucumbers and the tables are goats.
Have some Finnish Black Metal biscuits
Why are they staring at me? I’ve properly got the fear now.
I normally watch The Proms. However, I seem to have missed it for the last three years. I would have loved that Sibelius. Is there anywhere I can catch up?
iPlayer for the telly, I would think, Tiggs – and BBC Sounds has the Radio 3 broadcasts.
Dull technical alert: the 2018/19 prom Radio 3 feed was streamed over the web in broadcast quality 24-bit 48kHz lossless – the same as heard in the Beeb’s studio, pre-transmission.
You could only listen in real time via a web page, so not many people did, and so they’re not going to bother again. They’ve switched back to 320kbps AAC, which still sounds a lot better than DAB. It might be a sign of the future, though.
A couple of years ago Bluesound streamed the Re:freshed Jazz Festival in real time in glorious MQA. I doubt it made a scrap of difference. They haven’t repeated the experiment so I assume they felt it pointless. I have everything necessary to unfold MQA and I honestly cannot discern any appreciable improvements to SQ over bog standard CD redbook. Mind you I can’t hear any discernible advantage in Hi-Res bitrates full stop. It’s not that all this palaver doesn’t sound excellent because it does but not THAT much better than bog standard 16 bit 44.1 from a purely subjective point of view. Although the step up in SQ to lossless from lossy is certainly apparent. So there is that and yes I do know that to all intents and purposes MQA is a kinda, sorta lossy sort of.
BITS – how low can you go?
Hmm I have no idea. I bet Fentonsteve does though. I do know that I’m currently listening to Curtis Fuller blow his bone in 16 Bit 44.1 through a very good pair of headphones and it’s enthralling.
Leaving aside the Gary Clail tribute jape: my own lower limit is 320kbps, if I’m obliged to listen to mp3. I’ll take flac if I can get it (difference between WAV and flac being small to my hearing, cf. flac and mp3).
But, to be honest, I still mostly listen to CDs and LPs.
One sets up an open goal and it gets eschewed. I don’t know why I bother etc.
It’s a mixture of CD and streaming hereabouts. I don’t do vinyl as I believe the cognoscenti call it because I ain’t a hipster.
My non-hipster credentials speak for themselves (or they would, but I’d have to post a self-portrait) – but to clarify: I don’t “do vinyl” but I do play LPs, some of which I’ve owned for nearly five decades. The current trend for high price “vinyls/vinlys” leaves me cold and unmoved…
Sorry PS, I’m busy having my eyes seen to. Make your own joke here.
Curtis is quite the trombonist etc
Heyyy, Moose! Glad you could make it, better late than never, etc
Better never than late, people often say to me.
Sorry for the delay. I got it, but I was on a call: “Fenton, get on with some bloody work.”
I agree, 320k is a bare minimum for anything more than speech. 320k AAC, as used by the Beeb’s streaming services, is noticeably better than 320k mp3.
I can hear the difference between rates and formats, but that’s perhaps due to my fault-finding training as much as anything.
I can hear them too but beyond a certain point the difference is not exactly night and day.
Anyhoo and kinda in the same ballpark have you been following the MoFi debacle. It’s hysterically funny in a DSD quality insanity stylee.
Yeah, many of my best-sounding records are the half-speed cuts by Miles Showell at Abbey Road. He doesn’t hide the fact that he masters in 24/96 digital. MFSL do it in DSD and the Hoffman board catches fire.
“Does it sound good?” doesn’t seem to be, at face value, a difficult question.
Lots of nonsensical diatribes on YouTube about how suddenly this expensive purchase that I have formally praised to the heavens for it’s pristine loveliness now sounds like utter garbage because it’s been sullied by horrible digital involvement. Some audiophiles are seriously barking. Funny though.
Then again, there’s the occasional Damascene conversion – look at Linn…from all-analogue asceticism to down & dirty with the digital devil…
In the early days of digital it did leave a lot to be desired but that was then it’s pretty darn good now. A similar advance is/has occurred with class D amps. They are getting seriously good. New tech takes time to bed in and reach it’s potential.
It’s possible to obtain outstanding SQ now for much less money than even ten years ago. Most of that is down to advances in digital.
Wouldn’t disagree with any of that, Mr Pencil: the difference with Linn was the almost religious fervour with which they put the boot in to digital, led by Mr Tiefenbrun – I never miss the opportunity to have a poke at ‘em.
And now the Proms thread has REALLY gone down the hi-fi rabbit hole…