Day 1. Bangkok-Dubai, UAE. April 9, 2012. Emirates Air provided me with the best departure experience I've had: on-time pickup at my Bangkok condo, a less than 30-minute drive to Suvarnabhumi Airport (today being a holiday), no one ahead of me at check-in, fast track lane through immigration and security (10 minutes total time from arrival at airport to completion of all formalities), a beautiful lounge with perhaps the most elaborate selection of food I've had at any airline lounge any place in the world, an on-time departure from Bangkok and an on-time arrival in Dubai after a very comfortable 6-hour flight attended to by an efficient and friendly cabin crew. There was no wait to clear immigration in Dubai and I was directed by the ever-efficient Emirates staff to a car waiting to take me to the hotel. Travel doesn't get any better than this.
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ThThe Burj Khalifa
would be imposing anywhere, but especially where, as in Dubai, it is not
crowded out by other tall buildings.
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The drive to my hotel gave me my first sight of the Burj Khalifa, the world's tallest structure. Dubai is built on a flat desert, and the Burj Khalifa rises gracefully from the desert floor, and soars without visual competition from any surrounding buildings. I was expecting to be impressed and, indeed, I was. Biggest doesn't guarantee the best, and it is not its height alone which provides Burj Khalifa with its allure, but rather its graceful beauty. I found it visually stunning.
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The observation
deck At the Top. I held on even though
there was no danger; I needed the assurance when I looked down.
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After checking into my hotel, I took a taxi so as to arrive on time to my scheduled 16.30 ascent to At the Top. It is a good thing that I purchased my lift ticket in advance because all of the tickets for all times were sold out for the next four days. Departures take place every 30 minutes and to get on the lift, you have to have a ticket for a specific date and time. The ride to the top was, perhaps, the most surprising aspect of my visit: it took less than 30 seconds to ascend 124 stories, quietly, and with no sensation of motion. The observation deck provided a spectacular view of Dubai, the Persian Gulf of, and the ever close desert surrounding Dubai. Even though all viewing areas were fronted by glass, I nervously inched my way to the window and then grabbed hold of a pillar to brace myself before looking down, but eventually my body adjusted to this extreme height and I started to circle the 360 degree viewing platform in a somewhat normal fashion.
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The Dubai Mall,
attached to the Burj Khalifa, is not only the world's largest shopping and
entertainment mall, but it is the most beautiful mall I've visited.
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After returning to earth, I visited the huge mall attached to the Burj Khalifa, which, as one might expect for a sheikdom bent on occupying the record books, is the world's largest mall, and surely the most beautiful. I could have stayed longer, but the day's travel and excitement returned me to my hotel at 19.30, already 22.30 Bangkok time.
My purpose in visiting Dubai was to see the Burg Khalifa. The visual impact that this structure made on me will not soon dissipate; it is one of the world's great sights and I'm glad to have seen it. As for Dubai itself, I did not spend enough time there to form any particular impressions except to note that it is a marvel of modern construction and architecture, but it has an air of artificiality about it and I have no desire to explore it further. One aspect struck me: I never saw any pedestrians or areas which could be called a neighborhood. Dubai is all buildings and cars.
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Looking at the giant double-decker A380, I was uncertain that anything that
large could actually take off.
Picture Gallery Dubai
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| Dubai has another tall and beautiful building wherever your look. |
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Set on the 30-acre Burj Khalifa Lake, the fountain shoots water jets as
high as 500 ft (150 metres), equivalent to that of a 50-storey building.
The fountain is 900 ft (275 metres) long and has five circles of
varying sizes and two central arcs. Unfortunately, I was too tired to wait around for one of the scheduled shows.
Trips on the elevator to the top of the world's tallest structure are by reservation only. It was a good thing that I had made a reservation over the Internet from Bangkok, because all trips up were full for the next four days.
The setting sun produces a shadow of the Burj Khalifa from At the Top
From the Top of the Burj Khalifa I saw the Persian Gulf
Wherever you look from At the Top, the desert is not far away.
The Burj Khalifa has the only gold bullion vending machine in the world. I saw plenty of people taking pictures, but none were buying. |
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Day 2. Dubai-London. April 10, 2011. The car ride to the airport provided me with some of my last looks at the Burj Khalifa, visible from several angles and distances, and produced in me a somewhat eerie feeling that it was not of this world. I don't think I would like to live in its shadows, a presence so dominating that it could eclipse all ordinary life. World record holders have a way of being transitory, and I know that other buildings are now being constructed in Asia, of course, which aim to unseat the Burj Khalifa's title as the world's tallest structure, but I can't imagine that any will surpass it in visual beauty and impact; there's nothing that a few additional stories can do to top the Burj Khalifa.
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My seat was like a private compartment.
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The best part of the seat is that it converts into a totally flat bed,
which is the only way I can ever sleep on a plane.
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Even though I didn't choose to spend any appreciable time in it, the lounge
at the back of the plane was fun.
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Another record holder was in store for me, the Airbus A380, the world's largest commercial airplane. What makes the A380 so distinctive is that is has two complete floors, a double-decker. Several years ago, I had seen an A380 parked at Bangkok's S airport, but today was my turn to fly in it and I was excited. Looking at it close, as I approached a gangway to the second story where my seat was located, I couldn't imagine how a behemoth this size could ever take off. Any concern was quickly alleviated by the spaciousness of the interior and the comfort of my seat, which was like a little private cubicle arranged so that there was no seat next to mine (no one talks to you on air planes these days anyway). Its comfort was made complete by the fact that the seat reclined into a totally flat bed. The bar lounge at the back, stocked with drinks and food throughout the flight, provided an aspect of travel that one associates exclusively with large private jets. Regardless of the physical plant, the quality of any flight is determined largely by the cabin crew and in this regard, Emirates shines brightly. I experienced a slight pang when I thought, briefly as it turned out, about how far America's once proud air lines have fallen during my lifetime. American air lines are the dregs of the world. I'm glad that I'm old enough to have experienced how superior carriers such as Pan American, TWA, American and United once were, and I'm equally glad that I have alternatives like Emirates to use, now that American carriers no longer champion the fading American resolve that America always strove to be the best..
Day 3. London. Rigoletto at Covent Garden . April 11, 2011. I spent the daytime hours reacquainting myself with the Finchley Road area of north London, where I first lived as a student some 54 years ago, and where I've been staying while in London during the past three years
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Handsome
and dashing Italian tenor Vittorio Grigolo, the star of this Covenant
Garden production, is hot right now in the world of opera.
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Today's main event was a performance of Verdi's Rigoletto at the Royal Opera House Covent Garden, a venue which guarantees a good performance. Good it was, but not terrific. I've seen Rigoletto numerous times, own the vocal score, and I'm thoroughly familiar with the characters and the plot. For me, yet another Rigoletto performance requires more than good singing, which this cast produced in abundance. Dimitri Platanias was as fine and strong a Rigoletto as one can find; Matthew Rose's bass voice was a chilling Sparafucile; Lucy Crowe, a last minute substitute for the ailing Ekaterina Suirina, had a soprano clarity and sweetness which suited Gilda well; and Vittorio Grigolo, the dashing young Italian tenor, who most in the audience came to hear, certainly did not disappoint his many fans with his energy and gorgeous singing as the playboy Duke of Mantua. The well-known John Eliot Gardiner lead the always superb orchestra. As a stage performance, however, this production of Rigoletto fell short in two important ways: 1. The set, which looked like a slab of stainless steel was simply ugly and the first act opening scene was over the top in its wanton bawdiness; and 2. The cast never convincingly interacted with each other, there being a lack of chemistry without which we are left with a magnificent musical experience, but one which is devoid of the drama and story-telling which make an evening at the opera memorable.
Day 4. London. An Assurance of Quality. April 12, 2012. There are some brands that assure quality, Hermes being an example, and in the musical field, the London Symphony Orchestra provides a guarantee that is as dependable as any in the world: it is incapable of a bad performance, and excellence is commonplace. Its young principal guest conductor, Daniel Harding, who reminds me of the New York Philharmonic's Allan Gilbert, is as good as any in the business. Nowhere was this more evident than in the excitingly beautiful performance of Anton Bruckner's Symphony No. 6, a new experience for me.
Over the past decade or so, I've become interested in Bruckner and am now very familiar with his 5th and 8th symphonies (I'm hearing the 8th on Tuesday). In preparation for the LSO's performance of the Bruckner 6th, I downloaded it from the Internet and listened to it four times before hearing it live for the first time. The old quip about Bruckner, who composed nine symphonies, is that he composed the same symphony nine times, but the 6th is quite different from the other Bruckner symphonies I've heard; if nothing else, it is more traditional and lighter, but it doesn't entirely lack the characteristic Bruckner darkness and melodic complexity I've become to expect from this composer. All elements of a large symphonic work were present in Harding's precise and passionate interpretation, which brought the symphony to the large finale characteristic of Bruckner. In terms of volume, the thunderous applause from the audience equaled that of the orchestra.
The first half of the program was a performance of Robert Schumann's very familiar Piano Concerto in a minor, by the 42-year old born in America pianist, Nicholas Angelich, a name new to me. There are so many good, indeed very good, pianists performing and recording today, that it is impossible to keep track of all of them, but I will keep alert to Angelich's name: his Schumann performance was magnificent. I was brought up on Artur Rubinstein's old LP recording of the concerto, since transferred to CD, which remains the reference standard of this work. But, Radu Lupu's performance I heard at Carnegie Hall a few years ago, and now Angelich's, show the endless possibilities of interpretation that great music provides. Both Lupu and Angelich approach this familiar work with more gusto and fierceness, and at a much accelerated pace, than does Rubinstein. I like both. I'm eager to listen to my Rubinstein CD as soon as possible, to determine if my memory of Rubinstein's calmer, more beautiful and melodic interpretation is accurate.
The audience loved Angelich's playing and rewarded him by calling for numerous curtain calls, which only ended when the house lights were turned on. I ran into Angelich after the performance and was able to let him know how much I enjoyed his magnificent playing. He seemed genuinely pleased to receive my comments.
Day 5. London. My Kind of Pianist. April 13, 2012. The distinguished English pianist, John Lill, is slightly old-fashioned in this age of uber-personality performers, who seek to differentiate themselves from the vast field of pianists seeking public performing careers by adopting highly individualized interpretations of classical works, which in their strained hands, sound more like transcriptions than interpretations of the original. This is the second time I've heard Lill play, and his performance tonight of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No. 2 emphasized the integrity of Beethoven's classical score by letting the music speak for itself. This was not Beethoven by Lill, but rather Beethoven by Beethoven. Lill is sometimes described as his generation's leading British pianist, and I would not disagree with that assessment: clean lines, unmannered directness, flawless secure technique, consummate understanding of the music, add up to beautiful and exciting music. You can't ask for more.
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| English pianist John Lill's performance of the Beethoven Piano Concerto No. 2 was a model of classical perfection. |
Tonight's concert by the London Philharmnoic Orchestra at the Royal Festival Hall gave three young conductors an opportunity to lead a major orchestra in a varied program of Mozart's Symphony No. 35 (Haffner), Stravinsky's Symphony in C, Beethoven's 2nd Piano Concerto, and a new work by an unknown contemporary composer, Julian Anderson, whose 12-minute long "Past Hymns" could well be cut to six minutes; without disappointing anyone.
Day 6. London. The Dream of Gerontius. April 14, 2012. I don't recall why, some twenty years or so ago, I bought the CD recording of Edward Elgar's The Dream of Gerontius, but I do remember liking it upon first hearing, although it is both unmistakably dark and uncharacteristic of Elgar's other music. Because it is so English and requires such large music forces to perform, I thought it unlikely that I would ever hear it live. Much to my surprise, however, it was performed in Prague (of all places) during a visit I made there around 1995, in, I think, an improvised concert hall in Prague's city hall. Having lucked out once, I thought it unlikely that I would ever again experience The Dream of Gerontius, but as I researched concerts in London during April 2012, trying to decide if I wanted to make a London trip this year, I discovered that The Dream of Gerontius would be performed on April 14, and Beethoven's Missa Solemnis on April 22, another large work I didn't expect to hear again live, and upon these two discoveries having been made, I booked the trip to London.
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| A huge orchestra, organ, chorus and soloists are required to perform The Dream of Gerontius. |
Although very much in the English oratorio tradition, The Dream of Gerontius owes more to Wagner than to Handel. Set to a poem by the Roman Catholic convert, Cardinal John Henry Newman, it is filled with ecclesiastical doctrine, but it is not devotional. The musical drama tells the story of Gerontius' death (Part 1), and then the journey of his soul after death (Part 2) through judgment, purgatory and eventually redemption. In Elgar's hands, Gerontius' travels are not solitary: he's accompanied by an augmented symphony orchestra, a huge chorus of around 200 voices, and three soloists. The large resources required to perform this work provide part of the explanation why The Dream of Gerontius is not often performed, at least outside of England where it has achieved something like "national treasure" status.
Tonight's performance at Barbican Hall, by the City of Birmingham Symphony Orchestra and Chorus, and soloists Sarah Connolly, Robert Murray and James Rutherford, all beautifully lead by conductor Edward Gardner, was reason enough for me to travel to London. It was one of the rare moments when the continual chattering in my mind (I can't meditate) was stilled and replace by gorgeous, luxuriant sound, the special kind of musical beauty which by-passes the mind and goes directly to the heart.
Day 7. London. Gilbert & Sullivan for a Change of Pace. April 15, 2012. After the somberness of Bruckner and Elgar, serious to the core, I found a welcomed change of pace in the frothy delights of Gilbert & Sullivan's "Yeoman of the Guard," in a semi-staged performance at the Royal Festival Hall, of this Victorian and quintessentially English operetta. One of my earliest musical recollections is being taken to a high school production of "Mikado" at a very early age, perhaps age nine or ten. I was totally captivated by it in a way only a child can experience, the same fantasy land that Martin Scorsese tries to capture for adults in Hugo. Over the years, I attended many Gilbert and Sullivan performances in London by the D'Oyly Carte Opera Company, until, sadly, the company folded in 1982, the world thereby losing a cultural heritage that will never be recaptured, but I'd never seen "Yeoman of the Guard," a very good Gilbert and Sullivan work, but, perhaps, not one of their best.
Two weeks or so before the performance, I read a summary of the plot and was thoroughly confused. I downloaded the music and also the libretto and listened to the recorded performance while I read the libretto, thereby clarifying the plot and introducing me to mostly unfamiliar music. But, it is the genius of a live production with talented singing actors, that makes "Yeoman of the Guard" the captivating delight that it is. Today's performance, with its all-British cast, backed by the Philharmonia Orchestra, set just the right tone for this work as only the British know how to do.
Day 8. London. Kensington Palace. Noel Coward's "Hay Fever." April 16, 2012. After five days hanging around my Finchley Road neighborhood until 18.00, when I depart for an evening musical or theatre event, I decided it was about time to venture out during the day. My decision to do so today was hastened by weather reports for the rest of the week indicating rain and cold, after today's anticipated somewhat sunny weather. My destination was Kensington Palace, a place I've visited many times, which re-opened two weeks ago after being closed for extensive and expensive renovations. I was interested to know what changes and refurbishing had been accomplished.
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| Located in the heart of London, Kensington
Palace is very interesting because of its association with Queen
Victoria and other royals, Including Diana, who have lived there. |
While Kensington Palace is associated in many minds with Princesses Margaret and Diana, and now with Prince William and Princess Kate, who will live in the private apartments at the palace not opened to the public, the public areas of the palace are devoted to Queen Victoria who lived there as a child and who became queen there in 1837. The palace is not opulent like Buckingham Palace or Blenheim, but it is unmistakably a palace, and this visit was interesting for the history associated with it and the knowledge about Queen Victoria and her era which is on display.
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| A fun revival of a Noel Coward classic provided a very enjoyable evening of comedy and farce, expertly acted. |
After leaving Kensington Palace in the late afternoon, I had adequate time to get to the West End to eat dinner before this evening's performance of Noel Coward's 1925 silly comedy "Hay Fever." I love Noel Coward, but because his plays are so hopelessly dated, it takes truly great ensemble acting to make them live. The nine actors and actresses who gave this well-reviewed revival life, were vibrant and attuned to each other and to the plot, so that this reincarnation of "Hay Fever" provided an entertaining night out without being terrific.
Day 9. Royal Festival Hall, London. Great is Great. April 17, 2012. FT reviewer Andrew Clark anointed Daniel Barenboim with the title of "the world's greatest living musician" (FT April 18, 2012, pg. 15), an assessment with which I would not disagree. So it was with some reverence that I attended the Staatskapelle Berlin's performance of Bruckner's Symphony No. 8, conducted by the great Daniel Barenboim, the orchestra's "Chief Conductor for Life" since 2000.
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| Some critics consider Barenboim to be the world's greatest living musician. I would not disagree. |
Perhaps two objects of worship are too much for one evening: Bruckner's longest and most monumental symphony, led by a revered interpreter, at the head of a very excellent orchestra. I'm sure that the absolute stillness of the audience, and I do mean that no one stirred throughout the 90-minute performance, was a reflection of awe. But, if the audience was overawed, Barenboim was not. His was a deeply natural and human, but not self-indulgent, proportionate, yet intense, Bruckner kaleidoscope. The Staatskapelle Berlin, which is also the orchestra of the Berlin State Opera, is not quite up to the Berlin Philharmonic, but after 20 years under Barenboim, it delivered for him exactly what he wanted. The audience rewarded this magnificent evening of music superiority, with appropriate generous applause.
Some Additional Musings: Several years ago, I attended another performance of Bruckner's 8th Symphony, this time in Berlin, with Bernard Haitink conducting the Berlin Philharmonic. It, too, was a great evening. I much prefer the Berlin Philharmonic to the Staatskapelle Berlin, and Haitink had an authority over Bruckner, which was, as was Barenboim's, commanding. If I had to choose attending one of these performances again, I would select Haitink and the Berlin Philharmonic because of the superiority of the orchestra's sound.
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Barenboim, who will turn 70 in November, is at the height of his powers and his fame.
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Tonight was the third time I've been to a Barenboim concert and all have been memorable. Not too many years ago, Barenboim brought the Staatskapelle Berlin to Carnegie Hall to perform all of the Schuman symphonies. I attended one of those performances which, in addition to a Schumann (I forgot which one) included a wonderful performance of the Schumann Piano Concerto by Radu Lupu. The other Barenboim event I attended was, like tonight's, at London's Royal Festival Hall, a Barenboim solo piano recital, proving that the world's greatest living musician can do anything. Barenboim's recording of the complete Mozart piano sonatas, remains for me, the recording I go back to time and time again.
Day 10. Kings Place, London. Brahms for Four Hands. April 18, 2012. I like surprises, but to experience one, it is necessary to keep an open mind. So it was with a two-piano arrangement of Brahms' Piano Concerto No. 1, a staple of the international music scene. I couldn't imagine why anyone would perform a two-piano arrangement of this readily accessible piano and orchestra original, even though the arrangement was by Brahms himself. I was expecting the piano solo part to be played as written, and the orchestral reduction played by the second piano; but Brahms was too creative for this type of pedestrian transcription. Instead, the two pianos share, at various time, both the orchestral parts and the piano solo, so that I new composition emerges, one that I found, much to my surprise, very enjoyable.
The pianists for the evening were Charles Owen and Katya Apekisheva. I had heard Owen twice before at solo recitals at Wigmore Hall, and I knew him to be a very excellent pianist; Apekisheva was unknown to me. During the first half of tonight's program, they played Variations on a theme by Haydn (two pianos), 16 Waltzes (piano four hands) and seven of the Hungarian Dances (piano four hands). It is hard to listen to these well-known orchestral works in piano arrangements, because the mind still relates the piano to the better known orchestral medium. Still, these arrangements were by Brahms himself, and it is clear that he took seriously the task of transferring them to the keyboard. As for Owen and Apekisheva, I didn't feel that there was any real chemistry existing between them, the result being excellent, but routine, performances.
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| : Hall One at Kings Place, London, is a new and attractive venue for the arts. |
This was my first visit to Kings Place, a new musical venue in London, and after having difficulty finding it, I liked it very much for its comfort and excellent acoustics. I prefer Kings Place to the venerable and historic Wigmore Hall, which still gets the major artists, because the seats in Wigmore are so uncomfortable and the sight lines so bad due to the fact that the floor is totally flat.
Day 11. Wigmore Hall, London. Paul Lewis Plays Schubert. April 19, 2012. An evening dedicated to one composer seems quite in vogue these days. Last year's Chopin anniversary saw more all-Chopin recitals than I could imagine possible, which was somewhat of a bore because all tended to play the same Chopin pieces. Now, it's a Liszt anniversary year, replete with many all-Liszt recitals, somewhat more varied because Liszt composed so much more than did Chopin, although every Liszt recitalist has a go at the b minor sonata. Continuing the single-composer-per-concert trend, for three days last week, Barenboim brought his Staatskapelle Berlin to London for three massive evenings devoted to Bruckner, and within a week, London has Paul Lewis (April 19) and Mitsuko Uchida (April 23) playing all Schubert programs.
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| English pianist Paul Lewis looks intense and plays intensely. |
While there's certainly enough in Schubert to explore for an evening, I still like better a well-constructed, varied program. Perhaps the younger recitalists like Benjamin Grosvenor and Behzod Abduraimov, who carry you through an evening with music of multiple moods, eras, and temperaments, have got it right. An all Schubert evening with Lewis and Uchida carry with them a manner of worship and reverence and, I suppose, introspection, which is more intellectually satisfying than it is exciting, and I view excitement as one of the key ingredients of a public live performance; the worshipful reverence of a composer's work is just as well accomplished via CD or DVD, preferably with the score opened.
Paul Lewis is a very fine pianist, some say he's great, who can play anything exactly the way he wants it to sound. His opener Thursday night at Wigmore Hall, was Schubert's 16 German Dances D783, which sounded too important to me. They are wonderful compositions, but I view they as light and fun, such as Lilly Krauss played them, but Lewis gave them a grander touch than the one I would employ. This was a very serious evening of music making, so I expect that Lewis wanted to set the tone with a "serious" performance of the dances.
I very much like piano playing which is proportionate, without gross exaggerations: if the pianissimos are barely audible, that's okay as long as the forte passages are not extremely loud. In this regard, Lewis is a master interpreter of two of Schubert's a minor sonatas (D784 and D845), playing them about as perfectly and beautifully as I could imagine them to be performed. Lewis is very intellectual, but his balance and beautiful touch, as well as his flawless technique, places him among today's greatest Schubert interpreters. While he is somewhat detached, I much prefer that to the self-indulgence of some other pianists. In all, a beautiful evening of music before a capacity audience.
Day 12. Cambridge Theatre, West End, London. Mathilda The Musical—A Smash Hit. April 20, 2012. This rousing musical, which just walked away with all of the major Olivier Awards, London's equivalent of the Tony's, delivers everything that only Broadway and London can do: spectacular production, perfect casting and acting, dancing, music scenic design, stage illusions, and whatever else it takes to make a production work. Of course, all the creative talent which it takes to produce a major theatrical venture can't guarantee success, but when all the elements work perfectly, it is magic. Mathilda the Musical, which is based on a children's story by Roald Dahl, (he's famous, but I never remember hearing of him), is theatre for all ages, with adults expected to see more in it than children, but if the audience is any indication, all ages arose to cheer the cast and the production. While I found the music mediocre, it was rousing and stomping enough to provide the vehicle the production demanded. Mathilda is going to open on Broadway soon, and I predict it will have an endless run in NYC.
Day 13. Barbican, London. Hamsptead High Street/Sir Colin Davis and Der Freischutz. April 21, 2012. I've been waiting 10 days for a few hours of sunlight to appear so that I could take a walk along Frognal Rd. to Hampstead High Street, which is teeming with life when the weather permits. It's a 15-minute walk I'm well-familiar with inasmuch as I lived on Frognal 53 years ago and have been back many times since.
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| Hampstead High Street is a fun place to
visit--boutiques, cafes, open air markets, book stores, and coffee bars.
On a nice day, it comes alive. |
With the sun shining I took off from Finchley Road, happy to get some exercise walking uphill to Hampstead. I stopped in the churchyard and cemetery of the very old and historic Hampstead Parish Church, but the grave stones were too eroded for me to read the inscriptions. John Harrison, the discoverer of how to measure longitude, is buried here. The church itself was occupied by a formal wedding.
As I entered the High Street, I paused to look at the posting in a realtor's office, which I like to check annually to make sure that the insane London residential real estate prices were still insane, beyond anything I can imagine. A small studio apartment in an ancient building, modernized somewhat, is about US$1.6 million, and a two-bed room flat starts at about US$2.5 million and goes up from there, and this is not the toniest part of London by far. An admittedly large house that I always stop to admire on my walk up Frognal, was listed for sale at US$25.5 million (I had always wondered at its cost, my estimate being about US$10 million). As I roamed Hampstead High Street, I saw dark storm clouds closing in and decided to turn around and return to home plate before I got caught in the inevitable downpour.
Most concert goers known Carl Maria von Weber's romantic opera (1821) through its frequently played overture, but the opera itself is seldom performed outside of Germany. A concert performance of this rarity led by Sir Colin Davis, was an opportunity too good to miss, but I can't say that I was particularly looking forward to it as I thought that the opera would be dense and gloomy, with an incomprehensible story line. In preparation, I downloaded a recorded live performance in German complete with all the long dialogue, and I also downloaded the libretto, and spent about four hours listening to the recording, following the libretto, and reading a synopsis of the story which is based on a German folk legend. This preparation paid off handsomely: I became familiar with the characters and the ridiculous plot, and with the glorious music.
The opera is set in the dark forests of Bohemia in the middle 1600's, and tells a mystical tale of magical bullets, ghosts, goblins, spells and other supernatural and unearthly elements . The music is beautiful. In this concert performance, all singing was done in the original German, but instead of the German dialogue, a narrator told the story in English, thereby making the plot easy to follow and considerably reducing the performance time.
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| Sir Colin Davis at age 85 is a musical icon in full possession of his genius. |
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I'm not sure if I ever saw Sir Colin Davis conduct, but at age 85, he is a marvel. He was totally in control of the large forces (orchestra, chorus, soloists) performing Der Freischutz, and he conducted with energy, authority and direction, his only concession to his age being that he conducted sitting on a high stool. This three-hour performance flew by. A series of concerts are planned for Sir Colin Davis' 85th birthday year. I wish I were in London to attend them.
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Day 14. Barbican, London. Too Great to Perform: Beethoven's Missa Solemnis. April 22, 2012. The great Beethoven interpreter, Wilhelm Furtwängler, thought the Missa Solemnis to be Beethoven's greatest work. Too great, even, to perform. He stopped conducting it at age 44. Now, it seems to be the province of old men. Herbert Blomstedt, who turns 85 in July, led a performance of the Missa Solemnis with the Los Angeles Philharmonic this month, 85-year old Colin Davis conducted the work in NY this season, and now, in the performance I attended tonight at the Barbican, 83-year old Austrian conductor Nikolaus Harnoncourt, led the visiting Royal Concertgebouw Orchestra and the Netherlands Radio Choir, in a performance of Beethoven's choral masterpiece set to the Roman Catholic latin mass, that can only be described as great.
Although I didn't like the way Harnoncourt conducted in the sense that it wasn't visually pleasing, the musicians thought otherwise: they produced a measured and devotional sound that was transcendent. The soloists, all singing demanding parts, were superb. Following the performance, Harnoncourt was presented with one of the music world's highest awards, the Gold Medal of the Royal Philharmonic Society, which we followed with a lovely, humble acceptance speech in which he noted that his music-making was totally dependent upon the musicians with whom he performed and that without them, he was a speck of dust.
At an early age, perhaps age 14, I attended a performance of the Missa Solemnis at Carnegie Hall, conducted by the Dmitri Metropolis, leading the New York Philharmonic Orchestra and the Westminster Choir. In those days, you could buy the score in the lobby, which I did. The sonic grandeur of the music made an indelible impression on me, and I devoured the score, which I still have, while listening to recordings of the Missa Solemnis, first on LPs and now on CDs and MP3 downloads. Tonight was the first time I've heard the Missa Solemnis live in about 60 years.
This year is the 200th anniversary of Charles Dickens' birth and it is being celebrated throughout English with many events. The Museum of London, which is next to Barbican Hall, mounted an exhibit called "Dickens and London," which highlighted London during Dickens' time, as well as the great writer's relationship to the city. It was a very well-done and informative exhibit, the result of which for me, is that I'm going to read David Copperfield, a Dickens' novel that I've wanted to read for some time.
Day 15. Royal Festival Hall, London. An Evening of Masterpieces Played by a Master. April 23, 2012. If anyone wants to know what an evening of "heavy" music is like, they will find no better example of it than to attend a piano recital consisting of Schubert's last three piano sonatas, D958, D959 & D960, played consecutively, a little under two hours of some pretty gloomy stuff. All commentators mention that these sonatas were composed in quick succession during the last year of Schubert's life, at a time when he knew he was facing death. As a farewell, there is nothing triumphant about them, but, they are sublimely beautiful, beautiful that is, if played by an artist as masterful as Mitsuko Uchida.
This is the third time I've heard Uchida live, and I have several of her many recordings. No one would doubt that she is capable of doing the heavy lifting required to play these three sonatas in one evening, but what stands out most in my mind is the intimacy and thought she brought to performance, which despite the overall solemnity of the music, has many bright and animated moments. Changes in mood and temperament, from the dramatic to the expressive and quiet, were the result of attention to detail and phrasing, which was as masterful as are the works themselves. Uchida showed that these sonatas are not the same, that although they do constitute a continuum, each stands on its own, unless melded together by someone as great as Mitsuko Uchida. The audience was spellbound, and the London critics all wrote rapturous reviews. This is a recital that will be remembered.
Days 16 & 17. London/Dubai/Bangkok. Return to Bangkok. The purpose of my trip to London was to attend music and drama, but I was a little concerned that 13 uninterrupted days of performances might be a little too much, even for the confirmed and proven culture vulture that I am. I need not have worried. The quality and variety of London's offerings are unequaled in the world. As I was about to depart and I looked at the cultural calendar for the following week; I could have happily stayed on.
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| The A380, as configured by Emirates Air, is the most comfortable plane I've ever flown on |
The return trip on Emirates Air confirmed to me that it is the best airline in the world. I can't imagine what an air carrier could do differently or better. This time, I brought my camera aboard the A380 to take a picture of me in the on-board lounge. Both taking off and landing in Dubai, I got a final view of the Burj Khalifa, my eyes fixating on its sleek beauty, until it was out of sight.
