January Classicals

This is part of my resolution this year, to listen to more live classical music and learn more about the music that I listen to. Monthly posts on classical music concerts in London-town!

Let's not talk about how quickly December came and is now going, it's too crazy and scary. The winter holidays can't get here soon enough, because it's frankly too cold to wake up in the morning and the sun sets way too early.

But not all is lost! Some of the world's best orchestras, resident here in London-town, will be playing some awesome tunes in January to quench our thirst for great music - it should go pleasantly hand-in-hand with the stuff-fest upcoming in the next few weeks...

As always, pass this email along to any and all friends who are interested, and respond if you are purchasing tickets. The cheaper tickets often go quickly, so be sure to book a couple weeks in advance!

1. 20 January 2010 7:30 pm

Royal Philharmonic Orchestra @ Royal Festival Hall
Vadim Repin performs Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto

STRAVINSKY: Symphonies of Wind Instruments
TCHAIKOVSKY: Violin Concerto
RIMSKY-KORSAKOV: Scheherazade

Tickets: £9 - £55
Available on Southbank Centre website


2. 30 January 2010 7:30 pm

London Philharmonic Orchestra @ Royal Festival Hall
Sibelius

SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 3
SIBELIUS: Selected songs - "Autumn Nightfall," "The First Kiss," "A Girl Came from Her Lover's Tryst," "A Ballgame in Trianon", "Arioso," "Duke Magnus," "Was it a Dream?"
SIBELIUS: Symphony No. 2

Tickets: £9 - £55
Available on Southbank Centre website


My Two Pence

If you don't intend on listening to classical music for the rest of 2010, read no further - just go to either or both of these concerts, because you really can't top the line-up of what's being played in January.

RPO (Concert recommendation: 5 stars out of 5): There's surely no better way to start the new year than with the Russians! You've all heard my two pence on Stravinsky so I won't add very much there other than that it looks like this piece will not have any strings in it, which is great for those of you who've never heard a wind ensemble play.

Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto is one of the most difficult concertos to play, apparently. The first violinist Pyotr dedicated the piece to, Leopold Auer, refused to premier it, because the solo part was too difficult and (arguably) not musically suitable for the violin. Poor Pyotr was recuperating from his shit marriage to Antonina amidst Swiss fresh air when he wrote this piece in collaboration with Yosif Kotek, a violinist. It's been used quite often in popular culture, so you'll probably recognise it when you hear it, especially the first movement.

Whenever someone wants a good recommendation for classical music, Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade is one of the first pieces I point to. Based on the stories of Arabian Nights, Nicolai weaves the tale of Scheherazade (pronounced: sheh - hera - zaad), a well-read, super-smart Persian queen who herself is the storyteller of One Thousand and One Nights. Don't we like the story already?

Every day, Sharyar, a Persian king, would marry a new virgin, and then the following morning he would have the new wife killed. What a sicko - but you see, Sharyar's first wife cheated on him, and he couldn't get over that anger - so he wed and killed, wed and killed. After wedding and killing 3,000 women, Scheherazade stopped by to say hello and agreed to spend the night with Sharyar. Scheherazade asked Sharyar if she could say goodbye to her sister, Dinazade, who then asked Scheherazade if she could tell a story.

Sharyar was enraptured by Scheherazade's story, but as dawn broke, Scheherazade stopped. "Oh don't stop, go on with your tale," Sharyar insisted. "But your majesty, dawn is breaking," Scheherazade replied. "Oh go on then," the king anxiously said. "Live another day and finish the story." When Scheherazade finished the first story, she started on a second, and so it went, day after night, night after day. After one thousand and one nights, Scheherazade ran out of stories to tell. But after all those nights (roughly equivalent to three years), Sharyar had fallen in love with Scheherazade - and not to mention had three sons with her! The end.

As you listen to the first movement, you'll hear the 'theme melody' for Scheherazade, as well as of Sharyar, and Nicolai has weaved them through the rest of the composition. Scheherazade's theme is heartbreakingly beautiful, and it really is worth a listen.

LPO (Concert recommendation: 5 starts out of 5): I'm not sure why the LPO is playing No. 3 before No.2, but they are (possibly because No. 2 is better - mwahaha). I've not ever heard his third symphony, but I'm more than curious to hear another symphony by one of my all-time favorite composers. Jean is a Finnish composer of the early 1900s and probably considered to be a hero by the Finn's. To show for it, while the rest of the world has obscure fanfares as their national anthems, Finland gets an entire orchestral work - Finlandia - as their 'unofficial' national anthem. You might think of that as a rather snobbish thing to do, but when you hear his symphonies, I think you'll understand why.

Much like Rimsky-Korsakov's Scheherazade, Sibelius' works are those that I usually recommend to anyone who's been reluctant to listen to classical music because they think it's boring or because it might just put them to sleep. They are both highly melodical, very easy to listen and to follow. From what I've read, No. 3 is supposed to be pleasant, clean, and simple (read: 'classical'), unlike his No. 2 which is grandiose and patriotic (read: 'romantic').

Now, I didn't know this, but apparently Jean started writing No. 2 in Italy. That explains my love for this symphony - I have a weak spot for all things Italian! Half kidding.. Whether Jean actually intended for No. 2 to be taken as a patriotic gesture is still debated, but nonetheless the symphony has been dubbed "Symphony of Independence" to commemorate the independence of Finland, which was declared by its Parliament on 6 December 1917. Before that, it was an autonomous region of Russia, and the Russians had imposed a rigid prohibition on Finnish language and culture. The first recording of No. 2 was with the London Symphony Orchestra, but I'm sure the LPO will do a great job performing this piece.