The Royal Philharmonic – Beethoven/Freddy Kempf
I recently attended a performance at St David’s Hall Cardiff by the Royal Philharmonic lead by Freddie Kempf who was also the pianist in two Beethoven piano concertos, part of a cycle that Kempf is currently performing.
The evening opened with the Fidelio Overture, also by Beethoven. This featured a definitive opening chord, with violin and timpani before continuing with a clarinet solo. Woodwind played a leading part in the overture, with bassoon, oboe and clarinet all in dominant roles.
Freddy Kempf lead from the piano in the next work with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 4. The lyrical opening movement of this work feature crescendos of dynamics and glissandos on the piano. The slow second movement moves into the finale without pause. The finale features a familiar melody with wonderful passages for soloists and orchestra before a final flourish.
Following the interval Kempf continued with Beethoven’s Piano Concerto No 5 “The Emperor”. a lively allegro opening movement, is followed by beautiful slow movement which leads the work towards a resounding finale in the final movement. piano and timpani bring the middle section of the finale to a slow diminuendo before a final coda lead by the orchestra.
This was a fine performance and was very well received by the enthusiastic audience with Kempf returning three times to accept the applause before finally exiting. The more I hear Beethoven in live performance the more I realise what a great composer he was.
La Boheme
On Friday I watched a performance of Puccini’s La Boheme in a production by the Welsh National Opera at the Millennium Centre in Cardiff. Annabel Arden’s production was conducted by Carlo Rizzi with great eloquence. I have seen several televised versions of La Boheme, so knew the work quite well, but as with all music, there is nothing to compare to a live performance.
With some wonderful arias, the opening act also features harp glissandos and some good moments for the brass section. The act four quartet where Marcello (David Kempster) and Musetta (Kate Valentine) argue, whilst at the same time Rodolfo (Alex Vicens) and Mimi (Anita Hartig) are breaking up and remembering how they met, contained some interesting tonality aspects, as dissonant chords are a feature.
From the perspective of the stage production, there was an interesting mechanism for the curtains rising as a small diamond opens up in a way Hollywood feature films in the 1940’s used at the beginning of the film and sometimes during a film for dramatic affect.
I read a favourable review of this production of La Boheme, whilst browsing on the web today from The Telegraph, which praises the performance of Anita Hartig in particular: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/culture/music/opera/9310398/La-Boheme-WNO-Cardiff-and-Salome-Covent-Garden-review.html