Riccardo Chailly conducts Rossini

[Belle]

I feel this conductor is somewhat under-rated and I'm unsure why. I've seen him at the Gewandhaus back in 2015 and was impressed. (What a fabulous venue, by the way!!)

Here he is conducting what I call 'Mendelssohn's orchestra' in Rossini's Petite Messs Solennelle, Though I prefer the smaller forces with Harmonium and pianos, this will do nicely. It's the one work of Rossini that I like.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=23kxe3tl8S8&t=505s

Do visit Leipzig if you get the opportunity.

[Lance]

You made me think CHAILLY! I never thought of him as being underrated probably [and you are probably correct] because, from my own personal POV, I have so much of him on records. To be honest, most of it is in collaborations with pianists, singers, violinists and many other instrumentalists. In the larger orchestral repertoire, I do have Schumann's four symphonies in the Mahler edition; an excellent Mendelssohn Symphony #2 (Lobgesang); a Mahler Symphony #10; Rossini's Stabat Mater, Franck's Symphony in d; orchestral music by Peter Schat and Rudolf Escher. In the sense of major orchestral works, i.e. Beethoven, etc., I didn't seek much. His collaborative work, however, is outstanding with artists such as Maria Tipo, de Larrocha, Bolet, Pavarotti, Milnes, Harrell, Caballé, Florez, Netrebko, Kremer, Bonney, Callaeja, Argerich, Freire, Grumiaux, and many others.






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[Belle]

I've got plane-spotting going on in the background and reading your comments about Chailly. I like the Schumann symphonies, particularly the "Rhenish". That's an interesting study on the long musical line, more particularly in movement 1V Feierlich. It takes the long line and stretches it out to Wagnerian proportions. It's difficult to find a cadence in this movement; perhaps an 'imperfect' one, but I've listened and not even found that. The final movement is somewhat joyous.

The majestic Feierlich always rocks me to the core. When we were in Bonn, walking along the Rhine river I thought about Schumann jumping into that freezing river - even though this occurred 72km eastward up the river at Dusseldorf. The poor, dear man suffered so terribly from voices tormenting him and driving him out of his mind. (Some say it could have been a consequence of Syphilis, but we can't know for sure.)

Gosh this is an excellent performance:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TFxWLcWAJmc

When I went to the Leipzig Gewandhaus for the concert with Chailly I sat next to a very stern German woman. I was gently and unwittingly tapping my foot to the beat of the piece we were listening to and she gave me the filthiest death stare I've ever experience in my life!! It left me quite discombobulated, whilst other members of the audience were agreeably talking to me during the break (thinking I was also German).

In Amsterdam at the Concertgebouw the people filing in for the concert were all gossiping about Gergiev, who was conducting that night. One looked at me and included me in the conversation. Realizing I was Australian they all started speaking English. This bilingual nation (and all the others) completely puts ours to shame.

I have lots of experiences of friendly people I've encountered at classical concerts in Europe and Scandinavia, particularly at the Drottningholm Baroque Theatre in Stockholm. And Vienna, of course.

I miss it all!!! With three trips coming up between now and December, I'm hoping to remain healthy enough - along with the spouse - to do another decent trip. Igor Levit calls.