The advantage of a CD over a live performance is that you can listen to the music anytime you want in the privacy of your own home and can take a break and repeat it whenever you fancy. But despite this advantage a CD will never get close to the experience of a live performance. First of all you miss the visual aspects, because you can't see the orchestra, the conductor, the solist and the interaction between those three and the interaction between the audience, but a CD at home also can't get close to the atmosphere and acoustics of a (good) concerthall. Of course when you watch a DVD with a live performance then you also get the visual aspects, but then you have to do it with what the director and the cameramen show you. And you don't know if the music or parts of the music on a CD/DVD have been edited/brushed up afterwards.
I realised this again a little more than two weeks ago when N. and I went to a clasical concert in The Hague. We went to a concert of the Residentie Orchestra, abroad also known as The Hague Philharmonic, conducted by Neeme Järvi. A Japanese friend of N. is a member of this orchestra and she invited us to come to listen to one of their concerts. She plays first violin at the orchestra and she also played beautifully at our weddingceremony six weeks ago.
On the programme of the concert were The violin concerto from Jean Sibelius and the First Symphony of Gustav Mahler, one of my favorite composers. The performer at the violin concerto of Sibelius was Nikolaj Znaider, a violinist from Denmark born in 1975 to Polish-Israeli parents, so still a quite young (compare to me everybody younger than 41 is young) , but very virtuoso performer. In 1997 Znaider won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, considered as one of the most difficult and toughest music competitions in the world.
Nikolaj Znaider gave an excellent performance. I don't know if it was the case, but the virtuoso performance that Znaider gave, made it look to me as if it didn't gave him no trouble at all. Maybe that's the characteristic of a true virtuoso if they can make it look like it doesn't give any trouble at all.
I was not the only one who appreciated his performance. The enthusiast response from the audience made Nikolaj Znaider gave us an encore.
Then there was a coffeebreak and after the break the orchestra came back with the First Symphony of Gustav Mahler. I already knew the First Symphony, but this was the first time to hear it live. The orchestra gave a very good performance and it was enjoyable to watch and listen to the orchestra.
After the concert we met up with N.'s friend from the orchestra. We spoke out our appreciation for the nice concert and performance. We decided to have dinner together, so we went to a nearby Japanese restaurant with N.'s friend from the orchestra, her partner, her partner's mother and another colleague from the orchestra. We had a lovely and tasty dinner. It was an excellent way to finish off a nice and very enjoyable afternoon and evening out. N's friend also said that if there were other future concerts that would interest us, she cold get us cheap tickets (only 5 Euro). We checked the orchestra's seasonprogramme and we know for sure that we will go to a few more concerts this season.
I couldn't find any video footage of Nikolaj Znaider, so I've add some videos from the three movements of the violin concerto of Sibelius played by another violin meastro Maxim Vengerov. Enoy it!
I realised this again a little more than two weeks ago when N. and I went to a clasical concert in The Hague. We went to a concert of the Residentie Orchestra, abroad also known as The Hague Philharmonic, conducted by Neeme Järvi. A Japanese friend of N. is a member of this orchestra and she invited us to come to listen to one of their concerts. She plays first violin at the orchestra and she also played beautifully at our weddingceremony six weeks ago.
On the programme of the concert were The violin concerto from Jean Sibelius and the First Symphony of Gustav Mahler, one of my favorite composers. The performer at the violin concerto of Sibelius was Nikolaj Znaider, a violinist from Denmark born in 1975 to Polish-Israeli parents, so still a quite young (compare to me everybody younger than 41 is young) , but very virtuoso performer. In 1997 Znaider won the prestigious Queen Elisabeth Music Competition, considered as one of the most difficult and toughest music competitions in the world.
Nikolaj Znaider gave an excellent performance. I don't know if it was the case, but the virtuoso performance that Znaider gave, made it look to me as if it didn't gave him no trouble at all. Maybe that's the characteristic of a true virtuoso if they can make it look like it doesn't give any trouble at all.
I was not the only one who appreciated his performance. The enthusiast response from the audience made Nikolaj Znaider gave us an encore.
Then there was a coffeebreak and after the break the orchestra came back with the First Symphony of Gustav Mahler. I already knew the First Symphony, but this was the first time to hear it live. The orchestra gave a very good performance and it was enjoyable to watch and listen to the orchestra.
After the concert we met up with N.'s friend from the orchestra. We spoke out our appreciation for the nice concert and performance. We decided to have dinner together, so we went to a nearby Japanese restaurant with N.'s friend from the orchestra, her partner, her partner's mother and another colleague from the orchestra. We had a lovely and tasty dinner. It was an excellent way to finish off a nice and very enjoyable afternoon and evening out. N's friend also said that if there were other future concerts that would interest us, she cold get us cheap tickets (only 5 Euro). We checked the orchestra's seasonprogramme and we know for sure that we will go to a few more concerts this season.
I couldn't find any video footage of Nikolaj Znaider, so I've add some videos from the three movements of the violin concerto of Sibelius played by another violin meastro Maxim Vengerov. Enoy it!
Mahler
Sibelius
Maxim Vengerov
Nikolaj Znaider
No comments:
Post a Comment