Wednesday, March 15, 2006

The Passion of Maazel


Lorin Maazel's concert was great! Unfortunately, we(Wai, Junhao, Alex and myself) were seated a bit high up due to a lack of ticket budget, so the impact of the sound wasn't that great. Nonetheless, the orchestra sounded different under him, much filled with subtle nuances.



Looks a bit like Jack Nicholson

Overture to Romeo and Juliet was fantastic, what I thought was the best piece for the night. Beautifully crafted and the tragedy/conflict not as harshly put forth. Recordings/Concerts which I've attended previously love to bring sorrow to grieve and conflict to confrontation. Maazel had a finer touch to it, keeping the music within human realms and not overblowing it into "War of the Worlds". Pompous french horn though.

The Tchaikovsky Violin Concerto had plenty of good tunes and virtuosic moments. Looked like the violinist breezed through it, quite the feel I like. As usual, with the lack of woodwind participation, I'm already biased to giving the piece lower points!

Pictures at an exhibition was straightforward and simple. I really liked some of the brass chords, esp. at the Great Gate of Kiev; superb tone and balance, unlike the usual blasting from recordings.

After a few listening to Jin Ta and Evgueni's tone, have to say I really prefer the latter's. Jin Ta's is awfully sweet and Galway-ish, not so in the sense of vibrato but just the sound itself. I think the sound makes a good flute solo, cuts through quite clearly, but doesn't really blend well with orchestral sound. Evgueni's tone is clear and very european. Basic rich tone with great musical ideas. Wonderful for solos in orchestral works.

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