Esa Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia Orchestra.

[Guest]

I was hoping, in vain, that there might be a comment on this Board about the first of the ‘Infernal Dance’ concerts on Thursday of the music by Bartok given by Esa Pekka Salonen and the Philharmonia.

I have found in the past that this combination is electrifying and they gave some outstanding much praised performances last season.

This time we heard the rarely performed Kossuth and a stunning performance of the Miraculous Mandarin complete score as well as the Bartok first piano concerto.

More goodies to come in this series later this month. Don’t miss them.

Did anyone else listen?

[Bryn]

I did not listen at the time of the broadcast, but have since compiled the HD Sound version of the concert, minus Ms. Bott's introductions, etc., to a CD-R. I listened last night and was similarly impressed. I had somehow not expected Salonen to be so well suited to Bartok. Perhaps I had forgotten the linguistic consonance between Suomi and Magyar.

[Daring Tripod]

Last season he conducted the Philharmona in a stunning performance of the overplayed 'Concerto for Orchestra' which I almost dd not listen to! It was superb and I do hope he will repeat a performance in this present series. I thought I had heard it so many times but it all came to life again 'as new'!

[Simon B]

Daring Tripod, I didn't hear the radio relay, but was at the concert (assuming it was the RFH performance that was broadcast). You'll find comments from others and myself in another thread, starting about here:

http://www.for3.org/forums/showthread.php?1119-What-was-your-last-concert&p=27244#post27244

I also heard the Miraculous Mandarin Suite a few weeks before when the Philharmonia visited Cardiff. That worked a lot less well IMO as the suite makes a nonsense of the narrative. About the only thing to be said for it is that it does give the opportunity to hear some of the "purple patches", but the mess it makes of the structure (particularly the way it ends) makes it a poor substitute for the real thing. That was amply demonstrated by the powerful performance of the full score as presumably heard in this broadcast.

Salonen and the Philharmonia are giving another performance of the Concerto for Orchestra on 23/6/11 - http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/fin...rchestra-50980

I agree that Salonen and the Philharmonia are a good combination. The Philharmonia's programming (at least for his concerts with them) is much more interesting (as are the actual performances) now than during von Dohnányi's time, at least for my taste.

[Ferretfancy]

I was able to go to the concert, and it was quite an evening, especially for the performance of the Mandarin. I think that the last time I heard the First Concerto in the RFH was with Murray Perahia and the LPO with Solti, rather an unusual choice for Perahia. Bronfman was excellent, but a bit covered by the orchestra in the climaxes from where we were sitting. I've already mentioned the forest of microphones, I hope the Bartok series will appear on Philharmonia CDs

[Nachtigall]

http://www.independent.co.uk/arts-entertainment/classical/reviews/bronfmansalonenphilharmonia-royal-festival-hall-2199376.html