Mahler

[smittims]

Thanks, Dougie.

[bluestateprommer]

Mahler 2 from the 2025 Mahler Festival Amsterdam is about to start. I don't think that NPO Klassiek is making the concerts available after relay (unless I missed the page somewhere), so listening live looks to be your only chance to hear them (*). OTOH, riffing from RW's post, the Berlin Phil / Oramo concert of Mahler 10 Adagio & DLvdE is available here:

https://www.radiodrei.de/programm/schema/sendungen/radio3_konzert/archiv/20250509_2000.html

(*) PS: Happily, that statement is wrong, at least partly, per the following page:

https://mahlerfestival.concertgebouw.nl/en/livestreams

"The concerts taking place in the Main Hall during the Mahler Festival can be followed in The Netherlands via livestreams.

With the exception of the Chicago Symphony Orchestra concerts, these concerts can also be viewed up to three months after the concert."

[Roger Webb]

Mahler 2 from the 2025 Mahler Festival Amsterdam is about to start. I don't think that NPO Klassiek is making the concerts available after relay (unless I missed the page somewhere), so listening live looks to be your only chance to hear them.

Most programmes on NPO are available after broadcast, but not from the webpage. You need to download the app. and tap the three little dots, select 'Gids & Gemist' select the date of broadcast from the pop-up calender, and those programmes available for post broadcast listening are marked by a circular forward arrow, tap and the desired programme comes up as a transmission page. Also, using the app. allows you to start from the beginning (like 'Sounds' does), should you miss the start time...as I often do!

[bluestateprommer]

Most programmes on NPO are available after broadcast, but not from the webpage. You need to download the app. and tap the three little dots, select 'Gids & Gemist' select the date of broadcast from the pop-up calender, and those programmes available for post broadcast listening are marked by a circular forward arrow, tap and the desired programme comes up as a transmission page. Also, using the app. allows you to start from the beginning (like 'Sounds' does), should you miss the start time...as I often do!

Was able to track down the Friday night concert archival link from your advice:

https://www.npoklassiek.nl/uitzendingen/avrotros-vrijdagconcert/9c0a87bf-dcc2-4f53-aa2d-084a38e876c7/2025-05-09-avrotros-vrijdagconcert

My first impression of the Anders Hillborg work was sort of a less harsh version of a ritualistic Harrison Birtwistle-style piece, if that makes sense. Also, had I caught the whole of the pre-performance interview between AH and Ab Nieuwdorp, I would have known that the Mahler 10 references were on the way. So in a way, it was better not to have known in advance, and to be surprised.

The warning on the one page about the Chicago SO and Mahler 6 makes me wonder what will happen with that audio relay post-concert time. We'll see.

[Roger Webb]

Was able to track down the Friday night concert archival link from your advice:

https://www.npoklassiek.nl/uitzendingen/avrotros-vrijdagconcert/9c0a87bf-dcc2-4f53-aa2d-084a38e876c7/2025-05-09-avrotros-vrijdagconcert

My first impression of the Anders Hillborg work was sort of a less harsh version of a ritualistic Harrison Birtwistle-style piece, if that makes sense. Also, had I caught the whole of the pre-performance interview between AH and Ab Nieuwdorp, I would have known that the Mahler 10 references were on the way. So in a way, it was better not to have known in advance, and to be surprised.

The warning on the one page about the Chicago SO and Mahler 6 makes me wonder what will happen with that audio relay post-concert time. We'll see.

I haven't actually listened to tonight's yet...so I'll listen tomorrow via the app. Glad you tracked down archive link - I hope it proves useful for others.

I often either 'time shift' my listening like this, or I sometimes use the 'Record' function on the Vradio app....worth checking out this aggregator as they have very good quality sound....although the record function only operates at MP3 128kbts.

[Roger Webb]

Fabio Luisi conducts Mahler 3 at the Concertgebouw tonight at 7.00pm (UK time).

https://www.npoklassiek.nl/uitzendingen/avrotros-vrijdagconcert/9e3fd11e-2091-4ca3-b13f-f2017afd2bf4/2025-05-11-avrotros-vrijdagconcert

[Roger Webb]

Quite unbelievably an announcer came on halfway through the first movt. of the Mahler 3....I'm listening via VRadio app., anyone else get it?

Edit. It's happened again, just five minutes before the end of the first movt!! What are they playing at? Now it's the pause between 1st and 2nd movt...and the female announcer makes an announcement, well you could almost understand that...but I'd rather not have it.....waiting now for another announcement mid-movt!

2nd Edit. I've given up on the Mahler 3 and possibly the rest of the festival....another announcement in the brief interval between the 2nd and 3rd movts!!!

This is the most annoying concert I've listened to in a long time!!

[smittims]

I'm saddened but not surprised; the vanity of 'presenters' seems to know no bounds , insisting that we mustn't forget they'e there all the time (for who can bear to think himself forgotten? (Auden)) and that they are what the programme is really about. There's a lot of it on Radio 4 and probably Tv too, though I hardly ever watch 'mainstream' TV. I supose it's their grossly excessive salaries that give them such delusions of grandeur but I think it's high time something was done about it in a country where so many cannot pay their TV licences or heat their homes. .

[Roger Webb]

I'm saddened but not surprised; the vanity of 'presenters' seems to know no bounds , insisting that we mustn't forget they'e there all the time (for who can bear to think himself forgotten? (Auden)) and that they are what the programme is really about. There's a lot of it on Radio 4 and probably Tv too, though I hardly ever watch 'mainstream' TV. I supose it's their grossly excessive salaries that give them such delusions of grandeur but I think it's high time something was done about it in a country where so many cannot pay their TV licences or heat their homes. .

You're completely right Smittims, announcers (the more self-important ones fancy themselves 'presenters') are the curse of much radio (and probably TV). After the quite dreadful Mahler interruptions I turned over to the sillily named 'Brass Banding' (it reminds me of 'council tax banding') on Radio 3, only to discover it is presented by one of the soppiest voices in captivity - no not Alker, but Hanna Peel.....the Sounds blurb had claimed we would hear a brass band version of Elgar's 'Enigma Variations'.......it turns out we were only to get 'Nimrod'......so why imply we were to hear all of it?!

All in all a bad radio night...........in desperation I nearly turned the TV on....I'm told that 'Snooker' is a sterling entertainment.....by an announcer, of course!

[Ein Heldenleben]

Quite unbelievably an announcer came on halfway through the first movt. of the Mahler 3....I'm listening via VRadio app., anyone else get it?

Edit. It's happened again, just five minutes before the end of the first movt!! What are they playing at? Now it's the pause between 1st and 2nd movt...and the female announcer makes an announcement, well you could almost understand that...but I'd rather not have it.....waiting now for another announcement mid-movt!

2nd Edit. I've given up on the Mahler 3 and possibly the rest of the festival....another announcement in the brief interval between the 2nd and 3rd movts!!!

This is the most annoying concert I've listened to in a long time!!

I wonder if it was a mistake or perhaps how they do things on Dutch radio. The announcer appears to have been one Selma van Dijk.

[Roger Webb]

I wonder if it was a mistake or perhaps how they do things on Dutch radio. The announcer appears to have been one Selma van Dijk.

Well, as I said, an intervention between movts (I'm sure Selma is a perfectly good presenter), whilst not desirable (although Mahler recommended a pause between movts 1 and 2 in the 3rd Sym), I can live with.....but the male presenter actually spoke over the 1st movement....twice - the music was faded-down so we could hear (if not understand!) what he was saying!

[Petrushka]

I'm saddened but not surprised; the vanity of 'presenters' seems to know no bounds , insisting that we mustn't forget they'e there all the time (for who can bear to think himself forgotten? (Auden)) and that they are what the programme is really about. There's a lot of it on Radio 4 and probably Tv too, though I hardly ever watch 'mainstream' TV. I supose it's their grossly excessive salaries that give them such delusions of grandeur but I think it's high time something was done about it in a country where so many cannot pay their TV licences or heat their homes. .

On the subject of announcers/presenters, I wonder if anyone caught Petroc Trelawny's excellent understated, unobtrusive commentary for the VE Day anniversary service in Westminster Abbey on BBC1 last week. He never once spoke over the music (except when the service was over and that was unavoidable), gave all the information required in as brief a time as possible and spoke only when needed. Petroc has the perfect voice for these events and I wonder if the BBC are looking to use him for the State events in the Dimbleby/Tom Fleming/Huw Edwards role. He'll be good at it.

Back to the Amsterdam Mahler Feest. I have to say that the line up for the 2025 Festival isn't a patch on the last one in 1995. Conductors included Haitink, Abbado, Chailly and Rattle while between them they conducted the Royal Concertgebouw and the Vienna and Berlin Philharmonics, all with flawless Mahler credentials. No way should the NHK Symphony Orchestra be in this year's line up.

I have a huge question mark hanging over Klaus Mäkelä taking on the Concertgebouw Orchestra in the massive 8th Symphony in this year's series. OK, in the first part once the organ sets it in motion all the conductor can do is make sure it all hangs together. Part 2 is a very different matter and requires a conductor of operatic experience. Mäkelä is 29 and is doing this with one of the great Mahler orchestras of the world. He's also belting through whole swathes of the repertoire at breakneck speed and I predict burn out before too long. Has he conducted the work before, preferably in some out of the way location in order to properly learn the piece? Sorry, he shouldn't be learning on the job in front of the world's great orchestras and shouldn't be doing Mahler 8 at this early stage of his career.

[LMcD]

I wonder if anyone caught Petroc Trelawny's excellent understated, unobtrusive commentary for the VE Day anniversary service in Westminster Abbey on BBC1 last week. He never once spoke over the music (except when the service was over and that was unavoidable), gave all the information required in as brief a time as possible and spoke only when needed. Petroc has the perfect voice for these events and I wonder if the BBC are looking to use him for the State events in the Dimbleby/Tom Fleming/Huw Edwards role. He'll be good at it.
.

The same thought crossed my mind.

[BillMatters]

Regarding the interruptions, I heard both as well. Probably a bit of finger-trouble with someone on the control panel. I don’t speak dutch so no idea what was said.

[Roger Webb]

Regarding the interruptions, I heard both as well. Probably a bit of finger-trouble with someone on the control panel. I don’t speak dutch so no idea what was said.

As we both heard it twice and failed to understand it perhaps it was Double Dutch!! .....or perhaps a pre-recorded message asking for the audience to switch off their phones, but incorrectly cued....twice!!

True story: a favourite Dutch customer (in my CD shop) who visited me on his frequent business trips to Bristol Aerojets and bought only Mahler, once declared an interest in cricket - as I often had TMS on the radio. I said 'Ah! yes, I know the Dutch play cricket.....you must have nice flat pitches!'........he merely replied, without a hint of an amused expression, 'Yes the pitches are not to bad'.