music in Munich

I heard the Munich Philharmonie last night… and felt totally exhilarated. Christian Thielemann conducted, with Renee Fleming as soloist in Mahler’s Rueckert lieder. She was wonderful, especially in the last three songs which had the intensity of great music making. Despite some fool’s phone ringing twice (!) in pianissmo passages. Argh.

The real treat was the Brahms 4th symphony – perfect playing (of course!), wonderful colours and dynamics and a musical energy that popped right off the stage. I could have sat there forever.

The first piece in the programme was by Shreker. The orchestra sounded wonderful, the work itself less so – it sounded like bad Richard Strauss.

A twinge of sadness too, when hearing this and looking at what’s coming up in Munich…. it would be so nice to have all this music in Joburg!

Munich October 2010

Two exciting concerts of works by German composer Jörg Schaeffer coming up this month. Both at the Echtzeithalle in Munich:

Sunday 17th Oct. at 11h00 – including Viroids
Monday 25th Oct at 20h00 – including the world premiere of Morsekurve

Please see www.echtzeithalle.de for more details.